Is Obama doomed in 2012? (BBC)

[Surya Gayatri]

'Fair and balanced' analysis from the British perspective :

.../...

"Obama loyalists will point out that no mortal could have lived up to the expectations heaped upon his head, especially when he had been dealt such a poor hand. They argue that he has saved the country from ruin, while accepting no-one gets credit for preventing disasters.

But it is also true that many of those who strongly backed him, and will still back him, think he has not been bold enough and has not confronted those who were always going to tear him down."

.../...

"While he talked of changing the way politics was done, we have seen the same old Washington grow in strength and obstructionism, more broken, even less desirous of reaching solutions than before. Maybe that is not his fault. But it is not his triumph either. The obstacles have been piled higher, not blown out of the way.

His enemies were never going to like what he was about, and what he stands for. They would never applaud his economics or his foreign policy. But the best politicians earn a sneaking admiration for their skills even from those who detest what they do with their talents."

.../...

Read more here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16376187

[Ecumenist]

1. Fuck no!! I think that there are those who would like to believe he is...

but he isn't. PERIOD.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Agree 110%, Ecumenist...

I admire what he's accomplished in the face of almost unprecedented odds and support him unreservedly for re-election.

Trying to compare him to FDR is a false equivalency, IMO. FDR was not constrained by the risk of being branded an "angry black man"--a definitive difference in their political careers.

The BBC column, where I got the headline, is interesting and well worth the read, though.
SG

[WorseBeforeBetter]

39. FDR was merely deemed a traitor to his class...

with a military coup plotted against him. Yes, poor, poor Obama.

[Surya Gayatri]

45. Yeah, FDR risked being branded

an "angry, white rich man" and had to make recess appointments, etc. because his Republican adversaries stuck wrenches in his wheel chair spokes! LOL! SG

[WorseBeforeBetter]

56. Making fun of a wheelchair-bound paralytic?

Classy.

[Surya Gayatri]

58. Mock a disabled person? Never...

Use black situational humor to make a point? Sure!
Apparently, somebody's irony meter is on the blink...LOL!

[A Simple Game]

60. If President Obama didn't accomplish more because he was afraid of being

branded an "angry black man", shame on him, if he wasn't, shame on you.

[Surya Gayatri]

63. No shame to it...

First of all, his first three years have been chock-full of legislative successes (see multiple lists of honored campaign promises circulating on DU), in the face of unprecedented obstructionism.

Secondly, I feel perfectly fine shamelessly stating the obvious--that he is, in fact, black!
LOL! SG

[DFW]

5. Succintly put

And accurate, I would venture to say.

[quinnox]

2. good article

even if it is short.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Yes, I thought he made

some valid and perceptive observations.

[DFW]

3. Two lines from that ring especially true

"But the best politicians earn a sneaking admiration for their skills even from those who detest what they do with their talents."

After the 2008 election, I ran into Richard Viguerie. If you don't know him, check him out. Unlike most hard-line right-wingers, he is a very nice guy in person, even if he is the Prince of Darkness politically. Richard was looking for Howard Dean. I said Howard wasn't around, but I'd pass any message along. Richard said to congratulate Howard on the brilliant job he had done in the 2008 campaign, whose outcome was definitely NOT to Richard's liking. But he admired Howard's success, and knew a brilliant job when he saw one.


"His enemies were never going to like what he was about, and what he stands for. They would never applaud his economics or his foreign policy."

That's putting it mildly. Obama at first DID change the way things were done. He appeared publicly with McCain, saying he wanted dialogue with the opposition, and starting from day one. Can anyone imagine, right after the elections of 1980 or 2000, Reagan appearing with Carter or Bush Lite appearing with Al Gore, saying they'd keep in touch? Obama's biggest miscalculation was not preparing for the total warfare that he was going to face from Republican congressional obstructionism. It was obvious they would oppose measures that didn't help them and their financiers specifically. It was not anticipated that they would also oppose measures that would have benefited the country as a whole. Obama and his people were not prepared for a Republican opposition that held Obama's destruction as a higher priority than preventing the country's destruction. The country's best interests never dictated such a stance, and Team Obama realized too late that the country's best interests had nothing to do with it.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Yes, those phrases struck me as well...

You said it well, DFW: "Obama's biggest miscalculation was not preparing for the total warfare that he was going to face from Republican congressional obstructionism."
My theory is that he underestimated the sheer racial hatred that would be directed at him. Being bi-racial and having grown up in a largely race-tolerant environment, he simply had no idea of what was coming his way.
Michele probably had a better idea of what they were in for than he ever could.
SG

[JDPriestly]

17. Obama's problem was that he didn't realize

that before he could change the lack of civility and partisan politics in D.C., he had to change the morality in D.C.

