Frank Rich: What Happened to Change We Can Believe In?

[RamboLiberal]

PRESIDENT Obama, the Rodney Dangerfield of 2010, gets no respect for averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard. And none of these good deeds, no matter how substantial, will go unpunished if the projected Democratic bloodbath materializes on Election Day. Some are even going unremembered. For Obama, the ultimate indignity is the Times/CBS News poll in September showing that only 8 percent of Americans know that he gave 95 percent of American taxpayers a tax cut.

The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever.

No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.

This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage, its disregard for the rule of law as it cut every corner to process an avalanche of foreclosures. Clearly, these financial institutions have learned nothing in the few years since their contempt for fiscal and legal niceties led them to peddle these predatory mortgages (and the reckless financial “products” concocted from them) in the first place. And why should they have learned anything? They’ve often been rewarded, not punished, for bad behavior.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/opinion/24rich.html?hp

[ProSense]

1. Republicans happened to it.

PRESIDENT Obama, the Rodney Dangerfield of 2010, gets no respect for averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard. And none of these good deeds, no matter how substantial, will go unpunished if the projected Democratic bloodbath materializes on Election Day. Some are even going unremembered. For Obama, the ultimate indignity is the Times/CBS News poll in September showing that only 8 percent of Americans know that he gave 95 percent of American taxpayers a tax cut.

The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are ...

<...>

Even as the G.O.P. benefits from unlimited corporate campaign money, it’s pulling off the remarkable feat of persuading a large swath of anxious voters that it will lead a populist charge against the rulers of our economic pyramid — the banks, energy companies, insurance giants and other special interests underwriting its own candidates. Should those forces prevail, an America that still hasn’t remotely recovered from the worst hard times in 70 years will end up handing over even more power to those who greased the skids.

We can blame much of this turn of events on the deep pockets of oil billionaires like the Koch brothers and on the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which freed corporations to try to buy any election they choose. But the Obama White House is hardly innocent. Its failure to hold the bust’s malefactors accountable has helped turn what should have been a clear-cut choice on Nov. 2 into a blurry contest between the party of big corporations and the party of business as usual.

"The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are" articles filled with backhanded compliments to come to the conclusion that Obama is to blame for the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce.

Oh well, the election is only 10 days away.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Replaced by the Audacity of Nope

Single payer? Nope.
Glass-Steagall? Nope.
End DADT and DOMA? Nope.
Prosecute war crimes, and end secret prisons, "extraordinary rendition", and warrentless wiretapping? Nope.
Fight for working Americans? Nope.
Listen to the brightest economists on how to end the depression? Nope.

But it's not all "nope". For example, slashing Social Security got a big "yes we can!".

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AtomicKitten]

35. +1

[joe black]

41. Like you're some basket of fresh flowers...

that everyone loves to death.

[applegrove]

3. "the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains" .... so true.

[Exilednight]

4. He described the Obama presidency perfectly right here ...........

No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.

This intractable status quo is being rubbed in our faces daily during the pre-election sprint by revelations of the latest banking industry outrage, its disregard for the rule of law as it cut every corner to process an avalanche of foreclosures. Clearly, these financial institutions have learned nothing in the few years since their contempt for fiscal and legal niceties led them to peddle these predatory mortgages (and the reckless financial “products” concocted from them) in the first place. And why should they have learned anything? They’ve often been rewarded, not punished, for bad behavior.

Did anyone else here the NPR story about Florida's rocket docket?

Edited for link and punctuation.

[ProSense]

5. He nails the stupidity of voting Republican here

"No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change."

Republicans are much more believable?

Ex-Florida Money Manager Nadel Sentenced to 168 Months in Prison for Fraud

Do these pundits and the media ever play up the people who are going to jail? Wouldn't it have been great if Rich wrote a column about Koch and the Chamber and the devastating effects of corporate sabotage of the economy and our elections?

Hey, but I understand, it's Obama's fault for not fixing this mess, investigating fraud and holding people accountable fast enough and letting governing get in the way.

[Exilednight]

6. You're right, part of it is Obama's fault ........

he could of put mechanisms in place on TARP to prevent to-big-to-fail from getting bigger.

He could of put a moritorium on foreclosures.

He could of done a lot of things, but instead he worried about bipartisanship. Screw the fucking neo-cons and anyone who thinks that anything they say is valid and looks for ways to bring them together. It's never going to happen and instead of taking a tough stand, Obama continues trying to appease them.

