My first post on Daily Kos a couple of weeks ago was The Astonishing Lameness of Barack Obama.
The point of the article was that Team Obama was committing way too many unforced errors and it was costing them politically. That they were losing political arguments that they should be winning easily. And that as a result, their agenda was suffering.
In response to my post, the Daily Kos community ripped me for attacking the administration, for not standing with the president, for not making a valid point, and called me all sorts of names.
Now we know how Team Obama likes to treat people who voted for change and are worried that Obama is proving to be less than advertised.
I admit, I was a reluctant supporter of Obama in the primaries.
Clearly, he was an eloquent and inspiring candidate. And he ran as good a campaign as I've ever seen.
But, I worried about his experience and I worried about his toughness. What would happen when the right came after him? How would he handle the difficult decisions in governing? Would he be able to win the bare-knuckled politics of national leadership?
In his first year and a half, he has accomplished a lot, I'll grant that. But, my biggest concerns about his toughness and his ability to give as good as he gets remain unanswered questions.
Democrats passed a stimulus bill with zero Republican support in the House and only 3 GOP votes in the Senate. This bill literally saved the American economy from another Great Depression. At nearly $800 billion, it was way more than any spending bill ever signed into law. And, not only did it triage our economy, it invested billions in clean energy, education, smart grid, and other very noble and worthy programs that will benefit America for years and even decades to come.
And somehow, this is talking point #1 for Republicans in this election season? That is a colossal political communications failure of epic proportions. This should have been an opportunity to crush Republicans, instead we're playing defense.
The same pattern of political communications weakness was repeated during the health care fight. Obama allowed Max Baucus to waste months fishing in vain for a single Republican vote. All the while, Team Obama allowed the Tea Party whackadoodles to use death panels and pull the plug on Grandma to scare the shit out of ordinary Americans.
When Obama did get out of Washington to sell the plan, he was well-received. But, instead of barnstorming America and engaging in a full-on political campaign to win, Obama spent way too much time in Washington and let the narrative of the political sausage-making take over. Instead of fighting for the children and families who are getting kicked off their health care plans, who are going bankrupt, this became a story of deal-cutting and budget reconciliation.
As a result, a bill that was essentially a Republican bill modeled very closely after the Massachusetts bill and using the private insurance exchange model as the policy centerpiece, an idea hatched in right-wing think tanks, earned zero GOP votes and was signed into law with a country deeply divided.
Team Obama let other very bad narratives build up over the last 18 months. Somehow, millions of Americans either don't know or don't care that most of the bank and auto-industry bailout money is being paid back. Somehow, millions of Americans think the Obama team is doing more for Wall St. than for Main St. Somehow, the fact that Republicans are blocking a bill to promote small businesses is not reflecting very poorly on the GOP. Somehow, the fact that China and Europe are running circles around us on clean energy innovation is barely known. Somehow, Americans don't see what has been done to put people back to work and get the economy going again. Somehow, Bush and Obama are nearly tied in recent polling on who is to blame for the bad economy.
I could go on and on. But, the point is made. Team Obama is not fighting to win the political battles and is allowing false narratives to build into accepted truth.
Team Obama, so skilled at campaigning, is not doing a very good job winning the tough political fights in Washington. President Obama, so skilled on the campaign trail in inspiring America, has lost his ability to inspire and connect. He's spending so much time in Washington that he is losing America.
If Robert Gibbs wants to throw Obama's liberal supporters under the bus, that's fine. But, from this liberal Obama voter's perspective, I think it would be a better use of Team Obama's time to get their own shit together first.
We are the ones we've been waiting for. And I'm still waiting.