The Big Picture

It amazes me that so many on the left are ready to declare Obama a failure simply because he didn’t magically transform America into a liberal paradise in three months (and throw Bush and Cheney into prison).I detest the GOP, but there’s one area where the right wing has generally done far better than we have: unity and loyalty. The left is inherently disloyal and always turns on their own leaders. In this case it started long before Obama was even in office — the PUMAs, the endless “what Obama should be doing” blogging, the indignation over Rick Warren — so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me now.

In which Bob proves once again why this became my one of the only political blogs I ever bother with….Yes – it is perfectly reasonable to laud the president’s successes while holding him accountable when we don’t agree with him. No – there isn’t much merit to diving off the deep end for no darned good reason but to show that we can…QT

I agree with Steve. For heaven’s sake, it’s only been three months. This man is not the messiah; what did Bush do his first three months in office(take vacations)? There is such a quagmired mess Obama has to sort through in order to get this country on decent footing again. As far as I see it, he’s made great strides in the past three months. Is everybody happy? No. But that usually means that he’s making the right decisions.There are several instances where I’ve disagreed with his decisions (usually having to do with what to do about the previous administration’s criminal acts). However, I have to trust that what he’s doing is what’s best for the country. I’m not ready to tear him down or call for impeachment. Give the man a real chance to make real changes. Dammit, look at what roadblocks Clinton ran up against during his time in office; and Clinton didn’t have to deal with nearly half as much as Obama is faced with right now.Dems should definitely take a cue from the Repubs regarding solidarity and unity. When the President is truly f-ing up, call him on it (respectfully). But if not, give him the benefit of the doubt.

steve -I don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t like you or something, however I have to criticize your comment because I think parts of it are wrong on many levels.Your first paragraph I think is reasonable criticism of the left albeit overgeneralized and oversimplified, but it expresses a valid point that I agree with.

I detest the GOP, but there’s one area where the right wing has generally done far better than we have: unity and loyalty.

No argument here either. Authoritarians demand and receive loyalty.

The left is inherently disloyal and always turns on their own leaders.

Here I have issues. Firstly, Obama is a centrist and has never been considered a leader of the left *by* the left. Dennis Kucinich is a leader of the left, not Barack Obama. The left usually supports the candidate of the Democratic Party as the Party leader and as the Nations leader when he becomes President, but that does not make him the leader of the left. I still see Dennis as a leader of the left. Note that different portions of the left have different leaders. We are talking about a herd of cats here not a group of authority worshipers.

Since you see that your notion of a left leader is flawed, starting with that flawed position and then saying that we ‘turn on our leaders’ is doubly flawed. Obama is not a leader of the left and even warned us that he was not. Leaders should be criticized when they do things that are wrong. This is not turning on them. It is pointing out faults.As an example, I am very unhappy with the continued ignoring of the blatant disregard of our laws with respect to the warrantless wiretapping and the Torture of detainees. I will continue to to pressure and criticize this administration to do what our laws require. If Kucinich were my President, this would have bee taken care of already. I will not allow Obama and Holder to sweep this Travesty under the carpet. I have been patiently waiting for them to state their position. There are still seats in the DoJ that have not been filled, Director ofthe OLC being the most significant. I have chosen to not start hammering Obama until all DoJ appointments are confirmed since he is dealing with many higher priority items. It does not get him off the hook, but it is not fair to give him some time.I will not criticize the rest of the second paragraph either. I am unhappy with much what you state also. Some of this behavior is simply uncalled for. What exactly does Naomi Klein think she is contributing with such a negative piece? It serves no useful purpose.I agree with Bob that Naomi is incorrect in what she is doing with her latest article.So steve, I’ll point out that a herd of cats has no leader to turn on so saying that we always turn on our leaders makes no sense. You can’t attribute the left with characteristics that do not apply.

My opinion on this is actually extremely simple : Some people just love to complain.

***Hugs J M Ashby***QT

J.M. is right, but so is Steve. The GOP excels at blind worship of their leaders. It’s why they constantly try to accuse democrats of believe Obama is the messiah. They can’t imagine anyone regarding a leader in any other terms. Just mention St. Ron in front of a republican watch the glassy eyed look of rapture that overcomes them.No, Obama is not perfect. Yes, I want him to take a more aggressive stance to end the use of torture and illegal wiretapping. But given the choices, he’s still a damn sight better than the alternative was.

Anyone that was expecting perfection from Obama was only doing so in hopes of having something to complain about when he didn’t turn out to be.I haven’t applauded everything hes done, but from what I see I believe hes doing the best he can. What else can you really expect from a president other than doing the best they can with the cards that were dealt to them?Like I said, they are just complainers. Complaining is a lifestyle for some people.