I have more respect for a person who tries and fails than for a man who just fails without really trying. Actions speak louder than words, and yet his actions have yet to match his words. In fact, his actions often fall quite short.

[ProSense]

7. Hmmm?

"I have more respect for a person who tries and fails than for a man who just fails without really trying."

Yeah, nearly two years picking his nose. Damn him.

Bush tried and failed.

[Exilednight]

8. Bush didn't try to do anything that could improve this country .............

Bush could barely put together a coherent sentence, much less attempt anything that would actually advance the quality of life for all in this country.

[ProSense]

9. What are you arguing?

"I have more respect for a person who tries and fails than for a man who just fails without really trying."

That was your qualified statement about President Obama.

Now in response to the point that Bush tried and failed, you state:

"Bush didn't try to do anything that could improve this country"

Are you saying that President Obama hasn't tried to improve the country? Are you saying he has tried nothing and has failed at everything?

[Exilednight]

11. I am saying Obama has failed because he really hasn't tried ..........

Bush came into office with promises of balancing the budget, but he didn't even try to balance the budget. Cheney undercut him with Reagan's mantra of "deficits don't matter".

Obama tried about as hard as Shrub at getting a law passed that would get us cheaper drugs from Canada. What happened to that whole "no backroom deals with big-pharma"? He cut the deal and big-pharma made him out himself. But that's what happens when you don't put a fight.

[ProSense]

13. Obama has failed? May I

point you to Rich's lede: "averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard" and a bit of reality.

[Exilednight]

14. Yet foreclosures continue at record paces.

A record number of 102,134 US homes were repossessed by banks in September, the first time bank repossessions have surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month, the Los Angeles Times cited a report released by Irvine-based research firm RealtyTrac on Thursday as saying.

"It is almost a certainty that we will see over a million over the course of the year, and that would definitely be a record," Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac senior vice president, said. "It's serious, but it doesn't appear to be that these levels will crater the housing market if the economy at least stabilizes and we do start to see some job creation."

The spike in foreclosures come at a time when attorney generals of all 50 US states have announced a joint investigation into alleged forgery by banks and mortgage companies.

One in every 139 US housing units received a foreclosure filing during the third quarter. Bank repossessions also hit a record high in the quarter, with a total of 288,345 properties being repossessed by lenders, an increase of seven percent from the previous quarter and an increase of 22 percent from the third quarter of 2009. Mortgage lenders had repossessed more than 95,000 homes in August.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/146679.html

[ProSense]

15. You could

point to a million things that haven't been fixed, and that wouldn't take away from the President's accomplishments.

[Exilednight]

16. When he manages to FULLY accomplish just one of his major ..............

campaign promises, then, and only then, will I consider to stop holding his feet to the fire.

Health care promise met? NO!

Full end to Iraq war (this includes pulling out the tens of thousands of armed contractors)? NO!

Gitmo closed? NO!

Transparency in government? NO!

Anyways, I'm done. Have a goodnight.

[ProSense]

That ranks up there with

say anything.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[rug]

23. Lol!

:thumbsup:

Thank you for the reminder.

[ProSense]

28. .

ditto

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rug]

31. Ditto.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=486801&mesg_id=486977

[katandmoon]

17. He accomplished appointing two anti-SSers to head the catfood commission.

[ProSense]

19. He gave this person

a raise


What else?

[displacedvermoter]

43. What would possibly take away from his "accomplishments"

in your eyes? Nothing yet you have mentioned here.

[kentuck]

10. This is an interesting comment:

"But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever."

[ProSense]

12. It's an interesting point.

The question is why does Rich think, based on the tone of his article, that the President has the power to dismantle the economic order, let alone in less than two years? As Rich states, they're entrenched.

This is not going to be a quick fix. The "economic order" is holding the country hostage, and many Americans are stupidly standing with them to fight against change.

[katandmoon]

18. Maybe because Obama continually favors Wall St. at the expense of Main St.

[ProSense]

20. Except when

he vetoed the foreclosure bill, increased taxes on multinational corporations and gave everyone in America a tax cut.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

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[joe black]

42. Oh yes...

Libby Ledbetter, and uh,uh, Liby Ledbetter. Nobody I know hates Obama trhey do hate being sold out.

[impik]

24. The stupidity of the American people and media happened to it

No one has the guts to just tell the truth.

[JamesA1102]

25. Frank Rich lied about Al Gore and helped give us Bush

Why anyone would listen to him today in unbelievable.

