New York Times reporter Matt Bai uses the debt commission (12/1/10) to ask whether Barack Obama will finally stand up to the liberal base of the Democratic Party. As the headline puts it, “Debt-Busting Issue May Force Obama Off Fence.”
You see, in Bai’s world, Obama was never much of a Clinton-style “triangulator,” which is a big problem:
Part of the contrast Mr. Obama sought to draw with Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 campaign was that you would never catch him triangulating against his friends for political gain. It was a point of pride for Mr. Obama that he would have no so-called Sister Souljah moments, even when he vehemently disagreed with liberals.
The problem with this stance, two years into his presidency, is that it seems to have put Mr. Obama in something of a box. Since he isn’t willing to break publicly with liberals, independent and conservative voters tend to see him as a tool of the left. And since he generally won’t do exactly what the left wants him to do, he ends up with very little gratitude from his own party.
Yes, except for escalating the Afghan War, blinking on the tax cut debate, doing nothing on card check or immigration, announcing a pay freeze for federal workers, taking a weak position on climate change, failing to close Guantanamo, leaving intact most of Bush’s “war on terror” policies and junking the public option, Bai is right—Obama has never really told the party base to stuff it.
And because this is a Matt Bai article, he feels obligated to write this:
The national debt is near the top of any list of voter concerns at the moment.
ANY poll? The first one I found, from CBS News (11/11/10), found 4 percent of respondents thought the debt was the first order of business for the next Congress–leading Times columnist Paul Krugman to write a blog post (11/14/10) headlined, “No, Really—Nobody Cares About the Deficit.”
And as we pointed out a few months ago, the Times news section arrived at a different conclusion on September 16:
The economy and jobs are increasingly and overwhelmingly cited by Americans as the most important problems facing the country, while the deficit barely registers as a topic of concern when survey respondents were asked to volunteer their worries.
Are Times factcheckers allowed to skip Matt Bai’s articles?
You forgot to mention foot dragging on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and opposition to gay marriage. Particularly courageous stances, giving that public opinion is fast moving in the opposite direction.
sheesh…the folks obama decided to staff the catfood commision with was, in itself, a stfu to the “liberal base’…
It almost sounds to me as if you folks on the left are willing to concede he is a lousy president. Unqualified going in. Unremarkable going out?
It isn’t a concession to acknowledge that the current term of the Bush Administration is as much of a catastrophe as the first two terms. You may be confused by the diversionary tactics of the capitalist party, troll, but I would expect that most of the people here aren’t.
Excellent comment by Karen Garcia in the NYTimes, in response to Krugman:
“Obama is not ‘caving’ to Republicans because of political osteoporosis or gonadal insufficiency. He’s been a member of their club all along and is just playing his leading role in D.C. Power Theater. He’s not some genius strategizing in a multi-dimensional chess game the rest of us don’t understand. He’s not a sell-out to his base. To merit that dishonorable distinction, he would have had to have some principles to begin with. It appears he never had any.
“The charade is over, Mr. President. Nobody expects you to jump your corporate ship and join us in our leaky lifeboats. You are not the president of the people and you never have been.”
http://nyti.ms/eeJtKc
Michael,
Yes, I am about ready to concede Obama is a lousy president. He keeps bringing pencils to a knife fight. He keeps caving to the Republicans, which only makes them continue to hold out for everything they want. He even APOLOGIZED to the Republicans for “not reaching out to them enough” for the previous two years! Which says what? That he’s going to be EVEN MORE OF A PUSHOVER for the next two?
Maybe the lack of a father figure in his life made him TOO conciliatory. He may be very smart (so was Hoover), but he ISN’T cunning, sly, manipulative, or firmly dedicated to (what he claimed were) his principles. Nor does he seem to be learning. He thinks we “can all get along”. THESE Republicans DON’T WANT to get along, regardless of what they say! Anymore caving to the GOP and he is guaranteed to be a one-term president!
