There is no doubt to me, or anyone who has carefully considered what comprises the electorate of oh... say... - the Republican Revolution of '94, or the give-away of '00, or the fear induced election of '04, or more recently, the "I'm so disappointed by Obama" election of 2010 - that liberals are delusional, and loquaciously so.
Frank Rich, in all his annotated glory, pretends many things, not the least being the popular and uncontested trope that symbolic, bully pulpit tirades are magic bullets.
The simple fact is, that liberalish presidents only get elected when the left is not separated from the electorate. A common ailment that has two primary causes. One is that liberals are too damn smart to bother voting for anyone (see '94, or '10). Two is that liberals are able to be painted as weird extremists, especially painted with that weak, effeminate, not suitable for leading the Great Nation hue (most exemplified by '04, but a factor in many elections).
You can't prove the negative, but this idea that Obama "could've" done this or that - particularly the populist could'ves - without considering how those prescriptions would most likely go horribly wrong is irresponsible and lazy. Most likely it would have given enough inertia to the themes that he is a weird, effeminate radical who wants to impose Berkeley Maoism upon us, and it would be a vain effort right now to talk people out of their stupid belief that "Obama's too radical, we gotta get back to normal."
Everyday Mitt Romney hopes the president steps in that shit.
To me it is an unheralded political miracle that Obama hasn't been forced into this image already, with all the work and money that has been put towards this effort. It is just amazing that he still has play with independents. He has been the most vilified, slandered president in modern history, yet he has kept the boat afloat.
That is, of course, not factoring all the liberals poking holes in the bow.
The electorate would not have been impressed with an assault on the economic institutions in our country. This new vogue that is so clever, thinking that, "ah ha! Obama didn't get socialist enough when he had the chance!" is careless speculation. Most people wouldn't have been exhilarated by the "FDR like visage" that gives every idle political hack a boner. Most people would still be suffering and would be thus much more susceptible to blaming Obama. There would actually be vaguely normal people discussing how George Bush was not so bad. Obama would be Jimmy Carter, with a solar panel on the roof, waiting for the movers to come.
And mind you, that is not to say that change can't be made, and in many respects is being made. It's just being done with a very thick veneer of "nothing to see here, folks" and an earnest comprehension that it will take a nation to move in that direction, in the form of consistently more like-minded congresses. Asking for histrionics from the Oval Office when any sane person can see the electoral makeup of this country is asking him to walk the plank.
That people accost this guy without considering what really would have happened (not their "West Wing" fantasies of suddenly having the other 70% of the country NOT be susceptible to the gawking mob-mentality syndrome of liberal bashing) is thoroughly depressing. As soon as there was a hiccup - and there would certainly be an economy much like the one we're seeing now, even if Obama had pistol whipped a few CEOs and traders - the radical socialist mud-slinging would have begun.
Stop right there. How many of you were about to say, "it did anyway"?
Well good for you. Do you think then, that somehow America would have stopped being the America it has always been? You know, the one with 50 million people voting against Obama from the get go? the one that has Republicans marching in formation to every poll, every election? The one that has a sizable middle that is not so much "centrist" as it is politically gullible?
That monotonous drone of attacking the left is never going to go away. It squashes voter turnout and wins elections. Easily, usually.
So, "it did anyway," and to those who would then imply that it means "you have to take strong action and then people will follow you" (or some populist fantasizing of that ilk), I say you are dreaming. There is only one way this nation moves left, and that is all together. We are perpetually extorted by the Right.
I have accepted this. You can say I lack vision, but I see what happens when this nation tries to out-evolve its vestigial organs. We end up fractured on the left and ruled by the right. It happens. Every. Election.
You can continue to abuse Obama and you will abet the fastest yank to the Right we've had in a while (and that's saying something). You can imagine that some Lefty is going to, one day, emerge and wow everyone and somehow not be marginalized by the abuse from the Right, but that thinking, ironically, will only lead us TO the Right.
Obama didn't sell out, he's just going one excruciatingly rudimentary step at a time - The only way that the nation can move to the left. And one that is easily accosted by anyone who would rather indulge their narcissistic righteous indignation than assess our nation honestly.
And are you helping? Seems like most are just whining. i bet you think Clinton could have won without Perot, don't you? Do you even know the last time a Democrat won with a Majority?
I'm so tired of Obama haters. Your recipes are poison. Your effect is Republican rule. Frank Rich is just the latest annotated asshole. (...really? He blames Obama's failure to act for a poll that has Romney in a dead heat? What kind of idiocy is that? He thinks Obama won 100% of the vote in '08 and somehow lost half of them with his actions? A Democrat is always going to be in a dead heat. He's smart and gets paid millions and yet he can't figure that one out? For all the plaudits and accolades, this guy comes up useless most of the time...)
Obama is a liberal. The amazing thing ought to be that Republicans can't paint him that way. If the left would quit their sabotage we'd be talking about moving a few more steps to the Left in 2016. This should be lock and load time, with all guns on Senate seats and House seats. Apparently that's just not much fun.