Memo To America's Middle Class: Obama is Just Not That Into You

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-americas-middle-c_b_686820.html

As we head into the stretch run of the 2010 midterms, and get closer to the halfway point of President Obama's first term, we're hearing a lot of media chatter about the "enthusiasm gap" plaguing Democrats. There is also a lot of talk about whether progressives -- aka "the professional left" -- should or shouldn't be disappointed in Obama. In a post about last month's Netroots Nation gathering in Las Vegas, Matt Yglesias wrote that at this year's event, "the dominant mood" was "depressed" and that he could feel a "considerable degree of ill will toward Barack Obama and his administration."

Those in the "disappointed" camp maintain that Obama presented himself one way to gain their support during the campaign and then, once he had it, ended up governing another way, turning his energies to winning over Republicans instead of changing the game in Washington. As Paul Krugman puts it, "Why does the Obama administration keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Why does it go out of its way to alienate its friends, while wooing people who will never waver in their hatred?"

Those in the "not disappointed" camp claim it's not Obama's fault. He's the same Obama he was during the campaign, they say, and cite a host of logistical and structural reasons for why he had to make all the compromises. Among them: the huge mess left by the Bush administration; the deeper than expected financial crisis; the abuse of the filibuster by Senate Republicans; the intransigence of Blue Dog Democrats; the rise of the Tea Party movement; the right-wing attack machine; a media addicted to the notion of "bipartisanship." The list goes on and on.

The president himself addressed the issue in a speech to labor leaders earlier this month. "I know you are talking to a lot of your locals, I'm sure they are feeling like, 'Boy, change is not happening fast enough'," he said. "They are frustrated. They have every right to be frustrated."

So which side in the "disappointed/not disappointed" debate is right? And what accounts for this friction?

Well, after two years of seeing a pattern being established, I think I have the answer. Progressives, for your own good, it's my duty to point something out to you: the president's just not that into you.


More at the link ---

know about the middle class?

Obama has repeatedly pushed for jobs bills, only to see them die in the Senate.

rethugs who have voted for absolutely nothing to better the middle class. Unrec gladly.

She's been doing her best to put the Republicans back in charge.

I wonder if her ex-hubby Michael is running somewhere.

They actively try to sabotage them on a regular basis,right before asking for their votes by taking credit for their existence.

Unfuckingbelievable.

People are so fucking stupid it's a wonder they can survive in this world.

Things are mighty screwed up right now... and Obama told us it was going to get a lot worse before it got better. Who the fuck are all these asshats who had beans in their ears and missed that bit? Who is obstructing? Who are known liars?

I must need to log off the computer for the day... this old pacifist is about to bust some heads... and that ain't good.

I had the same feeling - some silly 20-year-old editor added it. I know, it's overused. Not bad copy, though.

Whether or not Arianna's completely accurate about how Obama really sees progressives, the phrase did add zing and zest to a tired topic. What a tart.

And Arianna thought it'd make a cute title for an article? :rofl: Personally, I don't want to see that title again for another decade.

Of Obama supporters. If you're losing Huffpo . . .

and irrational reaction here.

Very odd. :shrug:

Absolutely amazing.

:crazy:


On a different note, here's one new and shocking piece of data from the link in Arianna's post:

"There were 422,061 bankruptcy filings between April and June, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts,
up 9 percent from 388,148 in the prior three-month period". "For the year ended June 30, consumer bankruptcies rose 21 percent to 1.51 million". http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1713158620100817


Wow, that is nearly half a million bankruptcies in just 3 months, and the numbers are growing by a day, as millions of people are caught in the middle of this ongoing housing, jobs and health care crisis. One in EIGHT Americans (and SHOCKINGLY, one in FOUR CHILDREN) is on Food Stamps, that's 41 million people and that number grew by 6.5 million in the last year. Millions of people have lost (or are losing) their jobs and houses, and there is no relief in sight. Shockingly, there were half a million (!!!) new WEEKLY unemployment claims filed last week (a 9-month record and a truly shocking number). The economy has been LOSING jobs for the last 2 months in a row - what kind of "recovery" from hell is that?


Well, at least banks and corporations enjoy record-breaking profits. The system is completely decoupled from the workers, and all resemblance of social contract is fading fast, right before our eyes.

(Not that it has anything to do with Obama of course; the process started about 30 years and has been accelerated by the financial crisis.)

I don't subscribe to the 100% use of the calibrate the bill to the votes strategy because you can't win playing it with any of the corrupt "centrists" from either party, especially the ridiculous TeaPubliKlans who are full on clear bad faith merchants.

We need outside of the free trade/free market/ trickle down/ voodoo economics box to deal with this and the neoBirchers can squeal till doomsday. There is no compromise because the money party doesn't play that game, they are scrambling to figure out new ways to squeeze a few bucks out of us. They got that head in the pig trough and will eat your eye rather than allow you a bite of what they could never finish even if they ate till they burst into the trough for slop themselves.

Wrap your mind around the fact that there are folks that have so much they cannot cash out nor buy much less than a space program to spend it but yet would create an insurrection over three or four cents on their new dollars and would destroy the world if they could if they had any serious effort to say cut the top one percent of the population down to twenty or thirty percent of income. I can't imagine the response to any meaningful dip into their crazy 90% of the wealth.

NOT SUSTAINABLE

All the fairy tales of the magical invisible hand are lies. Stop pretending to "do something" that doesn't address the problem in any meaningful way.

Good job!:thumbsup:
:kick: & (invisible) R

Obama catered to the rethugs with the stimulus: both too little and included useless tax cuts......

Why don't you surprise us and have an original thought once in a while.:boring: