Monday, December 21, 2009

Are Hillary Clinton supporters murmuring I told you so?


With a new NBC/Wall Street journal poll showing Obama hitting his lowest approval rating in that poll, and the same poll showing that people are getting increasingly fed up with Obama, the Democrats and how both have handled health care,(how they handled it, not rejecting things that are in it, like the public option) those who supported Hillary Clinton for president in the Democratic primaries are starting to say "I told you so".

Obama's had the biggest approval ratings drop of any first year president in history. He has disappointed most of his supporters on the left. And he has accomplished little to nothing in his first year that has showed any concrete results in spite of him giving himself a B+ for his performance in his first year.

What he has done is make more speeches and had more prime time press conferences in his first year than any president has given in their entire first term.

On healthcare reform, most of his supportes are complaining that he sold out and was two faced in his capitulation. Which he was. But these are traits he exhibited not only during his entire 12 years of elected office, but were on glaring display during the Democratic primaries.

Now everyone is angry with him for showing a lack of principle, commitment, experience and expertise and his willingness to sacrifice any principle on a dime, but that's who Obama has always been and he showed it repeatedly during the primaries, whether he was willing to sell out the voters of Florida and Michigan to help himself get elected, or reversing himself on a pledge to use public financing.

Now as Obama's approval ratings continue to hit record lows for a first term president, and he is bringing the Democratic party down with him, as people are getting fed up with his handling of a propositon -- the public option and health care reform -- that 72% supported back in June, many Hillary Clinton supporters are starting to say "we told you so".

More and more of Obama's staunchest supporters, the same people who turned a blind eye to Obama's deep character flaws, lack of experience, and brazen political dishonesty and deceit, are now complaining that he's not what they thought he was, that this isnt change they can believe in. But it never was in the first place. It was clear to anyone who was paying attention, that "change you can believe in" was nothing but a slogan. Because he never did say what kind of change he had in mind.And if you asked a supporter they couldnt tell you either.

Ed Schultz, Arianna Huffington, the people at The Nation, Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone, and Michael Moore are just a few of Obama flag wavers now wavering in their support and scratching their heads saying "what happened"?

The answer is nothing happened. Obama is being the same Obama he always was, the same Obama that was apparent during the Democratic primaries, the same Obama that 18 months ago after listening to a couple of speeches, caused me to write that he was a snake oil salesman and the most underhanded, deceitful politician since Richard Nixon. But the press. who was in Obama's pocket, refused to see it.Or report it.

For those who saw through the phoniness, Obama has been exactly what the majority of Democratic primary voters thought he was. Remember that Hillary Clinton actually received more votes than Obama, and went into the Democratic convention having won the popular vote.

During the primaries Clinton supporters mocked Obama supporters and their beliefs as people who were "drinking the Kool-Aid". Obama supporters accused Clinton supporters, and anyone who opposed Obama's candidacy of being racist. This was the state of the Democratic party courtesy of the candidate who ran on the proposition that he had a unqiue ability to unite people and bring them together. He ran on the fiction that he had some great ability to unite Democrats and Republicans and put an end to partisanship. Which is why every Republican is voting against the health care bill and he hasnt been able to unite any disparate group on anything.

In a recent article in Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi writes, "Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different."

Yes it was your fault for not seeing what was right in front of everyone's eyes. The fact that he pulled a bait and switch shouldnt leave anyone surprised. That was the snake oil Obama was selling during the primaries and a lot of people bought it and are now seemingly first finding out it was all just sugar and water.

The reason people are feeling so stung by Obama is that he held himself up to be a different kind of politician, someone above the petty politics and back room deals of Washington. All the while engaging in petty politics and backroom deals. What also makes it particularly insidious is when a snake oil salesman goes into a community that is hurting and tells everyone he has the cure and its right in this here bottle when all along he knows its nothing but a bottle of empty promises. That's called a con. And now a lot of people who should have known better are realizing it.

It was clear during the primaries when Obama constantly reneged on promises and pledges and resorted to serial lying both when it came to Jeremiah Wright, and the incident in Ohio when a document was leaked that caught Obama red handed lying to the people of Ohio about his position on NAFTA. He told the people in Ohio who were hurting economically precisely because of things in NAFTA that if they elected him he'd get rid of NAFTA. At the same time he was caught telling the Candians to ignore what he said in Ohio, that he had no intention of getting rid of NAFTA, that it was all just for politics. if that had happened to any other candiate for president it might have been the end. But the press had an agenda for Obama and they just ignored it.

