After the Massachusetts Massacre-By FRANK RICH-Obama "No Longer Seen As A Savior But As A Captive"

[kpete]

After the Massachusetts Massacre-By FRANK RICH-Obama "No Longer Seen As A Savior But As A Captive"

Op-Ed Columnist
After the Massachusetts Massacre
By FRANK RICH
Published: January 23, 2010

It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated (with Scott Brown’s State Senate vote) in 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech.


And yet Tuesday’s special election was a dire omen for this White House. If the administration sticks to this trajectory, all bets are off for the political future of a president who rode into office blessed with more high hopes, good will and serious promise than any in modern memory. It’s time for him to stop deluding himself. Yes, last week’s political obituaries were ludicrously premature. Obama’s 50-ish percent first-anniversary approval rating matches not just Carter’s but Reagan’s. (Bushes 41 and 43 both skyrocketed in Year One.) Still, minor adjustments can’t right what’s wrong.

Obama’s plight has been unchanged for months. Neither in action nor in message is he in front of the anger roiling a country where high unemployment remains unchecked and spiraling foreclosures are demolishing the bedrock American dream of home ownership. The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it.

............

It’s become so easy to pin financial elitism on Democrats that the morning after Brown’s victory the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee had the gall to accuse them of being the “one party who bailed out the automakers and insurance companies.” Never mind that the Bush White House gave us the bank (and A.I.G.) bailouts, or that the G.O.P. is even more in hock than Democrats to corporate patrons. The Obama administration is so overstocked with Goldman Sachs-Robert Rubin alumni and so tainted by its back-room health care deals with pharmaceutical and insurance companies that conservative politicians, Brown included, can masquerade shamelessly as the populist alternative.



more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24Rich.html

[NashVegas]

1. Captive, My ***

He made his deal long ago.

[secondwind]

3. a bit feisty, aren't we? Or should I say angry? Look, we need to stand behind

this President. The alternative is just more of the same......

[NashVegas]

5. You've Got To Be Joking

We're already getting more of the same, dear.

[WillyT]

2. Hey kpete !!!

:evilgrin:

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7559186

:hi:

K & R !!! (For yours I mean.)

[DJ13]

4. The pundits are splitting hairs

Yes Obama as a person is still popular.

Its when the public is polled about his job performance he is losing steam.

[xchrom]

6. The only person who made Obama a captive is Obama.

The buck stopped with Obama when he was elected.

The screeching and caterwalling about bush
after he left 1600 are nuts.

It's nobody's game but obama's.

[BlueIdaho]

7. IF our President is as smart they say he is

He will learn from the Massachusetts massacre and dramatically change course. American's are sick and tired of political gridlock. The President would do well to shed the "usual suspects" and business as usual tactics to reclaim an agenda focused on improving the lives of ordinary Americans.

While the political pundits are busy creating a narrative filled with Democratic failure, they refuse to ask if things will get any better under a return to republican rule.

I think we all know the answer to that question. That would be a disaster.