Coakley's Loss: Pie in the President's Face (excellent analysis by Greider of The Nation)

<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/greider>

He makes the point (in a roundabout way) that Obama's reputation as a truly visionary leader is on the line--and that the upcoming months will tell the tale.

reading Greider's pieces and buying his books.

K&R.

Excerpt:

First, he has to clear out the cobwebs of his hopeful aspirations and take on the fight. To do so, he also has to clear away a lot of the people around him. If Rahm Emmauel was the chief strategist, the guy who made the private deals and told the senators what they could accept, he failed big-time and should be replaced. Find a new manager whose thinking was not shaped by cynical triangulation in the Clinton era.


"The president chose Larry Summer and Timothy Geithner to speak for the administration on the economy. Can you imagine finding anyone less convincing? Both are active advocates of the Wall Street status quo, neither has any feel for what's happening in the country. The bean counters led the president into the trap he now faces. Permissive bailouts created flush financial giants that sit on their profits and ignore the public need for lending. Dump the bean counters now.

Obama's turn-around speech would declare--honestly--that he misjudged the situation. The damage is far worse than he originally realized. Some deeper structural changes are required. The political opposition is more than ever blindly resistant than he had hoped. But now Obama can promise to govern nose-to-nose against the political forces blocking everything he attempts. He may not prevail, he concedes. But he is going to throw himself at them and he asks the people to join him in the fight.

If comprehensive healthcare reform is out of the question, Obama Democrats can break it down into smaller pieces and try to pass worthy measures one by one. A bill to prohibit insurance companies from banning people with pre-existing ailments? Pass it the House and try to pass it in the Senate. If Republicans want to filibuster, make them filibuster. A measure to allow cheaper drug imports from Canada? Let Republicans vote against that. Repealing the antitrust exemption for insurance companies--Democrats support it. Democrats need to start a fight on taxes too. Do Republicans want to tax Wall Street banks or not? Obama has proposed it, let's have a roll call. The attack strategy will focus on all the reforms people want and need and create a new political dynamic....."

The article fails to mention this and sounds like blame Obama first, unrec

But I still say that if Obama had delivered what he promised on healthcare and toward Wall Street we wouldn't be here.

and your problem with that is.....?

I'm sure someone on here must know what this stuff allegedly means.

In theory, if the Coakley campaign had been paying closer attention,they would have seen the early warning signs of the Brown surge in time to amp up their campaign and deal with it.

Didn't Mr. Kerry do the same thing when he went windsurfing during his presidential run? Not that that's a good thing, but it did produce similar results.

:eyes:

"Dozens of explanations are being offered for why the Dems were humiliated in Massachusetts. Democrats incline to grab easy answers. The president, if he is tough enough, will instead face the hard message of this political fiasco."

Hopeful, as well. I agree with everything Greider says - 100%. I have been observing this and thinking the same thing all year. I understand Obama's timidity: he doesn't want to appear as an angry (yes, black)progressive - some would call him socialist; he is a natural consensus-builder. He genuinely believed bringing in the Emmanuels and Geithners and Pharma would work toward building consense and "buy-in." (I know, I too, was a community organizer.) But he was naive. Let's hope this sad "loss of innocence" (and it's got to really hurt, given it was Ted's seat...it was...) scrapes away some of the naivety. He's going to be - got to be - a different kind of politician. Maybe different than he EVER was, even before he was President.

I believe he does have the right values, progressive values, and knows what they are. He has simply been managed into an untenable position. Let's hope he sees this sooner rather than later, and course corrects. Wake-up call indeed.

Very good read.