I don't care if Obama is a Centrist or moderate or whatever - I take issue with how he CAMPAIGNED

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

a few mind changes here and there I can understand, but Barack Obama the candidate is not the man governing right now.

I wrote a big list, but I erased it. Why be redundant? We all know the key stances/practices that were derided during the campaign and embraced once in office or the counter - the positions embraced during the campaign that were jettisoned once in office.

I feel that he painted an inaccurate picture of how he would govern and what he would support. Much of that has to do with just plain old vanilla practices like transparency, access to visitor logs, etc. - stuff I thought I could literally take for granted once he was in office. I actually positively believed one hundred percent that we would have true healthcare reform this time around - that would cover all of us affordably, treat the untreated and remove the threat of medical bankruptcies from American families. I am almost laughing as I type that.

I speak just for myself, but when a man has conquered cynicism and restored hope, and then his actions make you feel foolish for believing him, the resulting cynicism is twice as bitter as before.

But anyway, I thank him and most of the Democrats for finally, truly revealing to me what politics really is - a marketing ploy for the rubes who will be dumb enough to buy what you are selling. I'm not withdrawing, I'll still always vote, probably as always for the Democrat, but I won't give away my heart and soul again.

[NJmaverick]

1. FACTS MATTER- The truth

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

[sendero]

12. Facts matter..

... as long as you are intelligent enough to interpret them.

For example if I promise you....

1) a set of fuzzy dice

2) a new Ipod

3) a dinner at Jack in the Box

4) a new set of tires for your toyota

5) a Boards of Canada CD

6) a box of chocolates

7) a bottle of vitamin C

8) a six pack of good beer

9) a 32" lcd TV

10) a billion dollars

If I give you items 1 through 9, but not 10, you could say I fulfilled 90% of my promises, but you'd be an idiot.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. I have to give you a kick, because it's pretty much the same way I feel.

All I know is that once the public option/medicare buyin was out, the meeting at the White House was on.

That was right after the drug import bill was voted down after the White House USED it's POWER in the Congress, the power that so many here suggest doesn't somehow EXIST...

So disappointed on so many levels, not with Obama, but the whole country...

[NNN0LHI]

3. I don't care if he promised to pass out free turkeys and hundred dollar bills on the street corner

To keep grampus and the moose killer out of the White House.

It was worth it.

Don

[kiva]

5. He also made these promises in the primary,

when he was running against other Dems. Are you OK with the free turkey promise when it meant keeping other Dems out of the White House?

[NNN0LHI]

7. Thats the way things work

I voted for Hillary in the Illinois primary knowing full well she would never be able to keep all of her campaign promises if she became president. I didn't consider that lying. I considered that doing what had to be done to get elected.

I will take a Democratic presidency over a Republican one any day.

I have no regrets.

Don

[kiva]

8. And this is why DU is currently having this civil war.

Many (the majority?) of those on DU who supported Obama BELIEVED him when he said those things. If they had any doubts, there were dozens of committed members who assured them that Obama absolutely meant what he said. Those of us who didn't believe were called a variety of nasty names because we didn't buy the rhetoric.

Fast forward to now - disillusioned believers are told they were naive, foolish, or just plain gullible for believing Obama's promises. Not to mention, of course, those who still believe in his infallibility are now snarling at them for breaking faith. You say this is political reality, and you may be right. But will the millions of enthusiastic (many young) supporters who gave time and money to a candidate they thought was above politics continue to support that candidate - and his party - when they realize they have been manipulated by a master politician? In the short run the Democratic Party gained from Obama; in the long run, the Party may discover they lost.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. I can't think it is ever good to teach cynicism to the young idealist

It's supposed to take us a long while to get there on our own.

Many of them did buy in wholeheartedly this time. I don't know how closely they are following current events. The young are usually too involved with their actual lives to become too ensnared in politics. They may show up when it counts(sometimes)if history is compelling enough. If it's just a snooze "2nd verse same as the first" they often take a pass.

[kiva]

11. Agreed, I think political cynicism shouldn't be rushed.

Making promises you know you can't keep is unacceptable in most situations, but we think it's normal in politics.

