The Secret Of O’s Failccess

Eli
Saturday August 6, 2011
http://firedoglake.com/2011/08/06/the-secret-of-os-failccess

Looks like this is the week for posts about Obama being a strong Republican rather than a weak Democrat. I certainly can’t imagine what might have brought this on.

Matt Stoller:

As narrator-in-chief and legislator-in-chief, the President has not been particularly effective, but one could at least argue that it is not his “fault”. Perhaps he made poor choices, but it could simply be a strategic disagreement. He could not get a liberal health care plan through, he couldn’t achieve a big enough stimulus, etc. But on how he actually governs, which is actually a pretty big part of the job, there is no debate. He has pursued a governing strategy that is both radical in its lawlessness and authoritarian in its structure around civil liberties, war, and deference to big finance while destroying faith in government through nearly unprecedented incompetence in the millions of people touched by the HAMP program….

So why, if his Presidency has been such an unmitigated disaster, is he continuing to pursue this reckless course. My theory is that the key to the Obama administration’s political strategy is not compromise or incrementalism. It is, quite simply, fooling liberals.

David Sirota:

Obama is not a flaccid Jimmy Carter, as some of his critics insist. He is instead a Franklin Delano Roosevelt — but a bizarro FDR. He has mustered the legislative strength of his New Deal predecessor — but he has channeled that strength into propping up the very forces of “organized money” that FDR once challenged.

(…)

As hideous and destructive as it is, this record is anything but weak. It is, on the contrary, demonstrable proof of Obama’s impressive political muscle, especially because polls show he has achieved these goals despite the large majority of Americans who oppose them.


What makes Obama so unique is the strategy he employs for enacting his goals. Presidents who get what they want usually project a public image of strength and determination, declaring what they want and then either persuading or steamrollering the opposition party to attain it. Obama is almost certainly the first American president to achieve his goals by projecting a public image of weakness and capitulation.

Instead of declaring what he wants and pushing for it, Obama asks for a centrist-to-modestly-progressive outcome and then caves and compromises until he arrives safely in the Republican camp. At which point he magically rediscovers his spine and forces reluctant Democrats to vote for the Republican “compromise” that he facilitated. He accommodates his nominal opposition and bullies his nominal allies, then claims that the end result was not what he wanted, but was the best he could get because those mean Republicans are just so unreasonable. (Of course, there are exceptions…)

As Stoller points out, the President’s true nature is revealed by his use of executive power. For all of Obama’s eagerness to embrace the Bush-Cheney vision of an imperial presidency, he has not used any of that sweeping authority to roll back their policies, but rather to continue and even extend them. Regardless of whether you want to see the Constitution abused even for a good cause, Obama’s choice of abuses is telling. And let’s not forget his decision to unilaterally engineer a “deficit reduction” commission to move Social Security cuts into the political mainstream.

LAT’s Doyle McManus bemoans Obama’s “clarity gap” – the uncertainty he creates about “what he’s willing to fight for.” But the clarity gap isn’t a bug, it’s a feature: Obama’s strategy is to retain the Democrats’ allegiance by taking credit for the red meat (Public option! Financial reform! Tax the rich!) that he feeds into the legislative machine, and blaming the Republicans for the turdlike sausage that comes out the other end. He has made the calculation that it is better to look unprincipled and weak than cruel and corrupt, but that’s not exactly a recipe for energizing the base… or anyone with less than 20 million nickels to rub together.

Remember back in 2009, when Obama’s supporters tried to explain away his apparent cluelessness and tone-deafness by claiming it was all part of some grand plan to outmaneuver the Republicans? That he was playing eleventy-dimensional chess and we just couldn’t follow his strategy? Turns out they were right all along, they just didn’t notice he was sitting on the other side of the table.

How to identify political parties

This little old lady calls 911. When the dispatcher answers she yells "Help, send the police to my house right away! There's a doggone Democrat on my front porch and he's playing with himself!":

"What?" the dispatcher exclaims.

"I said, there's a daggone Democrat on my front porch playing with himself and he's weird. I don't know him and I'm afraid. Please send the police!" the little old lady repeated.

"Well now, how do you know he's a Democrat?"

"Because, you dang fool, if he was a Republican, he'd be screwing somebody!"

Report from the Brooklyn trenches

2/8/2009
Mitchell Cohen From Bensonhurst
mitchelcohen@mindspring.com

All it takes is dragging myself to one local Democratic Party meeting, even one hosted by a progressive and Green-friendly State Assembly member like Bill Colton (47 A.D. - Bensonhurst), to make me again realize two things:

1) How important regular local meetings are for congealing a "force" to accomplish *anything* ; and,

2) Why, despite all of our problems, I am a Green and not a Democrat.

