America - He's Your President for Goodness Sake!

[MrScorpio]

By William Thomas
Posted: Friday, October 1st, 2010


There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a republican or democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.

Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.

Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.

-Snip-

In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat.

What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it, Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after he’s out of office.

America, you know not what you have.

http://www.seniorlivingmag.com/articles/america-hes-your-president-for-goodness-sake

I knew that I liked Canada for a damn good reason.

[firedupdem]

1. K&R

[SeattleGirl]

2. Good article, MsS. This part really caught my eye, in the body

if the article:

"The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better."

There are an awful lot of people in America who are doing just that, but somehow, I just couldn't find myself jumping for joy if the extreme right wingers and the Tea Partiers managed to take over every branch of government.

I wish people would wake up.

[Blue_Tires]

37. agreed n/t

[HipChick]

3. White America does not like a black man in charge..

According to Micheal Moore

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdSUSUqGkU

[moondust]

40. They're both right.

The more racist older people, their racism stirred up by the teabaggers and SB1070 in Arizona and the "mosque at Ground Zero" and RW media, came out and voted against Obama and the Democrats in the midterms while the less racist younger people stayed home for the midterms LIKE YOUNGER PEOPLE ALWAYS DO.

And THAT is the story of the 2010 midterms as best as I can determine.

[UrbScotty]

45. I DIDN'T stay home. Never missed an election since I turned 18.

It's easy to generalize/stereotype young people, but I have voted in every single contested election since I turned 18. That's 12 of them.

I just turned 23.

[moondust]

46. Thank you for doing your civic duty!

Regardless of whom you voted for.

I do believe the statistics, however, probably support the CNN reporter's claim that the turnout of "younger people" was about the same as it always is for midterms--LOW--and that in combination with the racist element working hard against Democrats resulted in big gains for the GOP.

:hi:

[UrbScotty]

49. Yeah, too many people don't seem to realize how important

these midterm elections are. And all elections, for that matter.

Oh, and BTW: I voted straight Democratic! :-)

[UrbScotty]

47. Well, I'm a white American and I support my President!

Not that he couldn't be more liberal...

...but I support him nonetheless!

[Pisces]

4. Other nations are embarrassed for us.

[angee_is_mad]

5. Kick

and keep kicking!!!

[givemebackmycountry]

6. I got some folks I'm sending that to tomorrow -

Eight years I had to pretend I supported a war criminal monkey drunk ass weasel, and I was then asked cheerfully if I was voting for John McCain.

Remember the original ALIEN, when Ash rolled a magazine up and tried to ram it down the throat of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)?
THAT'S what I want to do with this wonderful piece.

Right wing freaks, can't live with them, and can't jam a magazine down their throats.

[rhett o rick]

7. k & r

[Better Today]

8. Apparently this author was not around during many of our recent

presidencies. Seems Carter was never well supported by the populace, nor was GHWBush, nor Clinton, I know for a fact I dissed Bush from before he took office and regularly wished both he and Cheney would die in a freak accident...Yeah, he is trying to make a point that just doesn't exist... That being that people are more willing to be rude about Obama than other presidents, just not true.

[SeattleGirl]

9. I respectfully disagree with you.

I have seen and read a lot of the vitriol against Obama, and while I do agree with you that all Presidents have been subjected to nastiness, I really think that the stuff leveled at Obama is beyond what any other President has had to endure.

The continuing questioning of whether Obama was a legitimate candidate for President, whether he is actually a citizen of the US, whether is is a "secret Muslum", etc., etc, etc., is just freakin' non-stop. And how many people openly talked about wanting to take Bush or Carter or Clinton out (and I'm not talking about impeachment here)? How many cries were there for "bullets not ballots" and all that crap that has happened over and over again since Obama was elected?

No, I think Obama has gotten it a lot worse than any President before him, and I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that his skin is not pasty white.

[FrenchieCat]

12. I want to recommend your post....

so rec to this, even if it won't be added to the rec I gave to this thread.

[political_Dem]

20. [phone]. That's the ugly truth brought out into the open.

Some folks go out of their way to demonstrate how much they disrespect the POTUS. They even go so far as to make indignant assertions that because of their snide treatment of Mr. Obama they hold the moral center in this country.

It doesn't help their case by bullying supporters of the President. And they are sure as hell not winning any converts by ridiculing any opinion that isn't aligned with theirs. It was mentioned before in another thread, but the entire behavior behind the mistreatment of the POTUS reflects hypocrisy, cruelty and ignorance. :(

[tomg]

52. I think you are spot on.

I hated Johnson's Vietnam policies. I despised Nixon's actions. I thought Reagan's policies were a diaster, and Bush I. George Bush was like watching a car wreck happen with the country in it. That was policy. That was lack of ability. That was about a lack of character. Most of us did not want them to fail or the country to fail. We might have - and in my case I did - want some policies to fail because we believed they were wrong for the country.

