Citing victories as well as failures, Obama urges frustrated supporters not to give up yet

[alp227]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Angling for a second term, President Barack Obama tried to fire up supporters Monday night, saying failure to get everything they want as fast as they want should motivate and not dissuade them.

Liberals and other key Obama supporters have voiced frustration with the president on a number of issues, from his compromise with Republicans on tax cuts to failure to deliver a promised overhaul of the immigration system.

Obama acknowledged the lengthy to-do list ahead, but he said his accomplishments to date show that change is possible. The message to supporters: Don’t give up just yet.

“When you think back to these last two and a half years, I want you to do so not with complacency, not with full satisfaction, but I want it to motivate you,” Obama told about 600 supporters at a campaign fundraiser at the Capital Hilton. “Don’t let people tell you that we can’t bring about change. We have already brought about change.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-doesnt-venture-far-from-the-white-house-to-add-to-re-election-war-chest/2011/05/16/AFnr9C5G_story.html

[midnight]

1. President Obama here is a shorter to do list. End the war...

There is no reason to spend so much money on such a wasteful act as war... We need that money for Health, Education, and food....

[boppers]

5. Which war?

We still have troops in Germany from WWII, and i wouldn't be surprised if we still had legacy bases from the Spanish American war.

[No Elephants]

15. How many U.S. troops were killed in Germany or Japan last week?

How many Germans or Japanese did we kill last week.

I don't remember anyone announcing the Afghani war was over.

[boppers]

22. You must have missed:

"Mission Accomplished"

[No Elephants]

31. You know very well I didn't miss it. How about actually addressing my post?

Sophistry on a terrible subject for it, then attempted deflection.`

[boppers]

34. I missed your comment on the Afghan war, actually.

Yes, I think it's time to close shop there, and as I understand it, that plan has already started.

[No Elephants]

36. Dupe

[No Elephants]

37. Going by your Replies # 5 and 22, you missed a lot more than my comment on the Afghan War.

Your asking "Which war?" and equating our Middle East activities with our still having troops in Germany was a jaw dropper.

[PSPS]

2. That's a laugh. Obama's already given up for us.

[alp227]

8. And we'll have given up on ourselves by letting a Republican take back the White House

that'll have even worse consequences: Supreme Court politicization, the Mexico City Policy, executive orders, rolling back Obama achievements, etc.

The 2012 race won't be a Hitler vs. Stalin thing. Really.

[Rageneau]

3. End ALL wars -- including the phoney 'war on drugs'

Obama's war against his own citizens (the war on pot) alienates me more than his wars on non-citizens.

Big O won't win me back until he begins to keep his word about the war on (some) drugs.

[2banon]

4. Throwing the game to other side does not inspire motivation

Think he should have at least known that much going in after all of his experience with community organizing, but it's not too late. He can actually come through on the big issues, there's still time.

[No Elephants]

16. So, it's not too late for meaningful health care reform?

[elocs]

6. "Yet"? Does that mean there is a point were frustrated supporters should give up? n/t

[JDPriestly]

7. I want to hear (and see) exactly what is on Obama's to-do list.

So far, that is very unclear to me. I thought I knew in 2008 and then was told by Obama's most ardent supporters that I had misunderstood, that I was expecting too much, and that I was just projecting my own wish list on Obama.

So before I go out and vote or go out and get out the vote, whichever I decide to do, I would like to see and hear just exactly what is on Obama's to-do list.

I don't want generalities. Generalities are what I accepted last time -- and remember how I have been told that I had misunderstood, expected too much and projected my own to-do list on Obama's?

So, please Mr. President, show us your to-do list. Thank you. I don't want to be disappointed again.

[russspeakeasy]

13. JD you have expressed my feelings eloquently.

[No Elephants]

17. The real list?

[woo me with science]

19. Agree one hundred percent. nt

[primavera]

26. Would you believe it if he furnished such a list?

There was nothing particularly vague or general about his promise to close down Gitmo, but we see what happened to that that specific promise.

[CelticThunder]

9. That worked for me in 2008. Now I simply no longer trust Pres. Obama to do the right thing.

It's not because I haven't gotten what I wanted as fast as I wanted. It's because I know that with Pres. Obama in the White House I'm never going to get what I want. He and his administration have made their disdain for progressives like me abundantly clear too many times. So sorry, Mr. President, I will spend my few campaign contribution dollars on truly progressive candidates.

