The Rude Pundit - In Brief: Note to President Obama: Stop Walking the Tightrope

[meegbear]

Oh, sweet Barack, you know what to do when someone blindfolds you, makes you climb a post, uncovers your eyes, hands you a pole, and says, "See that tightrope? You gotta walk it if you wanna get to that other post"? Unless you've got a gun to your head, you say, "Shove it up your ass. I'm gonna climb down, walk across the ground, and wave at you when I get there." But not you, dear, smart Barack. You grimace, grab that balancing pole, and step out onto the tightrope. No, didn't have to. But someone told you that you should. And you believed them.

Every fucking major speech, Barack, since you were elected, other than that one health care forum where you handed Republicans their asses in public (and the other one where you did it in private), you have time and again said and done things that are supposed to bury the hatchet with Republicans, as if this one thing, this one remark, will be the magic phrase, the "Open, sesame" of the cave of right-wing goodwill. That hoodoo doesn't exist, man.

Last night's speech was no exception. No blame for the Iraq war, just the merest mention that it cost a fuck of a lot of money. A shout-out to George W. Bush, fer chrissake. More buried hatchets than at Little Big Horn. And then, as usual, no direction to us.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[rfranklin]

1. There were plenty of Democrats involved in that debacle...

they were tripping all over themselves to be "patriotic."

[Winterblues]

5. While you are correct there were only a few that were beating the War Drums

Senator Edwards and Joe Lieberman were the two that most come to mind. The other Democrats just voted for IWR but didn't advocate for it like those two did.

[TheMuse]

2. Gotta love the way he puts it

Rude puts it all out there and doesn't hold back.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Spot On, Mr. Rude!

[BrklynLiberal]

4. He should stop being the charlie Brown for the repuke's Lucy

[Blue Owl]

6. That hoodoo doesn't exist, man.

Truer words were never spoken.

[Barack2theFuture]

7. what a disastrous pile of shit

we are all left sitting on . . .

a country in which the privileged elites are immune from our laws

25%+ of us are un- or under-employed

we illegally occupy foreign countries after having spent trillions to invade and destroy them

torture, rendition, indefinite detention for no stated reason are okay

habeas corpus is not so okay

posse comitatus is not so okay

abstract capitalist concepts are now "people" and have more rights than actual persons

our government is run by an openly corrupt system of bribery, influence and blackmail

millions of peace advocates are invisible, but a few thousand skinhead bigots are daily news

. . .

[gulliver]

8. Obama should be tougher, but the crazy-mean stuff...

...has to come from the left. Things like doubting the surge was necessary, blaming Bush for losing Afghanistan and the U.S. economy, and reminding voters that the Republicans in Congress have deliberately slowed down the economy for political gain (hey, they started a war for that too). Grayson does that frequently, but he is just one guy.

Obama could challenge the Republicans to another forum and beat them to a pulp again. I wish he would do that. But he can't really directly say that Bush is the draft-dodging, privileged-from-the-cradle, gold medalist f-up that everyone deserves to know he is. Congress people typically can't go there either. We need rude assholes on the left to do the kicks to the nuts and the bites to the ears.