So Obama wants to fire up his base?

He wants to fire us up by...................

Building more nuclear plants that might kill our ass.

Throwing us in prison for downloading music.

Killing more innocent civilians in the Middle East.

Giving away billions of dollars to fat cats and corporations in tax cuts.

Ignoring Fascist governors in several states who want to take away our freedom of collective bargaining.

Promoting more free trade deals that will take away our jobs.

Filling the prisons with people who smoke a joint because of their painful health problems.

Doing absolutely nothing about the criminals on Wall Street who bankrupted this country.


You're firing us up alright Obama. You have fired us up to the point where we are FED UP with who?????.......take a guess.

This is where I don't say anything more but continue to chew my gum and wiggle my eyebrows once or twice for effect.

PB

:shrug:

scrabble for all the votes you can get!

:eyes:

A-B-A-N-D-O-N-E-D

He would need to use the D from D-E-M-0-C-R-A-T-S of course :)

has a brilliant strategy where nobody really understands it. I am picturing a King and a pawn moving around the board by themselves trying to escape capture by several queens.

Looks an awful lot like "the past eight years" that Obama kept referring to. I just find it pathetically ironic when republicans slam Obama for being a socialist when he does all the things listed above.

WELCOME TO DU :hi:

:evilgrin:

Welcome to DU.

new blood :evilgrin:

:hi:

I've read posts on here before but I finally decided to join up.

It's a double feature (with ad breaks and coming attractions) !

progressives are some of the most kind, loving, caring people i know. but we do NOT take kindly to being betrayed and shunned in favor of billionaires and corporate interests. Want to fire us up - do a 180 on all the stuff the OP posted - otherwise stop insulting our intelligence just cause a damn election is coming. You tricked me in 08 you DINO but you will not trick me again. My vote will go to the most progressive candidate regardless of chances of winning. (That's just me, I'm not telling anyone how to vote). I wish Obama would say - hey, I'm going to fight back HARD and if I go down swinging so be it but at least I WILL STAND WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE - and actually do it - then he would get my vote. voting for anything less at this point is denying the severity of the problems we are facing IMO.

people need to look long and hard at the obama admin and their inner circle of summers, daley, geitner, etc and think about the future they have planned for us.

campaign of a more progressive candidate. No more President Mediocrity for me.

"Let them eat cake", but they say she never really said this.

Still, the Prez could give it a try and see what happens.
O8)

Wonder what the French would have thought of that.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Don't forget that African-Americans make up the most reliable base demographic the Democratic Party has ever had. Also, polls have shown overwhelming support for Pres. Obama from self-identified liberal Democrats from the time of his inauguration day until now.

Only a small minority of Democrats are disaffected. I believe Biden described them pretty accurately.

and things are not OK. Did you read the list of Really Bad Things the Obama admin is cool with that actually started this thread?

I am in no way comparing Obama with Hitler when I say this - but Hitler did great at the polls - therefor your argument has no weight as far as substance goes - you just want to "win" at all costs - and the cost of another 4 years of Obama's style of "winning" would be extremely harmful to the people of the United States IMO. so would republicans which is also a problem.

seriously - it's not just ineffective leadership by Obama, but BAD leadership by Obama and it is NOT what this country needs.
and even if MOST people don't agree with me, I bet most smart people do. :)

**i know the republicans are a HUGE problem but if we can not even acknowledge the flaws in our own party, how can we effect real change?**

But I'm going to be completely honest. I'd rather have Obama in office than say Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney.

The biggest problem I had with republicans was their "Party first" mentality. Like many other bad republican traits, some Democrats have adopted the same stance.

While Obama is better than any R, he's not what he said he was.

I might vote for them if they weren't dead.

to support your point.

IIRC his party only received about 30% of the vote.

which were very high at times - possibly altered to be higher than they were, but once in power he did have large approval from most of the German people - I'm sure much of that was due to propaganda and I feel sure many may have said they liked him out of fear for what would happen otherwise. But your point about poll results is valid - with 3 people running Hitler had around 30% and one of the other guys had around 50%. Thank you for the correction. :hi:

"Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris - Review
Reason, August-Sept, 1999 by Michael McMenamin

Adolf Hitler was "wholly ignorant" of economics, Ian Kershaw boldly writes in his excellent new study, Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris. What the dictator did know was politics and how to achieve public support - Hitler was an immensely popular leader with approval ratings even Bill Clinton would envy - and early on, he made it clear that economics would be subordinate to politics.

more: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_4_31/ai_55343571/

but even then the difference is that Hitler was in charge of the propaganda.

