Back in 2008 when Barrack Obama was elected along with a Democratic party sweep in the House and senate giving Obama and the Democrats the biggest congressional majority any president had in 60 years, one of the first things he said as the newly elected president who's party had just won a landslide victory over the opposition across the board was, " I want Republican ideas".
Which not only goes down in history as the single dumbest comment ever made by a newly elected president, it was a harbringer of things to come and should have revealed to any Democrat that it was going to be a bumpy ride because of who and what he was: not a Republican, not a Democratic president who favored Republican ideas, or even a Democrat who favored Democratic party ideas, but a truly empty politician with no real convictions or principles and no intention of fullfilling the promises and pledges he made (which was evident during the 2008 primaries). It all proved to be true.
Seemingly it never occurred to Obama in 2008 that if the country had wanted Republican ideas after 8 years of George W. Bush and a Republican congress and the catastrophes they caused, they wouldn't have elected him president and the Democrats to congress with the biggest majority of any party in 60 years, a majority Obama wasted his first two years. Now that seems like a long time ago.
Over the next 6 years, time and again Obama caved in to Republican opposition. Not that he gave them what they wanted. He just didn't give the country, the Democratic party or his Democratic supporters and the people who voted for him what they wanted and expected based on all the pledges and promises he made, every one of which he either reneged on or broke in one way or another.
And through it all, Democrats, hand picked sycophants in the Democratic party leadership and people who call themselves progressives at various Democratic and progressive groups around the country like MoveOn, Daily Kos, or PFAW, set new standards in lying to themselves about the Obama presidency.
For decades reality has proved that Democratic party ideas, initiatives, and policies have worked and benefited the country in major ways while Republican policies, when in a position to be implemented have been an unmitigated disaster for the country from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, and for the most part have never worked.
Yet , with the exception of the Clinton years, Democrats do not seem to have a political strategist worth 2c who has been able to formulate a strategy, message or design political campaigns that know how to use substance and facts against Republican policies to give people a good reason to vote for Democrats.
Instead they do utterly stupid things like trying to make the Koch Brothers the issue instead of giving people a substantive reason to vote for them over Republicans. Though admittedly with Obama's failures and his capitulations which resulted in none of the Democratic agenda being implemented that would have been hard to do without repudiating Obama which was suggested here for months as a necessary truth and fact of life if Democrats didn't want to lose and lose big.
Nancy Pelosi, who along with Obama and Harry Reid were responsible in 2010 for the Democrats suffering the worst political defeat of any party in 80 years only two years into Obama's first term after gaining the biggest majority in 60 years because they went along with Obama's dropping of the public option and sell out of health care reform, this year urged congressional Democrats to run on Obamacare, chiding Democratic candidates that the first word in the Affordable Care Act was " affordable, affordable, affordable". Given that 98% of the 50 million uninsured in America are still uninsured because under Obamacare they still cant afford coverage offered by insurance companies who wrote the bill, Pelosi's Marie Antoinette act didn't go over very well with voters.
Given the disatrsous results of the 2014 elections for Democrats it would be worth remembering that, with the exception of Bill Clinton, Democrats are always running not to lose. But even in 2008 when any Democrat running for president would have beaten any Republican, even when Democrats couldn't lose they found a way.
In a year when Democrats couldn't lose the hierarchy of the Democratic party chose to rig their primary process and convention to assure Obama had the nomination with the help of some dishonest journalists instead of just letting the process play out honestly. They did it perhaps because Democrats know they cant win any kind of national election without African American support. But by forcing the issue with Obama, they found a way to lose in the long run and they have been paying the price ever since.
Democrats were crushed in the 2014 elections and it was a defeat largely of their own making. They stood idly by and let a weak, indecisive president with no real convictions and no commitment to the Democratic or liberal agenda sell out, capitulate and compromise every Democratic party ideal and belief, a president who sold out healthcare reform for a watered down version written by the insurance companies and couldn't get a single piece of gun safety legislation passed in the aftermath of Sandyhook even though it was supported by 86% of the American people. In foreign policy, Isis and failures in the Middle East and being bullied by Putin and looking weak over Ukraine and a red line over chemical weapons that disappeared when it was crossed, didn't help.
Obama caved in so many times on so many issues people working at the White House probably went to work wearing miner's helmets with little flashlights on top so they could wave and see each other amid the debris.
He fail miserably and inadequately in dealing with every unexpected issue or crisis that emerged either domestically or foreign. And congressional Democrats and Democratic political groups didn't have the backbone to stand up and say something. Or rebel. Instead they lied to themselves and in the aftermath of the election some still are.
What must be especially painful for Democrats is that with 68% of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track, it's not because Obama implemented Democratic policies, it's because he didn't. And it cost them the election.
The Democratic party needs an overhaul in leadership and it needs to start now. The triumverate of Obama, Pelosi and Reid is what brought the Democrats down.