What they are doing to President Obama is not about any of those things. It is utter, unreasonable not even barely beneath the surface racism that is incessantly stoked by Fox and the right-wing media, capitalized upon by the likes of Boehner and McConnell for the Republican party, and all done for the economic gain of the corporatists.

For all of the false equivalency from the media about left and right both doing it, there is a difference between attacking a person for their actions and policies and attacking a person because of their being as a person.

[impik]

16. I remember every president all the way back to Gerald Ford.

Nothing - NOTHING - comes even close to what's being done to this president. The ugliness of so many people in this country is now out for everyone to see.

[AtomicKitten]

10. The utter lack of goodwill for this president is disheartening. nt

[impik]

11. The whole world can see what only America can't

How tragic.

[SeattleGirl]

14. Sometimes (heck, oftentimes) it seems that America is filled

with petulant little children with the attention span of a gnat.

Sometimes I wonder if the rest of the world looks at us like we are bat crap crazy.

[one_voice]

13. K & R

[defendandprotect]

15. You want me to rally around a pro-war and pro-corporate president ... who just trampled

the best opportunity ever for Americans to gain universal health care --

MEDICARE FOR ALL --

and that it was not just "lost" but Obama made back room deals with Big Pharma

and private Health Care industry --

first to prevent any Medicare "negotiation" on drug prices --

and second promised to keep single-payer "off the table" --




:nuke:

[impik]

22. pro-war and pro-corporate ?

Oh man, this place is even more crazy than i thought.



Welcome my ignored team, it's cozy and crazy over there.

[de novo]

32. Well, he is Pro-war. You can't really deny that.

[defendandprotect]

53. See Pelosi video/morning after '06: "Dems were elected to end the war" -- !!

Who has been financing these wars except Dems since '06?

Despite the fact they the wars are bankrupting our Treasury--!!

Who is talking about our occupation of Afghanistan going beyond 2011?

Who has kept us in Iraq if not Obama?

Obama has been conducting a "pro-corporate" agenda since the first days after

the election when he eloped into the White House with DLC/corporate Emmanuel --

and Wall Street/Goldman Sachs -- Geithner, Summers.

What was the health care deform except a bit of "pro-corporate" business arranged

in back room deals with Big Pharma and the private Health Care Industry -- ???


Try these --

If it doesn't make you sick to your stomach, nothing will--!


Ramh .... crowing about preserving "private health care industry" ... business s/b grateful!

Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:03 AM

”In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued

that rather than recoiling against Obama, business leaders should be grateful for his support on at least a half-dozen counts: his advocacy of greater international trade and education reform open markets despite union skepticism; his rejection of calls from some quarters to nationalize banks during the financial meltdown; the rescue of the automobile industry; the fact that the

overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system;

the fact that billions in the stimulus package benefited business with lucrative new contracts, and that financial regulation reform will take away the uncertainty that existed with a broken, pre-crash regulatory apparatus.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B2F85DDF-18...


and ...

OBAMA secret "deals" with Health Care Industry ... Pharma

Sunday, September 19, 2010 2:52 PM

WASHINGTON — Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.

Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers.

In response,the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul. The Obama administration had never spelled out the details of the agreement.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/policy/06insur...


and ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?_r=1

[Fruittree]

29. Are you serious???!

Barack Obama just single-handedly ruined any possibility to get Medicare for all? When was that even an option? Anyway, I'll re-read your post in January when I can sign my son up for health insurance again without having to pay COBRA. I'll also re-read your post today when I go to work at a job made safer by stimulus funds. I think you need to look at the real world and remember a bill passed today can be improved on tomorrow so if you don't like what we have, get out and work for something better. Progress is a step by step process not the result of some magic wand that someone else waves so they can deliver it to you.

[defendandprotect]

54. I agree ....

look at the "real world" --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=523541&mesg_id=525655

The stimulus was only 1/4 of what economists told Obama was actually requried --

and it is starting to fade out.

50 million now have no health care -- it doesn't come down to celebrating some help

for the few -- we need MEDICARE FOR ALL and help for the many!!

Magic wands -- I guess it's simply other nations that have them and we have a shortage here!???

:eyes:

[Number23]

17. First OP I've rec'd around here in DAYS

Happy to do so now. :thumbsup:

[political_Dem]

18. K and R. A strong treatise that puts the cards on the table. Bravo.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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

[GoCubsGo]

38. I'd love to have their health care

It beats the shit out of what I have, which "Hope I don't get sick or injured."

[pacalo]

21. That says most everything in what I like about Obama.

Technical difficulties withstanding, I think he's done a good job. Since I trust that his intentions are honorable, I'd like to see him get tougher toward the opposition, just as FDR did when he was determined to get the New Deal passed. It turned out to be good for our country, & even though today's critics benefit greatly from it, they despise it simply because it came from a very much loved Democratic president.

