From his very first national speech at the 2004 DNC. Obama signaled post-partisanship

[Perky]

Those who thought they were voting for something else were never Really listening.

My argument is not that Post-partisanship exists... only that in his writing and rhetoric that is what Obama aspired to and that America wanted it to believe in.

Make no mistake, he did not win because he was a liberal, he won because he was and is the antithesis of the former resident. The antithesis of the former president is a competent smart president. It actually was smart vs dumb and angry.. rather than liberal vs conservative. Put another way:

“Hopey-Changey” did not mean liberalism, it always meant post-partisanship at its core.

I don't think if you seriously listened to the 2004 speech or read "Audacity" that you could reach a different conclusion. In fact, there was little in Obama's rhetoric or writing to feed the notion that he was a "true believer".

That is not to say that Obama may have over-thought his ability to transcend those lines. I think he was naive in some respects. The GOP makes thing up as a rule,,, to raise money but also to drive the debate. It might have been different if Republican leadership still held sway of the members, but they are all scared to death of Limbaugh and Beck and that’s who leading the party now. Post–partisanship requires a partnership and it simply is not going to happen with the bozos running the show,

But there is another side to this.

If you proscribe more than Post=partisanship to Obama, if you thought he was the second coming of FDR or JFK or LBJ, that is not nearly so much his fault as it is your own. The fact that some of us put that on him and I would suggest that such a projection was neither reasonable or realistic.

I think the base saw what it wanted to see which was largely a delusion...and probably much more a self-delusion than we would like to admit...Thus the disappointment/dissolution.


But I also think those who voted for him yearning for post-partisanship, while perhaps equally deluded still really like him. Those who thought they were voting gor a progressive messiah are probably far less enthralled.

But that is not his fault….it is ours.


Respectfully Submitted and cross-posted with amplification from GD-P

[glowing]

1. Sorry, but the Republicans would actually have to negotiate and vote.

They refuse to participate... AND over the last 30yrs we have gone wayyy too far to the right so that "center" now looks like what used to be a "strong conservative".

[Perky]

2. I think I said that

[rhett o rick]

3. I dont agree at all. He may not have made specific promises but he certainly waited until after the

election to spit in the face of the left. He was certainly glad for our support and gave the impression that he wanted change. But Rick Warren, Rahm Emanuel, seems he just couldnt wait to tell us to STFU. I didnt expect a messiah, but I certainly didnt expect him to continue rendition, torture, secret prisons, Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, domestic spying, Bushy's DOJ.

Maybe the "base" was deluded, but Obama played to that delusion.

Tell me this Perky, what's the difference between the DLC and the reich-wing?

[Zenlitened]

4. Is post-partisanship the same thing as bi-partisanship?

:shrug:

[gleaner]

5. It sounds like yet another excuse to me ...

to try and defend Obama and his failure to govern. I thought I had heard them all, but you bring new imagination to the word "excuse." Your bottom line though, is still that it is our fault for believing what he said and not being somehow telepathic. It is also our fault for not wanting to believe him after he has lied to us continuously.

You even made up a new catch phrase. How original. Tell me, does "post partisanship" include advocating interrogation by torture, rendition, naming unlawful detainees and suspension of Habeas Corpus, because up until now I thought those were Republican notions. Does it mean we don't prosecute war criminals or hold them to account in any way because we are too busy escalating war in Afghanistan and spreading it to Pakistan and Yemen while our military is still occupying Iraq? I thought those were militaristic Republican notions too. Does "post partisanship" include continuing to bail out and subsidize the biggest banking chains, richest corporations and wealthiest individuals in this country while they kill off the middle class and the poor?

Does post partisanship call for letting the economy slump to the point where people are losing their homes and being victimized by predatory credit practices while Obama sits and chats with the Republicans about all the ways the deficit can be cut without mentioning the one thing that would really work? Something about raising revenue by taxing the very wealthy entities that he continues to support and who continue to support him?

Because if that is what it means, no wonder he didn't say it. But it is sill all our fault that he is a liar, a fraud and a shill for the Conservatives. Gee. Post partisanship. And it is all our fault. Obama isn't responsible for any of his own actions or lack of them. Does he walk on water by any chance?