I've just returned from a "breakfast" at my NY State Assembly representative Bill Colton's clubhouse. There were around 120 people there, crammed into a bagel-and-cream-cheese fluorescent brunch at $25 a pop.

Also present, every NY Democratic Party politician and his .... I was going to say "mother", but the 12 on the stage were all men, and all White men until City Council member John Liu joined the dais.

The ostensible purpose was to hear NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli speak. THIS, I thought I'd be interested in. I have some very pointed questions about the way NY under Governor Patterson and Mayor Bloomberg is smashing working class people in order to pay off the interest on the debt to the banks.

But no questions were allowed -- at least not while I was there.

I left, needing to throw up after Senator Schumer spoke. Didn't hear our new Congressional rep McCann, nor Boro President Marty Markowitz, nor any of the other bevy of liars and thieves.

It was only out of respect for Bill Colton and the fine work he is doing on every level with our community that I didn't shout out my questions or comments.

But one fellow did. He was in his 90s, stood up and interrupted Schumer's speech. Schumer is a consummate schmoozer -- man, is he good at it! You'd never know from his talk about his parents in Florida, his youth in East New York where his father was an exterminator (!), how billionaire-banker-friendly his actual voting record is.

As Schumer was peakocking around the stage bragging about how they'd convinced three moderate Republican Senators (2 from Maine, and 1 from Pennsylvania) to join the Democrats in passing the so-called "stimulus" package, otherwise known as "bail out the billionaires", a 90-year-old grizzled Brooklynite got to his feet and shouted out, "Kill all the Republicans."

Schumer tried to regain the floor by saying, "Well, I wouldn't go that far," but the elder man said, "I was a kid in 1929 at the Great Depression, and the Republicans did then what the are doing now. I say 'kill them all'."

Schumer regained the floor with some witty remark, and went on. I was tempted to shout out, a few minutes later, "Kill the Democrats," but thought better of it, berated myself for copping out, and left as State Sen. Carl Krueger was about to begin.

Had we been allowed to ask questions, I would have asked:

1) What are you doing about CitiBank's unilaterally raising its Credit Card rates to 21 percent last week? Here they're getting billions of working class funds in the bailout pushed by the Democrats, and they accelerate their soaking of working people and those on fixed income and making it HARDER to get credit -- exactly the opposite of what the Stimulus package is supposedly designed to do.

2) The transit fare is slated to go up to $3 a ride, to raise $1.2 billion claimed by the MTA as its deficit. Meanwhile, the interest on the MTA's capital expenditures (NOT operations) -- that is, the building of the 2nd Ave. subway, etc. -- is $1.5 billion for this year. So the transit fare is being increased to pay the INTEREST to the banks on loans the MTA had taken. At the same time, we're giving the same banks tens of billions of dollars. Why haven't the Democrats earmarked the funds they're paying for bailing out the billionaire shareholders to paying off the bank loans, so that no fare increases and no layoffs would be needed?

3) Why doesn't the City impose a 5 cents transfer tax on every stock transaction? There are tens of billions of shares traded every day. A puny 5 cent tax would pay off the entire City debt in a month, and add tens of billions of dollars to the City's coffers, which could be used to make mass transit FREE, AND hire more teachers to reduce class size, AND clean up the environment, AND hire more Parks Dept. workers to remove the artificial turf and restore and maintain natural grass to the City's parks.

Those are what I was prepared to ask.

I would have also asked something about where NY State invests its pension funds under DiNapoli's control, but it was just too last minute and it would have been too convoluted.

Feel free to add more to this list, it would help us out the next go 'round.

I'm glad things went so well for Bill Colton and for local Democratic Party chair Mark Treyger (who was my mom's student years ago in second grade). Maybe they can serve some organic vegetables, fruit and free-trade coffee the next time, and invite local activists like me -- and hopefully some women -- onto the panels in the future.

Whew, what a welcome moment it was to rush out into the 60 degrees sunlight, breathe deep the glorious Brooklyn air, and remember why I'm a Green and not a Democrat!

Peace activist Sheehan to challenge Pelosi

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/news/article_1341231.php/Peace_activist_Sheehan_to_challenge_top_Democrat_Pelosi

Peace activist Sheehan to challenge top Democrat Pelosi
Aug 10, 2007

San Francisco - Blasting Democrats for failing to take steps to end the war in Iraq, top peace activist Cindy Sheehan on Thursday formally announced her candidacy to challenge Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in next year's elections.

Pelosi, who represents a left-leaning congressional district centred on San Francisco, is the top-ranking Democrat in the House and the first woman to hold the speakership in US history.