Hmmm. When I see critiques of the presidential operation such as here, I do wonder – does anyone actually understand how democracy operates? Why do you think the president can legislate? I also don’t need Super Fly – the Bill Maher wet dream – but appreciate the constant tone of civility even as Congress DOES pass most of what needs to get done. My allies in the LGBT community appreciate the careful deliberation of ending DADT to secure it. Sure and Executive Order would have been spiffy and gut satisfying, but it would NOT be permanent. Sure EOs could alter massive amounts of things – for a time. Working deliberately through Congress and the Courts, President Obama has secured enduring changes. He’s not spectacular, but he may be one the best presidents we ever had from the standpoint of restoring democracy. Democracy is messy and slow – it’s much more cool to have an Imperial President especially if he’s on OUR side, but that sort of razzmatazz just doesn’t secure change. It just makes us feel good – for the moment – but leaves us vulnerable to the next showman. I like this way better. it’s better for us in the long run.
I think Liz said it best.
I think I know how Democracy operates, and I think it has something to do with the will of the people. I don’t think the American people were eager to escalate the war in Afghanistan, which Obama chose to do despite the fact that it seems to be increasing terrorism, not fighting it. I do think the will of the people was for some form of a public option, which Obama just chose to ignore because it didn’t sit well with the insurance companies. What he also chose to ignore was his campaign promise to not include mandates, except for children, when it came to overhauling health care. Last I looked, there wasn’t a huge cry for mandates from the American public, but I think the insurance companies were happy about it. These days democracy isn’t such a messy business because there seems to be less and less of it given how closely the government and the financial sector seem to be working together to ignore the will of the people. I think if Obama is the best democracy can do, we who are not in the top one percent collecting most of the country’s wealth, are in for rough times ahead. I’m all for being civil. But I’m opposed to putting lipstick on a pig and calling it pretty.
I agree with both Elizabeth and Lorraine. The president has made some significant achievements in the world of the possible, but he has failed to energize his constituency for a new kind of presidency as he promised. Imagine the difference had he gone in with bold solutions and asked his base to get out there and organize to make Congress accept it. Imagine if he had engaged his voters instead of caving to his money men. He has done a splendid job-for a Republican. For a party that theoretically represents the people instead of the plutocracy, not so well.
Obama is where Carter was in 1978 with much of the base. I remember having conversations with the “insiders” and true believers….and you could not tell them he was drifting quickly to defeat in 1980.
Obama will lose in 2012 if the Republicans can nominate a candidate who can complete one sentence without sounding like a nut.
He is a one termer and he did it to himself with the help of that worthless bunch in congress. The Democratic Party needs a clean sweep and dump liberalism to adopt populist policies more concerned with people and community.
At this point as an identified Democrat who gave more money to Obama than any other candidate ever I plan to write in or vote for a minor party candidate in 2012…as I voted for Barry Commoner in 1980.
I think it is time to encourage the entire system to crash…there is too much evil in the current one. I am not going to help the Democrats save Capitalism again!
The Federal Government is bought and paid for by Big Pharma, Big Finance, Big Oil and Gas, Big Agriculture, Big Media, Big Healthcare. Poor President Obama, even though he made plans to change this influence, he, instead, was crushed under the weight of a hypocritical agenda offered by the status quo. As a result he merely continued in Bush’s footsteps in many instances allowing the Republicans to control the narrative of his presidency. In spite of having the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives and the White House, it seems minority rule has prevailed.
The true test will be tomorrow when the Senate votes on the tax cuts. Obama has decided to cave in to the Republicans demands by talking compromise. As in freezing the government workers pay for two years. The Republicans have been shouting about the evils of the public workers and their enormous salaries compared to private sector for 2 years now. By the way, the private salaries are higher than the public workers salaries, in spite of what the Republicans try to push.