Most of the "propaganda" now is against Obama (although you would be right in saying that Obama kowtows too much to the propagandists).

A media, that, by the way, never mentions the many good things Obama and dems have done to protect the majority of people in this country the past 2 years. However, that information is available to all who care to see the facts. You just have to push your little fingers to find the truth. God help us all if the Koch brothers and FAUX NOISE have got you believing a governing criminal GOP will be benefit this country at all. The only things they will benefit is their own fat pocketbooks. Take a lesson by watching the newly "assigned" GOP governors. How long has it taken them to destroy their states? Less than 3 months. With friends and supporters like you, who needs enemies. At least half of you whiners probably didn't even vote in the primaries. Turn off the boob tube and get the facts. It's going to take more than 2 stinking years to correct the effed up state this country is in after the last decade, and actually 2 centuries. of a greed infested political charade. And, personally, I thank God Obama and Biden are leading this country today rather than that hot-head fraudulent McCain and brainless, racist, fake Palin. Wake up America. You are going to totally blow it if you don't get some education and quick.

that the television is a very powerful tool of lying and propaganda. It's wholly owned by the corporations that are raping and pillaging the workers and the country.

people that support Obama in the polls are people that believe the imaginary image on the TV

the reality is a diametric opposite

I would venture to say that Obama is no better than the bush boy. In some ways he may be worse because he's just as bad but has people fooled that he is better.

and so are the elections

there is a huge amount of election reform needed just to get back to square one

why do you think the dems did absolutely nothing for election reform when they held congress and the WH?

because they are going to use that crooked system to their own advantage

Brothas like my best friend who wholeheartedly supported candidate Obama has finally come to the realization that Obama is not the person he campaigned as and is a Blue Dog, at worst.

Obama's star power will only get him so far. When you look at his team (economic type) and his decisions, what is there for Black folks to be happy about?

I think Obama has earned himself a primary challenger.

...progress he's made so far with mostly white men fighting him each and every step.

The vast majority of blacks,,,,

in the deal with the Hospital lobby *before* the Health Care Reform bill was even passed?

Which white men got him to go along with the extension of the tax cuts for the rich, when all he had to do was nothing (Let them all expire) or at least only extend it for people earning under $250k/year?

I've heard many black callers call in to left/progressive radio and say the exact opposite. Mark Thompson's show is eye-opening-- he does not prescreen.

This black woman is mad as hell at Obama and so are a lot of others I know.

I do not think that DLCers actually care if Democrats stay in power, only that their benefactors get their payback.

claims to be his base. Now that's rich.

:patriot:

I'm sure one of his corporate buddies can fork over some money to hire someone to do what I did for free in '09.

Those are the same arguments all you loyalists were making leading up to the mid-terms. You were wrong then, and you are gonna be wrong in 2012. Obama will not win without the aid of the very liberal democratic "activist" base, which sat out the mid-terms and will likely sit out in 2012.

TONS of us. I don't know a Dem who isn't pissed as hell at him. Not one.

The DLCers want to fire up a theoretical (most likely disaffected Republicans) base to fight US.

...this time?

He doesn't need or want us "fucking retards".

the huge pile of elephant turds he has buried us under for the last two years first. Lotsa luck with that.

Enacted shareholder rules on executive pay

S.E.C. Proposes Crackdown on Wall Street Bonuses

Under Obama, the department collected more than $1 billion in fines during fiscal year 2010, the most the government has collected in the law’s 38-year history, and more than ten times the $87 million collected in 2007 by the Bush Administration.




The hyperbole is thick. Where is the evidence that the President is "throwing us in prison for downloading music" and "filling the prisons with people who smoke a joint"?


"Ignoring Fascist governors in several states who want to take away our freedom of collective bargaining."