Sheehan last month vowed to mount a challenge if Pelosi did not move to impeach US President George W Bush.

Speaking in tears Thursday to a crowd of supporters, Sheehan said that Pelosi had lost touch with the people and was more interested in 'protecting the status quo ... and the corporate elite.'

She said she was inspired to run by the memory of her 24-year-old son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, setting her on a course that made her the country's most famous and controversial anti-war activist.

'The country is ripe for a change,' said Sheehan, who said she planned to run as an independent on a platform of anti-war policy and universal health care. 'It's going to start right here and right now.'

Sheehan considers challenge to Pelosi

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070709/ap_on_el_ho/cindy_sheehan_pelosi

Sheehan considers challenge to Pelosi
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer
7-8-7

Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to seek House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.

Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch.

"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the congresswoman has said repeatedly that her focus is on ending the war in Iraq.

"She believes that the best way to support our troops in Iraq is to bring them home safely and soon," Daly said in an e-mail to the AP. "July will be a month of action in Congress to end the war, including a vote to redeploy our troops by next spring."

The White House declined to comment on Sheehan's plans.

She plans her official candidacy announcement Tuesday. Sunday wrapped up what is expected to be her final weekend at the 5-acre Crawford lot that she sold to California radio talk show host Bree Walker, who plans to keep it open to protesters.

"The land itself has historical value," Walker said. "It is the first people's movement of the 21st century, and it needs to be kept as the hallowed ground that it is."

Sheehan announced in late May that she was leaving the anti-war movement. She said that she felt her efforts had been in vain and that she had endured smear tactics and hatred from the left, as well as the right. She said she wanted to change course.

She first came to Crawford in August 2005 during a Bush vacation, demanding to talk to him about the war that killed her son Casey in 2004. She became the face of the anti-war movement during her 26-day roadside vigil, which was joined by thousands. But it also drew counter-protests by Bush supporters, many who said she was hurting troop morale.

Sheehan, who has never held political office, recently said that she was leaving the Democratic Party because it "caved" in to the president. Last week, she announced her caravan to Washington, an undertaking she calls the "people's accountability movement."

"I didn't expect to be back so soon, but the focus is different than it was before," Sheehan said Sunday. "Instead of talking and making accusations, we're going into communities and talking to the people who've been hurt by the Bush regime. We're finding out how we can help people."

Sheehan, who will turn 50 on Tuesday, said Bush should be impeached because she believes he misled the public about the reasons for going to war, violated the Geneva Convention by torturing detainees, and crossed the line by commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. She said other grounds for impeachment are the domestic spying program and the "inadequate and tragic" response to Hurricane Katrina.

Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity.

Sheehan said she hopes Pelosi files the articles of impeachment so Sheehan can move onto her next projects, including overseas trips for humanitarian work. But if not, Sheehan said she is ready to run for office.

"I'm doing it to encourage other people to run against Congress members who aren't doing their jobs, who are beholden to special interests," Sheehan said. "She (Pelosi) let the people down who worked hard to put Democrats back in power, who we thought were our hope for change."

Pelosi was elected to the House in 1987 and became the first female speaker in January.

Sheehan said she lives in a Sacramento suburb but declined to disclose which city, citing safety reasons. The area is outside Pelosi's district, but there are no residency requirements for congressional members, according to the California secretary of state's office.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves GOP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_el_pr/bloomberg_politics

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves GOP
By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer
6-19-7

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party on Tuesday and switched to unaffiliated, a move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race.

The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 for his first mayoral run, said the change in his voter registration does not mean he is running for president.

"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city," Bloomberg said.

With an estimated worth of more than $5 billion, he easily could finance an independent presidential bid.

The 65-year-old mayor has increasingly been the subject of speculation that he will run as an independent in 2008, despite his repeated promises to leave politics after the end of his term in 2009. He has fueled the buzz with increasing out-of-state travel, a greater focus on national issues and repeated criticism of the partisan politics that dominate Washington.

"The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed, leaving our future in jeopardy," he said in a speech Monday at the start of a University of Southern California conference about the advantages of nonpartisan governing.

Throughout his 5 1/2 years as mayor, Bloomberg has often been at odds with his party and President Bush. He supports gay marriage, abortion rights, gun control and stem cell research, and raised property taxes to help solve a fiscal crisis after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But he never seemed willing to part with the GOP completely, raising money for the 2004 presidential convention and contributing to Bush and other Republican candidates.

Just last year, he told a group of Manhattan Republicans about his run for mayor: "I couldn't be prouder to run on the Republican ticket and be a Republican."