Obama should have talked about joblessness, homelessness and poverty from day one. And he should not have talked of anything else until people on both sides of the and on Wall Street accepted responsibility for the suffering of America's poor and did something about it.

Obama's mistake was not realizing that as he acted to the least of us Americans, he was acting to the entire nation.

He failed to shame Republicans, and they cooperate only out of guilt.

Maybe he will learn and change his approach in his second term. He needs to point to the poverty and resolve to do something about it.

That is how a Lyndon Johnson would do it.

Of course, Lyndon Johnson had experienced poverty. Obama never has.

[Surya Gayatri]

22. Good analysis, JD...

As I said somewhere up-thread, I also think he was blind-sided by the level of sheer racial hatred aimed at him from the moment he was elected.

He had never known such blatant bigotry growing up as a bi-racial kid in a racially tolerant culture.

I also think that out of fear of being caste as an "angry black man", he kept his black, more militant and socially engaged brethren at arm's length.

If anybody could have opened his eyes to the suffering and misery out there, it was the CBC and other African-American pressure groups.

But, he has been assiduously avoiding them (especially since his media misadventure with the cop and the black professor early on in his presidency).
SG

Edit: Also, I think you are a bit optimistic in saying that he should have radically altered DC's immorality in the space of a mere 3 years.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

40. You're making him sound like a total victim.

Barack Obama, a highly-educated adult male (and community organizer in Chicago, FFS), should fully understand the "suffering and misery out there," and if he doesn't, he should step aside for someone who does.

How could he not understand racial hatred? Surely he's studied the KKK, Emmett Till, the Birmingham Church bombing, the Greensboro sit-ins, etc. Hell, I'm a lily-white woman with a non-Ivy education and I understand it.

You're making him sound like "Obambi" -- a wingnut favorite -- is that your intent? What a truly bizarre view of him.

[Surya Gayatri]

43. Book knowledge vs. formative experience...

We need both to grow and develop.
Book learning is stored in the brain and informs our intellect. Childhood experience is stored in the heart and informs our souls.

I'm convinced that Obama was indeed blind-sided to a certain degree by the unprecedented contempt directed at him from day one.

Of course, he 'learned' about race hatred during his studies, but never lived it's full force first-hand until his arrival in the White House.

This does not mean he's some doe-eyed weakling, just that he's having to adjust his approach to "conflict management vs. conflict avoidance". Not so 'bizarre' after all. SG

[WorseBeforeBetter]

57. Slain civil rights leaders and two dead Kennedy brothers didn't clue Obama in to the fact...

that he might be hated for the color of his skin or because he had a "D" next to his name? Really?

You're "convinced that Obama was indeed blind-sided to a certain degree by the unprecedented contempt directed at him from day one"? Did Obama (and some on this board) sleep through the Clinton administration? Let me refresh your memory: In addition to the numerous Richard Mellon Scaife-funded "-gates," the Clintons were accused of murder by some on the right. Surely Obama expected their full contempt...he *cannot* be that naive. Or maybe he can be.

[Surya Gayatri]

59. You're sort of missing the point, Worse...

Learning about racial hatred and prejudice through studies, the media, or even through second-hand direct accounts is one thing...

Living it, experiencing it in a gut-wrenching, soul-tearing personal way in one's early formative years is another.

If BHO had had those kinds of youthful experiences, his street fighter instincts and taste for combat would be more honed.

As things are, by instinct he tends to be a conciliator, not a fighter, and the 'liberal base' continue to excoriate him for it.
SG

Edit: Paradoxically, if any hint of 'angry black street fighter' instinct had been perceived in him during the campaign, he never would have been elected by a white majority.

[JDPriestly]

55. He did not have to bring Rahm Emmanuel with him or hire the Daley brother

from Morgan Stanley or appoint so many aides from Goldman Sachs, etc.

He had other choices.

The racism should not have surprised him after the election campaign. But I cannot know just how deeply racism cuts. I know gender discrimination and age discrimination and other types of discrimination, but discrimination is something you can only understand when you feel it pushing against you.

[Surya Gayatri]

64. For sure, his early appointments

were disappointingly "centrist and corporatist" for many. I believe his overriding concern in the throes of the financial panic was to re-establish confidence and stabilize the system.

Your last paragraph is spot on:
"But I cannot know just how deeply racism cuts.../... discrimination is something you can only understand when you feel it pushing against you."

I said something in the same vein up-thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002103196#post59

[JDPriestly]

65. Even gender and age discrimination can turn a person into quite a fighter.

I cannot imagine how it must be to deal with racial or ethnicity discrimination.

But Obama probably met up with some racial discrimination in Indonesia.

[Surya Gayatri]

66. You're right, JD...

I'm sure he did suffer as an "outsider" in Indonesia. But, I suspect he was rejected more for his "foreignness" than for the color of his skin.