A close look at the election results make clear what happened. Independents didn't want to send a message to Democrats that they approved of Obama's presidency and voted Republican, and many Democrats didn't want to send a message that they approved of Obama's presidency and stayed home. And to underscore how much this election was a repudiation of Obama and not Democratic policies, five red states who elected Republican senators, voted to increase the minimum wage in their states and did it by landslide margins, in some cases by a margin of 40 points. So it wasn't a rejection of policy. It was a rejection of a vacuum created by Obama and Democratic leadership where there was no policy. As Obama pointed out when he said publicly that he had no strategy on Isis. The result of his rejecting the advice for three years of his own Secretary of State and two Secretaries of Defense.
Democrats need new leadership starting now and they need to take that mantel away from Obama even with 2 years remaining in his term. If they don't 2016 could be a repeat of 2014. And 2010. Just as I correctly predicted in August of 2010 (to blow my own horn) that if they let Obama drop the public option on healthcare they would get wiped out of congress in the November election. And as I predicted repeatedly this year warning that if Democrats didn't, not just distance themselves, but repudiate Obama's undermining of the Democratic agenda, admit his mistakes and his failures, and stand up for Democratic policies instead of the stupid, inane strategy of trying to run against the Koch Brothers and their money, they would get wiped out again.
The Democrats have less than two years to clean house and get it in order. And that means new leadership. By somebody. Which includes no more whiney dishonest fund raising emails by Democratic campaign committees, extolling the virtues of Obama and being so stupid as to think that is going to motivate a Democratic base that has seen Obama sell out their agenda.
Because now they have to deal with the reality that, when Obama was elected in 2008, and said " I want Republican ideas", thanks to him and Democratic party leadership, they are going to get them , and be forced to deal with Republican ideas for at least the next two years.
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9 comments:
To Pumas
Obama did NOT sink democrats. The democratic candidates SANK DEMOCRATS. When they allowed the right to spook them into disowning the president, WE HIS BASE said screw them. They don't need him, then they don't need our votes. (Note that two thirds of the electorate stayed away} We can put up with 2 years of mcconnells smirk while senate democrats still have the numbers to filibuster and the president still have his power of veto. No amount of billionaire dollars can dismantle this base that he has built. We are simply waiting for the right candidate and it AINT HILLARY The reps did not win this election. Our democratic candidates gave it to them by dissing the president. Now they can go sell "I am not Obama" Tshirts' In the meantime, we true democrats will quietly work on our
2016 campaign. You Pumas disavowal of him did not make a dent in him winning 2 elections and all your bad mouthing of him will not get Hillary elected. A lot of us desperately wanted her to win the nimination in 2008 (I cried when she lost it to Obama) but we sucked it up and supported our party. Now thanks to you, for us, as far as she is concerned, the thrill is gone. I am sure she appreciate your efforts. Check out the jobs report released this morning. I also paid $2.57 per gallon for gas this morning. I could go on and on but our intrepid candidates could not bring themselves to make talking points of the positives of the Obama administration. Well, they ran away from him, we the voters,ran away from them.
"I could go on and on but our intrepid candidates could not bring themselves to make talking points of the positives of the Obama administration."
there are no positives from the Obama adminsitration. He sold out healthcare reform to the insurance companies because he didnt have the backbone or integrity to sign the public option bill that had already passed. He is clearly the most dishonest president the Democrats ever offered, the weakest the most duplicitous and I could go on and on about all the lies and promises he made and broke because he didnt have the integrity or desire to do any more than he had done his first 11 years of elected office which is absolutely nothing. The gas prices you talk about had nothing to do with Obama and the fact that you think it does, is why so many who saw through Obama referred to his supporters as "drinking the Kool-Aid".
I will agree on one thing -- Obama alone didnt sink the Democrats and in many ways they sunk themselves as they often do, not the least of which was not standing up to Obama when he was selling out the Democratic party agenda to Republicans. If they had they wouldnt have allowed him to sink the Democrats in 2010 when they were wiped out of congress because they went along with Obama's selling out of healthcare reform to the insurance companies.
"The gas prices you talk about had nothing to do with Obama and the fact that you think it does, is why so many who saw through Obama referred to his supporters as "drinking the Kool-Aid".
That's odd. When prices were high it was Obama's fault.It had everything to do with him Now that they are down, it has nothing to do with him.Hmm. Who is drinking whose kool aid?
Lies? How about Dubya and his imaginary WMD's. Remember the Iraqi soldiers who would greet our forces with flowers and hail them as liberators? (That's what the man said). Over a decade later, said iraqi soldiers now command the most barbaric group since Atilla and his Huns. That is gw's legacy to the world ISIS. I think I will take Obama's lies over Bush's anyday. They are less deadly. And before you reply that had Obama left the troops in Iraq Isis would never have proliferated, let me say that a group like this don't just rise up overnight. This has been in the planning since 2003 when the first combat US soldier touched Iraqi soil. There were thousands of us troops on the ground in Iraq when that murderous Jordanian (I forgot his name) and his barbarians were capturing and beheading contractors, blowing up dozens of Iraqis on a daily basis and even murdering a female aid worker.(She wasn't beheaded, she was shot) SO THE IDEA THAT A PRESENCE OF US TROOPS WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THE RISE OF ISIS IS A FIGMENT OF JOHN McCAINS IMAGINATION.
