We aren't fighting hard enough. We aren't negotiating. We're trying to protect the people of the United States from the insanity that is the republicans. We're avoiding a shutdown because we want to keep social security checks coming, we want to keep people employed, and we want to save the economy from lunatics with chainsaws.
Barack Obama is doing what he thinks is the right thing, even when that's politically and strategically unwise. And I disagree with him, strongly. I want a Commander in Chief that stands firm against republican hostage taking.
If the republicans want to shut down the Government, then I say make them own it.
Why shut it down? Because of what comes next.
Next Fight About Trillions, Not Billions, says Speaker
[T]his week, we'll advance our fight from saving billions of dollars to saving trillions of dollars as we turn our full attention to the GOP budget outlined by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., aptly titled "The Path to Prosperity."
The Path to Prosperity is a powerful blueprint for economic growth and fiscal responsibility that will help our economy get back to creating jobs, stop Washington from spending money we don't have, and lift the crushing burden of debt that threatens our children and grandchildren.
"One percent isn't enough, we need three."
"What's next?"
"Excuse me?"
"What's next? 5 percent? Fifty?"
It's amazing that the republicans are using the strategies outlined in The West Wing. If we don't make them own this, they are going to keep dragging the country back into the ditch they drove it into under Bush. We need to fight them, and we need to make them own their failures.
Barack Obama wants to be Community Organizer in Chief. He will never fight the republicans the way we want him to. Mark my words. I hope I'm eating those words six years from now at the end of one of the most successful presidencies in American history.
But I wont be.
I'm not surprised or disappointed. This is why I didn't vote for him in the Primary, because I was fairly sure that he was a lamb amongst the wolves. But he's our president. He will be our president next term, because the republicans don't have a bishop's chance in hell of ousting him from that office, unless we democrats don't show up and don't vote for him.
Which we all have to do, unless we want President Sarah Palin. That's the other option. If the republicans can do this much damage to our republic from a minority position, imagine the damage they would do if they got in charge.
In what was probably my first diary, I made a comment about disappointment and then plead for unity. Then was the time to complain. Now is not the time to be divided into defeat.
I'm going to vote for President Obama in 2012. I will not tolerate a primary challenge that weakens our position.
This is because we've got to take congress back. The only way we'll see any real leadership in this country is if we have huge majorities in congress in 2012.
That's what we can do. That's the job we can get done. We can at least be satisfied that the man on top is doing the best job he can in a number of areas.
I'm happy with what he's trying to do on nuclear energy and nuclear materials, I'm glad we've taken a baby step in the right direction on Healthcare, and I'm glad that we're almost out of Iraq and we'll probably be out of Afghanistan before his time is up in six years.
It's more than I thought we would get when I selected him over McCain. I always thought that he was a centrist, and I'm not too surprised that he's trying to take the middle rather than trying to convince the American people that liberal ideas are the right ideas. I'm not surprised that he's retreating for the sake of bipartisanship because it means that social security checks will still go out and old people wont starve.
And I'm going to vote for him in 2012.
You should too.
He's a pretty okay president. He's no FDR, but he's better than a lot of people we've had.
And he's better than anyone else who might be running. Oh there's a long list of democrats that I want in the White House that aren't running or couldn't win if they did. Al Gore. Hillary Clinton. Anthony Weiner. Al Franken. Rick Boucher. Mark Warner. Tom Perriello.
None of these people are running for president. Barack Obama is. A primary would only hurt us, and that's really really bad.
Because what matters under the Obama presidency is congress. If we defect, if we complain too much, if we don't show up at the polls, if we don't fight, we'll win the election, but we might not hold on to Congress in the bargain. The more damage we do to Barack, the lower the number of seats we'll carry.
I trust Nancy Pelosi. I trust that the Democrats in the senate, given the votes, can get rid of the filibuster abuse we've seen there.
We need to send these people the reinforcements they need to make things happen. The fight over Barack Obama ended in 2008 when Hillary Clinton conceded.
After that point, the Democratic party made its choice, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
We need to stop arguing about something we can't change, and start working on making sure that congress goes in the direction it needs to go.
So stop complaining about Obama, and start focusing on your congressman and senator. Start asking them to fight. Start organizing to defeat any republicans in your district.
We cant afford disunity right now. The stakes are far too high.
Rather than shooting ourselves in the nose to spite our faces, we need to focus on positive things we can do. If Obama wont fight, we can get the senate and house Democrats to fight instead. That might just give us the boost we need to take back the house and senate.
The disunity we feel right now will lead to our defeat against an enemy that is fairly good at marching in lockstep, unless we can filter that disunity into positive action.
Update: A great comment from A Voice:
Obama would not be in this position, being continually stuck with only bad choices, if people had shown up at the polls last election. That is where this fight was lost.
We talk about voting for the lesser of two evils. Think about being President and being presented with only that option. No matter how much the President would like things to be otherwise, he is not the one who writes bills. He has to take what is sent to him and veto or not. He can talk about what he wants until he is blue in the face. He can scream bloody murder, like we do, but then just like us, we have to vote for one of two choices that are rarely completely ours.
Veto=run the country into the ditch
Don't veto=run the country into the ditch more slowly
How would you vote?
Do we shut down the government, possibly for months, shutting down the social security offices and the VA hospitals, and all the rest, or do we agree to let the country get pulled back into the ditch?
We have to take congress back.