Another look at what people are calling Obama "failures"

[Maraya1969]

http://www.facebook.com/notes/leisa-hussein-simone/to-the-progressive-obstructionist-obama-haters/176216039110683

But he promised to close Gitmo!



Only SIX Democratic senators voted to give him the funds he would have needed. SIX. The rest voted with the Republicans or abstained from voting.



How the White House Lost the Fight to Close Gitmo



But why didn't he include a public option on affordable healthcare?



It was defeated by a Republican and Democratic Senate Finance Committee.



Public Option Amendments Fail In Senate Finance Committee



But he's not acting like a liberal anymore!



He never has. One look at his voting record when he was a senator would have proven it. He's a centrist. He's always been a centrist. Believing he's a liberal because of his skin color is comparable to believing he's a Muslim for the very same reason.



Is Obama a Liberal?



But he had a Liberal/Progressive majority in the House and Senate when he was first elected and he did nothing with them!



Really? You seriously believe that a Democrat from a red state would be a firm liberal or progressive? Think about that. And then read this.



Barack Obama & the Myth of "Progressive Majorities"



He's losing his liberal base! It's all over the media!



Do you mean the corporate media like CNN and MSNBC? The ones starved for a new feeding frenzy like the one they had during the Casey Anthony trial? The ones whose hosts said things like "If you're a Democrat, you should sit out the 2010 election out of protest"? Which was when we were cursed with the Tea Party because they went out and voted while pouty, whiny Democrats stayed home. That media?



Well, guess what. It would seem that he's not losing his base.



MORE AT LINK!

[jpak]

1. K&R

yup

[ClassWarrior]

2. You're right. I'm going to campaign for progressive Congresspeople this time. Obama doesn't need me.

NGU.

[stuckinarut]

3. Umm..

"I will promise you this: that if we haven't gotten our troops out by the time I'm president it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. I will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama, October 27, 2007 (And yet 50,000 US troops remain to this day - along with 100,000 civilian "security contractors")

"Close down Guantanamo, restore habeas corpus, say no to renditions, no to wireless wiretaps..." - Barack Obama, November 14, 2007 (Guantanamo is still open, while habeas corpus has been restored by Executive Order, renditions and wireless wiretaps continue. In addition, President Obama has given himself the power to assassinate a US citizen overseas in the name of national security. )

"When I promise that I... we are going to bring this war in Iraq to a close in 2009, I want the American people to understand that I opposed this war in 2002, 2003, 4, 5, 6 and 7 -- so you can have confidence that I will be serious about ending this war." - Barack Obama, 2008

"Iran, they spend 1/100 of what we spend on the military. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us." - Barack Obama, May 18, 2008

"I think it's time for us to end the embargo on Cuba. I think this because, if you think about what is happening internationally, our planet is shrinking. And our biggest foreign policy challenge -- and it feeds into the battle on terrorism and it feeds into issues of trade and our economy -- is how do you make sure that other countries and developing nations are providing sustenance for their people, human rights for their people and the basic structure of government for their people and are stable and secure so that they can be partners in a bright future for the entire planet." - Barack Obama, 2008

"I've said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo and I will follow through on that. I've said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world." - Barack Obama, 60 Minutes (2008) (Guantanamo is still open, the US is using foreign nations to carry out torture, when it isn't committing it itself.)

"And as President I'm going to make it impossible for Congressmen or lobbyists to slip pork barrel projects or corporate welfare into laws while no one's looking. Because when I'm President meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public - no more secrecy - that's a commitment I make to you as President. When there's a tax bill being debated in Congress, you will know the names of the corporations that would benefit and how much money they would get. And we will put every corporate tax break and every pork barrel project online for every American to see. You'll know who asked for them and you can decide whether your representative is actually representing you." - Barack Obama, 2008 (Caught between their boss’ anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the reality of governing, President Barack Obama’s aides often steer meetings with lobbyists to a complex just off the White House grounds — and several of the lobbyists involved say they believe the choice of venue is no accident. It allows the Obama administration to keep these lobbyist meetings shielded from public view — and out of Secret Service logs kept on visitors to the White House and later released to the public.link)

