Obama Trapped By Center-Right America

Obama is all but completely trapped now. He came up through early traction with the Left of the Democrat Party. Despite valid protestations by the more centrist wing, represented by Hillary, the liberal elites in DC started endorsing him and that was all she wrote for Hillary.

President Obama blows into the bluest state today facing a cold shoulder from once true-blue admirers, as gay rights activists, anti-war protesters and vexed environmentalists vow to picket a fund-raiser he’s headlining for Gov. Deval Patrick - a marquee event that hasn’t even sold out.

Facing early criticism from the Right, he tacked Left and home to his base. But in a center-Right America he doesn't have a prayer of delivering for them. He's already losing broad support simply because he did it. But as he's the guy it isn't as if he can duck responsibility for that, as he's tried to duck responsibility for most everything throughout his political life.

The only option open to him is to tack back toward the center. Even that is risky for him, as he'll never be embraced by the more Right, even of the centrist-Right, nor will he be able to be truly faithful to anything he believes.

On top of all that, after all the anti-Bush rage, liberals who thought they finally had their day will be even more livid if he shifts, making him the guy who squandered it away. And his administration is so far Left, it's hard to predict if he could even pull it off without major shake-ups among his most loyal and important staff.

Bottom-line, he's caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Trying to fight a war with Fox News as a distraction, one he thought might especially appease the Left, isn't likely to pay off.

I hope he isn't still smoking, as he is, most assuredly, on the run. Whether this lightweight can beef up to carry the weight of the office he holds isn't a fun question for America. But it may be the one we are facing before long. If he can't cut it, he and the Dems get wasted in 2010 and come 2012 it's one term and out, faux Grecian columns, or not.

Comments

[Philip McDaniel]

Dream on Slide.

[North Dallas Thirty]

And for those who are not familiar with or have never dealt with Slide before, here's a primer of his beliefs.

-- Obama is always right

-- Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Republicans, and conservatives are always wrong

-- Anyone who disagrees with Obama is a racist

-- Anyone who criticizes Obama is dishonest

-- All reasons for opposing or criticizing Obama are irrational

-- Anyone who does not endorse, support, and worship Barack Obama as a god-king is a brain-dead "wingnut"

Thus, realize that everything Slide says is done in that context, and consider it accordingly. Be aware that you're in for a rare treat; this is, after all, the commenter that said violence and harassment against police officers is justified when it's done by black people, and that black police officers who stand up for their white colleagues are "Uncle Toms" and "race traitors".

[Meadow]

On the job training is like playing horseshoes with grenades...it doesn't work too well!

Hope-Change-Horseshoes *sigh*

Frankly, I wouldn't hold my breath that he will learn how to run anything, especially our country.

2010 will be very telling.

[Hyman Roth]

Slide tries to pull a fast one:

"He is running in the mid 50% approvals..."

Says WHO?

What poll says that? Who conducted it, who did they pose the questions to, and what questions were asked?

0bama is a lame duck. No amount of lying will change that. It's not about race, it's about competence.

[WPE]

Center-right?

"The Republican Party's favorable rating among Americans is at lowest level in at least a decade, according to a new national poll.

Thirty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, with 54 percent viewing the GOP negatively."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/23/cnn-poll-gop-favorable-rating-lowest-in-25-years/

[richard mcenroe]

Barack Obama Box Office Blow Out!

Or as we say in the Hollywood trades:

B.O. BO B.O.!

[the bishop]

They keep using the most inaccurate sample, adults not registered or likely voters

[mark l.]

"Is he going to be completely ineffective because this is a "center-right" country or is he destroying the very fabric of our once great nation."

are these two mutually exclusive events?

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Polls are absolutely 100% right 100% of the time......unless of course they say that Americans are against Obie's health care by awide margin or similarly disagree with the party line.......Wonder if they actually asked WHY the respondants were dissatisfied with the repubs?

[mark l.]

"The Republican Party's favorable rating among Americans is at lowest level in at least a decade, according to a new national poll."

yes, if you go by party, the dems look good.
try it by politcal philosophy.

"PRINCETON, NJ -- Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx

The republican party has lost credibility in reagrds to their conservative credentials.

spending, immigration...the gop is actually more moderate on these issues than the country at large would care for them to be.

[Stephana]

I don't know about your polls, but this poll tells a different story.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues

[mark l.]

"unless of course they say that Americans are against Obie's health care"

I caught the wapo poll that had the public option at 57% approval. If there was a shred of truth to it, pelosi wouldn't be scrambling for votes in the house.

if there was ever a poll that the libs 'wished to be true', that was it.