[peace4ever]

10. Sorry, President Obama, but you will have to earn my support. but you have more than a year to do it

talk is cheap, lets see what you have on the actual agenda and how you go about championing it.

Best of luck :toast:

[monmouth]

11. Not one rec for a Democratic president on a Democratic forum?

Wow, am I lost..Disgusting.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. I recc'd

I get disillusioned, no doubt, but I also see more progress than a non-dictator, facing unimaginable opposition alone, could reasonably expect.

Hope he can rally a ddiverse group to keep fighting in many different ways, as many of us have been....I just hope he can remind enough people that the enemy is not him, but rather, Corporate $$$$ Power

[No Elephants]

20. You are assuming a rec for this story would be a rec for Pres. Obama, but

it's a negative--and very slanted--- story.

Some people rec only the stories about Obama that are very positive.

I rec stories I think are important, whether I love what the story says or hate what the story says, but that does not seem to be what every poster does.

[socialist_n_TN]

33. Well it IS an actual progressive Democratic forum

I want to see some fight FOR progressive policies. REAL progressive policies, not Reaganomics. He could start by ACTIVELY championing all of those progressive positions that the American people show they want by BIG margins in the polls. But since we're just the fringe, I guess he doesn't need us.

[AtomicKitten]

35. What you said.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

12. he's doing pretty good, for someone who doesn't hold a scepter.

Wish he had a more unified, uncontaminated Congress.....

Maybe that will begin to happen, but no matter what Change Is Slow.
Period.
Fact of life.

[alp227]

27. yep, change starts with CONGRESS

so let's get out and stump for people who will stand up for us in congress in addition to the president, as the legislative branch strongly influences what the executive does.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

29. Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!

:hi:

[No Elephants]

18. This "story" is mostly spin. Separate the words in quotes from those written by the AP writer.

A very different message from Pres. Obama emerges.

The only stuff about disappointed supporters in this story comes from the writer.

Never trust AP. Remember that email from Ron Fournier to Karl Rove that became public?




oh, and that bit in the story about Eisenhower? Eisenhower dragged his feet as long as he could before enforcing Brown v. Bd of Ed. Eleanor Roosevelt visited him in the WH to beg him to enforce it. And she was not the only one urging him to act.

"Ike" chastised Justice Warren for that decision, using the crudest terms for African American schoolboys. The story and the direct quote is in Justice Warren's autobiography. (I used to be able to google it easily, but no more.) Further, when asked the biggest mistake of his 8 years, Ike said it was appointing Earl Warren.

Thank goodness Ike made the "mistake" of appointing Warren. However, it was an interesting choice--Warren had been responsible for carrying out the order to intern California's Japanese.

Leave it to AP to make it sound as though Ike had been some kind of civil rights champion in a story about Obama. Sooooo not true. Adlai Stevenson, yes, friendly ole Ike, no.

[Kolesar]

24. Actually, I don't remember that email from Ron Fournier to Karl Rove.

Not that I doubt it.
AP has some real hack writers. Didn't Nedra Pickler work for AP?

[No Elephants]

30. If memory fails, Google is at your service.

If "Ron Fournier email Karl Rove" doesn't work for you, you might try "AP Has a Ron Fournier Problem."

[yurbud]

21. he'll get me fired up when I see him twist some blue dog arms for a change.

[Demeter]

23. There are no victories

The advertised "victories" are total failures.

[Javaman]

25. "please don't give up yet! That is not until I'm reelected!"

"then give up all you want!"

[w4rma]

28. Talk is cheap. (nt)

[Vidar]

32. A song he'll sing only until he is re-elected.

[JosefK]

38. I never had any faith in him in the first place...

and haven't had faith in any Democrat since Clinton won the nomination, when I switched to the Green party & have never looked back since. Democrats: The people who gave you NAFTA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Ending welfare as we know it, bank bailouts, health insurance industry bailout, war in Libya, war in Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Comcast/NBC merger, ATT/T Mobile merger, increase in oil drilling, unlimited aid to Israel, resurgance of the nuclear power industry, increase in police state (via FBI, DEA, FCC, CIA, NSA...)...

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BlueIris]

40. Come clean. Real clean. Then we'll see. nt