You know why I'm so mad at Obama? I think he is a genuinely decent human being.

[Paradoxical]

His biography all but necessitates that he be a good person in one manner or another.

Which is why I'm so angry at this administration as well as our congress. For years this country was run by a crowd so far outside the realm of decency or logic that I found it very hard to take them seriously.

I take our current Democratic leaders seriously. And I expect more out of them than they have given us. That's not a point of damnation. That's me demanding improvement because I know they can do better.

I didn't vote for Bush. I didn't vote for any of his buddies. So I didn't expect anything more than shit from them. I voted for Obama in 2008. I not only expect that he do better, I demand it.

[gimama]

1. That sums up my feelings, too

..he IS a goood Person, INTELLIGENT, pragmatic..
I know WE can do better.

[moondust]

2. Don't underestimate

the corrupting influence of Washington/Wall Street.

[hfojvt]

3. you know about the Wizard of Oz, right?

That he's a metaphor for the President. In the movie, Dorothy says to him "you are a bad man". He answers, "No, I am actually a very good man, I am just a very poor wizard."

As President, the requirements of the job sorta make it impossible to do the good things you want to do. Theoretically you have immense power, but that power is actually limited. Here's how one guy described the challenges

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47MKGOPP4Zo

Okay, maybe that was a bad example.

[The Doctor.]

7. No, it's an excellent example.

The last occupant of the WH was a dipshit who was perfectly happy to do what the corporate masters told him to (so long as he didn't have to think too hard about it).

Obama is a man in the most difficult position I can imagine... and he's handling it. I must say, even though I'm disappointed, I'm nonetheless impressed.

[hfojvt]

8. you didn't watch the linked video, did you?

I'm not impressed at all. I am disgusted.

Yes we can has become oh no he dint.

[JTFrog]

15. You yourself said it was a bad example.

:shrug:

[The Doctor.]

25. I was responding to your text.

And agreeing with it.

[Tatiana]

16. "Words do inspire..." Boy that was painful to watch.

I keep thinking that this President really could use his words to inspire those fighting for their rights to organize and bargain.

Words really could inspire the masses to demand that the wealthy start paying their fair share to get us out of the mess a good majority of them created.

But when we look for inspiring words, of late, all we get is either silence or milquetoast lip service.

[hfojvt]

18. it ought to be even more painful for Obama

During the campaign he wanted to tell us 'yes we can'. Now he seems to have two messages. first, "no we can't" and then the 2nd message "but it's not my fault".

The second message might be easier to take, easier to believe, if I saw him go down swinging. You cannot stand at the plate, be too timid to swing the bat, and then claim to be blameless when you strike out. A C+ for results is easier to take when you don't see an F- for effort.

[Common Sense Party]

4. "His biography all but necessitates that he be a good person" ??? Why?

How can that be said about ANY person? Yes, one's background certainly influences one's character and development, but one still has free will and still makes choices.

[Gregorian]

5. It is this president's administration that has made me realize

Realize that those ruling the country are not in office. I think that in previous days there was room for a strong president who could dictate progressive movements. Someone tell me I'm wrong, from a Constitutional perspective. I don't know better. But I would swear that it's the corporations that are the ones with the momentum. The president is just one man. And even his cabinet are only a few people. From the moment they walk into the White House, they are told what is going to happen. Where the bathrooms are, and where the lobbyists arrive. I'm afraid the people don't fare so well in this equation. We buy the goods that the corporations make. We subsidize them with our taxes. And they sneak in the back door of the White House with enough cash to ensure they can continue business, even if it isn't in our best interest. And usually it isn't in our best interest. Health care? War? Justice? The only difference is that a Democrat can at best slow things a bit. And they can perhaps nominate judicial positions.

[iwishiwas]

12. One thing Obama ran on was getting rid of the lobbyists. But he

has surrounded himself with them beginning with the healthcare and insurance lobbyists.

[Gregorian]

19. When impeachment was off the table, I began to be far more suspicious.

It felt like there was a huge power behind these people, telling them what they can and can't do. I hate to think that is the case. I just can't explain the behavior in any other way. Obama the candidate was so cool headed, and honest about his intentions.

[hifiguy]

26. Yep

I am certain that Obama, like every Democratic president since LBJ, was taken aside and given "the talk" by the Powers that Be and told what he would be allowed to change (very little) and what had to stay the same and could NEVER be challenged or changed (unquestioned dictatorial power of the MIC and Wall Street).

The last President to buck Wall Street and the MIC was JFK, and we know how that turned out.