[mark l.]

those numbers that stephana linked to...

trust on issues:

the 'ace in the hole' is healthcare, as dems are polling at 40%, although the gop is holding at 46%.
on every other issue, the dems are in the 30's.

losing by 14% to the gop on the economy, now, even as unemployment is projected to remain high for several years is a slow death. All those dems squealing about a jobless recovery in 2004, when unemployment was less than 6%?

justice is coming rather quickly.
herbert hoover + jimmy carter=barack obama.

[mark l.]

http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm

good collection of polls, from various sources, discussing budget, taxes, unemployment...

the bright spot for dems is that obama is polling ahead of the gop.

the problem is that on his own, he is polling below 50% on pretty much every issue in the section.
once healthcare passes or fails, there won't be a single fig leaf to hold up to defend agianst the general disquiet.

when the healthcare debate is over, obama is going to go into hiding.

[david r]

Let's face it. He mugged Hillary for the nomination. Kennedy was the supreme backstabber who forgot all the things the Clintons had done for him so he could be the fashionable liberal icon making history. One is obvious to the centrist who voted for him that he can't deliver on anything, and is a weak leader on the international front, you can stick a fork in him.

[Hyman Roth]

slide tries to pull another fast one: "...but poll after poll has shown that the public supports a public option by large majorities."

Link them, slide. Show us these polls you claim exist.

[mark l.]

"I love your wishful thinking mark but if you really think that the Republicans are winning this debate on Health Care"

the point that is being made is that rather than taking advantage of the gop's low poll numbers, obama is falling fast.

I have no illusions about the gop and their effectiveness to govern as conservatives.

it would appear that you slide, are the one that needs the gop, if only to prop up obama. He is starting to look like a tent made of toilet paper, and the rain has just started falling. His persoanl favorability is usually the last to go, but his strategy and style of govt is antithetical to the general populace, that his favorability is not something that is going to last.

unemployment and afghanistan are two major intractable problems, which will serve as measurements of his success. I caught his 10 year budget-he won't be getting any relief there. He is saying he can't balance the budget in 10 years, and will leave office with an equivalent level of budget imbalance, as the one he inherited. The cost of his rosy budget, left an addition of 8 trillion in debt. 3 trillion more than bush amassed.

[mark l.]

"I think Obama is doing incredibly well considering the circumstances don't you?"

dunno...
state govts are racking up layoffs, accounting for a lot of the unemployment. i understadn their motives in bailing out union jobs, but letting the states suffer?

govt jobs account for 22% of the workforce.
78% are from private sector.

since obama is moving to take more from business, to fund the 22% of govt workers, I tend to wonder how that is going to help the other 78% of the workforce. i know, tax cuts are evil-and obama would rather go dwon with the ship than go against liberal theology.

good luck with that.

[North Dallas Thirty]

"I love your wishful thinking mark but if you really think that the Republicans are winning this debate on Health Care, I have a bridge here in Brooklyn that you might be interested in. lol"

Funny, the god-king Barack Obama is screaming and whining that they are.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/64221-miscalculation-delivers-loss-for-reid-on-doc-fix

And guess what? The god-king lied about abortion funding.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-health-overhaul-abortion,0,6219328.story

[x11b1p]

I think Obama will be trapped by the fact that he forgot President Clinton's moto "Its The Economy Stupid"! As well as his pledge to clean up andusher in change and transperancy blah blah blah.

"In his 256-page report to Congress, Barofsky notes that the Treasury Department's failure to implement anti-fraud measures, or even to require TARP recipients to report how they used the billions Congress and the Treasury Department gave them, makes it highly unlikely that the $317 billion outstanding -- nearly half the TARP total -- will ever be returned to taxpayers. Barofsky also threatened to subpoena documents relating to the Treasury Department's "less-than-accurate statements ... concerning TARP's first investments in nine large financial institutions," as well as its subsequent refusal to report what hundreds of other TARP recipients did with the funds.

So there you have it: Treasury officials lied to Congress and the public, and refused to demand even a basic level of accountability from TARP recipients while borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars that taxpayers will eventually have to pay back, plus billions in interest......"http://tinyurl.com/yhlqxtq

On a side not - I wonder how fast GE will get rid on NBC now that this is out (dont forget their stock is stuck at $15/16 and is not paying the dividends it once did, not to mention the large red mark on their books is NBC)

"General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks.

