OlehGirl.com
Dude, this is harshin’ on Obama
If you think Republican criticism of Obama has been harsh, dude, the people on the left side of the aisle are starting to view him as something worse than the devil himself. Since Obama got elected, I’ve been doing my own little experiment. About every 3 months I do google searches on key terms like “disappointed in Obama” and disillusioned + Obama and betrayed + Obama (I’ll explain in an upcoming post why I decided to do this).
In the first three months, searches only turned up some Republicans predicting that Obama would betray America/American values and some stuff regarding Israel and the Palestinians (with both sides expressing feelings of betrayal). At the 6-month mark (May-June-ish), there was a flurry of disillusioned, disappointed, feeling-betrayed postings by folks on the far-left of the “progressive” tide. Things had changed a bit by September-October, with more of the “conservative left” beginning to get in on the act and voicing their disappointments and feelings of betrayal (particularly not feeling the love with Obama’s vision of healthcare reform and being angry over (non-inherited) fiscal matters). I did the search again today and HOLY MOLY. Here’s a representative comment, taken from his op-ed, by a Hofstra U professor who falls into “center left” territory that was made a couple of weeks before the Big O’s SOTU address
Like any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this President. Now I’m fast getting to rage.
How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.
Did this clown really say on national television that “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street”?
Really, Barack? So, like, my question is: Then why the hell did you help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street? Why the hell did you surround yourself with nothing but Robert Rubin proteges in all the key economic positions in your government? Why did you allow them to open a Washington branch of Goldman Sachs in the West Wing? Why have your policies been tailored to helping Wall Street bankers, rather than the other 300 million of us, who just happen to be suffering badly right now?
Yo, this piece was downright complementary compared to what he is saying now about, as he has begun calling him, “Obama Nothingburger.”
I mean really, this is seriously harsh. Even I wouldn’t wish a Palin Presidency on anyone. There are still lots of starry-eyed Obama folks out there, but, like, they are kinda in the minority. I’ll post later (maybe tomorrow as I’ve still a ton to do today) on why I figured there would be such a major crash-n-burn happening in Obama-land.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Yael on February 2, 2010 at 7:05 pm, and is filed under U.S. Politics. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
(Photo by Dani Machlis)
about 7 months ago
History will show Obama to be one of the best presidents.
about 7 months ago
Mongrel – Did you see him in New Hampshire today? I happened to be home resting after an infusion and they were showing it on the news channels.
about 7 months ago
I didn’t see him in New Hampshire, fill us in.
But more important is: HOW ARE YOU? What infusion? Are you ok? How are you feeling? Is there anything that I can do to help!
about 7 months ago
“Like any good progressive”… that’s a contradiction in terms.
I think Obama means what he says, and I think he’s trying to help out the working class. If I said that at work I’d get fired though. The trouble is, no human being alive can change Washington. It’s like a black hole. It sucks the life out of everyone. And it’s inhabited by really evil people like Schumer, Boxer, Feinstein, Pelosi, Reed et al. I could probably name some evil Republicans but I can’t remember any of their names anymore. I wouldn’t have minded if Obama could have done something about health care, and it would be ok with me if he got us out of Afghanistan and Iraq ASAP. It would be easier to fix those problems with predators than with ground troops anyway. There was an article in New Science magazine in 2008 called “Why complex Societies Fail.” I think we are there and nobody can stop it.
Hey Yael, there was an article on MSNBC about a cat that lives in a nursing home, and he always knows when the old people are going to die and goes in and snuggles up to them. It was kind of creepy. He has a perfect record. Now when one of my daughters cats comes and gets on my bed I am going to be worried.
about 7 months ago
I’d vote for Palin. I like her. She looks good in a bikini and she is an NRA member. Excellent qualifications
about 7 months ago
Hermit, I agree. All presidents find themselves severely constrained. The inherit huge problems and then have to deal with them. There is a political system in place and no one person can change it enough to make it more responsive to the needs of the American people. Washington and the political scene is populated with slime like John Edwards, many others, and the folks you named. Thousands of people have an interest in maintaining things as they are now. The US is a huge country, very complex. Any time that you have people, you have complexity.
about 7 months ago
This is what happens when you run far left to get the nomination, then move to the center to try to win the general election, and then discover that you’ve been elected as the President of the (entire) country. At some point you have to disappoint George Soros…….
about 7 months ago
Mac, so true.
