There have, of course, been many big miscalculations by the President and his brain trust. The unending search for bi-partisanship while facing a party that wants his EXTINCTION is a big one, for sure. So was allowing the Democratic Congress to craft the health bill, while Obama just stood on the sidelines. That decision, to allow others to lead, rather than leading himself, was a huge miscalculation. So was the decision to send "The Movement" home after the inauguration. "Thanks a lot, but we can take it from here"; I can almost HEAR Rahm Emmanuel saying words to that effect. But a really big miscalculation is the one that could cost him the Presidency in 2012: his decision to get in bed with the Financial Industry and the "Corporate Scumbags".
One of the main things that attracted a lot of people to the Obama campaign was the sense that here was a man who was finally going to stand up to the Banksters and the Corporate Scumbags. The guy who was gonna tell the credit card companies off, get Wall Street back in order, investigate and prosecute the THIEVES who pulled the Greatest Robbery Of All Time in the waning days of the Bush Administration. People felt that FINALLY here was the guy who would put a stop to the Corporate Pillaging of the Middle Class. The guy who would punish the outsourcers, the union busters, the ones responsible for the destruction of America's great manufacturing base, which historically has provided the Middle Class a solid core of decent paying jobs.
It hasn't happened, of course. President Obama, within weeks of his victory, served notice to everyone of who his partners were going to be. The same thieves and Banksters who were responsible for the catastrophic condition that our economy is in. Bankers, Goldman Sachs and Citicorp guys were given jobs watching the same henhouse that their brother foxes had just finished robbing. The man who the Middle Class blue collar guys of America had placed their hopes in became part of The Enemy, just like that.
Sure, he DID save GM and Chrysler, to his everlasting credit. But the deals that were made to save them were so severe, costing so many jobs and factory closures, that he lost blue collar Americans THERE, too. But the biggest problem that he faces going into the mid term elections, and entering his second year as President is the JOBS situation. See, the economy is improving and is doing just fine! If you are a Bankster or a Corporate Scumbag. If you are in that almost 10% of Americans that are unemployed, the economy SUCKS.
And why it sucks, and why unemployment is so high is very simple: The Corporate Scumbags are not hiring people back, now that the "recession is over". Why is that? Well, when the "recession" first started, sure, some companies, such as those in the construction trades, had to lay people off. But a whole bunch of CEOs of companies that were not suffering in any way also decided that this was a great time to make themselves MORE PROFITABLE. And how did they do that? Simple. They just did, on a large scale, what they have been doing anyway for the past 30 years or so, since St. Ronald Reagan showed them how. They laid off a bunch of people and told the remaining workers that they all will just have to pick up the slack. Those that bitched about the extra hours (hey, you're all on SALARY now; hours are meaningless!) were told that THEY could be laid off next. That they were lucky that they still HAD a job. And guess what happened? NOTHING! The businesses continued running just as they had before, albeit with smaller and more overworked staffs of course, but who cares about THAT? The CEOs chuckled to themselves: "We should have done this sooner. I was able to reduce my payroll by 20% with no loss of productivity, and I got rid of the highest paid, longest tenured employees! Added huge numbers to our bottom line!".
And that is why, now that the "recession is over" Obama is screwed, having to deal with these high unemployment numbers while the economy seems to be "improving". The miscalculation he made was to climb in bed with these guys and not go after them, HARD. Oh sure, he has made little FEINTS in that direction, talking the talk about going after the banks & credit card companies, and taxing the companies that outsource. But all of those are mere window dressing. I bet his staff (somehow I'm sure I hear Emmanuel's voice in this too!) convinced him that if he "takes care of Big Business they will take care of him". Unfortunately for Obama, and the Middle Class, they have reneged on THEIR PART of the bargain. For while he certainly has taken care of THEM, they are most certainly NOT going to do anything to give HIM a hand, like starting to hire back all the people they laid off. After all, why should they? They like the way things are just fine. FOR THEM NOTHING HAS CHANGED UNDER OBAMA FROM THE BUSH DAYS. Which is great for them, but bad for the Middle Class, and potentially DISASTROUS for Obama.