I blame myself . . .

[bigtree]

ENOUGH of the grousing about the election of one short-term shill for the minority party! Seriously folks. Well, maybe one last word from the president . . .


President Obama admits 'mistake'

"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people," Obama told ABC News.

The president said that he had assumed that if he concentrated on making good policy decisions, voters would understand them, but instead they had become consumed by a "feeling of remoteness and detachment" from Washington.

"That I do think is a mistake of mine," Obama said, diagnosing a mood of anger and frustration in the United States over the grinding and lingering impact of the worst recession for decades.

read: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/obama-admits-mistake-after-shock-election-loss-20100121-mnic.html


Just get going, man. Ass-kicking time, imo,

[rockymountaindem]

1. That's a good sign. Hopefully he's not in denial

And of course Mr. Bush never made any mistakes. Just ask him!

[dflprincess]

2. If he'd made good decisions on matters that directly affect voters' lives

they would have understood them. But bailing out Wall Street while Main Street continues to tank and telling people they will have to buy shoddy products from the same crooks who have been robbing us blind for years (and deciding it isn't necessary to "keep them honest" with a public option)? When it comes to understanding that, not so much.

[bigtree]

6. I agree

. . . 'cooperating' with the minority party isn't serving the folks who elected him. I hope he's done with that approach.

[ThomCat]

15. I agree. His idea of "making good policy" doesn't seem to match

what I would consider making good policy.

My version would not involve surrendering to every challenge that comes from the right, and snapping at everyone on the left.

My version would involve opening the treasury for every request from corporations, and demanding that from the people who elected you constantly refill it.

My version would involve breaking a promise to keep lobbyists out of my administration, using women and LGBT people as political footballs.

Obama seems to be politically very meek and cowardly, and the results of his first year don't look like a good omen for the rest of his term. :(

[Grand Taurean]

3. Break up the big banks and re-regulate the markets

that will get people's attention.
If needed, feel free to get into the gutter and fight them.
There is a great risk of failure for the President at this time.
He has NOT addressed the structural problems in the economy.

[JHB]

4. The problem isn't a "feeling of remoteness and detachment" from Washington

It's ACTUAL "remoteness and detatchment" from Washington.

[bigtree]

8. that was too easy

. . . a 'detached' statement from him, in and of itself.

[Go2Peace]

11. Yep, he doesn't seem to be getting it.

[sabrina 1]

16. I don't know, I think he does get it. He's very good with words and

my interpretation of what he is saying is that it is WE THE PEOPLE who are wrong. The only mistake he might have made was being so busy doing all these great things, he didn't have time to tell us how wrong we were.

That's okay, Rahm told us for him.

And we DO get it, although it took a while. He's right when he says he's been busy doing all these great things. He's worked very hard, using all the political capital he had to do things like escalating the war in Afghanistan, bailing out Wall St., bailing out the Private Health Insurance Industry, making sure his friend George Bush is protected from prosecution.

The problem for US is, those great things are bad things for us. But his bosses are probably thrilled with the job he's doing. So when he gives himself a high rating, he's probably right. As the internal memo from a Private Ins Corp. said when the Senate bill passed: "WE WON!"

He's good, I'll say that for him. But, if he thought that turning the problem into him not communicating about all the great things he's done was going to fool people, he's not very good at judging the intelligence of the American People. In fact, he is displaying the same kind of arrogance and sense of superiority that Bush displayed.

They forget who they work for. Which is understandable. We the people only pay him about $400,000 a year, his Wall St. buddies can afford way more than we can so I guess that's how it works. Your boss is who pays you the most. Which is why we so badly need Campaign Finance Reform.

[C_Lawyer09]

14. Astute observation

K&R

[notesdev]

5. He's lost it

He's in freaking la-la land. Good policy decisions? So he stands behind the epic bailouts and sell-outs to corps and warmonger policies?

Nearly 600 interviews, speeches, and other public comments in one year and he thinks the problem is not speaking directly to the American people?

The problem is that the legions of unemployed are detached and remote from Washington rather than the other way around?

Unbelievable.

[leftstreet]

13. +1

[pscot]

7. 'The words don't mean much

I want to see what he does. More bipartisan bullshit will not cut it. If he has a partisan attack mode he better bring it out now. All the Republicons will help him to is a one term presidency.

[flyarm]

9. people understand what has gone on..and we the people have had enough of propaganda..

we see the empty forclosed houses in our neighbirhoods..we know it is kicking the shit out of our equity and values of our homes..we see our neighbors losing their homes..or we experience it ourselves. We know people who don't have health care ..or enough of it ..or with such high deductibles they can't or we can't afford it.

We see new little banks cropping up in our towns ..when banks are supposed to be in such trouble.

we see empty store fronts everywhere..and car dealerships in our towns like ghost towns,.or loaded with cars they can't sell.

we are not stupid..so stop with the propaganda Obama..stop sending people to message boards with bullshit talking points..it only pisses us off more!..we have had it in America..

get the money back from the Banks and wall street ..and use it to create jobs..stop giving any tax breaks to corps when they outsource our jobs..just fucking do it...we will see the results in our towns and neighborhoods.

cancel NAFTA..just do it.

And tell big Pharma and the insurance corps to fuck off..let people have good health care with good policies ..fair policies..don't destroy good policies to give bigger profits to the insurance profiteers!
They have lived off our blood long enough!

[last1standing]

10. He thinks he's doing the right thing but we're too stupid to see it.

Great. :eyes:

I keep reading from the rah-rah crowd that we all expected Obama to fix everything in the first year. I didn't expect him to fix everything, I just expected him not to fuck things up worse than they were. He couldn't even manage that yet he grades his first year an A-. Talk about grade inflation.

[Go2Peace]

12. +100!

[Marr]

17. That comment does not inspire confidence in me. It suggests he

thinks the problem is that we don't understand his policy decisions. The problem is that his policy decisions have been pro-big business and anti-middle class. We understand them perfectly well.