Trickle down economics works only for the rich not for the rest of us. The Republicans still subscribe to this nonsense by trying to force tax cuts for the top 2% or no tax cuts at all. Tax cuts do not create jobs, if they did, why is there so many unemployed? Bush declared back in 2000, that the implementation of the tax cuts would help the majority of the lowest paid workers. Then more tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, again the ones who benefited the most were the rich.
In 1988, there was an article about luxury spending having made a comeback due to the Reagan tax cuts, but for the rest of the people spending was down to almost nil. In 2010, just a few days ago there was also an article about luxury spending being on the rise and under the same heading was the line “unemployed still finding it hard to buy food.”
President Obama is acting more and more like a Republican, contrary to what the media says about his leftist agenda.
The special interests should be dancing a gig. Obama fixed Wall street, the banks while companies are sitting on 1.6 trillion dollars, the highest in recorded history; the Chamber of Commerce should be thrilled. Obama is not anti-business as Politico seems to think by writing about how Obama should be more business friendly. Business are not really in that much trouble.
Obama has been a very good Republican President.
Lots of excuses, and blame, and spin,and justification going on here.But the point is flying over everyones head.Obama came in saying many of the things his liberal base wanted him to say.For a moment put aside the Devil that was in the details and his failure to legislate some things.America saw how it worked, and what it really meant,and decided that the fit sucked.To make matters worse Obama and his super majority ran ramshod over the publics wishes,which pissed them off.And yes surprise surprise he lied on some things- and grew up on others.PArt of the process.All in all he accomplished an amazing amount of legislative agenda in two years.His party ran from those accomplishments and the American people were sickened by them.And his head is on the chopping block because of them.The Republicans will now begin to deconstruct the Obama insanity.And we will be better off but……THis has all been such a waste of time.WE need better.WE must demand better than a man with no executive experience.Little legislative.No military.I could go on all day.IN retrospect what experience did he have?Got into a good school and did well toward the end of his college career?And talked a good game.
George Bush Senior went to fine schools.Was a naval pilot hero.Ran a business…started in small time politics working up to the senate.Became the ambas to China.RAn the CIA.On the boards of fortune 500 companies.RAn for prez and lost.BEcame the VP for eight years of the rebirth of AMerica after the Carter
years.ANd he was considered at the time not qualified by some as a president!HOw have our standards dropped so far?And are we surprised at the results?WE must do better
Obama’s fatal mistake was thinking the GOP was a political party interested in governance who would negotiate in good faith rather that a bunch of nihilists hellbent on turning EVERYTHING into his “Waterloo.”
Following on from Raymond….Obama’s been a good President, the problem is “Obama has been a good Republican President.” That’s the number one reason the base sat out the recent elections.
I will also note, as usual, all the legitimate criticism of Obama on this thread has come from the left, not the right.
Most all of you, and I, gave heavily of our time, energy and money to add to the ground swell of action that led to Obama’s election. Had he shown grit, and fought for the ideals he espoused in his campaign, we all would have given even more heavily to see that public sentiment would sway congress to enact the kinds of ligislation that would qualify as “Change we can believe in”. Instead he chose to compromise whatever principles he may have had with the selfish idealogues and their ignorant sheeple cronies, which, in the end, has compromised his relationship with us. What could have been a powerfull organized movement for progressive change has devolved into a dog house of dispirited, distressed, depressed and dysfunctional denizens of dispair. It is unnecessary here to list the litany of legitimate concerns that should have been addressed. We all know them all too well. Far better it would have been to have fought the good battle and lost, than to have surrended, loosing the war, our Nation and perhaps much more. This comment comes not from the left or the right, but from ahead, not a behind. any who have read posts by naturaldave or nellevad will recognise the content and style. I’ve settled on a moniker, “naturalist1”, though I queston the value of preaching to the choir, (and the devil, waiting in the wings, if you get my drift). Everyone else has been forced to put all of their energy into paying the rent and raising their kids to notice the crumbling foundation at our collective feet. I went with my grandkids to their grade school’s “gingerbread house” making night last night (a corporatist ploy to sell sugar kits, i suspect). The one my 6 yr. old grandson made (with help from me, of course) came out really cool, in a truely Gaudi kind of way. Ying and Yang, I guess. Pax
Thanks Matt Love and Bob S. Everybody else seems to believe that Obama was really a Democrat. I did too, but now it is obvious: Like Raygun, he’s an actor. Has the sincerety thing down. He can make good speeches.