"....create jobs building solar panels and wind turbines and the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow. Jobs that will help us end our dependence on foreign oil and may save the planet in the process. Rebuilding our crumbling roads and schools and bridges...." "....so we can have a new electricity grid and bring renewable energy to population centers here in Indiana and across America. Build an American infrastructure for the 21st century." - Barack Obama, 2008

"....that tired, worn-out old theory that says, that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity will trickle-down on everybody else. The last thing... the last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations. Those are the theories that got us into this mess. They haven't worked and it is time for change, and that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America." - Barack Obama, 2008

"...bailout Wall Street banks. As President I will insure the financial rescue plan helps stop foreclosures and protects your money, instead of enriching CEOs. And I'll put in place the common-sense regulations that I've been calling for throughout this campaign. So that Wall Street can never cause a crisis like this again. That's the change we need." - Barack Obama, 2008

"It is absolutely true that NAFTA was a mistake." - Barack Obama, 2008

"It's been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America." - Barack Obama, November 4, 2008

All above quotes were excerpted from Barack Obama campaign speeches and interviews as shown in the documentary"Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy"


***************************************************************************************************

At a news conference Monday in Chile, President Barack Obama stated about his order to fire 110 Tomahawk missiles into Libya: "this was not an attempt at regime change, but a humanitarian effort to save civilian and rebel lives from Gaddafi’s threat to annihilate anyone who threatened his rule." March 21, 2011

"You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package… And I believe one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market, so that we can force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest." ~President Barack Obama

“We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts.”President Barack Obama

Referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans: "We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." ~ Presidential Candidate & U.S. Senator Barack Obama, 2008

"The President does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." ~Barack Obama, December 2007

"I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country." - link

"What I'm not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue (medical cannabis), simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism." ~Barack Obama, 2008

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. How many times is this going to be posted?

Is there a contest or something?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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

[Inuca]

6. Lovely! n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. LOL!

[livetohike]

11. As many times as it takes to realize President Obama is not

a dictator.

[Rex]

28. That's stupid, nobody thinks he is a dictator.

I think people keep posting it out of their own insecurity and blame it one others.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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

[Maraya1969]

23. You obviously havne't read the links.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

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

[Windy]

8. As sad as it is, I think racism is alive and well even with those who label themselves progressive

There is no other reason the outright hatred that has become the norm with many on DU of late.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Because opposing the president's policies makes one a racist

Gotcha.

[Windy]

12. because a determination to deny this president respect and recognize accomplishments

and the horrible odds he has faced from day one leads one to no other logical conclusion.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. And if we respect him but disagree with his policies?

[Windy]

18. I don't see the respect. I don't agree with everything he has done,

but I recognize the obstacles and a also recognize his extraordinary accomplishments given the congress that he has had to work with from day one. I also recognize that he is not a dictator. I will be working to get him a congress that will actually enact the change he wants to bring. Instead of bitching and marginalizing this president, get off the computer and work for a truely progressive majority in the congress!

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. I actually believe he's a great man doing what he thinks is right

Unfortunately I have a different idea of what's right.

I also live in red state hell. So I have found the best avenue for me is to focus on local elections.

[EFerrari]

20. Ironic that you would even bring up respect when you have so little of it

for members of this community.

No, Windy, opposing right wing policy doesn't make me a racist.

[Rex]

29. Some of the shit people come up with to justify their weak

assertions is kinda funny...sad, but funny. It is distrubing to see so many people unable to think for themselves and have to follow along with the herd, sucks to be them.

[enlightenment]

17. Oh, please.

No other reason. It MUST be racism. Good grief.

That is willful ignorance and you should be ashamed of yourself for defining a complex situation in such a literal black and white way.

Simply because you don't like what others say is no excuse to suggest that they must be racist. That is a shameful failure of reasoning.

[Windy]

19. No, the shameful failure is the inability to recognize the obstacles and accomplishments despite

the obstacles he has faced. The facts as posted by the OP have no effect with some here. That, my friend is the shameful failure of reasoning...

Call it want you want.

