What is more important in a President, kicking Republican ass or accomplishing things?

[wndycty]

Poll question: What is more important in a President, kicking Republican ass or accomplishing things?

I see folks are wanting Obama to fight more, and sometimes feel some folks would be happier if he fought more and didn't accomplish shit.

Many folks will tell you that Obama's accomplishments are worthless, but others (myself included) will point out he has been the most successful Democratic President since Lyndon Johnson. We can argue those points all day but the reality is sometimes kicking Republican does not necessarily make for a successful presidency.

While they are not mutually exclusive, I must know what is more important to you:

[Mz Pip]

1. Those 2 are not mutually exclusive

In fact they go hand in hand. can't really have one without the other.

[wndycty]

2. Well here is a question for you. . .

. . .I don't mind a President who kicks ass, however Obama has passed more progressive legislation than either Carter or Clinton. How did he do that with out kicking ass?

[Mz Pip]

6. Maybe he did

back then the Democrats had control of everything and I remember it was like pulling teeth to get some of them to cooperate.

The other thing is that Democrats just do not seem to be able to get themselves up on a soapbox and tout their accomplishments. That really kind of pisses me off that they seem unwilling to sing their own praises.

[wndycty]

7. When anyone touts the Democrats accomplishments not only do they have to deal with . . .

. . .the criticism from the left, they have to deal with many other Democrats/Progressives who tell them those accomplishments are meaningless.

Seriously, let Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Obama run around touting health care reform, some of the biggest dumbs down down will come from many who are are on their "side."

[JoePhilly]

26. You nailed it ....

Republicans cheer any small gain as if they won the super bowl. And whatever they didn't get becomes the next goal.

Democrats won't cheer any success (will treat it as meaningless). And whatever they didn't get becomes an ANCHOR tied to their leaders ankles.

The endless carping by the left will reduce turn out, not of the left, but of the moderate, low information Democrat who ends hearing the right wing's non stop message ... "Obama bad" .... and the loud left wing's message .... "Obama bad".

They conclude "Obama bad" ... and they stay home.

[Exilednight]

28. That depends on you define the ideology of progressivism.

[Ken Burch]

3. It's not either/or

And the whole way this OP is phrased is deeply condescending and insulting. Can we please get past the "didn't get the pony" meme already?

[ruggerson]

4. He's been, incrementally, a good President so far

in the co-opting tradition of Eisenhower and Clinton. He's been a better President on substance than both Carter and Clinton.

But many of us would like, someday, to have a transformative President, which he is not.

The either/or structure of your poll is not instructive.

[ZombieHorde]

5. Depends on the things being accomplished. nt

[AtomicKitten]

8. Progress is getting a toehold and continuing to press forward. That's what winning looks like.

The GOP-teabagger opposition is ridiculous, hardly worth breaking a sweat for a comeuppance. While momentarily satisfying, it's a distraction.

[wndycty]

10. Yep . . .and whenever we do win anything half the people on our side. . .

. . .scream about what we had to do to win and dismiss it as meaningless.

[AtomicKitten]

17. just let it slide --

[Shiver]

22. +100000

Completely agree. And yet people here rail against this sort of thing, many believing in the 'all or nothing' line of thinking.

[aka-chmeee]

9. If he had an R beside his name,

I can't imagine people here celebrating in surprise the incredible progressive accomplishments of a Repig president.

[wndycty]

11. Very true. . .

The grass is already greener on the other side.

:kick:

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Things? Or stuff? Why only things, why no stuff?

I think it is important to accomplish both things and stuff, but it can be important what things, and which stuff. You claim only things are important, not stuff, and I reject that anti-stuff stance, wide enough to brush up against the Republican in the next stall. Stuff matters, not just things.

[uponit7771]

13. Accomplishing things WHILE kicking republican ass, both can be done

[TheKentuckian]

14. Can't do one without the other. If you are "accomplishing things" without kicking their asses.

Then you are advancing their agenda. That is the way it works. They are the opposition, if they aren't being opposed and set back then they are by definition winning. That is a two party system.

[wndycty]

15. So would you agree that Obama kicked more ass than Clinton or Carter?

Afterall he accomplished a lot more in first two years than they did.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Read what was posted to you again, it is clear and accurate

and I agree with it.

[MNBrewer]

19. What is this?

My dad can beat up your dad?

[TheKentuckian]

27. Not particularly, no. Obama failed to accomplish basically anything that was a problem for big money

and much of what he has done actually enriches those behind the entropy and the Republicans.

He signed the already passed Ledbetter Act, passed DADT repeal which vast majorities supported including most Republicans, and in order to make the math work on his artificial cap on Health Insurance "reform" he had to cut one of the most absurd pieces of corporate welfare which was the stupid student loan program model.

I'm not counting notches on a bedpost here. Our "big win" is a creation of the Heritage Foundation in collaboration with Gingrich and Dole. Put into play by Mitt Romney. A poison pill willfully designed to kill actual health care reform in the crib and further entrench the system in place by elevating a monopolistic cartel to too big to fail status and predicating cost containment and price control on increased participation in a billion risk pools and cost sharing meant to encourage "wise consumers of health care" to self deny treatment.

Obama also certainly had more that needs doing and that more desperately. He also had a mandate that Clinton was nowhere near with much more resources to utilize like more Democrats in Congress, a grassroots army at his disposal, and millions of email addresses. All squandered playing bipartisan games and getting hung up on inside baseball.

Obama sucks as much as Clinton with much less excuse to do so. He decided to give ratfucking TeaPubliKlans partner status, give credence to their talking points, and to let them run around lying and stirring shit while still complimenting dumpsterfucks like Grassley as they were stalling and backstabbing.

[OHdem10]

16. Why not both???? joking

[jab105]

20. He is accomplishing things...

that are hurting our country as a whole...

He is framing the debate in Republican terms and giving up on democratic values in the process...

So, given two false choices, I would much rather he take the democratic message to the American people...

Simply put:
What got us "broke" is multi-million dollar tax giveaways to the most wealthy and wars that were not necessary...
Until these two things are corrected, we will NOT take away from the rest of the people and destroy the social safety net of the US in the process...

[MNBrewer]

21. Hear, hear!

[treestar]

23. Getting something done

A lot of posts here do seem to value getting one over on the Republicans more than anything else. It's like they don't care what happens, they just want the negative side, to see the Republicans weep. They should have been more concerned about the 2010 election.

[Avant Guardian]

24. They are one in the same

If Obama kicks republican ass, it is because he is accomplishing things.

[BklnDem75]

25. Not true at all

The most revered here are the ones who bluster the most but have accomplished very little.

[Logical]

29. Really? Those are the two choices? Give me a break......

How about:

Compromising with the GOP?
Fighting for what is right?

Which would have been just as biased.

I hate these push polls on a dem website.

[LWolf]

30. In order to accomplish the right things, Republican ass must be kicked. nt

[Arkana]

31. In thirty years when Obama's Presidency is assessed by historians,

no one is going to care what arbitrary lines in the sand he drew.

They're going to look at how the country was before and after his Presidency and judge him on the results.

History forgets bravado. It doesn't forget accomplishments.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. He will not accomplish anything unless he can stare down the Republicans

and get them out of the way.

[jefferson_dem]

32. I'll take real progress every time.

Accomplishing things, obviously.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. False dilemma

Republican ass kicked in the right way, so that they do not block needed programs, IS an accomplishment.