President Obama spoke today, his campaign kick-off speech if you will, by sounding like he may have finally found out where they keep his balls. Now we'll have to wait and see if they let him have them. I believe that his greatest failing as a politician and, more importantly as President, is his unwavering need to be liked. He wants all the kids in the sandbox to play with him and hold hands and sing songs. He had both houses of Congress and his own office and the last thing he needed to do was negotiate. He would only play by the rules of bipartisanship with an opponent who made up the rules as they went along.
Medicare for all turned into a life vest and rope for the health insurance industry. Wall Street reform became nothing of the sort. Not only were the criminals responsible for a global financial meltdown never prosecuted, they've been rewarded time and time again. He creates a Consumer Protection Agency and puts in charge probably the most sensible person in the country, and I've heard virtually nothing about it since. He puts in charge of a new commission to explore economic and job growth the CEO of a company that got a $3.5 billion dollar tax refund on over $14 billion dollars of profit. Huh?
Immigration reform disappeared from the conversation after the mid-terms. A Congresswoman gets shot in the head and no real move on gun and/or ammunition control is taken. Protecting the environment lost out to the monied interests in the energy business. And less than a year after the worst environmental disaster in this country's history, his administration is issuing new deep-water drilling permits to the very same companies that caused it. Worse, they're doing that before their investigation is complete and against the recommendations of an independent Dutch engineering firm who reported that the blow out-preventers currently in use simply do not work.
He did nothing to repeal DADT except start the conversation. Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullin, and the brave service members who spoke out like Lt. Col. Farenbach, Lt. Dan Choi and others deserve all the credit. He did not close Gitmo. He allowed the inhumane imprisonment Bradly Manning. He not only didn't end two wars, or demand a means to at least pay for them, he committed military resources in a third.
Did he do the Libya thing right? That depends on whether or not you can say military intervention and bombing in the same sentence with "for humanitarian reasons" and reconcile that in your head. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but killing people doesn't seem humanitarian to me and is not justifiable. Especially in a case where you only really need to kill one.
He has so far failed to put on the "pair of comfortable shoes" and march in the protests like he said he would if there was an assault on the unions and middle class. In fact, he's said virtually nothing at all. Huge majorities of the people in this country are against what is happening in their states, and the national party is staying out of it. The country wants you and all you do is stand there smiling.
Missed opportunities all. And there are many more. The worst of all, and this goes back to the beginning, he lost control of the conversation, the message as the pundits like to put it, and has never gotten it back. The right wing media machine always has been bigger and more powerful than the lefts, who can't even keep a radio network alive, and he either completely misunderstood that or he thought that being reasonable would make more people like him more. Yes, I meant to say it that way.
I hope that what I heard today is what he'll do tomorrow. I hope he means it and stands straight and to the left of Anthony Weiner and Bernie Sanders...but still somewhat right of Alan Grayson. Barack Obama has to stop protecting us from the bully by giving him his lunch money. Doing that doesn't give the bully any reason to stop being a bully. In fact, it incentive's him. Look how many times the end zone got moved in the budget battle. He gave them $6.5 million more in cuts than they asked for and ultimately that amount is spread out over years, so the immediate impact of all this hand-wringing amounts to less than 1% of the cuts. Who really won that?
And saving Planned Parenthood only cost a billion dollars.
I want to believe. I really do. As a Denver Broncos fan, I've seen many a first quarter that sucked only to have the team shake it off and play better. Mr. Obama is John Elway and it's time for a spinning tackle near the goal line of the Super Bowl. It's time for The Drive. More often than not it's one player on a team that sparks a comeback and more often than not the person is the team leader.
Mr. Obama, it's time to unite your party and get out with the people if you want a second term. Take the lead on the issues that matter to us. If you're going to use the (D) behind your title, start acting like one. And the next time you have the opportunity that you missed today, use a tone that sounds more like you mean it. Stop trying to be the bully's friend and kick a little butt. You kicked sand in their faces and they immediately cried. Good. One thing I learned a long time ago and in a very painful way was that when you stand up to the bully or fight back, win or lose the bullying stops.
Mr. President, it is time for you to lead.
Sincerely,
Hamster Prez
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