Bob, exactly HOW do we preserve accountability if we pretend that everything the President is doing is okay with us?To say that he’s batting .500 IS great in baseball, but in my opinion where we’re talking Constitutional issues it’s a BUSH LEAGUE average.The dissent of eternal vigilance seems to upset you and I can’t figure out where that comes from. You either have Democracy and a Constitution or you don’t.I think I have a pretty good idea when the progressive left will lighten up on him. That would be when he acknowledges his responsibility in turning back the excess of the handed-down powers of the unitary executive.I have difficulty in understanding how holding him to Constitutional standards is somehow counterproductive. He’s not God, he’s an elected official. Since when do Politician’s do anything when the public is silent and acquiescent?You keep bringing up how important he is as a role model for blacks. Yeah, that’s cool, but a role model for me would be someone who understands that when you stretch the Constitutional boundaries a President then becomes a Dictator or Tyrant!It’s not enough that he’s a good man and is doing a lot of good things. Until he dials back the role of the executive that was empowered by the insanity of Bush/Cheney we have to rely on his benevolence.That’s not representative Democracy folks. You may like it, and the man, but it’s not Democracy as long as the courts cannot review actions of the executive branch.

NorCalNative – You have no idea the ridiculous amount of rep tape the Obama administration is having to go through every single day because of what Bush/Cheney did to the office of the presidency.Every single thing that Bush did which overstepped his boundaries cannot be reversed in one fell swoop. There are miles and miles of paperwork and legalities to go through. The problem is Bush and Cheney basically sidestepped all procedure and just made up their own rules. The Obama administration is trying to sort through everything properly. And every step of the way they probably have 100 different lawyers floating around.

In regards to Obama’s stance on torture and prosecuting the Bush administration officials who authorized it:Did Obama just release the “torture” memos or not? It seems like the critics are all upset that Obama didn’t come out on the 2nd day of his term and appoint a special prosecutor. Obama isn’t going to do that, it would be a bad policital decision that would screw with his progressive agenda, including education, energy, and healthcare reform. I believe Obama wants the Bush administration officials held accountable, but he wants the public to demand it, and he wants the media to demand it, and he wants Congress to investigate it. Why else would he release the memos other than to have it discussed by the public and in the media to stir up calls for investigations? If he truly wanted to simply forget about it he would claim state secrets or national security and never release them. I think he is playing the politics correctly, he cannot loose support of the middle, he can’t appear to be conducting retribution or political war (he would resemble Cheney, Rove, and Bush-thus loose the middle), he doesn’t want to spend political capital on this issue. However, he is allowing the info to leak out, he knows the media will pursue it and he knows public pressure will demand investigations from Congress. Thats the correct route. Obama can remain above the fray while Congress conducts the investigation.Yes, Holder said he will not prosecute the individuals who were following the orders, and that would seem like an undesirable position on a purist level, but, in the real world he has to have an intelligence community behind him and Panetta. He can’t afford to loose loyaly from that group or the military in general, and he can’t afford the media talking heads attacking him for going after “the troops” or the intelligence community that “keeps us safe”. If he gets those responsible for authorizing the torture, thats whats important, and Holder left the door open for that.Patience.

I respect Klein more when she isn’t joining up with the drama queens like Krugman in the media sphere.

To add, some of these media people have no clue why some of us voted for Obama, or what we expected from them.But they’ll attempt to second-guess us all regardless.

excellent post edzep

NorCal wrote:>>>Bob, exactly HOW do we preserve accountability if we pretend that everything the President is doing is okay with us?We shouldn’t allow his entire presidency to be tainted (HUZZAH!) by the things we disagree with. Hold him accountable for the crap, but keep an eye on the big picture, too.

Also, NorCal, who’s pretending everything he’s doing is okay? I just don’t see it.

Continuing Bob’s baseball analogy, it’s like hiring a new manager for a team that’s been mired in last place for years and expecting to win th World Series in his first season. You have to rebuild your team before you can get better.Obama is in the process of rebuilding.

You can publish all the torture memos that you want, but if the people who are responsible aren’t brought to justice for it, it doesn’t mean a thing. Only punishments of the people in the higher levels of government (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc,) who authorized the torture will suffice.Unfortunately, it seems that a substantial part of the population thinks that torture is necessary to keep us safe. Hopefully these new revelations will make them reconsider.

Ahhh, thank you Bob.

Obama wants to play middle of the road politics. The left needs to keep hammering him to pull the “middle” back to the middle. You can’t let the conservatives control the Overton Window. There are necessary and desirable left policies that need to be brought to and kept in the public debate. Otherwise, BO will happily triangulate ever more rightward.