Tim Dickinson penned this article for Rolling Stone:
No We Can't
Obama had millions of followers eager to fight for his agenda. But the president muzzled them - and he's paying the price
Not true! Muzzled who? So I read on....
UPDATE:
ON MORNING JOE
The first line of the article:
As the polls were closing in Massachusetts on the evening of January 19th, turning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat over to the Republicans for the first time in half a century, David Plouffe was busy reminiscing about the glory days.
Ahh, I see where this is going. Newsflash! Scott Brown's victory was not Obama's fault! To be honest, I struggled to get out the vote for Martha Coakley. Coakley did not fight for votes. Even Vicki Kennedy commented that Martha Coakley needed to get out and ask for votes.
Mr. Dickinson, is the MA defeat really the basis of a failure of the Obama adminsitration?
Yet rather than heeding the lessons of Obama's historic victory, Plouffe and OFA permitted Martha Coakley to fumble away Kennedy's seat — destroying the 60-vote supermajority the Democrats need to pass major legislation. In December and early January, when it should have been gearing up the patented Obama turnout machine — targeting voters on college campuses, trumpeting the chance to make history by electing Massachusetts' first female senator — OFA was asking local activists to make phone calls to other states to shore up support for health care reform. "Our Massachusetts volunteers were calling into Pennsylvania or Ohio to recruit volunteers in support of the president's agenda," admits OFA director Mitch Stewart.
First of all, OFA did not permit "Martha Coakley to fumble away Kennedy's seat". She gaffed/fumbled that seat away herself. The Candidate does matter when tasked with motivating voters.
Secondly, the Democrats never had a 60 vote majority in the Senate. Oh, I see. You thought Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln and Joe LIEberman were Democrats! Silly bird. Pay attention. Daily Kos could have taught you that.
As a candidate swept into office by a grass-roots revolution of his own creation, Obama was poised to reinvent Washington politics, just as he had reinvented the modern political campaign. Obama and his team hadn't simply collected millions of e-mail addresses, they had networked activists, online and off — often down to the street level. By the end of the campaign, Obama's top foot soldiers were more than volunteers. They were seasoned organizers, habituated to the hard work of reaching out to neighbors and communicating Obama's vision for change.
Woefully,there is only 1 Barack Hussein Obama, not 60/59. And the email machine is not broken. We ALL continue to receive the email communications. We understand that there are 3 branches of government and the executive branch is not a dictatorship. If we want to pass a progressive agenda, we need more than a progressive POTUS.
The problems started before Obama was even elected. While his top advisers worked for months to carefully plot out a transition to governing, their plan to institutionalize its campaign apparatus was as ill-considered as George Bush's invasion of Iraq.
...as ill-considered as George Bush's invasion of Iraq??!!!! Are you kidding me??!!! GWB and his administration left office placing this country in the worst mess since the Great Depression Era + not 1, but 2 wars! I understood year 1 was Foreign Policy. Restoring our position in the world. Obama had to visit every corner of the world to apologize for 8 years of the circus act that was Bush/Cheney. Across the pond, Tony Blair is still trying to explain why the hell thousands died behind their foolishness.
This year, Domestic Policy: HCR, JOBS,JOBS,JOBS, but they recognized that we need the rest of the world in order to have any lasting formidable success rebuilding the economy. We need export/import in order to continue stimulating this economy. Right??
So Mr. Dickinson, we agree to disagree. Obama has conceded that he made mistakes in governing, but to blame him for issues that are beyond his reach....nah. Although you did make some valid points, the premise of your article dissuaded me. I am as much to blame since I am a member of the "grassroots" arm of the campaign that worked so diligently to elect President Obama. But, I admit that I haven't done much since. And I'm willing to bet that I am not alone.