What the hell does that mean? Should he send the military into these states and arrest the elected Governors?

Don't elect em, problem solved.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Are you saying poeple aren't being sent to prison for smoking pot?

Also, it's funny you should point to Dodd-frank. Is that Obama's accomplishment or is that congress's accomplishment? I think its both but I'm curious what you think.

Also great that the SEC proposed limiting executive bonuses. How long do you give them to actually enforce these rules before we should consider them failures on this issue? A few months? A year? After Obama is re-elected? When?

Also, a billion in fines is great and all. But if you put that in to perspective that seems like small change considering what happened in 2010. Oil spill anyone?

Those are some very minor and mainly cosmetic points. If that is the extent of the Hope and Change you bought into, you are right to be happy.

intelligently.

Bush committed violations of international law. He tortured, and he transported individuals who had not been tried or convicted of any crime to authoritarian countries around the world in order to have the individuals tortured.

He invaded Iraq without first obtaining the needed approval of the United Nations and on false information which he could have and had an obligation to verify before taking military action.

Because Obama's Attorney General has not called a grand jury or begun the process of prosecuting any of those accused of these criminal acts, Obama is, as far as I am concerned, complicit with these illegal acts.

Further, Obama has shown no interest in prosecuting criminal conduct by those responsible for the economic melt-down. A number of mortgage companies and banks committed outright fraud in their sale of mortgages including, among other things, misrepresenting to the government and lenders the financial information of loan applicants, (and eliciting false representations from ignorant borrowers)and exaggerating the value of houses. I know personally of cases in which this kind of fraud took place. I am unaware of prosecutions for the company executives or individual mortgage sales personnel who committed these acts.

Must I mention the crimes of the bankers? They gambled with taxpayer money, and they are still doing it. Obama's Wall Street reform is a facade, a cruel joke.

Too little, too late. Obama came in at a time of crisis and did not have the moral strength to deal with it. He lacks the courage that we need in our president at this time.

Personally, I'm looking for a primary challenger with some energy, some integrity, some willingness to step on the toes of the rich. I think a lot of Americans will join me in supporting such a candidate.

But I see it here on DU all the time.

People claim to be his base, but they want some one else to be the nominee.

Obama's actual base supports him just fine.

but yeah, keep pretending it's not.

where the daily outrage machine runs 24/7.

Here is the reality in 5 points.

First, his approval rate among Democrats remains high. And it will remain so. DU is far more liberal than the rest of the democratic party.

Second, his overall approval remains right around 50%.

Third, the GOP has gone insane, and their candidates are so weak, not one of them wants to announce that they are running. As soon as the GOP candidates hit the field, Obama's support will grow again.

Forth, the economy is improving, despite the hopes of some.

Fifth, its very hard to find examples of things Obama has actually made worse than they were before he was elected. There are plenty of things he has improved, and sure, is plenty where things are basically stuck given the current political climate, but its hard to claim that things have deteriorated under Obama.

As a bonus item ... the outcomes on DADT and now DOMA, or will the "base" ignore those as it shrinks.

In 2000 it only took 500 votes for Gore to get the election stolen from him. Those 500 votes were lost because the democratic party at the time had no problem in taking their base for granted.

So try to remember that as the 2012 elections come closer.

And the argument that Obama is still better than republicans won't really fly for those people in the base that are angry. Something needs to change, and it needs to change quick. Obama has allowed this this country to move so far to the right its about to go over a cliff.

or havent you noticed what happens when pukes get in power? You may not think Obama is doing enough but the pukes are proving they would cause wanton destruction if allowed another hold of the riegns. You want to play purist you go right ahead I'll work to make sure as many of these clowns as possible are denied office.

and instead of pushing Obama to the left keep bitching about the people that don't like him. See how that turns out in 2012.

The truth is Republicans are hell bent on destroying this country and have been and continue to prove it. You can ignore their complete oposition to everything Obama has proposed all you want and cry about your dissatisfaction as much as you like. The reality is You harm yourself and millions of others if you dont do everything in your power to keep pukes out of office and diminish their influence in any way possible. Bitching about Obama does not help in any way whatsoever.