Being exposed to the ferocious force of race hatred from one's own compatriots must shake a person to the core. SG

[okieinpain]

26. 1000% agree. n/t.

[RBInMaine]

37. His mother was once on food stamps when he was a kid, and his mother died of cancer I think without

insurance.

[johnaries]

42. I think you summed it up perfectly with this line:

" Obama and his people were not prepared for a Republican opposition that held Obama's destruction as a higher priority than preventing the country's destruction."

So true, so true.

[Surya Gayatri]

46. +1,000 Good catch...

This is the definitive summation of Obama's first 3 years. SG

[sendero]

51. Too bad..

... that "reaching out" to the other party has been nothing short of disaster for the country.

[JoePhilly]

6. Not even remotely ... did you notice that the article does not mention who they think

would replace him.

That's the give a way. If Obama was "doomed", the article would be able to explain who would beat him, or at a minimum, the new policies that the ultimate victor would be proposing ... yet the article does no such thing. Because those don't exist.

Perhaps the BBC thinks there is a Motion of no confidence in the US ... there isn't.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Good point, Joe...

The only mention of his opposition appears in the last paragraph:

"So the charge sheet against him is long. But that does not mean he will lose. The odds are about even. So much depends on his opponent, the economy and his strategy."

Obviously, one of the columnist's main objectives was to increase readership and provoke commentary.
SG

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. No, he had already said he will move on to that

"Vice-President Joe Biden has a saying: "Don't judge me against the Almighty, judge me against the alternative." This is the year Mr Obama will indeed be judged against the alternative. Some think this will save him. So a lot hangs on whom the Republicans choose as their candidate for the next president of the United States. More on that from Iowa in the coming week."

[Surya Gayatri]

13. Good catch, muriel...

I'd read it the first time through, but missed it the second time, while switching back and forth. Thanks for the correction. SG

[Kolesar]

9. Oh, yeah, it's just like when Dick Cheney and Tom Delay were running the country

Telling us that we were always minutes away from being murdered by fanatical Moslems.
Thanks for picking out the worst four paragraphs of the article so I didn't have to click it

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Actually, Kolesar, it's worth the read

in spite of the columnist's attempt to provoke.

I get the feeling he's pretty sympathetic to Obama and he does make some perceptive observations.

The provocative headline was just a bid to increase readership and incite commentary.

[WI_DEM]

14. He's doomed! Doomed I tells you!!

[Surya Gayatri]

15. LOL! Yes, the headline is a bit sensationalist... n/t

[opihimoimoi]

16. Doomed??? More like GROOMED.....WTF? The man saves us from Econ Ruin and the GOPers think

DOOMed??

Are they nutz?

Yup....they ignore the Iowa Factor....setting the National Tone for picking a candidate with an

Evangelical slant harms the nation in the long run...

Their winners hardly ever goes far beyond the States borders....

That should tell us of the Iowa Flaw ....

Its time for REASON to prevail...not Fantasy

[Surya Gayatri]

28. Actually, opihi, I think the columnist

used such a dramatic headline (DOOMED!!!!) just to rope in readers and provoke a lot of red-hot commentary.
But, this being the BBC, the contents are of course much more even-handed. He does in fact make some valid points.

[opihimoimoi]

29. The GOPers are jealous of Obamas charm, wit, intellect, timing, skills, 3 pointers, polisci300,

class, graciousness, manners, culture, and kindness...their drool cups runneth over but no cigars.

[Surya Gayatri]

32. And it's a million times more galling to them

because he's done all of this while being BLACK!!! LOL! SG

[opihimoimoi]

38. The Power Transition from Guns & Nuns to the "3rd Estate" is in play here...the 99ers are the 3rd Es

[Surya Gayatri]

47. Interesting observation! n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. I wish that people whom say he hasn't "done enough"

would explain who would've been able to "do enough" and how. Obama has actually did a helluva lot during his first two years in office- keeping the economy from tipping over into the abyss, expanding GLBT rights, initiating the first major reform of the health care industry, and overhauling financial regulations- all while fighting a fierce and rampant obstructionism from the GOP Tea Party. Also, what's with blaming Obama for not being able to win "admiration" from hateful GOP Tea Party pols and followers?

[Surya Gayatri]

24. I agree, PLD, it drives me mad...

But, I have to admit that BHO hasn't always made a good job of blowing his own horn.

He'll do it occasionally, but not in a repetitive, hard hitting manner that drives the message home to non-political Joe Blow.

Shrub knew enough to "catapult the propaganda" 24/7. After all, Propaganda Catapulting is the first chapter of the Repuke playbook.

