Bipartisan milestone

[Anonymous]

The tax deal has done the unimaginable. It has united Bernie Sanders, Mary Landrieu, and Jim DeMint. In opposition.

[Anonymous]

I find it funny how Obama is taking flak (not just on the tax deal) from those at both extremes. The conservatives HATE him and the liberals think he's not liberal enough. Doesn't the fact that the Chamber and other crazies on the far right want to destroy him at all costs give liberals any indication that he's actually on their side? I'm a moderate, who nonetheless was disappointed we didn't go further on health care, but I can recognize that Obama's liberal enough to drive the Rs crazy which means he's probably more effective than those on the far left would like to believe. But he's not a miracle worker - either for social issues or for the economy - and we're a pretty divided country in terms of what people would like to see happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it funny how Obama is taking flak (not just on the tax deal) from those at both extremes. The conservatives HATE him and the liberals think he's not liberal enough. Doesn't the fact that the Chamber and other crazies on the far right want to destroy him at all costs give liberals any indication that he's actually on their side? I'm a moderate, who nonetheless was disappointed we didn't go further on health care, but I can recognize that Obama's liberal enough to drive the Rs crazy which means he's probably more effective than those on the far left would like to believe. But he's not a miracle worker - either for social issues or for the economy - and we're a pretty divided country in terms of what people would like to see happen.

I think the underlying idea is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But that's not good enough for American politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it funny how Obama is taking flak (not just on the tax deal) from those at both extremes. The conservatives HATE him and the liberals think he's not liberal enough. Doesn't the fact that the Chamber and other crazies on the far right want to destroy him at all costs give liberals any indication that he's actually on their side? I'm a moderate, who nonetheless was disappointed we didn't go further on health care, but I can recognize that Obama's liberal enough to drive the Rs crazy which means he's probably more effective than those on the far left would like to believe. But he's not a miracle worker - either for social issues or for the economy - and we're a pretty divided country in terms of what people would like to see happen.

I think the underlying idea is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But that's not good enough for American politics.

Absolutely. They hate Obama because he's a secret Muslim-O-Fascist. It literally makes no difference what his actual polices are. Hell, Obama passed a 1996 Bob Dole GOP health care bill, and they accused him of wanting to kill grandma. The modern GOP has two goals: they want to lower the marginal tax rates for rich people and corporations, and they want to destroy Obama. Everything else is window-dressing.

The reason progressives and liberals (and by that, I mean folks to the left of Joe Lieberman) are disappointed in Obama is that he billed himself as a "fighter" and he has consistently, as one Senator put it, "punted on first down." He threw away the bargaining chip of a public option before he even went to the table during the health care debate. It's frustrating.

What I think is amusing is the way that establishment democrats keep throwing out the "liberals need to get over it and support the president". Do they know anything about how politics works? Liberals will either get over it or they won't. But they don't *need* to do anything. Is it "counter-productive" in some sense. Of course. But politics has nothing to do with rationality. Hell, I'm going to run for president and tell rural folks from middle-america that they "need" to vote for me, and stop voting against their economic self-interest because they're riled up about the possibility of some gay guy getting married. They'd rightly tell me to go fuck myself.