The country desperately needs an FDR, but with Obama we’ve got Neville Chamberlain. It’s a terrible thing to say, but it now seems clear that Obama may be far worse for the country, the preservation of the middle class and the future of the Democratic Party than George W. Bush ever was. A cold, hard look at the facts suggests that the keystones of the American “social contract”, Social Security (FDR) and Medicare (LBJ) are now facing relentless assault and possible eventual destruction by a vicious but disciplined Republican minority controlled by greedy right-wing billionaires. Such a goal was beyond reach for Bush even with control of both houses of Congress, but now, with Obama’s “bend over backwards” willingness to compromise at every turn to every outrageous wacko Republican demand, this insanity may be in sight. This is a 15-round fight (don’t forget the upcoming 2012 budget battles) and Obama has proven that his idea of compromise is to surrender even before the fight has begun. What’s next? How can the Democratic Party go to the voters in 2012 and claim that we’re defending them against the Republican scourge when Obama has been stabbing them in the back on key election issues?
Regarding the debt limit “debate”, Obama needs to grow a spine and do what FDR would have done, that is show to some Presidential leadership by exerting his constitutional authority to ignore the phony “debt limit” (whose origin was an unnecessary “patriotic” vote in congress to show support for World War I).