His background and upbringing are totally inside the CIA/NED nexus, as are all his family.
Sadly we were so sick of the Shrub that the dems could have run a yellow dog…have I heard that before? We projected our wishes onto him. YES WE CAN GET FOOLED AGAIN.
My intuition tells me our President is being coerced. No evidence. Just a gut feeling.
Helen the president included the Republicans in exactly nothing. Negotiations????His super majority allowed him to lock Republicans out.HE did not ask for, or receive their views.AS he once said…. “HEY remember I won” indicating that he was now the big cheese?Helen ever hear the phrase no quarter asked- no quarter given?Expect no mercy from the incoming Republican leadership.They are gonna grind this mess underfoot.AS BIll Clinton said “politics is a blood sport”.BI- partisianship?Don’t you believe it.”We” learned from the best.Exactly as Rush Limbaugh promised two years ago……”when the lib house of cards tumbles down they will say he was not left enough”.Checkmate
Michael e, it would seem your multi-million paycheck is secure for some time. You can settle down now.
Bai’s simply spouting the received wisdom–it’s the same stuff we’ve been hearing for about thirty years now. Democrats must move to the right, because that’s what they need to do, move to the right. Why? I just told you, because they must, that’s why. The terrible irony here is that the President was never from the left–he was a Corporatist going in, and he always will be. It’s pretty clear by now that his “style” is that of a fellow who goes along to get along–he’s doesn’t want to rock the boat of the status quo, under any circumstances, but to numbskulls and shills like Bai, this status-quo propping-up is seen as the way to go; the President must confound and betray his base in order to satisfy people in the Beltway who will be around long after the President has retired to Hyde Park, whether it’s in 2012 or 2017.
So what’s in it for the left? Which is to say, what’s in it for the vast majority of Americans, say upwards of 75% of us? Not much, I’m afraid. The President has shown, repeatedly, that he’s not willing to fight for anything. Look for him to cave on the tax cuts for the rich, with the quid pro quo being the extension of unemployment benefits for the ninety-niners. It might even be worse than that. When the Republicans shut the government down in February, and make “non-negotiable” demands, what will Mr. Obama do? I’m not optimistic, and the President’s track record of constantly demeaning his base and caving in to the worst elements of the Republican Party (which is to say, all of them), should give everyone concerned with democracy and goodwill pause.
Tim I cant let stand that the majority is” left.”It may be as small as 20% though we could argue all day on polls.Suffice it to say that looking at a state by state blue-red voting, most all of the country is Red.Only a few areas on the coast being blue.Even the popular vote looks to swing right this time by huge margins.Most people have decidedly conservative values,and this country is still markedly center right.We have been led these last two years by the smallest 10%ers on the left.Their failure to to persuade is due to their being so far out of the vast majority of Americans.I feel if we were led by hard core moral majority leaders that they would suffer the same fate.Obama “caved”because he felt the immovable intractable, anger of America against his policies.Your summation on Obama is correct though.He has changed from what his base expected of him.Going forward I hope the republicans have learned something from all this.But like you i am not optimistic.
Andrew Sullivan
What we’ve observed these past two years is that the GOP is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party’s arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.
I see no other coherent message or strategy since 2008. Just opposition to everything, zero support for a president grappling with a recession their own party did much to precipitate, and facing a fiscal crisis the GOP alone made far worse with their spending in the Bush-Cheney years. There is not a scintilla of responsibility for their past; not a sliver of good will for a duly elected president.
I know it is the opposition’s role to oppose. But the sheer scale and absolutism of the opposition, and its continuation in the lame duck session, even over such small but integral reforms such as the new START and DADT repeal, is remarkable.
