[P] A Failed President and Presidency

Dear Friends,

For the last several weeks I have had a sick feeling that President Obama would cave-in once again.  Now I am just sad for the country, sad for the poor and middle class, sad for those looking for jobs and sad for our democracy.

For reasons that I will never understand, many months ago President Obama adopted the Republican narrative that the Federal debt was the most important issue that we were facing.  Normal people, including the vast majority of Americans, knew very well that President Obama was wrong and that the most important issue was getting people back to work.  We heard a lot about jobs, jobs, jobs but neither Congress nor the President did any thing other than the way to small stimulus package.

Since the Republicans, President Obama and the leaders(?) of the Democratic Party had all adopted the idea that the deficits were the most important issue and since the Republicans had learned from their past experience negotiating with President Obama that he will always cave-in, the Republicans decided to hold the nation hostage in order to further their ideological drive to make the Federal government so small that it will essentially disappear.  The Republicans threatened to kill their hostage (the US economy) if they did not get huge and very damaging budget cuts.  Instead of going to the American people and calling the Republican members of the House of Representative far right wing hostage takers, he decided to negotiate with them.  Everybody knows you never can win negotiating with hostage takers and terrorists.  But President Obama did anyway.

We know from past experience that President Obama is a terrible negotiator.  So guess what happened, the far right wing extremist that have taken over the Republican Party got virtually everything they wanted, and President Obama got nothing.

I will not repeat here all the reasons why it is a terrible deal.  The best summary of how terrible the deal is that I have read is Paul Krugman's op-ed in The New York Times today entitled "The President Surrenders" (here).

My conclusion is that President Obama is a failure as a President and that his Presidency is a failure.  He has no idea how to lead.  He is unwilling to take a position and fight for it.  He is incapable of negotiating.  The economy will not recover before the 2012 election.  The unemployment levels will remain unconscionably high.  There is a substantial risk that President Obama will not be able to be re-elected, and we will be left with one of the crazy Republican candidates.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Elizabeth Warren

Dear Friends,

I just read a report (here) that President Obama is going to nominate someone other than Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Elizabeth Warren had the idea for this agency, fought tirelessly for it, has gotten everything going, and is the perfect person for the job.  Yet President Obama is not going to nominate her because he will have a fight to get her approved by the Senate because the Republicans will filibuster.  I am sure that he will argue that the agency needs a head and that Elizabeth Warren could not get approved by the Senate, etc.  It is very likely that anybody who is qualified for the job that is nominated to this position will face an uphill battle in the Senate because of the Republicans.  President Obama has not figured out that they will oppose anything that he suggests.

So while it may be that Elizabeth Warren would face a Republican filibuster, you don't just give in - you fight for what you believe in and show the world how bad the Republicans are.  The fact is that President Obama is unwilling to fight for anything that I as a liberal think is important.  It is actually impossible to tell whether he does not like fights or he does not believe in the core values of the Democratic Party.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame

Dear Friends,
I just want to note that The New York Times editorial today entitled "Terrorism and the Law" (here) takes the same position that I did in an earlier post (here) with respect to the unconstitutional manner in which President Obama has treated Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame and how President Obama has become just another President George W. Bush when it comes to unlimited extra-constitutional detentions.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal