I Wonder What Those Who Called Obama "An Empty Suit" Think Now

[JimGinPA]

Personally, I believe he has the potential to be one of our greatest presidents. While I don't claim to be a genius for recognizing that early on, I have to wonder what those who were so vocal in their opposition to him must be thinking now.

[NJmaverick]

1. I think those that were vocal n their opposition are still looking for

(and sometimes find minor issues to bitch about) reason to knock the man at ever turn.

[nichomachus]

7. All those unnamed people -- like the "some people" we keep hearing about?

Are the ones who called him an empty suit now knocking him at every turn over minor issues? Or are you just making that up.

I know there are some people knocking him, but are they the same people?

[NJmaverick]

10. Their numbers are dwindling (at least on the democratic side)

but they are there and very much real (with the majority being self professed independents and republicans

[FrenchieCat]

2. The ones I'm running into who were against him before they were for him,

Swear up and down that they were always for him.....now.

[TheBigotBasher]

21. I know some people like that

and they were absolutely dead set against him.

C'est la vie.

[genna]

27. +1

[The Traveler]

3. Speaking only for myself

Man, I feel stupid. Man, I was wrong. Yep ... I called Obama an "empty suit". He sure had me fooled ... embarassed ... Trav hides now ...

Fortunately, that was an error I had the opportunity to correct.

[Uzybone]

6. I applaud you for being candid

not too many have the nerve to say they were wrong about him.

[firedupdem]

9. I commend you for stating you were wrong about him. n/t

:fistbump:

[The Traveler]

17. I finally figured that out

in June, when the going really got tough. The man is just so cool under pressurem, and yet so alert, displaying flexibility when discussing means but relatively unyielding when discussing purpose. His purposes are fine and noble, so I am down with that.

I read his books. There is nothing Obama is doing now that surprises me. He is pretty much moving as one would predict, given what he has said. All in all, I am freakin' impressed.

Trav

[EraOfResponsibility]

14. I love your sig!

and I commend your honesty.

[The Traveler]

18. I stole it from another DU'er

Don't report me! :)

I think Carlin was a genius.

Trav

[ecstatic]

20. cool! Thanks for being open minded

and not siding with the puma trolls!

[theoldman]

4. I think that being an empty suit is great.

After all, Bush's suit was full of poop. It's also better to have an enpty suit than an empty head.

[Ikonoklast]

5. Pretty Unhappy, Many Are.

The rest underestimated the man's political instincts as well as his intellect.

And I think President Obama is still sandbagging the real stupid ones, they just can't see that they are doing exactly what he wants them to do.

They just can't believe that there is someone waaaay smarter than them in charge now. Their hubris will be their downfall.

[Cant trust em]

8. I've seen a few who still think we're in the primary season

I'm happy that we don't have to relive those days anymore.

[yurbud]

11. who said that?

[DavidDvorkin]

12. At one time, I was one of them

Although to be fair to myself, I think I said that I feared he was just an empty suit, not that he actually was one.

In any case, I was utterly wrong.

[Jennicut]

13. I thought Obama had major potential early on but I was still cautious

I had no favorite in the primary season in the beginning...heck I still wanted Al Gore to run for President again. I did always like Obama since I saw him at the DNC in 2004 but once I saw him win Iowa, I was totally sold. I had no doubt. I did not have a major dislike of Hillary it was just that there was something special about him, he really knows how to take a message and relate it to everyday people. He knows how to draw the public to his side without being a manipulative scumbucket like most Repubs. I am very satisfied.

[Puzzler]

15. I've always though the "empty suit" meme...

... to be singularly inapt. I'm amused by people who constantly try to keep the meme alive, it's as if they're still living in last year's primary season.

[depakid]

16. Obama's presidency will be defined by whether his administration's policies improve the economy

If the administration is insistent on half measures- and is still playing bailout games with the banks this time next year- a whole lot of people in those swing states are going to wonder why they bothered to vote for the guy.

To put it bluntly- if Obama's team succeeds in stabilizing the banks and stopping the hemorrhaging of good jobs, he's a hero.

If not he'll increasingly appear to be a goat. That he got bad advice from the wrong people won't matter to folks.

