I know we're all sick of the polly ticks, but I've got one more thing to say before getting back to the important business of posting orb pictures. "Let's blame The Left/FireDogLake/etc. for everything" is getting on my last nerve.
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Given A Cactus
2 hours ago
7 comments:
Here's the problem I am looking at:
A significant part of my work has been funded through Title 42 tax credits; those get administered through the State's WHEDA office, which is headed up by an appointee. For the last few years, the appointee has been awesome, but he is leaving to go to HUD, and what kind of political hack will Scott Walker put in? A horrible person, I suspect.
Furthermore, the most recent built projects had significant financial support through ARRA; now that Miss McConnell and Orange-Man rule the Universe, will the further stimulus (that should have been part of the first package) be passed? ALL SIGNS POINT TO NO.
So, it's Wal-Mart greeter for me.
Re on the Jane Hamsher thing, well, yes and no. The Democratic base can't see anything through, as far as I can tell, and while I don't think that Obama is anything but a corporatist, you can't even germinate an internal party takeover or an external left-wing movement under an ideological Republican government.
What I gather from the past two years is that the Democratic online base, at least, wanted Obama to sign the death warrant of the insurance industry, and when he didn't, well...
Mandos, there are many things Obama could have done by simple executive order without any congressional approval or politicking.
Instead, he chose to do other, horrible things.
The problem is not a lack of patients. The problem is that Obama is an awful person. That is why this lefty didn't vote for Obama's party. This lefty doesn't vote for murders, even if the other guy is also murderers.
Why even bother arguing ideology when even a cursory analysis establishes a VERY high correlation between voters views of the economy and mid-term losses. Couple that with the unsustainably large Democratic majority, and you get what you got.
Obama's culpability in electoral losses on Tuesday is tied not to legislative overreach or afghan atrocities, but to his performance as steward of the economy. The stimulus needed to be 1.4 Trillion, much more focused on spending and aid to states. It wasn't. It's an interesting discussion, but whether or not more was possible doesn't actually change the equation. Not enough fiscal stimulus = huge mid term losses for the party in the white house. QED.
The other thing I WISH Obama had done/will do is acknowledge that sometimes what congress does is sub-optimal. Have you heard him say, even once, that the stimulus was too small? No, he says the stimulus worked. Crazy. Has he ever said "hey folks, I didn't kill the fucking public option, that asshat Lieberman did"? He needs to tell the fucking truth. I don't know how much it would have helped on Tuesday, but he still needs to do it...
What I gather from the past two years is that the Democratic online base, at least, wanted Obama to sign the death warrant of the insurance industry...
Oh come on now. The insurance industry got the Health Care Reform of their dreams: a very profitable individual mandate, and no public option. Unfortunately, the first is very unpopular with the public, while the 2nd would have made HCR much more popular.
I don't agree that the "Democratic online base" that you refer to is anywhere near the size of the actual Democratic base that votes in the millions on election day (and if it were, then Obama & Co. made that much more of a foolish move by ignoring and belittling them).
The banks that got bailed out under TARP donated money to Republicans to run ads blaming Obama for bailing out the banks.
Obama got played in every way by a tiny Republican minorities in Congress, and squandered the opportunity to actually change the direction this country is headed in.
All in the name of "changing the tone in Washington".
So much for that. You get elected to exercise power. "We tried to work with other side, and they wouldn't play fair" isn't going to win jack. Especially when the other side has spent the previous 8 years proving that they don't deserve a say in running the government.
And when will this chance come again, and at what price?
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I hate to say it, but I can't shake the feeling that the Democrats in Congress and the White House have been perfectly okay with the status quo. They used the "we have no supermajority" excuse then, and now they have the "GOP House" excuse. Meanwhile, Joe Schmo is being pounded into mincemeat, and the country is going down the tubes.
I don't doubt that Obama could have done more, and didn't want to. At present, American presidents are destined to be chundernozzles for a lot of different reasons. The question is, how should everyone else react to that. Giving Obama excuses for free (a GOP House) doesn't seem to me like an optimal reaction.
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