[Johonny]

23. I agree

Obama's presidency shows the government can not work so long as 55-40 % of the legislature is bought and sold a corporation ponzi scheme. I'm disappointed in Obama's presidency but frankly in horror at the legislative branch and the hacks conservatives have put on the court. Given the current state of politics Obama's first two years are going to look like a golden age of progressive legislating because nothing but pure crap is being talked about in congress.

[Solomon]

24. I've often said that one of the benefits of having Obama in there

is that just by being there, he continually exposes the contradictions in the system that we have. The presidency is not the power that people presume that it is.

[sad sally]

31. In 1950, banker Paul Warburg, as he testified before the US Senate said

"We will have a world government whether you like it or not. The only question is whether that government will be achieved by conquest or consent."

[davidthegnome]

6. I agree with you

That's also why I'm angry... and a lot of the things he's said and done just lead me to think... "WTF"?

[Ramulux]

9. Dude

"I take our current Democratic leaders seriously."

Well there's your first problem. They don't take you seriously, if you hold beliefs anywhere to the left of Obama you do not exist in the eyes of the democratic leadership. They are not honest people, they do not have any sort of principled detailed ideology that they use to explain their opinions, they have a few vague notions of beliefs that they are willing to compromise at the drop of a hat but that's it.

You have to stop pretending that the democrats WANT to do what you want them to do, they are not on our side and won't be until they learn to fear us. Its like this, you have the republican party which is an actual political party that makes its decisions based on principles and ideology. Republicans exist because of conservatives and conservatives dictate what decisions the republicans make. Then you have the democrats which is basically a party that exists as the "not-republican" party. It has no ideological foundation, no principles it refuses to compromise on, and no coordinated messaging. The democratic leadership looks at what the republican position is on any given issue and reacts from there. If republicans decide they want to cut 100's of billions of dollars in social programs, the democratic response is to cut only 50 billion in social programs. There are not two sides on these issues, there is the republican position and the democratic response to the republican position.

If the democratic party actually had morals and principles they would be aggressive, they would push for their beliefs, they would disagree with republicans and refuse to negotiate when they act like greedy fucking children. But we dont, we constantly play defense, we let republicans control the message and we flounder trying to come up with any milquetoast response that makes us seem a little more compassionate than the GOP.

The democratic party is not a real political party. It is an electoral vessel for every single non-conservative person in this country to voice their disapproval of the GOP. If we actually stood for something we could have essentially ended the republican party years ago.

[raouldukelives]

21. Amen to that. nt

[Tatiana]

22. Yep. Having a corporate loving DNC headed by a conservaDem doesn't help with messaging either.

I mean we don't even need to elect a majority of "far left" Dems. We just need to elect Dems that are genuinely looking out for the welfare of the citizenry instead of themselves and their wealthy benefactors.

[bigmonkey]

28. I disagree with your "fear is the only motivator" method.

What about making it easier to support those positions? What if they could count on being re-elected if they took those "lefty" positions. After all, they keep complaining that they don't get enough support, that the support can't be counted on. And your method, that they should feel that the support can be withdrawn at any point, is completely consistent with that. They may be wimps, but wouldn't the social effect of coddling wimps to do the right thing benefit all of us, instead of the "they must fear us" character-building approach?

[quinnox]

10. His actions have been loud and clear

That's all that counts, all the pretty speeches in the world he gave in the past and still to come on the re-election trail can't change that.

[inna]

11. "a genuinely decent human being" - based on what actions, since he became Prez?

please enlighten.

[Raine]

13. I don't really care whether or not he's a good or decent person

in his personal life, he could be the biggest asshole in the world. What he does or doesn't do for the people of this country, the ones who believed in him and put him into office is what matters. That's where how good and decent he is really count. I don't see it, all I see is him bending over backwards to kiss up to the corporate world and their greedy interests.

[Javaman]

14. Obama became subject to the beltway blur after his first year.

The gauzy curtain of deception. The insulated bubble of the washington machine keeps him out of touch.

Remember the old days? Like him or not, but remember when Clinton would get out of his limo to shake hands with the people? He would just stop the parade and get out and shake peoples hands? Giving the secret service heart attacks?

Those days are long gone.

[Bandit]

17. My father used to tell me "shit in one hand and wish in the other, and see which gets filled the qui

Obama is more Republican than Democrat so your demands are bound to go unmet..

[undeterred]

20. I think he's a fraud.

And its embarassing to admit we were all fooled.

[Romulox]

27. I don't agree. The simplest explanation is that Obama is behaving exactly as he wants to...

That is not to say that he is not constrained by circumstance; however, following his inauguration, the President has so easily and comfortably shifted to the Right that the simplest explanation is that he is enacting policy decisions that comport with his own internal sense of ideology, ethics, and morality.

[Raine]

30. That's the conclusion I've come to. nt

[GeorgeGist]

29. Maybe he WAS