Obama's capitulation on health care and DADT gave 2010 to the Tea Party.

[BolivarianHero]

Allowing open homosexuals has enjoyed a majority of public support since the late-1980s, and only sagged for a few years because Clinton's cowardice on the issue gave an aura of legitimacy for the arguments of the religious right and the Pentagon. And yet Obama's spent 2 years dithering on the issue.

Universal single-payer healthcare enjoyed a large majority of support. And yet we get silly bill full of insane compromises when the whole thing can be done better, more cheaply, and with more public support with single-payer. Not passing a strong bill that a leader like FDR would have lost months of sleep fighting for gave Bohener's Bums tons of ammunition in 2010.

Hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on the military-industry complex and tax breaks for the wealthy have allowed the deficit and debt to balloon to levels that even would have made Brezhnev blush. And someone the solution to this is calling a commission of free-market fundamentalists to "reform" social security.

These were the convictions Obama claimed to have held and convictions that are popular with the American people. And if 2004 taught us anything, it's that being perceived as a strong and decisive leader is a valuable asset for any President, however stupid the man or his decisions may be. Fuck, FDR would have had a gun to the Senate's head and say "change your operating rules so that we can pass a strong health care bill or your fucking career's over."

The Democrats could have modeled their platform on anyone from Trotsky to Reagan and still would have gotten crushed in this cycle. Obama ceded too much ground when there were strong winds at his back. Nestor Kirchner rode the tidal wafe of discontent that brough him to power in Argentina, and he's proven so successful and so popular that his wife succeeded him in a coronation of an election. The opposition is left-leaning too because the rightist factions are so discredited in that country after neo-liberals transformed it from bread basket to basket case.

[TwilightGardener]

1. No, it didn't. The TeaBag thing is big business interests using the dumbass

segment of the population to support big business interests.

[BolivarianHero]

2. Well yeah...

All the money in the world didn't help Meg Whitman though. And all the money in the world didn't stop FDR either.

And say what you want about vote fraud, but if Ronald Reagan can tie federal grants to a state's drinking age, then Barck Obama sure as fuck can do the same thing to force states to use systems with a 100% auditable paper trail.

[dennis4868]

3. He did not capitulate on DADT....

He said he would end by the end of the year....sometimes the facts get in the way of a good narrative.

[dmosh42]

4. We thought we had a leader, but he's a corporation guy!....

Yes, he did things as they say, but all of them was half-hearted, meant to surrender to the Repukes. Financial reform was an area where he could have assumed the 'attack' mode, but he sent the useless Att'y Gen'l after the pot smokers in Californis, and the congress failed to come to any conclusion on how the banksters robbed the country of trillions. Bernie Madoff and another Ponzi schemer were the only ones I know of who was prosecuted. We're still pouring money into Iraq and Afghanistan, with no end in sight, and a small portion of our population doing the fighting while we go shopping. WTF!

[jaxx]

5. Isn't that special.

[kctim]

6. Nothing but partisan fantasy

DADT was not even an issue this election.

And people voted against a watered down HCR mandate. They would have voted against a single-payer mandate just the same.

If you think Americans want, need or even can be like Argentina, then be prepared for that electoral map to stay dark red.

[Johonny]

7. but teaparty candidates did worse than normal republicans

the teaparty is a 200 million dollar a day trip to India.