[Maraya1969]

22. You are so right. It is one thing to say, "I'm dissapointed" and another

to say, "He's a complete disappointment". I have asked 2 black men in my life about how easy/hard it was to succeed in this country and both told me they had to work twice as hard as a white man to get where they were. Jim Crow laws were not that long ago and most people alive at the time of the civil rights acts are still alive. And they have kids that they taught their racism to and maybe grand-kids. I've had people tell me that they were upset when some black families moved into our neighborhood. And then their is the famous, "I'm not prejudice but..........." A couple months ago a person was talking to me and referred to black people as N.......

I could go on and on about the things I have witnessed as a white woman living in a mostly white area about the prejudice I have witnessed first hand. So when people tell me they aren't prejudiced against Obama but rip his ass off at every chance they get I just do not believe them.

And of course if this was an Anti-Obama thread it would have plenty more recs than it does.

EDIT to add that the rec count is now zero. I guarantee that if this was an anti-Obama thread it would be way up on the greatest page by now. It is so disheartening to see this on DU. I'd expect it on Free Republic but here it is a tragedy.

[Number23]

38. It does make you wonder, doesn't it?

So when people tell me they aren't prejudiced against Obama but rip his ass off at every chance they get I just do not believe them.

And of course if this was an Anti-Obama thread it would have plenty more recs than it does.

There are people here who have criticized literally every single thing he has done. EVERY single thing. Are we not supposed to notice that?

I rec'd your thread, not that it did much good anyway. :)

[Claudia Jones]

27. would you include Dixon and Ford in this?

You say "there is no other reason" for criticism of Obama other than racism. Are you including Glen Ford, Bruce Dixon, Margaret Kimberley, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Sadiki Kambon and other people of color who have criticized Obama in your smear?

Afrikan/Black Apologists for President Obama are Doing a Major Dis-Service to Our Community

Obama supporters are busy building a "Black Wall" around the president, as the 2012 campaign begins. These unquestioning loyalists "feel the need to worship at the feet of President Obama because they like the idea of feeling they have access to the Whitehouse." But it’s not the kind of access that results in benefits for the whole community or even the Black political class, since Obama even "treats the Congressional Black Caucus like 'step children.'" For the sake of the larger Black community, "there needs to be a clear and open dialogue to discuss the Obama policies whether pro or con."

...

I know there are those who would disagree with my assessment of President Obama's performance or lack of when it comes to the Afrikan/Black community. Well, I challenge any supporter of President Obama to an open debate about his time in office and whether his message of "HOPE" was only applicable to Wall Street and every other group except us, the Afrikan/Black community. I submit it is a challenge you cannot defend or win.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/afrikanblack-apologists-president-obama-are-doing-major-dis-service-our-community

Black Critics and President Obama

Even as entire Black communities – "even entire cities – have been engulfed in what seems to be spiraling cycles of misery and hopelessness," African Americans are urged to keep their tongues in check so as not to embarrass the First Black President. An insidious "combination of race loyalty and postracialism effectively banishes black suffering from public view," while all other American groups feel free to make their own demands. "Black people are suffering, and we need to engage that suffering publicly and directly."

http://blackagendareport.com/content/black-critics-and-president-obama

Obamarama
What Has Obama Done for African Americans?

Far from "benefiting" African American communities, Obama's policies--shaped largely by neoliberalism and the idea that privatization of public services is preferable to an expansion of the state, even in times of dire economic crisis--have been particularly harmful to Black communities that were already reeling from years of rotten conditions, both before and after the economic crisis hit.

The statistics on poverty and unemployment are only the tip of the iceberg. The current Congressional wrangling over how much of social spending to cut, combined with the relentless drive to privatize public services, threatens to compound and exacerbate the existing problems facing the poor across the country, but especially African Americans.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/what-has-obama-done-african-americans

Top Ten Answers To Excuses For Obama's Betrayals and Failures

Looking for answers to the flood of excuses offered for the betrayals and failures of the Obama presidency. We offer our gentle readers this handy list of ten of the most frequently encountered excuses for the misfeasance, malfeasance, non-feasance and disappointments of the Obama presidency.

http://blackagendareport.com/top_ten_excuses_4_obama_failures_betrayals

Obama's Depraved Indifference

President Obama seems positively eager to dismantle the safety nets put in place in the Thirties and strengthened by a Black-led movement in the Sixties. He calls it "Winning the Future" – a future that "holds nothing but further pain and decline for Black America." By virtually all indices, Black fortunes have plummeted under the First Black President, whose policy is to let the (chocolate) chips fall where they may.

