This is my first diary although I‘ve been out here for several years, full of acerbic and sometimes insightful comments. I'm tired and I am well in the grip of the first "Round of Crud," in the cold and flu season. So my thinking and expression may not be up to my usual standards, or even yours, and I ask you to bear with it.
There is a lot of discussion and some debate going on about what happened on Tuesday. At the very least the day was a game changer for the remainder of Pres. Obama's first, and perhaps, only term. I hope the Democrats in Congress and in the White House learn faster now than "the dog that lives on the highway and walks on three legs." I'm not sure I'd put much money down wagering the outcome but I have to be an optimist. Our party and much of its leadership have been buffaloed by the Republicans for two years in getting their message out despite having majorities in both houses of Congress and control of the executive branch. Sometimes I wonder if we Democrats could sell suntan lotion to albinos at the beach. Too often our thoughts are muddled and off point for either brevity or clarity to the listeners’ ears. That has to stop now if additional significant results are to be achieved in the next two years.
Who is to blame? The Senate and Harry Reid? It's arcane rules, and on the surface a seemingly timid majority leader, prevented more accomplishment. The House and Nancy Pelosi? Under Pelosi's tight control, the House passed oodles (a technical term) of bills which never made it to the other side of the building. The White House and Pres. Obama? I think much of the blame resides there.
I don't play basketball because I don't have the kind of hand-eye coordination that it takes not to be a complete and utter fool on the court. But our president does and I have watched oodles of pickup games in the gym and on the playground. I've seen there is often one player who hangs out in the back court and throws up lovely three-point shots. They look great when they hit and more often than not they don't. That player never drives for the basket and rarely passes off to anyone else. He's a team player as long as it's his team and is not going to risk getting his pretty face or body broken up in bruising contact. He will put up another outside shot and collect some glory if it scores and lay the blame off onto somebody else when they lose. That's too much like our president, I’m afraid.
He will throw up a pretty good speech on camera with the Teleprompter and doesn't worry that he’s going to get hit by anyone until someone in the audience steps up and says she's tired of defending him to others. Even then he shows little embarrassment or contrition and lets his minion, the highly ineffective Robert Gibbs, continue to bash the party’s base of the professional and amateur left. This is not a recipe for victory.
One of my children is a thirty-something TV reporter in a top media market and covered the president's campaign in one of the battlefield states. She is a progressive who strongly favored Hillary during the campaign but you would never get any idea of her personal point of view from her reporting because the expensive and famous journalism school from which she graduated made sure she can keep her personal view from getting anywhere near the broadcast.
She had two individual interviews with candidate Obama when he was seeking the nomination. When I asked what her impression was she said, "In the first interview I thought he was slimy, but in the second interview a couple of months later I saw he had learned to be slick." Near the end of the healthcare debate when the president was speaking out more frequently, I asked her what she thought. She said he had learned to be duplicitous. I’m not sure she'll ever make it from triple-A ball to the majors these days because she seems to be more concerned about the quality of the story instead of the quantity of the ratings, but I like her interpretation.
Therefore we have a president who likes to look good and throw up telegenic three-pointers for the media, and let the others battle out the hard work of legislation alongside his seemingly casual, drive-by leadership. That might have worked with the two majorities in Congress, but I don't think it will work any longer. The good news is that the Republicans are on the hot seat now and open to being caught up and found out with plenty of criticism as they attempt to do something more than just speak their platitudes and try to block everything of the past two years.
Can our president and our party leaders hold the Republicans feet to the fire far better that they have done thus far? Will the president articulate like a true Democrat instead of a moderate Republican? Can he actively help the party's congressional leadership with the battles they will now face rather than standing too much on the sidelines? The answers to these questions are crucial because there is simply too much at stake for the future of our economy, our quality of life, and fundamentally for our democracy as a group of power-mongering corporatists seek to bend our country to their vision through the Tea and Republican parties.
I've been critical of Pres. Obama in this diary and I think my reasons for that are clear. I watched with a lot of friends celebrating his election night and watching him in the throng at Grant Park. I thought of some other nights in 1968 when the reception I received there was full of tear gas and swinging riot batons. I thought of other nights when National Guard bayonets lay against my chest and a thousand people were at my back. I've never had a problem standing up for the values I feel deeply inside about this great country and I have taken some lumps for it. All that being said, the battle that led up to Tuesday night is far from over.
Whether we are happy with President Obama or not, he is our president. We need to do more than just carp because if he fails, we all fail, our nation fails and we can't afford that. We need to stand up, step forward, take some more lumps if necessary, and propel our leaders into the direction we see best for our nation. When the President decides to drive to the basket we can all win. There remains much to be done and we are they who must do it. It's only the beginning of the second half; let's get everyone to work.