[leftofthedial]

19. I'm even more vocally in opposition to his economic team than I was when he named them.

They are all Wall Street all the time. Their day has passed (and destroyed most of the global economy with it). A leader as smart as Obama seems to be should make far more forward-looking picks for his economic team.

[DevonRex]

22. They're busy making other stuff up to whine about. nt

[Cha]

23. Semper Fi!

He's on NewsHour right now explaining his views on Afghanistan.

[CANDO]

24. I was originally an Edwards supporter.

Then went with Obama all the way. Actually followed my non-political wife's lead on going to Obama. I was truly impressed and inspired by my wife on her interest and support for him. Not to start a fight, but I really don't think Hillary would have taken us where Obama is trying to go. It's why I didn't want her to begin with. Just figured she'd be triangulater-in-chief part-2.

[Maru Kitteh]

25. I was personally once quite unimpressed, but he's proved himself time and again

And I couldn't be happier. I'm freakin' overjoyed and PROUD to say he's my President! :patriot:

[Adelante]

26. Most have come over, I'd say, the sane ones

There are pathetic remnants still thinking he's an empty suit, but who cares? Not I.

[genna]

28. I never said that. My problem is the better he gets, the better I want him to be

When he faced down the press over Rev. Wright, I was like yeah...now go tell them about AIDS in the media and other public policy doozies.


When he set Rev. Wright aside because of Rev. Wright's unrepentant hubris, I was like that is b.s. Obama...there are some causes worth arguing. Well, it took me some time to realize one of those causes is getting in the WH. He had to set aside one to get to the other. It is not balance I'd strike but it is a reasonable proposition and it had merit because he did get elected.


When Obama decided he wanted take on evangelism and the right, I thought dude why don't you stretch out and take on religious pluralism. What is wrong with saying Muslims are not de facto terrorists?

When he embraced Israel but failed to speak out against that fenced in assault against Gaza, I wanted to know where was his leadership.



The less he does, the lower my expectations.

The better he gets, the more I want.

[EffieBlack]

30. At time, i thought he handled the Wright controversy right

But now, I understand even better why he did what he did.

Now that I've seen him in action - his self-assuredness, his low tolerance for bullshit and drama, his steadiness and decisiveness - I believe his dismissal of Wright had very little to do with political expediency, but was almost completely the result of his disgust with Wright's behavior and betrayal. He gave him an incredible amount of rope and was even willing to fall on his sword for him. But when Rev. Wright went out and begaved as he did - and tried to undercut and undermine Obama, Obama cut him loose.

That seems to me how he is governing. He'll give his opposition every opportunity to participate, but if and when hedevides he's had enough, he smacks them down and moves on.

[genna]

31. self-assuredness, his low tolerance for bullshit and drama

My thought ties into what I responded to here on the subject of Tavis Smiley.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8242486

I think there are two strategies being deployed at one time. Plouffe and Axelrod didn't want Obama to be typecast as a or the 'black leader.' The paradigm requires a certain standing in the black community and also demands that leader have some experience fighting for certain issues. The Smiley forum embodies that kind of discussion.

At the same time, Wright's church took the talk to the street. The kind of helping hands outreach and feet on the ground in the most devastated communities directs a Christian's attention to the evangelical movement. If you belief it, then you must go out and practice your faith. The actual preacher would drive American's attention to the 'black leader' paradigm, but the good works was something that everyone could get used to and the community building is America at its best.

I wonder whether you think he will choose one of the classic examples of DC church life or he will do something more mainstream?


To respond more directly to your post:
I think Wright's betrayal had more to do with not understanding that Obama is both white and black. He should not have to choose which parent whom he loved the most simply because there is a larger white and a black community to appease. I don't think the nation benefits by pulling bi-racial (as much as I didn't care for that term at first) children apart by demanding they self identify with one parent or the other because it makes us all have a label to tag them with. When Wright joked and clowned at that podium, he seemed to be saying Obama identifies with my beliefs because he sat in my congregation and understands the larger black communities' struggles.

Maybe a person can sit in a congregation for a lifetime's worth of sermons and vehemently disagree with the sermon's applications. Perhaps a bi-racial child can listen to black minister and say I know my white mother and grandmother were nothing like that, but I do understand from your perspective that the world has to work like that or else your experiences would have been different.

[Fire1]

29. What are they thinking, now? That's he's still an 'empty suit.' n/t