Saving Obama's Presidency

I am among the first to criticize Obama, but basically, I like him.

And I think his presidency could be saved if he did something that would cost almost nothing and excite the country.

And that is -- to turn to his background as a community organizer and get himself and the country excited about helping each other, about acting as a community.

In the days following his inauguration, Obama stated that he would call on Americans to join him in organizing at the local level. Understandably, Obama has been overwhelmed by the horrible economy that the Bush administration left behind. It must have been like trying to pick up debris in the aftermath of a huge hurricane. (He was left with that job too I guess.)

When I was a young mother, I often found myself in dire circumstances -- next to no money and a family to feed. I did not speak the language well enough in the country in which I lived to get a job, so I had to learn to make do with far less than I needed. And, as I have often explained on DU, I learned an important principle: Very often, when we feel that we lack something, if we just look hard enough, we find that we have everything we really need. I won't bore you with the details on how this worked for me. I will just cut to the chase and tell you how I think it could work for Obama.

Obama is overlooking, ignoring, his biggest resource -- you and me, those of us who really care and want to help improve our society. He is especially snubbing us liberal activists.

Instead of just looking to Wall Street and big and little businesses to bring the change he promised, Obama needs to look more to us, the people who walked the precincts, made the phone calls and did the grunt work to get out the vote that elected him.

Obama set an example for volunteerism in his youtn, but he hasn't really fired us up over volunteering in our communities. That is his big mistake. He has just forgotten that what we liked during his campaign was the idea that we were a part of his strategy, that we could join in.

Our country is facing a far more serious emergency than we realize. Jerry Brown has warned Californians that he found a fiscal household that was in far worse shape than he had been told.

For example, our schools are failing at a time when states and local governments cannot raise enough money to fund them. Instead of privatizing education, Obama should be encouraging the creation of massive volunteer programs to bring the talents of the people especially retired people and those working part-time to help classroom teachers out.

My parents had a strategy for keeping their teenagers out of trouble -- give them so much to do that they have no time for mischief.

Obama needs to adopt the same strategy. He needs to make community activism, whether at the level of religious organizations, the military, unions, traditional community service organizations or just plain you and me, the organ of change and economic growth in our country.

Unless he does this, unless he starts inspiring ordinary people like us to work together to improve our communities and solve local problems, his presidency will just dissolve into dissension and bickering. Obama can do this. He just needs to get fired up and ready to go over it.

Sorry if I sound condescending, but I was born the same year as Obama's mother. She is not here, so those of us who are the age she would have been need to give a little motherly advice once in a while.

Obama needs to use the talents of us liberal activists rather than attack us. We don't have to agree on every policy, but he has excluded us from his administration in every way possible. And that his his biggest mistake.

The future lies in community. Obama needs to embrace that future and reject the past which is the D.C. mentality that D.C. is the government and the rest of the country must be governed. That will not work any more.

Expect him to lose in 2 years. Just expect it.

something major happens, he won't be running for reelection.

FWIW

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php?splash=false

I was/am in that. I get e-mails and used to get an occasional text message around election time.

Yours was an impassioned plea to him but it doesn't seem like community or anything about 'us' interests him anymore. It's sad.

in saving Obama's presidency. It seems to be going as well as it can and he has pretty routinely signaled he doesn't want my help or input or even to be seen with me in a crowded room.

And that's fine. It's hard to imagine any other national Democrat doing differently than Obama has done with respect to the left wing of the party. IOW, I guess I "blame" him less because part of what he does is simply respond to the climate of this moment in our politics.

But, that also means I don't feel connected to him and don't feel the urge to rescue him from a program that seems to be difficult but still, exactly what he wants to do. Even if rescuing him meant rescuing us, which is not at all clear.

As someone who survived two teen aged sons, I know better than to keep offering my attention or energy to someone who has zero interest in either. The thing to do is to get a new hobby and if there is a crisis, go around. There's no use rehashing stuff with someone who is basically unavailable.

It's not as if there is nothing else to do in the world of politics than to follow Obama around as if he was a toddler. There are other venues, other issues, other needs that can be attended to more usefully, imo.

That speech.... no longer applies.

We live in a country where schools can't afford pencils but when the roof of a football stadium collapses there are hundreds of people working round the clock in shifts to fix it in time for the big game on Sunday.

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enthusiasm for him.

I was hoping some of that 'took' and he was in secret agreement.
Turns out he was just playing politics there too.

You can't go down to the valleys anymore if you want your family to survive.

Especially when those at the mountain top tell you that you can't.

I believe that we all need to be more involved in our communities. I love Michelle for how she really pushes concern for children and the foods they are eating.

But Obama is a very right-wing Democrat, even further to the right than Bill Clinton, and I feel betrayed by his eager compromises with the opposition party and his failure to lead on health care reform and this most recent tax cut deal. To say nothing of his utter failure to defend the Constitution's values, principles and of course, DADT.

So I think if I am going to focus on anyone's political career, it's not going to be him - it will be those who are progressive as I am. Cheers. :hi:

Not to mention its democracy.

Imagine what things would be like right now if McCain was president, and Palin was VP.

I share everyone else's disappointment about a lot of things, I may be more disappointed than anyone. But things could be WAY worse.

We have to remember that however disappointed we may feel about particular issues, this is the guy we supported in the last election...and many of us supported him in the primaries. This is our baby.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be critical. But, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The alternative to Obama...imagine McCain or Palin were appointing Supreme Court justices. Imagine how much progress we would be making with regard to other issues. THINK about it. However disappointed we may be right now, we're going to have to deal with it in the best way possible. We have to express our disappointment in a considered and thoughtful way that isn't going to hurt us or the Party in the long run. Because the alternative is unthinkable. Believe me, I know it's hard. But we MUST do it.

just like they did when George W. Bush was President.

We shouldn't forget that.

Oh yea, we've got Democrats in Congress who vote with Republicans, even with a Democratic majority and a Democratic president. It's insane. I can name Democratic politicians who come from very safe Democratic seats, who vote for things completely against the wishes of the people in their own districts. But, then you follow the money and the gifts they receive from lobbyists, and you can figure out why. If I were to generalize, I would say that it takes a very special kind of person to run and win political office. I don't mean that in a good way. It's very discouraging and can lead a person to become quite cynical.