Obama lost in 2010 even thought the Tea-Baggers were as nuts as anyone can get.

I would like to see Obama announce that he will not run in 2012. That would be the best solution for the Democratic Party.

And again, you confuse "the base", with YOU.

The DEMOCRATIC BASE voted for GORE ... fools voted for Nader.

If you want a 3rd party START ONE. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping you.

And if you think 2012 is too soon, start one that targets 2016, or 2020 ...

But stop calling yourself part of "the base" when what you actually want are candidates that are OUTSIDE the Democratic party main stream.

Also the point you miss is that the democratic base went elsewhere. You can stop calling them the democratic base after that point if it makes you feel any better. But that doesn't change history.

As far as third party goes I don't know who will be running in that regard, but I have a feeling they might get far more support than you think and end up hurting Obama's reelection.

And Obama's approval amoung Dems shows that.

And as for the 3rd party ... if you were right, that person would be easy to name.

So name them.

You can't. They don't exist.

http://www.politicususa.com/en/obama-disapproval-democrats

And it wasn't clear who the 3rd party candidate was in 2000 until early that year. How did that work out then?

Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@politicususa.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

On edit: maybe you have a better source? If this other candidate was so important, there must be many sources, right?

You may not want to face that fact, but fact it is.

If you took a poll, you would probably find that a very high percentage of DUers walk precincts, make phone calls, table, hand out campaign information, discuss politics with their friends and families and are far better informed about what is going on than about 99% of Americans.

Obama is going to have a hard time on his campaign without us.

TV ads do some good, but word-of-mouth active support from people like us is what puts a candidate over the top.

So if DUers are fed up with Obama, he has a serious problem.

Let's pretend that 90% of DU folks do all the things you claim. DU is still TINY.

DU did not drive the get out the vote campaigns, that's silly. There are much larger organizations of Dems, and Obama's support among Dems remains very high. Those groups aren't going away.

On total, DU members are much farther to the left then the rest of the democratic party. That is just reality.

If DU was as powerful as you think, we'd have all FLIPPED our friends and families by now, don't you think?

What's that say about his chances for re-election?
Keep on dreaming that the only Democratic dissatisfaction with Obama is here on DU.

Not in the approval numbers.

And to be clear, if you want him to lose, you are not, and never were his base. You may have voted for him. Might have canvassed for him. But if you are ready to dump him after 2 years (many of you dumped him after 3 months or so), then you are fickle.

Approval numbers are generated nationally. That's largely why campaigns and candidates ignore them even as the media and public love them; they're easy to understand but ultimately meaningless without the context provided by skew.

Skew is the measure of local discrepancy. (That is, how inaccurate a data set is in a multiple-locality-elections campaign because you're really really popular (or unpopular) in a few locales. (Hint: The fact that Obama's approval in CA is just under 60% and higher in the northeast generally means he's losing much of the rest of the US.))

If the election was tomorrow...you could stick a fork in him. He would not win. He'd possibly carry less EC votes than McCain did last time even. That's even as the numbers are better now than they were 5 months ago, several states in the midwest are now tossups where they were all but seemingly lost for 2012 at the 2010 midterms.

candidate who is more liberal, who will speak out against the banks, reform Obama's Health Care Reform, end the assault on public schools, prosecute the criminal acts of the Bush administration, etc.

Until we hear from a candidate with the courage to challenge Obama, we won't know what the numbers really are.

Makes no sense to claim to be that with such soft support.

I traveled to another state and campaigned for him there. I worked long, long hours on election day watching the polls, working with other Democrats to make sure that minority voters got their chance to vote.

I would not go that trouble for Obama in 2012. I am on Obama's OFA list. I receive the e-mails. I am not atypical. We are the activists. We get out and table and walk precincts and make sure voters get to the polls on election day. It's a lot of work. I won't ever do that for Obama again although I will work and have worked hard for other Democratic candidates over the years.

Now unemployed people with pre-existing conditions
can BUY insurance, for only a million dollars a month.

($1200/month might as WELL be a million.)

I look forward to the day when we are not ignored..... How long, O Lord, How long....

