Do you ever get the impression that Obama is not only either utterly powerless to produce any positive progressive results, in which case he's not worth voting for, or he's got the power to produce progressive results and refuses to, in which case he's not worth voting for - but that it's even worse than that - and that he has become so completely disconnected from the day to day reality and the concerns of ordinary Americans that he now is deliberately and actively working for the republican party and their millionaire/billionaire donors and against the interests of the people who voted for him in 2008?
Thursday Doyle McManus published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Team Obama's victory plan, analyzing Senior White House Adviser (the "brains" behind the president's 2008 campaign) David Plouffe's comments at a breakfast Wednesday, July 6, 2011, organized by Bloomberg news.
McManus reported in that article that Team Obama sees four reasons they expect to win the 2012 election, and Plouffe's first reason was unbelievably disconnected from reality:
First, Plouffe suggested, Obama has an opportunity to improve his standing among independent voters -- many of whom deserted the Democrats in the 2010 midterm election -- by working with Republicans toward bipartisan deficit-reduction measures.
As Thom Hartmann reminded us the other day:
The President is trying to pitch a $4 trillion deficit reduction package over the next 10 years - that slashes away at programs mostly affecting the working class and even cuts up the social safety net in America - trimming $400 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. All of these tough cuts will be in exchange for closing a few tax loopholes for corporations, millionaires, and billionaire. Ultimately, President Obama's deal is heavy on spending cuts, light on tax hikes.
...
We have a society in which 400 Americans own more wealth that 150 million other Americans. We have a society in which 50% of all the children in America will depend on food stamps at some point in their life before they are 18 - and among African American children that number is 90%. We no longer live in a just society - and if Brzezinski is right - turbulent times could be ahead for America.
It's become increasingly and glaringly obvious over the past two years that Obama does not "cave" to the republican party - when someone continually goes along on everything with someone else whom they 'claim' to be opposing, it's not "caving", it's the plan.
Fortunately, Obama did promise transparency when he was campaigning, and now almost no one has any problem seeing through him.
Here is a man on the street video interview of Independents responding to the Obama/Plouffe 2012 re-election strategery...
It's a damn good thing there is only one Independent voter in the whole country who relies on SS and Medicare. Otherwise they might not like having their benefits cuts.
If there weren't only one Independent voter who receives SS and Medicare, Obama's plan to capture their votes by cutting SS, Medicare and Medicaid benefits might backfire and seriously cost him and the Democratic politicians votes in 2012.
"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."
-- Hunter S. Thompson
UPDATE: My vote for comment of the year is from APA Guy this morning:
You apologists are getting more and more desperate with your defense of this man...creating alternate realities now. If you had any principles and guts, you'd be fighting for the American people instead of one unprincipled man.
And
as stevej noted:
"The 'He'd be better than a GOPer' is getting thinner by the day. If I was a part of the 'can do no wrong' faction I would be be looking for a new argument."
Thanks to both APA Guy and stevej for well expressed clear thinking today.
The republicans specialize at selling fear.
Ignoring issues and the concerns and day to day reality most Americans are living in while trying to sell fear of republicans is nothing more than emulating republicans.
When a salesman tells you you should buy his product and the best reason he can give you is that the other guys product is crap, he may be right about the other guys product, but it also means that salesman hasn't got anything to sell you that's worth you buying from him.
One would hope that emulating republicans is not the best that Democrats and Obama supporters have to offer now....