At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.

The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE......"
http://tinyurl.com/nqnn2l

Where is the Acorn march, where is the clawing back Immelts salary, where is the Halliburton scrutiny. Where is everyone's outrage like when AIG got bonuses? Where is Obama on this???

I will wait for the excuses and the sucking sound of all the logic and reasoning from any any rational debate.

[southdakotaboy]

Slide the mistake your making is that you assume that Obama's plans will make things better for the majority of people in this country. You just believe what you are being told.

If the Democratic leadership was so sure that things were going to work out for the best they would be trying with all their might to exclude the Republicans from having any part of this. This would allow the to claim all the credit for everything. Or even if they didn't actively exclude them they would just sit back and not worry about the Republicans.

However the opposite is true. The Dems have been jumping through hoops to get Republicans to sign on to this. It has to make you wonder why after being rebuffed so much and so often by the Republicans the Dems are still after at least a few Republican votes.

The only logical reason is that the Dems think that there is a fair chance of this whole thing failing and they want the political cover of bi-partisanship to hide behind.

Those of us on the right have reached the conclusion that this will not work and so will not help, your side owns this now for good or ill. Frankly when it goes down in flames I hope you choke on it, I hope the consequences of this disaster impact you directly and you suffer personal family loss from it. This will be the only way you or other lefties will learn.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Meanwhile, what was it that god-king worshiper Slide was saying up above?

"And by the way Pelosi is scrambling for votes for the most ROBUST public option bill, but there is no scrambling for votes for the less robust public option bills."

Which is, of course, why the leftist groups pushed by the god-king Barack Obama are desperately screaming and threatening that they will run people out of office because it looks like they're not getting their "public option".

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/22/politics/main5408951.shtml

[mark l.]

"He seems to have a slight smile on his face as he rhetorically eviscerates his opposition"

"Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6409721/Barack-Obama-sees-worst-poll-rating-drop-in-50-years.html#

there is some evisceration going on...

[WPE]

You do realize TARP is a Bush Administration program?

Tax cuts are evil if you don't do anything on the spending side. Which has been the policy of so-called Fiscal Conservatives - cut taxes but do nothing to cut spending. In fact, out last president cut taxes while increasing spending. What's that get ya? Huge budget deficits.

We should do one of those fabled cost-beneit analysis on the US healthcare system. It would show we pay much, much more than any other industrialized country and get piss poor returns. Executive Summary: Our Health Care sucks - great for the big insurers though.

If the Dems pass a strong public option, two years from now it will be the most popular thing done during Obama's administration. If the Dems don't do anything, Republicans may get their chance to finish the job Bush started - destroy what's left of America.

[North Dallas Thirty]

"In fact, out last president cut taxes while increasing spending. What's that get ya? Huge budget deficits."

Actually, not.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117867077879196610.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/10/national/main2787123.shtml

Now, WPE, if you were educated and had actually worked in business or industry, you might realize that tax cuts work by returning more money to the people who are actually working and paying taxes -- and those people then leverage that money into earning more money, which actually increases the amount of taxes being paid.

Meanwhile, it's more than amusing to watch liberals like yourself scream about a $470 billion budget deficit when you yourself heartily endorse and support multi-trillion dollar ones.

[mark l.]

tarp 700 billion. to bail out banks. mission accomplished.

stimulus 787 billion. to save jobs. 8% would be peak, right? now it's 10%, and the dem econ advisors are telling us that it will be high for quite some time.

federal budget increase 18%, or 600 billion in one year, and every creates a permanent yearly deficit after that.
so what do we get for increasing the size of govt by 600 billion?

expect unemployment to remain high?

[MarkButter in SoCal]

Polls don't mean squat. Ask anyone if they believe in a public option- -i.e., I can go to the doctor for free - and of course they'll support it. Follow it up by the cost, ~1 Trillion, and then some examples of Canada & Britain and I assure you the numbers will drop. It's all how the question is phrased. If so many people supported it, you wouldn't have Reid promising evrything under the sun to moderate D's, because after all . . people support it by wide margins, right?

As for TARP, Bush initially released $350B, leaving the rest for Obama. Obama voted for the legislation and encouraged Bush to sign it. And I forgot, whose been in charge of the House since 2006?

When he ran around saying this is the worst crises since the depression, please pass my stimulus so unemployment won't go above 8% and I'm cleaning up other people's mess and then he has Biden out there saying we're in a depression and unemployment hits ~10%, he fullfils his own doomsday prophecy of not fixing the problem. You can't say we're in a recession nearing a depression and say I'm going to fix it and then blame your predecessor when it's not gettng fixed. Nobody wants a whiner in chief.