Welcome to Clintonian triangulation as Obama fights for the RNC nomination.

so what will he take away in his second term? Social Security? Medicare? Start another war of convenience to protect the defense budget?


Please do not think we are stupid, we who are here don't agree with your brand of Obama or no one vision.

:kick:

Well, I suppose if you call the Party of NO he's caved in to almost every chance he gets a "base"..
If you call big Corporate interests like banks and mortgage companies a "base"..
If you call all manner of forgotten campaign rhetoric a "base"...
If you call a general lack of spine and an "above it all" patrician attitude in general a "base"..
Then Obama has a "base"
What (if anything) the broad majority of Americans who've been left out in the cold by Obama will do to counteract his "base" remains to be seen.

If on the other hand, you're talking about the "grassroots" Internet based $5-$50 campaign that Obama ran in 2008, I think you'll (and he will) find that a lot of us have grown up a lot since then, mostly the hard way.

I campaigned for Obama in 2008..

in 2012, I wouldn't lend him a pair of old shoelaces to go with those "comfortable shoes" he's so conveniently forgotten all about. There's been some talk around of the "organization" (ie mailing list) he compiled during '08. I think that's worthless. It hasn't helped Obama since the Heath Care mess, and there's a good reason for that. I still get e-mail from John Kerry. At least Obama and his White House friends have company in my spam folder.

And I probably will, though I will certainly be voting for Amy Klobuchar and Keith Ellison downticket.

I wish him well.

And Obama thinks that the center-right is his base.

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

That is the definition of "base".

the guy who runs GE!

Someone from GE, or maybe Goldman Sachs.

bus rides, with the likes of "Maverick" Barbie and John McSameasBush. And then Big Joey LIEberman was a keynote butt-munching hero at the republican convention. Deportation for Joe to Devil's Island, would have been my guess about what was in store for Flaky Joe, but Obama "Forgave" old senate buddy Joe. Then the Prez and Harry even left the rat where he could be a big shot chairpimp...eer...chairperson of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and still cuddle and plot with John McSameasBush and Senator Lindsey Olin Graham.(the three amigos) That was my first red flag moment. It's very painful for me to relive that disappointment and sorrow I felt when Joe got off easy.(Joe Lieberman the Con From Conn.)

Go Figure????????

Let's split the party with short tempered discontent so we can get used to "President Romney" a year early.

Count me out. I am paying attention to what the pukes are trying to do and I want no part of your pity party. We have much bigger enemies to concentrate on than Obama and you waste your time bitching about him when you should be preaching to everyone you know about all the heinous stuff the pukes are trying to pull off.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest a "Democrats for Romney" forum because Obama hasn't personally addressed thir issues. From gay marriage to Gitmo, Duers have consistantly turned on Obama in search of the perfect candidate who will be their Swiss Army knife of progressive values. Good luck to them.

Even if Keith Olbermann was drafted into office, someone here would complain that we was at the World Series instead of legislating demand for a 300mpg car or saving the rain forest in Brazil.

Governorships where they are destroying Unions and states, and the country, Judgeships where they are ruling in favor of corporations and the rich,destroying the country and school board positions where they're trying to rewrite curriculum to favor their side to indoctrinate the next generation to their side by making them look like the good guys in history studies. These people are more than evil. The last thing we need to do is fight each other while a Republicon sneaks into the Presidency, and this time it will be full steam ahead to do the rest of their destruction. We can all disagree, I myself am disappointed by this President, but I will vote for him, not just so a Republicon can't take the Presidency, but because the destruction will move into overdrive with a Presidential Republicon win. President Obama will just keep doing what he does the next four years while we can plan our strategy for 2016. I will vote for Obama to protect our country from the next potential Presidential madman Repbulicon. One final thing, if you think Dicktator Walker of Wisconsin, Kasick in Ohio and all the other Governor Rethugs have been wielding their power now, imagine a Republicon President, further rigging laws and regulations, to further stack the deck against the majority to help these tyrants to expedite their corporate, Koch Klan, Fox GOP Agenda.
Lou

That is because we ran a real Democrat for governor. Jerry Brown knows how to fire up the base. The secret is to serve with honesty, integrity and, yes, a touch of idealism.

