You know when liberals turned on Obama? December 15, 2009.

[coti]

That was the day Howard Dean said "Kill it," referring to the HCR bill.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4185282

It wasn't that liberals heard Dean say it, and hearing him say it turned them off Obama.

When Dean said what he said, he was reflecting a sudden realization, a feeling of betrayal, and an extremely strong disappointment in Obama that was experienced by millions of liberals across the country that day. His uttering of the phrase did not incite the turning away from Obama, it marked it.

I very much remember how it felt when I heard the news that Dean was responding to. The Medicare buy-in had just been removed from the Senate version of the HCR bill. That had been our last hope. We were suddenly forced to come to terms with the fact that the basic idea behind the bill was to force everybody to fork over their money to private insurance companies. There was not going to be any federal competition or other options for consumers to keep insurers in check. All of Obama's shepherding of the bill- the months and months of negotiations, the rumored backroom deals, the high-falluting talk about the public option and bringing down insurance premiums- in that moment, in our minds, became nothing more than kabuki theater.


It was a sad day and we're still feeling its consequences now. The liberal cynicism remains, largely because very little has been done since to convince us that we really should believe in this Administration. Those feelings are not set in stone, however. They can change, the hope can be brought back. But the kind of belief we had in Obama before must be earned through action. If Obama doesn't believe, and act like it, we won't either.

[dave29]

1. as much as I love and respect Howard Dean

this is a huge stretch and a dramatic over-generalization, especially considering over 70% of liberals still support this President, strongly. You just wouldn't know it around these parts.

[coti]

2. You should read that thread in the link.

May take you back.

[daleanime]

6. Oh, I support him....

but I don't know how much I believe him.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[coti]

11. ???

No, I don't think that's it.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[coti]

18. That's an interesting perspective, but I didn't notice anything like that. nt

[Scurrilous]

12. Howard Dean...

...save us.:P

[saracat]

15. That isn't true.Liberals and Progressives both got the President elected.

That was how he won. He did not win alone.

[Change has come]

22. I nominate this post as...

The most ridiculous bit of nonsense ever posted at DU. :puke:

[Chulanowa]

26. Read DU more; you'll find sillier in a day, easily.

[bluestateguy]

5. Dean ended up supporting passge of the final bill

nt

[coti]

9. And so did Kucinich, because they knew that the next three years of the Democratic presidency rode

on the successful passage of the bill.

It was either support the bill, or castrate the White House for the rest of Obama's term.

[ProSense]

17. I guess he still

believes that

Kucinich agrees with Obama on having to compromise with the Repubs.

[defendandprotect]

21. Of course... as also Schultz and Kucinich did .... held their noses at last moments ...

Where would Kucinich have been able to survive in the party had he not

voted for it at the last?

That doesn't mean that most saw any value in this HC fraud --

[bigtree]

35. as did Bernie Sanders

[Rex]

7. I thought it was a few weeks before the last election

when he and the VP told the DFHs to shadup and sitdown. Then again, We all watched our chances at socialized medicine get destroyed by rich lawyers and BP prove that huge conglomerates CAN order around an entire country, while barely holding their contempt for the victims. Don't forget the dismal treatment of public education, liberals tend to pay attention to these things.

[coti]

10. That's what I was referring to in this part:

"The liberal cynicism remains, largely because very little has been done since to convince us that we really should believe in this Administration."

[ProSense]

8. Liberals have not turned on Obama. As for Howard Dean

he says a lot of things.

Health Care Reform Will Succeed Without Individual Mandate

The right wing is attacking health care reform by using the courts to file constitutional challenges to the individual mandate. They assume that if they can convince the courts that the mandate is unconstitutional, they can unravel the changes to our health care system that were enacted into law and signed by the President earlier this year. The Obama administration and those many Americans who will benefit from the bill need not be concerned. A narrow ruling on this ground will have minimal effect. As we were able to demonstrate in Vermont, the expansion of our health care system can work without a mandate.

<...>

So, once again in their zeal to obstruct, the Republicans have struck out and America will be stronger because of their failure. As a generation of experience in Vermont has shown, an individual mandate is not essential either to achieve near universality or to have a stable insurance market. While its true that the new federal law will expand health care coverage and make the system fairer if it contains an individual mandate, the most important changes will survive, and the bill will still achieve all of it's major goals even without a mandate.

[Greyhound]

36. That's why the Democrats had such a great election day...

:eyes:
:rofl:

[Radical Activist]

13. Why would liberals listen to a moderate like Dean?

It would be pretty sick if that were true. Why would anyone be stupid enough to turn on Obama for something blocked by the Senate?

[coti]

14. Again, you gotta read all the way through. It wasn't that liberals LISTENED to Dean...

What he said marked a shift in liberal belief in the Obama Administration.

What he said reflected. It didn't cause.

[Greyhound]

37. Comprehension is not this one's strong suit, but it is fun to play with sometimes. n/t

[apocalypsehow]

19. *Yawn*. Another content-free post, another personal attack on a Democratic President.

:boring:

[coti]

31. Kick nt

[defendandprotect]

20. Obama has been betraying the trust put in him since the moment of his election...

eloping into the White House with DLC/Emmanuel -- and those who created the mess --

Bush/Obama and the bail outs -- one of the greatest financial coup d'etats of all time!!

Bail outs and sell outs --

We've been sold out!!

[readmoreoften]

23. Yes, no one can see reality for themselves. It must be something Dean said.

:eyes:

[coti]

24. Ya didn't read the whole thing, did ya?

;)


Hell, ya didn't even read three sentences in- readmoreoften.

[Better Today]

25. I didn't need Dean to say "kill it," to know it was turning into crap. Additionally

I'd say that was the last step of many to turning against Obama. It started with that homo-hater Rick Warren at the inauguration, got worse when he appointed Rahm, Geithner, and kept Bernanke. It's really only gone downhill since then.

[peace frog]

28. exactamundo

:thumbsup:

[coti]

27. Kick nt

[rug]

29. December 1, 2009, when he put his name on the war in Afghanistan.

[The Uncola]

30. Hogwash.

There isn't one particular "moment" this guy screwed the pooch, it's ongoing. People who think that Progressives are open to being analyzed as a monolithic group are only proving they know jackshit about Progressives. Save that crap for the Teabaggers, they are more your speed. Obama has been stomping on "Liberals" toes since the day he took office and it WILL cost him a second term and leave him a weak-assed lame duck for the balance of this one if he doesn't grow a pair and make some SERIOUS course corrections. Phony rhetoric is for pansies.

[coti]

32. Kick.

Read the whole thing more carefully.

[donco6]

33. Kick

[SidDithers]

34. Unrec...nt

Sid