Feelin' Alright

[WilliamPitt]

Audio version of this essay can be found here: http://www.truthout.org/feelin-alright56429



(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: labguest, lepiaf.geo)

Feelin' Alright
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Seems I've got to have a change of scene
'Cause every night I have the strangest dream
Imprisoned by the way it could've been
Left here on my own
So it seems
I've got to leave before I start to scream
But someone locked the door and took the key ...

- Traffic

Calling the second half of January a catastrophe for the president, the Democrats and the country at large sells the word "catastrophe" short. A health care "reform" process that was already trailing smoke suddenly lost cabin pressure and spiraled into the sea when the single most unpoachable Senate seat in the history of the universe, held for 46 years by the late Ted Kennedy, flipped into Republican hands because Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley thought she could win without actually running a campaign. Before the screaming had a chance to die down after that debacle, the Supreme Court came swooping in and dropped a gigantic dung bomb on the entire body politic, delivering our democratic processes into the hands of corporations which already exert far too much influence over every facet of our lives.

President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress emerged from the smoke and ash of this twin-bill disaster with little more than a perplexed look on their faces, further cementing the emerging public consensus that the 2008 elections put into power a group of well-meaning incompetents who, despite having the virtually unfettered ability to accomplish just about whatever they want, cannot seem to get out of their own way. A 41-seat minority in the Senate somehow translated into total power and complete victory for the GOP, and every pundit with the ability to draw breath began predicting an imminent Democratic bloodbath in the upcoming 2010 Congressional midterm elections.

Boy you sure took me for one big ride
Even now I sit and I wonder why
When I think of you I stop myself from crying
I just can't waste my time
I must get by
Got to stop believing in all your lies
'Cause there's too much to do before I die ...

On Wednesday night, President Obama will have the unenviable task of explaining to the American people that he, his administration and his Democratic allies in Congress are not, in fact, worthless. The American people overwhelmingly elected him because he promised to change the nature of politics, promised to right the ship after eight years of Bushian mayhem, promised to fix health care, create jobs, save the environment, rebuild the economy, bring the troops home from Iraq and defend the nation from terrorism, but after what may have been the fastest year on record, the glass remains definitively less than half full.

(snip)

Of course, it has only been a year. The mess left behind by the previous administration - indeed, by the last ten administrations - has translated into a series of seemingly insurmountable dilemmas that would challenge the wits and will of King Solomon himself. Combine that with a Republican Party far removed from its Linconian roots and in the thrall of a base whose hatred and desire to simply destroy rather than create is all consuming, and the task before Obama and his people becomes even more daunting.

But he wanted the job. He wanted it so badly, in fact, that he spent nearly a thousand days trying to get it. Now it's his, warts and all. The American people, well-trained in the art of short-term memory loss, have come to the conclusion that everything happening now is Obama's fault, and the polls reflect this without dispute. One speech on Wednesday night won't fix all that ails us, but if Mr. Obama doesn't hit precisely the right notes in the delivery, his second year could come to make his first year seem like a Cape Cod clambake by comparison.

Is he up to it? Are we?

Feelin' alright
I'm not feeling too good myself ...

The rest: http://www.truthout.org/feelin-alright56429

[phantom power]

1. I will say this: speechifying is the one thing Obama does unambiguously well.

As you say, even if he gives God's very own SOTU speech, it won't be enough in the long run.

[Robb]

3. But if he doesn't nail it, we're all screwed?

I don't follow the logic. Will's, not yours.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Kickin' it for Will...

Because he is right on target, as usual.

[asdjrocky]

4. How do you fail this badly?

Without it being on purpose?

[Missy Vixen]

6. Thank you

I wish your post was an entire thread.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Booze.

Or were you talking about Obama?

[Missy Vixen]

5. He doesn't seem to understand the mood of the electorate

He also doesn't seem to understand that there are millions hanging on by their fingernails.

He'd better cough up the best speech in the history of speechifyin', and he'd also better establish some kind of "campaign promise fulfillment" committee. Today.

[timeforpeace]

7. Coakley will definitely win.

[Bluebear]

12. bank on it ;)

[WilliamPitt]

15. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7513926

[Bluebear]

19. Not necessary.

I thought she would pull it off too :)

[WilliamPitt]

14. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7513926

[Gregorian]

8. If he doesn't get angry, we're goners.

Look, I say we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. And when faced with that situation, I almost always DO.

All I can say to Obama is- STOP SINGIN' AND START SWINGIN'!

[Better Believe It]

9. K & R

[amborin]

10. "well-meaning ______" ??? way too generous!

[Martin Eden]

13. That's a typo ...

... I think he meant "self-reaming"

[puebloknot]

11. Truer than true! We're all watching an audacious slow-motion movie of the death ...

... of our American democratic republic.

We would be up to it if we weren't playing in a stacked deck.

And I'm generally a hopeful sort!

[Bluebear]

16. That indeed is the emerging public consensus, unfortunately

Well-meaning incompetents.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. I don't think Americans are quite as stupid as you do.

"The American people overwhelmingly elected him because he promised to change the nature of politics, promised to right the ship after eight years of Bushian mayhem, promised to fix health care, create jobs, save the environment, rebuild the economy, bring the troops home from Iraq and defend the nation from terrorism"

I think that most Americans are aware of the fact that Republicans and conservative dems are to blame for holding up health care, are aware that the stimulus package as kept or created millions of jobs and unemployment has plateaued and will soon fall, that the President has done more for the environment than any of his predecessors, has saved the economy from a second great depression, that he is bringing troops home from Iraq and taken those still there out of harms way, and that he is protecting this country from terrorism.

That's why he's got overwhelming support among Democrats. Real Democrats. That's why his popularity rating is on par with those who voted for him. And that's why the people who don't are pretty much all Republicans and moderates. But they have shit for brains anyways.