There's a growing discontent from lefties, in that the Obama administration is not really doing what they said they were going to do.
Economically, they are timid.
They are not as "transparent" as they claimed they would be.
They are not reversing discrimination in the repeal of DADT and DOMA.
They are not adhering to the rule of law in investigating and prosecuting war crimes.
Guantanimo Bay still exists, and the war in Iraq still rages.
Perhaps it's too early to have expect much to have been done, but it's the posturing and attitude of the Obama administration that is troubling. Sullivan thinks that Obama is playing a "long game", in that much of what is going on is political manipulation, rather than policy waffling, and the policy will come later.
Personally, I'm not appreciative of those methods. It's far better to do what is right, right now, than to try and score political points to make it palatable for later.
If you see Obama's approval rating numbers decline, it will be because of people like me changing my mind about him, rather than some seismic shift in the populace. The Loon Brigade already despises him, so they cannot shift the polling. The shift will come from the lefties who are fed up.
We were exiled for 8 years.. worked like mad and contributed money.. for a change in policy. We won the elections.. not Obama.. not "blue dog Democrats"... not people like Nancy Pelosi. We still own the policy debate, and we can replace them all if we want to.
That's something they should keep in mind.
7 comments:
I respectfully disagree, In 114 ish days Obama has started to work on a massive number of issues, issues that cannot be solved as fast as we would like. In addition to the mountain of problems the Administration must make careful calculated moves or risk making more problems. Yes there will be new problems but the idea is to help minimize future issues.
To top it off they have to deal with congress who serve their lobbyists more then their constituency.
He can't repeal DADT. The legislature has to. He could, in theory, issue an executive order to have the armed forces stop enforcing it, but that is subject to the next president issuing a repeal of the order. It also quenches a lot of American outrage that will be needed to get the bill passed.
Ugh...
Obama could, with a stroke of the pen, end DADT. He promised to end DADT during the campaign.
It doesn't matter who likes it and who doesn't. That doesn't mean a fucking thing. He said he would do it.. hence my calling it "bait and switch".
It's frustrating and yet expected that you would ignore everything I just said. He can't end DADT without the legislature. He has said so many times. He could end it's enforcement, but that could be bad again, for reasons stated above. You really fail.
This post had nothing to do with whether or not legislative action is required. It was about Obama's dragging of his feet on critical issues he claimed to support, but has done nothing about.
He could issue the order.. nobody else would be kicked out, benefiting both those service members as well as the nation.. and that would give a clear signal where he stands and lay the groundwork for legislation.
I didn't ignore anything.. it just had absolutely nothing to do with my post.
It had everything to do with your post. Exactly what should he do?
An executive order wouldn't lay the groundwork for legislation. It would kill public outcry that is needed to pass legislation. The reason that the public is in such an uproar is because people are being kicked out, and no one is going to care once that stops happening, irrespective of whether or not is was temporary or not. Right now it's a hot button issue, and is rising to the top of the list of shit to deal with but, if the public doesn't give a shit, it starts falling back down.
It's a bandaid, a bandaid easily removed by any president afterward unless legislative action is taken. Are you angry that he hasn't introduced a bill?
The guy has been in office ~120 days and has already pushed a budget and the stimulus bill through congress. He's signed an EO closing GITMO (which won't get funded, but that's another arguement), he's set higher emmissions standards, bailed out the auto industry....when exactly did you want him to push this through congress when, apparently, he can't even get his own party behind closing GITMO? Obviously he has lost some polictical capital, and the onl thing that will get this pushed through congress is public outcry.
So.. an order now, and legislation later won't pass... based on your awesome consideration of the political winds...
My point was that he should do just that, and your point is that you think he shouldn't. You seem to think there is some public "outcry" to end DADT that will be dulled if people aren't actively losing their military careers. There isn't. You seem to think there needs to be a public "outcry" before doing the right thing. There doesn't.
What.. the fuck.. ever.
The "stimulus" bill really isn't doing much, and much of the money is being held up from being spent. They're exceptionally slow, which isn't surprising.
Where's the high-speed rail? Where's the refurbishing of bridges?
Instead, states are paying down their debt rather than actually spending the money on anything that would put a dent in the ever-increasing unemployment rate.
The whole "help keep homeowners in their homes" hasn't done shit but waste money. There shouldn't have been anything done in the first place, but to spend money on it and fuck it up is classic.
They "bailed out" the auto industry.. that promptly went bankrupt anyway.. getting us what for our dollar? GM is obviously not BK yet, but soon.
What was the point of the bailout if they went BK anyway. They could have simply gone BK a few months back for billions less in tax payer dollars. The whole idea was to keep that from happening.
Maybe blame the shareholders of GM who voted on the CEO compensation package..
oh wait
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