Obama has not shown honesty, courage and has not been strongly stood for the ideals of the Democratic Party. He had our support more than any president since FDR. He lost it. I don't think he can regain it.

You can't be somewhat progressive, somewhat liberal and succeed as a Democratic president of the US. You have to be 100% progressive and liberal to enjoy success. Wall Street has been walking over Obama since his first day in office -- even before. He will have a tough time convincing the American people that a Republican would have done anything any differently when it comes to the economy.

At the very least, he could have balked at continuing the tax cuts for the rich. That is the most unDemocratic thing any supposedly Democratic president has done since LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin.

and the nouveau Democrats to whatever he does. There is nothing he can do that they will ever find disagreeable.

I don't like how he has split the party with short-term strategies to appease republicans who will never vote for him.

Swing voters in Missouri, NC and VA are his base.
We're going to vote for the lesser of the two evils. Just like we always do.

DU gets mad and stomps off like a child...

the groupies huddle around him and tell him how great that was. Whatever it was.

:thumbsup:

Do you not understand that by pointing all those things out, you are helping the republicans? Obama had to do all those things, this is a center-right country and the media would be very upset if he dared to take a stand on any of those issues. I for one find it admirable how willing Obama is to bend to the will of the establishment press, I think it shows tremendous courage to say "fuck off" to the people who made you president and pander exclusively to a segment of our population that has no intention of voting for you anyways.

Did I mention how bad the republicans are? Because any and all discussion of Barack Obama must first be prefaced with the fact that the republicans aren't very good people. We must always compare Obama's behavior to the lowest possible standard, that of the republican party.

""Obama had to do all those things, this is a center-right country""

The $700 Billion bush boy criminal banker bailout that Obama helped push through the senate. About 75% of Americans were against it. Obama was for it.

Rescinding the tax cuts for the rich, about 65% of Americans were for it, Obama was against it.

Single payer public option, about 60% of Americans for it, Obama was against it.

""We must always compare Obama's behavior to the lowest possible standard, that of the republican party.""

you're setting the bar about as low as it can be set. No wonder you are satisfied with the two faced predatory corporatist.

Obama might as well be a Republican as far as I'm concerned, he makes back door deals with them and leaves the dems out. He's worse in a way than the bush boy because he pretends to be moderate.

I was joking. I guess I laid the sarcasm on a little thick.

"I for one find it admirable how willing Obama is to bend to the will of the establishment press, I think it shows tremendous courage to say "fuck off" to the people who made you president and pander exclusively to a segment of our population that has no intention of voting for you anyways."

But I do agree with all the points you made.

now that I read your post again it's pretty obvious. Guess I'm just over-reactive lately.

spoiled children can never be placated....:evilfrown:

teacher firing, etc. the harder it will be for him to get physical and monetary support from them next year, the less enthusiastic all of us are about him and the more hypocritical he will look when he makes the same types of promises about jobs and main street when he starts campaigning again.


I can easily envision an indoor sports arena crowd of 10K or more at an Obama rally in the summer of 2012. He starts talking up education and jobs, and health care and 4 or 5K democrats get up and walk out on him.

He also faces the reality that when the Dims go to the unions to ask for support the unions tell the Dims they have no money for them because they are having to spend it all on PR and support against union busting Governors and mayors.

Obama has cozied up to Health Care and Oil and Banking industries, I am sure he doesn't need our money but he will need our votes.

There are half a dozen or so Dims I would gladly vote on for Pres, and I may just write one of them in. At least I could live with my conscious. And even if Obama is reelected it just means 4 more years of a Reagan Republican in the WH.

That base? :rofl:

Exactly! There were those of us that worked for him who did not get WH representation and those folks who did get WH positions went and lost Dems the midterms! That Base! :rofl:

Couldn't have said it better!


:mad:

from a feeling of joy

to a sick feeling in the stomach

to a real fire in the belly.


Great job, Mr. President!! :thumbsup:


:sarcasm:

Love Brunch with Bernie on Fridays

indeed!

the rich are his base........and that surely wouldn't include me.

I kind of miss candidate Obama.

I might vote for him, but I'm just bitter and clinging to my Bible and gun.

Obama has already FIRED his base!!!