Bottom line, you PUMAs killed any chance for your Hillary. You dissed Obama, now his well oiled voting machine disses her. Take a look at the demographic breakdown of the voters that took part in the midterm elections. One third of the electorate which does not include any of the core Obama support groups. We will be there for the next worthy DEMOCRATIC candidate though.
"That's odd. When prices were high it was Obama's fault.It had everything to do with him Now that they are down, it has nothing to do with him.Hmm. Who is drinking whose kool aid?
Lies? How about Dubya and his imaginary WMD's."
First, I know of no one who blamed Obama for high gas prices. It's something I never heard before, which is not to say it didnt happen but Im reasonably well informed and if some lunatic made the connection I wasn't aware of it.
Secondly, no one, and I mean no one has been more critical or attacked George W. Bush for the catastrophes he brought on the country than you will find here, and the pieces are all here for you to read: everything from his ignoring the intelligence that would have prevented the 911 attacks to Iraq, Katrina and the economic meltdown and how the press rolled over for him just they way do for Obama.
But that doesnt change the fact that Obama has been a catastrophe in his own way,not because of what he did to the country but because of what he could have done with a huge Democratic majority and didnt and for no other reason than he didnt have the convictions or principles to do any of the things that were promised and this is why the Democrats were wiped out in 2010 and why they were wiped out now.
Mr Rubin, like Sarah Palin, you PUMAS have spent the last 6 years praying for Obama to fall on his face. Love of country meant nothing as long as the skinny guy with the big ears got screwed
No one mourned as much as I did when she lost the nomination to him. But us Floridians knew dhe 78is a strong woman and will rise to fight another day. but thanks to PUMAs, that hope is gone
r Rubin, like Sarah Palin, you PUMAS have spent the last 6 years praying for Obama to fall on his face. Love of country meant nothing as long as the skinny guy with the big ears got screwed No one mourned as much as I did when she lost rhat sge The nomination to him. But us Floridians knew is a strong woman and will rise to fight another day. but thanks to PUMAs, that hope is gont
"Mr Rubin, like Sarah Palin, you PUMAS have spent the last 6 years praying for Obama to fall on his face."
That comment proves you are ignorant
and havent any idea what youre talking about. Obama has fallen on his face without any help from anyone if you actually knew anything you'd know that in 11 years of elected office before becoming president Obama didnt offer one peice of legislation or co-sponsor legistaltion or do one thing for anyone but himself. And nothing has changed. The fact that you support that or ignore it says more about you than it does me.
And as for comparing me to Palin I suppose you arent aware that I was active in Democratic party politics, created ads and TV commericals on behalf of Hillary Clinton in 2008 mostly because of what I knew about Obama and his past and previous lies and his record of having accomplished less than nothing in 11 years and knew what kind of president he'd make if elected. He didnt disappoint. It would take an hour to chronicle all his well documented lies which doesn't matter to you for your own reasons. In fact you are obviously proud of it and think that anyone who isn't must be a Republican instead of a blind sycophant. One thing that is clear is that in all your support for Obama you havent been able to point to anything he actually did that made life better for one human being instead of giving Wall street bankers who caused the economic failures a get out of jail card for a price,screwed 50 million people who couldnt afford health insurance, and countless other failures. I suppose that is your idea of love of country. It sounds more like love of Obama for your own reasons in spite of the country. One can only hope Democrats wake up and clean house before the Republicans do the kind of damage they did during the Bush years, which Obama was suppoed to fix, reverse and pass policies to make the country better when he had the chance and didnt.
Mr Rubin, I did not answer your uninformed insults for a while because I became preoccupied with my 98 year old mothers illness so I will cut you some slack. In the meantime, do your research because I fully intend to show you who is ignorant. And yes, you pumas, or whatever euphymism you care to apply to yourselves are just as bitter and vindictive as Palin. 6 years of negative praying. What a waste!
Mr Rubin,You know what, I just thought of something. You said you created ads for hillary clinton in 2008. Does that include the one about Rev Wright? The one in which the sermon was so edited to make it sound like he was calling down damnation on America. Well I have listened to the entire sermon, and all he was saying was what pastors all over this nation have been saying:- ie, if Americanns continue to throw God out of their schools, refuse to admit that marriage is a sacred rite between one man and one woman etc, then it won't be God bless America, it will be God damn America, because we have gone against everything He taught us. He was calling for repentance, not damnation of our country. I have even heard Pastors say that if America continues on its current path, God might have to apoligse to Sodom and Gommorah. So you you and Hillary chopped it up and ran with it and people who refused to think for themselves followed suit.If I am wrong about your part in this deception, I apoligise, but one way or another, it's one more reason why I would rather have root canal performed on me by an African Bushman than support Hillary.
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