But If a politician is willing to prey on the misfortunes of people to get votes, raising their hopes, and making promises he knows he has no intention of fullfilling, nothing he does should surprise anyone.

But at the time it was exposed, the same people who are now complaining about Obama betraying them and selling them out, turned a blind eye to what happened in Ohio. If Clinton had been caught doing the same thing the press would have demanded she drop out of the race and would have said she couldnt be trusted.

The fact that Obama was clearly the least qualified candidate for the Democratic nomination, didnt seem to matter to his supporters either. And while he claimed he was the person who knew how to bring people together the Democratic presidential primaries were the most divisive in the history of the party. In his campaign speeches he said "voices must be heard" but he did everything in is power to keep the voices of the voters in Florida and Michigan from being heard because he was landslided in both primaries by Clinton. Instead of fighting for the right to have their votes count on principle, he was quite content to have them silenced in favor of his own ambitions. So why are people surprised now that he sold them out on healthcare reform?

The other big issue that seemed to matter to Obama's supporters was that he was black. So they took everything Martin Luther King stood for and threw it out the window, which was that a person should be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Many of his supporters, including John Kerry who made no bones about it, decided the color of his skin mattered more.

But while this may come as a shock to them, Obama is not the first black president. He is the first mixed race president, half black and half white. He is no more the country's first black president than Derek Jeter was the Yankees first black shortstop. In all of Jeter's hall of fame career no one ever referred to him that way. But his genetic make up is the same as Obama's. The difference is the random shuffling of genetic material resulted in Jeter having more Caucasian features and a caramel complexion while Obama's features and complexion were more black. So maybe now that they feel betrayed by that too, Either that or maybe ,those who supported him because they wanted a black president will admit Martin Luther King was right the first time.

During the primaries,Obama's selling out promises were rampant. He promised to use public financing if he was the nominee then reneged as soon as became the nominee. He promised to filibuster and vote against the FISA bill if it gave telecoms retroactive immunity then reneged, didnt filibuster and voted for it. And lied, until he couldn't lie any longer about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright and on sending on his economic advisors to the Canadian embassy to tell them to ignore everything he was saying publicly about NAFTA.

This is the person that liberals and Democrats who supported him are now surprised has sold them out when it was apparent that Obama was probably the most underhanded politician since Richard Nixon. The difference between the two is that Nixon used deceit to get even. Obama used it to get ahead. It all goes to character and how that influences decisions. As well as having a vision and sticking up for a principle, something Obama has thrown overboard on healthcare.

So perhaps Hillary Clinton supporters can be excused if they are now saying " We told you so". Because they did.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks you once again, Marc for saying it exactly like it is and was.

I was utterly amazed that my liberal cohorts could not see how false this fellow was. I spent many months biting my tongue to avoid getting the usual accusations that I was racist, out of touch and/or negative. Wow.

I knew in my bones that this "historic" president was a con.

I knew his "allure" would wear thin. My only surprise has been how fast he has sank.



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madazhel

athyrio said...

Fantastic post Marc, and thank you for saying exactly how I feel as a Hillary supporter...Sadly it is too late and the democratic party will suffer for years because of this con man...

Roberta said...

I agree totally with both Marc and all the two comments made so far.

I was - and still am - a Hillary supporter. And as more of my friends and colleagues express concerns about Obama it is hard not to say, "I told you so."

What disturbs and disturbed me most about Obama supporters is their calling me a racist, which anyone who knows my background knows is utterly false. And the Democrats are still into that game from Pelosi saying months ago that those who opposed Obamacare were Nazis to today's R.I. Senator saying essentially the same thing.

In America opposition and disagreement are the most American and patriotic actions a citizen can engage in. And Obama and the Democrats better get used to that because when this heath thingie passes there will be a lot of opposition and this will only grow louder as citizens learn what is in this bill.

purplefinn said...

Marc, You present a reasoned, strong, relentless case. Bravo!

Perry Logan said...

I'm going around saying, "What's PUMA for 'I told you so'?"

Unknown said...

Puma for "I told you so....."

"Nixon used deceit to get even. Obama used it to get ahead."

What a fraud Mr. Obama is. What a fraud!

DancingOpossum said...

I love that line, Perry.

I am really annoyed with these oh-so-disillusioned Obamabots. Reading what they wrote about him during the primaries it's crystal clear that they were talking about a fictional creation, a self-invented myth about Obama. The language they used to write about him would embarrass a 12-year-old "Twilight" fanfic writer. (Who probably actually *knows* that the object of her fantasy is, well, a fantasy!) I have no patience for them, none zip zero.