As for "admiration" from his adversaries, I guess the columnist thinks that professional pols appreciate a brilliant play, even from the opposing team.
SG

[Proud Liberal Dem]

30. I agree that Obama hasn't always done a good job of "blowing his own horn"

though that's not really his job. OTOH in this day and age- with Fox News Zombies free roaming through this land of ours, I guess that every Democratic politician has got to trumpet their accomplishments so that the whole universe can hear them!

Visualize, if you will for a moment, the ticker-tape parades and the celebrations that would have been demanded had Shrub taken out OBL?

Another meme that I hear a lot that bothers me is that Obama apparently doesn't "schmooze" enough with Republicans and even some Democrats as if it's a.)his job or b.)he should WANT to spend time with people who smear him relentlessly. I'm not just talking about the usual political back-and-forth but I mean the people making these complaints have usually said some pretty vile and disgusting things about him, so they are obviously too clueless to realize why he might not want to hang out with them. I know I wouldn't. Plus I imagine that if he were "schmoozing" more, his critics would probably be complaining that he was "schmoozing" too much and not getting any work done, so, as with most Obama criticism, he's essentially damned either way.


As to your last point, Obama has made some pretty good plays against the GOP Tea Party but every time he gets the better of them they just get angrier and more hateful towards him. Obama is seriously under appreciated and underestimated IMHO.

[Surya Gayatri]

34. How right you are, PLD...

The poor guy is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. He's got a big target on his back and is used for cheap shots from all sides.

Loved your visual of the Shrub accepting paeans from the adoring public under a rain of congratulatory confetti. It's not much of an exaggeration either.

I hate the "schmooze" meme, too. With everything else on his plate, he's supposed to sit around and shoot the shit with the same assholes who've just spent the previous news cycle wiping the floor with him?
SG

[MjolnirTime]

19. Obama has already won.

[Surya Gayatri]

23. May it be so...

From your keyboard to God's ears!

[backscatter712]

20. Given the GOP Clown Car? No. n/t

[Surya Gayatri]

25. Or "midget mud-wrestling match"

as described on MSNBC earlier today!
SG

[treestar]

21. They're going to milk this one as long as they can

The media needs drama - they better get in on this idea now while it's still remotely viable in somebody's imagination.

[Surya Gayatri]

27. Spot on! As I said up-thread

somewhere, one of the columnist's main objectives was obviously to increase readership by provoking red-hot reaction from both camps. "IS OBAMA DOOMED????" This kind of drama-queen grandstanding is fairly rare on the BEEB.

[mitchtv]

31. No,

He wins again and the r's lose seats in the house

[Surya Gayatri]

35. Word! n/t

[1stlady]

33. The BBC

What the hell do they know about American Politics? Nothing, I assure you, because anyone with a lick of sense knows doomed is the last thing Obama is. They obviously have not looked at any polls or the rethug opposition. The BBC is a joke!!

[Surya Gayatri]

36. Well, this columnist is supposedly

a serious political reporter, embedded in the campaign and reporting from the heat of the action.

The headline, I will agree, is sensationalist drama-queen nonsense, intended to provoke red-hot commentary.

But, he does make a few valid analytic points in the body of the thing. SG

[1776Forever]

41. With the pure Idiots running for the Repub's it will be President Obama in a land slide! n/t

[Surya Gayatri]

48. From your keyboard to God's ears! n/t

[sendero]

52. You are probably right.

... but for the wrong reason. the Repubs don't WANT the presidency in 2012, they know what is coming and that the president's party will take most of the blame.

They DO want congress to make sure that the president is held back.

It is comical to see one after another weak candidate race to the top of the polls for a few weeks only to fall to earth. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

[Surya Gayatri]

62. Yeah, it really does evoke

the image of a bunch of midget clowns tumbling into the circus ring, or as a Dem operative said on MSNBC, "a midget mud-wrestling match".

Like you, I don't remember ever seeing the Repuke party make such a laughing stock of itself on the national stage. SG

[Rex]

44. The GOP would love to think so!

Of course, like their enitre party, they would be wrong.

[Surya Gayatri]

49. Let's hope their hubris and arrogance

lead them straight over the cliff! SG

[Rex]

50. They are always wrong, but very lucky imo.

That cliff cannot be far off, the odds are stacking up against them.

[Surya Gayatri]

53. Not so much lucky

as ruthless, dishonest and totally unscrupulous. (Plus money, lots and lots of money). SG

[Rex]

54. I think a lot of it is luck...ie...people

that feel disdain toward govt and then those that don't pay any attention. If more people were actually involved and not just brainwashed by the M$M, you would see far less power in the hands of the GOP.

[Surya Gayatri]

61. Very true, but is the

M$M brainwashing of the public just blind luck, or part of their brilliant but evil strategy? The kind of destructive influence that FOX wields 24/7 has been on their wish list for the last hundred years. SG