This campaign prided itself on motivating millions of young people to work for and vote for Obama; now that many have become disillusioned, does anyone really think they will jump right out there next election? That they will say, "Gosh, what a funny prank you pulled on us, making us think that the Democratic candidate was sincere; it was so much fun, please sign me up to work on another campaign" - and the scathing accusation of the keepers of the faith here don't exactly help matters.

[readmoreoften]

19. +1000

You've eloquently summed up about six months worth of aggravation during the primaries. It was absolutely clear to me that the winner and first runner-up of this dog-and-pony show were winning because they were vetted. It was painful to watch people fall for the branding campaign--and more painful to watch working class history (low-cost woodcut art, union slogans) be used as an ad campaign for someone who (as another poster pointed out) would rule to the right of Nixon. The signs were there. But people fell in love with his speech writer. It frightened me to see how absolutely starry-eyed people became. I'm actually becoming hopeful NOW. I never thought the stars would fall from peoples' eyes so quickly. I'm actually really encouraged and impressed.

Thanks for a thoughtful post.

[Nikki Stone1]

4. We were the victim of the slickest kind of PR campaign.

Remember that for next time. It will happen again. They were successful.

[msongs]

6. lol the american idol president now on the victory tour nt

[KakistocracyHater]

18. this is why I want a battery of tests that all candidates must pass

you don't get to drive a car the way you get to become president, this is proof we need psychological profiles of all candidates & personality tests, & ways to suss out just what the hell we are really looking at.

[Laelth]

10. That's a hard lesson to learn.

I did the same thing with Clinton, and I was sorely disappointed. I suppose I didn't really learn my lesson, though. I invested a lot of hope in Obama only to be disappointed again. Of course, the book isn't closed on Obama. We still have three (more likely seven) years to go, and he may surprise me, but I am a lot less hopeful now than I was in January.

:dem:

-Laelth

[ShamelessHussy]

13. I remember how Clinton ran as a populist progressive and than gov from the right

once he won.

the reTHUGs demonize whoever gets in to keep up the illusion that there is more than a dimes worth of difference between the 2 parties.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. I was just thinking about the Clinton election and how I felt I had just crawled

on my stomach from a long dark tunnel of the Reagan years. I can sense memory the night of the election and see Bill and Hillary and Al and Tipper at the Little Rock State House while "don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" played while I cried like a baby, for real. I just sobbed and sobbed.

And then of course, we all know how that ended.

It took a long, long, time and a lot more hurt - The Gore win that wasn't a win, shut down by our own beloved Supreme Court, The Kerry loss - just as suspect, and then FINALLY, once again, just like the Clinton victory, once again occuring after eight long years of darkness under Bush -- we actually elect Obama. For the second time in 2 decades I cry at my and the country's salvation.

Oh, well. There won't be a third time.

[eridani]

20. Me too. I figured electing a Dem would take care of things

I will fault myself for not paying a lot of attention except for a brief period when I followed health care. This time I kept paying attention, and that hadn't so far done any good either.

[earth mom]

14. I'd like to see your list because some people are conveniently forgetting all the stuff

that Obama promised but failed to deliver.

That list should be everywhere-in your face so to speak.

Otherwise it's all down the memory hole.

[truedelphi]

17. I agree. I hope the list gets posted.

Transparency was a big one for me.

No more playing weird games with whether people in Congress have time to read the bills,and no more 1,000 page bills.

He said that his Adminstration would not be the Beltway business as usual.

He seemed to be saying that he would be there for the average person.


His ability to stress how he did not vote for the IWR and would not have if given the chance - that sure doesn't sound like the man who has recently expanded the war in Afghanistan

[emilyg]

16. kick

[newtothegame]

21. What exactly made you think all that?

His 700 days as a Senator before running for President? His 130 'present' votes? What exactly convinced u this was it?

We were OBSESSED with makIng 'history,' plain and simple. Posting pictures of sobbing little old African-American ladies. Tshirts. Collectors plates. On and on and on.

Ed for sp