This is not conservatism, properly understood, a disposition that respects the institutions and traditions of government, that can give as well as take, that seeks the national interest before partisan concerns, and that respects both the other branches of government and seeks to work with them.
These people are not conservatives in this core civilized sense; they are partisan vandals.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/12/the-dickishness-of-the-gop.html
Thanks for that quote, Helen Bedd. Sullivan’s right–the Right has no coherent message at all, and it’s galling to hear any of them call themselves conservatives. Noam Chomsky’s acute observation about most of them–that they’re Radical Statists–is right on. We’re in big trouble, and the first few months of the new year should be interesting. And disturbing.
Helen all i can say is…right back at ya.We learned it from you all.Explain to me exactly what support you and yours gave to Bush?Dan Carville said it best.He said”ten minutes after Bush was elected we had a brain trust thats sole job was to destroy every word and deed taken on by Bush.We would use our control of the general press to do that.We were very successful”
Helen i agree it has never been worse.But this is not just political gamesmanship this time.”We”(I will try to speak for the TEA party)are diametrically opposed to the Obama agenda.I will not boor you with the oft heard details. Suffice it to say we are.The republican party agrees with us on a good many constitutional values and so we are of a like mind.I would say their is room between republicans,libertarians,constitutionalists, and tea party members for bi-partisanship.With the Dems it would be more with the progressives and the socialists.Where do you see a meeting of the minds there?No i think we need to sus this out in the public forum.And decide what America has meant and shall mean in the future.I think America has tasted the fruit and found it wanting.This next election will prove that.
There is too much government debt: Let the Bush tax cuts expire. Let everyone pay the same tax rate: No special interest tax breaks; No tax loopholes. End the cap on Social Security tax.
If everyone paid their fair share of tax, there would be no problem paying off government debt, funding social security and medicare, and extending unemployment benefits.
Individual taxpayors could use more bang for their buck as well as protection from predators from within and without. Corporate persons could benefit from more individual investors with some capital to invest.
How much government do we want to buy and how do we get it to act in a way that benefits our quality of life?
John i agree with a flat tax.BUT…..the problem is not how much we take in.We take in plenty.This is not a fiscal problem in that sense.The problem is how much government spends.You could confiscate 100% of all the wealth -and in would be spent just like that
Guess what? That Carville [James, not Dan] quote from Micheal e….made up….shocking!!!, I know
The google produces one hit…mikey’s comment on this thread
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=ten+minutes+after+Bush+was+elected+we+had+a+brain+trust+thats+sole+job+was+to+destroy+every+word+and+deed+taken+on+by+Bush.We+would+use+our+control+of+the+general+press+to+do+that.We+were+very+successful.&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=e18ec2db23988f7d
what kind of troll makes stuff up?
matt tabbai on matt bai
Bai is one of those guysâ┚¬”Âthere are hundreds of them in this businessâ┚¬”Âwho poses as a wonky, Democrat-leaning â┚¬Ã…“centristâ┚¬Ã‚ pundit and then makes a career out of drubbing â┚¬Ã…“unrealisticâ┚¬Ã‚ liberals and progressives with cartoonish Jane Fonda and Hugo Chavez caricatures. This career path is so well-worn in our business, it’s like a Great Silk Road of pseudoleft punditry.
First step: graduate Harvard or Columbia, buy some clothes at Urban Outfitters, shore up your socially liberal cred by marching in a gay rights rally or something, then get a job at some place like the American Prospect. Then once you’re in, spend a few years writing wonky editorials gently chiding liberals for failing to grasp the obvious wisdom of whatever Bob Rubin/Pete Peterson Foundation deficit-reduction horseshit the Democratic Party chiefs happen to be pimping at the time.
Once you’ve got that down, you just sit tight and wait for the New York Times or the Washington Post to call. It won’t be long. Bai is the poster child of those guys.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/239443/83512
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