Just toughen up & dig in your heels, is what I'd like to see him improve on, then he'll be able to do right by all of us.

[flamingdem]

23. Certain people would rather hate Obama than look at how many people Bush

managed to destroy. You know that river in Egypt.

[scheming daemons]

24. Almost every citizen of the world would trade their leader for ours in a heartbeat...

...

The sad part is that half of America would take the trade.

[Beacool]

25. Oh, please...........

Bush was universally despised, except by the base of his party. Clinton had a special prosecutor after him, his wife and staffers for 5 years. You name the president and they all had detractors.

Obama is our Nelson Mandela?????? Give me a break!!! What a disservice to Mr. Mandela.

:eyes:

[JTFrog]

27. LoL, I wonder what the Goddess of Peace would say.

:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:

[Beacool]

35. For starters, she wouldn't wish to be compared to Mother Teresa.

To compare Obama, who for other than being biracial is an average politician, to Nelson Mandela is a joke and a disservice to Mandela.

:rofl:

[JTFrog]

36. I guess irony is lost on you. n/t

[Kind of Blue]

26. KICK and Rec! n/t

[JTFrog]

28. K&R!

[jaxx]

30. It's good to see other countries value our President.

It's a shame his own country is out to destroy him. People will wake up when it's too late, the damage from all the lies will be done. The good that he has done will stand up in the history books, but again, that will be too late.

K&R

[Scurrilous]

31. K & R

:thumbsup:

[young but wise]

33. k&r

[JoeyT]

34. Huzzah.

Another person whose civil liberties aren't being eroded while their economy flounders and a let them eat cake attitude reigns demanding we cheer it on.

"America, you know not what you have."
No, I think we know exactly what we have. That's the problem. If I objected to his race, I wouldn't have voted for him in the primary or the general, much less contributed to his campaign and tried to convince as many other people as possible to vote for him. We've still got secret prisons people can be disappeared to, Patriot Acts, a devastated ocean ecosystem, torture, corporate welfare, two wars that we know of (And we're messing around in a bunch of other countries. How many? Who knows!?), DOMA, DADT, a floundering unstable economy, a rapidly growing MIC, public education being dismantled and put in the hands of profiteers, and it's looking like we're going to get tax cuts for the rich extended.
We've got war criminals running around bragging about being war criminals on national television and we're not going to touch them. We've got multi-million/billionaires running around whining about how terrible the economy they crashed is and we're not going to touch them either. Instead we gave them a whole bunch of money and hope they don't do it again. (Protip: They will.)
I guess all that is excusable since we managed to enforce the monopoly of private corporations over healthcare and pass a stimulus plan that didn't really stimulate much because it was too small and what there was had way too many tax cuts instead of job creation.

Mandela criticized people that tried to cover up the human rights violations of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Contrast that with a guy that fervently denies and hides as many civil rights violations as humanly possible when they were committed by a rival party: All while insisting he still has the right to commit them again.

[The Uncola]

39. Horsefeathers.

In my close to 6 decades on this planet, living in the REAL world, there isn't a single President that got such a free pass as this misinformed author has dreamed up. Absolute nonsense. Unrec for being completely false.

[donheld]

41. How is Obama getting a pass? please site an example.

[jenmito]

42. Remember all the great, glowing coverage he got regarding

Rev. Wright? :rofl:

[donheld]

43. NO I don't it must have been over shadowed by the glowing coverage of ACORN

:rofl: :hi:

[jenmito]

44. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that...

due to all the glowing coverage of his lack-of-flag pin and "refusal to salute the flag" "controversies," his wife who has never been proud of her country before now, and his naivete. :rofl: :hi:

[The Uncola]

50. Make shit up much?

Where did I say that Obama was getting or should get a pass? He's the gawddamn President. I said ALL Presidents get grief. It's part of the job.

[Balbus]

48. William Thomas is an idiot.

[Safetykitten]

51. I was wrong.

Of course he is the President, and I was wrong to not see that Canadians are a vital part of our support of the President. I for one will not say anything that can be deemed critical of our President ever again. I completely support his agenda in every way and he knows what is best for our nation and Canadians.

No sarcasm, as I have seen and embraced the view of my fellow moderate Democrats and will be a complete team player from now on.

[AspenRose]

55. It's disheartening to see so many people equate showing respect to the office

as a perceived demand for total agreement to the president and his policies.

You can disagree all you want. The office should still be shown respect.

And human beings in general should be shown respect. That's not demanding fealty or some sort of loyalty oath.

[DatManFromNawlins]

56. Potential is what you haven't done yet

He's halfway through his first term, which is either 25% or 50% of his presidency. I believe that Americans have enough of a track record to start judging him on what he's actually accomplished. Whether someone believes he's accomplished something is up to the individual and their beliefs and values.

The article is full of fluff and very short on substance.