I didn’t vote for O and I don’t like him, yet I am not looking forward to a Ms. Sarah President Palin either. I hope someone competent will be found until 2012.
O’s problem is that he has no clue. Now it comes back to hurt us all that someone was elected who had no experience in ever holding an executive office. He goes on and on making promises everyone knows -should know- he will never be able to keep. He has not understood the political reality in Washington and the country. In a way he suffers the same the fate as his predecessor, who also believed that people would simply understand and follow, if he only said what he was thinking.
O will be one of the worst presidents in history, though he probably will not be able to top Jimmy Carter.
Why? Because he could have achieved at least something. A majority of voters clearly supported health care reform. If he had concentrated on this project, he could have been successful. Instead he fell for the global warming climate change nonsense and spent his time appeasing the Europeans and muslims.
May be the Dutch want him as prime minister. Or the Germans, as chancellor. They can have him. He has not done anything for Americans, anyway.
about 7 months ago
The future.
about 7 months ago
Mac — ya hit the nail smack on the head.
Hermit — logistically, I don’t think it is possible to pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He ran on the “get the troops out of Iraq” platform but, like closing Gitmo, he discovered things are not so simple. Closing Gitmo may sound good but then where do you put all these terrorists? Many of the very people who were rallying for it to close now take a “not in my backyard” position when it comes to relocating these guys. And the “art therapy rehabilitation” program –no lie, that’s how Saudi Arabia “rehabilitated” the terrorists sent to them — clearly isn’t a good option since large numbers of them have artistically flitted on over to Yemen and Afghanistan etc and rejoined terror cells. No one wants them in their State’s prisons in the U.S. He discovered that pulling the troops out might sound good but that to do so would cause a complete collapse in Iraq.
Sir John — yeah, he is very inexperienced. So is Palin and that is why I wouldn’t want her as President. I agree that he probably won’t be as much of a disaster as Jimmy Carter (that record is hard to beat). I’m really hoping he can pull it together. He needs a faster learning curve than what he’s shown so far, but at least he has learned some things.
Jen –yo sweetie, email me. I’m worried about you,what is this about an infusion?
about 7 months ago
I did not vote for Obama, and I have had and have deep reservations about him, but it is too early to see what he will do, can accomplish or even what harm he can do. And, he is showing that he is running the country not the far left.
about 7 months ago
So I have a completely different take on Obama, clearly. I mean, I understand that no one who is as far left as I am will ever be elected so I have to settle for someone who is bright, socially liberal and who can bring the middle to the election. Obama’s town hall in NH yesterday was brilliant as far as I’m concerned. It showed how well he understands the issues facing the US today. He really really knows his stuff in a way that Bush never did and that I don’t think Palin ever could. What he needs to learn is to explain more of the policies and decisions in simple language that will make sense to at least some of the people. Here is an example: Someone asked a question about health care and he explained why the bill got so large. You see, you can’t just require insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions and not require everyone to carry insurance. Requiring the first without the second means that we could all wait until we get sick to buy insurance. And that makes no sense as a business model. Anyway, the way he said it made the whole thing completely clear. And he did that for every question he was asked, off the cuff.
Lynne, as to my health — I have infusions every 6 weeks. I am tired for the rest of the day or up to a few days, but between the infusions and the pills, I am fine. I’ve updated my diet to add more protein and they do blood work every few months and adjust my supplements accordingly.
about 7 months ago
Jennifer, I am glad to hear that with your medical regime, your health is fine. And, thank you for your perspective on Obama. The insurance issue is so huge that I wondered how it could be resolved easily, and I don’t think that it can. There is so much resistance to change, and when people are not themselves adversely effected by the present system, they are not interested in another one. Putting a new system in place would certainly require more steps and more cooperation among lawmakers than we have seen so far.
about 7 months ago
Hey, Hermit. I had a look at your website, which I thought was really interesting. Whereabouts in the US are you? I would have left a message on your site, but I hardly every use Google comments and can’t remember my username and password.