Having spent most of Thursday travelling from San Diego to Boston, I had the distinct displeasure of watching cable news. First point: it still sucks. But the constant theme was that Obama is on the defensive about the BP oil rig blowout. Sure, it's stupid, although I think Obama was too ready to rely on BP's expertise (eveni f you don't believe that parts of the operation could be handled by the government, then bring in other oil companies for advice).
But a problem Obama faces is that, on issue after issue, he has fallen far short of what the rank-and-file wanted (and often what he ran on in the campaign), when he hasn't flat out adopted conservative talking points (or the equally useless 'third way' rhetoric). Right now, it would be really helpful to have a committed core fighting for him--and not solely because they are afraid that the Republican alternative is worse.
Too bad he fucked that up, I guess.
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I think you have half a valid point. The reason only half, is that Obama never ran as a progressive. On economic issues, he ran to the right of Clinton in the primaries. You may not like centrist economics. But neither did you have reason to expect anything different.
To me, where Obama has done the real about-face, and for little reason, is on civil liberties.
Obama has done nothing but nibble on the edges of all of the issues that need to be fixed. The comment above is correct.
His reaction to the BP problem is an example of his corporatist tendencies. Likewise his healthcare efforts which are a modification of insurance company policies not true reform.
He has kept Bush ideolgues in most of the positions they held in the prior administration. The DOJ is contaminated with them as an example. Holder is apparently a conservative or incompetent.
His escalation of the wars is appalling; there are MORE contractors in Iraq than when Bush was pres.
He is a toady to the republicans. I want to vomit when I see him ass-kissing.
There are dozens more examples I could post (I have voluminous files) but I'll leave it to others to have their turn.
Obama thinks his base (among the real citizens, ignoring the coporations for the moment) is a "reasonable middle" halfway between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. He has no clue how liberal most of the Progressives, MoveOners, Kossaks, are, or even how liberal most rank-and-file Democrats are.