Two years ago this month, BET reporter Andre Showell posed a question to Barack Obama at a press conference to mark the president’s first 100 days in office. Showell noted “double-digit unemployment” among Blacks and asked Obama, “What specific policies can you point to that will target these communities and what's the timetable for us to see tangible results?”

It was one of the First Black President’s greatest "I Have Nothing for the Blacks" moments. "My general approach is that if the economy is strong, that it will lift all boats," replied the man who had brought millions to the Washington Mall just three months earlier, transforming an inaugural formality into a must-be-there-if-you-are-breathing Great Black Hajj. Obama then offered smug assurances that "folks who are most vulnerable are most likely to be helped because they need the most help." Under his presidency, the exact opposite would occur.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama%E2%80%99s-depraved-indifference

[Number23]

39. You need to greatly expand your reading list

That is, if you are GENUINELY interested in the black perspective, and not only a black perspective that matches yours.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

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

[LWolf]

40. Please don't redefine the word "hatred."

And please don't try to make objection to Obama's appalling policies about race. That's dishonest, unethical, and hurts the party and the nation more than honest objection to neo-liberal policy.

scarletwoman has it correct in post # 21.

[Marr]

13. I suggest you post just one point. When you list them, there's a good chance

that the average reader is going to know enough about one of the arguments that they can spot the deceit in the excuse. From there, it's not far to assume that all of the excuses are equally deceitful.

For me it was the "public option" point. Anyone watching that debacle could see it was the political establishment (Obama included) and their insurance industry sugar daddies against the public, not the red team vs. the blue team. The whole process was essentially just politicians building political cover for a course they'd decided upon from a very early date.

[blindpig]

15. What that says is that Democratic leadership is just as complicit.

n/t

[LWolf]

16. Many liberals voted for him in '08,

even though he was clearly not a liberal. They had hope for positive change. THEIR VOTES HELPED ELECT HIM. Perhaps that does not make them his base. Liberals ARE a large, if shrinking, part of the base of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Obama will not get the unwavering liberal support he had in '08. He hasn't earned it.

Some will vote for him anyway, under the "lesser evil" banner.

Not all. Will he retain enough to prevail?

I don't think so.

If you think he can win in '12 without those he's disenfranchised, you need to think again.

[Maraya1969]

33. So I guess it is OK with you that we have a repubicon president

[LWolf]

34. That's a particularly stupid guess

and a particularly weak response. If you are worried about '12, perhaps you should find a way to convince Obama to earn back the support he's lost. Ignoring it isn't going to help, and juvenile attempts at bullying will not, either.

It is not "okay" with me to have a neo-liberal president in the WH, regardless of party.

It is certainly not "okay" with me to have a Republican president. I don't want a Republican that hides in another party, either. I don't know anything about "repubicons." Is that the Democratic version of "moran?"

I don't think voters generally care what is okay with me, or not, when they vote for president. Why should they? In the 33 years of my voting life, I've never seen someone I wanted in the WH elected.

I don't expect to get what I want.

I doubt you really care enough to want to "guess" what it is that I "want" in a president.

[Maraya1969]

36. I don't think you want to value nuance and the dynamics of Washington

I think you want a black and white answer just like the tea party does. Well it doesn't work that way.

You are helping to throw the election away to the republicons. Your type are the ones responsible if it happens.

[LWolf]

37. Maybe you should simply not guess, at least about what I want.

You don't seem to be able to inform your guesses and opinions with actual valid information.

Regardless, your opinion is noted and tossed into the rest of the horseshit in my barn. It will have more value to me as compost.

:shrug:

[scarletwoman]

21. Actually, I find all of your examples beside the point.

Obama is an economic and foreign policy neoliberal and his cabinet picks and actions in office prove it. I am utterly against neoliberalism and have been for years - long predating the existence of DU. Nothing you cite will change my mind about it.

sw

[PufPuf23]

26. Exactly. nt

[rug]

24. A very lucid explanation of failure.

[Bluebear]

35. +

[DirkGently]

25. Why did closing Gitmo turn on a vote for funds to re-locate the prisoners? Bullshit framing.