[bklyncowgirl]

26. When both political parites get their funding from the same corporate forces change isn't happening

It takes obscene amounts of cash to run for office. Unless a candidate is obscenely wealthy him or herself (in which case he or she is probably a corporatist in spades already--witness Meg Whitman) they are going to be beholden to those that funded them even moreso than the many that voted for them.

I never had any illusion that Obama would do anything to fundamentally change the system. You cannot become a major party candidate in this country if you are not a corporatist at heart. I was hoping that ordinary Americans might get a few crumbs from the tables of the rich and powerful and that the balance of wealth might change ever so slightly to allow for a more general prosperity. So far this has not happened--but given the howls of anguish coming from the right--it could happen.

The supposedly populist Tea Party movement has of course been taken over by corporate republicans--never doubted that would happen for a moment. We've gotten ourselves into a situation where we have (at least in theory) two political parties. One has no brains (The Republicans) the other has no balls (the Democrats). Republcans blithely preach a sort of populist anti-intellectual rhetoric designed to soothe the bruised psyches of the masses while at the same time they pick their pockets. Democrats talk a sort of economic populism while at the same time caving again and again where it really to those who fund their campaigns.

The result is, as Gore Vidal put it, America has one party with two right wings.

[ProSense]

29. Interesting

I never had any illusion that Obama would do anything to fundamentally change the system. You cannot become a major party candidate in this country if you are not a corporatist at heart. I was hoping that ordinary Americans might get a few crumbs from the tables of the rich and powerful and that the balance of wealth might change ever so slightly to allow for a more general prosperity. So far this has not happened--but given the howls of anguish coming from the right--it could happen.

True to a degree and it goes beyond this. Think about what some people were expecting: Obama would come into office and begin war crimes trials against Bush and his cronies, immediately end the wars and indicted and try the CEOs of every major financial institution.

What percentage of Americans would have concluded that he had lost his mind? Think about how many Democrats can't even stomach the accusations against the Chamber of Commerce.

The question for this election is not: Why are Democrats in trouble?

The question is: Why are so many people voting Republican?

If anyone thinks the answer to the second question is because Obama didn't indict Wall Street, they're delusional.

[saltpoint]

30. But Obama has had it easy. He doesn't have to leave the

White House for weeks at a time to go back to Chicago to clear brush.

So it's not a fair comparison to say he's a better president than Bush or deserves credit for some of the good stuff. Obama doesn't even live on a ranch. How many ranches are there in Chicago, anyway? I bet not many.

[AtomicKitten]

34. Clearly an outrage.

We should have known, though. Not once did he even attempt to trim a hedge or water the petunias like he promised. Not once. Pres Obama's a class A floraphobe.

:hi:

[saltpoint]

39. LOL!

:hi:

[girl gone mad]

32. Great article.

Rich really gets right to the heart of this country is in such a state of decay.

Our party has been captured, by and large. They are the 'good cop' to the Republican's 'bad cop', both working for the same corrupt corporate oligarchs.

Maybe we should be rooting for the dollar's demise.

[craigmatic]

36. Obama's problem is that he's too reserved and doesn't make FDR style I feel

your pain and am using all the tools at my disposal to help you speeches. He should have been on TV every week with another part of his plan and talking about how it would help the average person. That's what FDR would've done and he'd be leading the dems into the election leading in the polls. Obama plays it too cool and needs to add more firery rhetoric so the people will have something to sink their teeth into. Then we'd have the media's full attention.

[FrenchieCat]

37. The problem is that we expect one President to be like another

from an era long gone, and expect little of ourselves.

It's not about Obama playing it too cool, it is about us
not doing a damn thing other than typing on this board
about what we "think".

Now, I'm leaving to go GOTV in Oakland in the pouring rain......
cause I'm walking my talk, as opposed to finding fault with
the one person that can perhaps save this fucked up country....
but only with our assistance. He asked for it, but some folks
have yet to do anything at all besides analyzing what he
should have done and who he should have been like.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

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[Tarheel_Dem]

38. And if he were "on TV every week", how long before the corporate media

would have been grumbling that they were losing valuable ad dollars. Don't you remember how that started to become the meme when the president asked for airtime? The American people would have turned on him, in a NY minute for interrupting "American Idol" or "Dancing With The Stars", or some other equally inane BS every week. Bad idea.

He does a weekly radio address. How often do you, or the American people, tune in? :shrug:

[craigmatic]

46. I didn't know they even played those anymore. Thanks I'll go try to find them.

[area51]

40. Averting a Great Depression?

We're in one.

[Argentum]

47. Rethugs!