It's easy to be on WGN nightly news trying to see who can go farther left than your opponent. Afterall, it is Chicago. But when you attack the "bible and gun" clingers, flyover country, teabaggers, rush, fox, all it does is paint a characture (sp) of a small, insecure man. People look at that and wonder what he's going to do across the table from A-J Tehran man, Putin and the like.

At the end of the day, he's never run anything where he's encountered coverage of pushback against his policies. Spare me the primary campaign. It was to see who could go furtherest left and still sound reasonable. Because of his oratory skills, he could pull it off. Promise this. Promise that. Say this. Say that. Anyone can do that. Once you're on the spot, it's about action. And as long as the stimulus is used by states to pay unemployment and not lay off state workers, it's not going to stimulate anything.

Bottom line is this guy has never run anything to where he was held accountable for results. . . and it shows.

[WPE]

NDT says: ""In fact, out last president cut taxes while increasing spending. What's that get ya? Huge budget deficits."

Actually, not."

Wrong again - at least you're consistent about one thing.

http://www.aier.org/research/commentaries/750-big-government-under-the-bush-administration

Since 2000, government spending has increased by more than 55 percent. Even when adjusted for inflation in constant (2000) dollars, federal expenditures have risen by just short of 29 percent. During this same period, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has only increased by 17.3 percent. Thus, over the last eight years real government spending has gone up nearly twice as fast as the actual U.S. economy.

When the Clinton Administration left the White House, federal spending was 18.4 percent of GDP. In 2008, at the close of the Bush Administration, federal expenditure is 20.5 percent of GDP, for an 11.4 percent increase over the last eight years.

Washington has run deficits almost every year during the Bush Administration. Total federal debt has doubled and has risen from 58 percent to 66 percent of GDP, for a 14 percent increase in U.S. taxpayers’ debt burden in terms of GDP.

By any measure, there has been an explosion in government spending in both the defense and non-defense categories. Not surprisingly with the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, defense spending has risen during the Bush Administration by 61 percent in constant dollars.

But “big government” domestic expenditures also have gotten a lot bigger during the presidency of George W. Bush. Welfare state spending has increased by 32 percent in constant dollars from what it was at the end of the Clinton Administration.

Medical Care expenditures by the federal government (which includes Medicare, Medicaid, hospital and medical care for veterans, substance abuse and mental health services) has gone up by 54 percent in constant dollars under the current Republican administration.

Not far behind, Food and Nutrition Assistance (which includes food stamps, child nutrition, and special milk programs, supplemental food programs) has increased 43 percent since 2000.

Social Security and related payments have risen by 19 percent. Public Assistance (which includes family support payments to states, low income home energy assistance, earned income tax credits, legal services, payments to states for daycare assistance, payments to states for foster care/adoption assistance, and other related services) have gone up 17 percent. Housing assistance has increased by 12 percent. Federal student loans and related programs have increased by 129 percent.

[North Dallas Thirty]

Public option will be an insurance plan that will be self sustaining.

Lies.

The public option will pay no taxes, pay no expenses (they'll be written off to another portion of the Federal budget), and thus will receive an unfair government subsidy at the expense of the American taxpayer.

But of course, WPE doesn't care, because welfare addicts like himself and his fellow Obama Party members like Charles Rangel pay no taxes.

The lies that WPE tells are easily debunked. You just have to remember that followers of the god-king like himself have never had to fact-check, and are thus incapable of doing it.

[North Dallas Thirty]

LOL...and watch as WPE suddenly reverses himself and screams that the AIER is a racist organization who never gets anything right.

http://www.aier.org/research/commentaries/1321-obamas-carbon-cap-and-trade-policy-is-cost-for-consumers

http://www.aier.org/research/commentaries/1550-obama-thanks-his-friends-government-spending-and-union-support

[WPE]

I'm glad you approve of the accuracy of the aier.org site, cause the article I linked to basically says you're either an idiot or full of s***.

1. Nah, it's Republicans that lie about the public option. There's no death panel, it's not a government takeover, you'll actually get more choice, and it will save money in the long run. But an Insurance Shill like NDT has nothing but fear and lies. Tell the truth and they lose.

The truth is our health system is the most expensive in the world - by far - and don't get the care we pay for. And what Christian Nation leaves 10s of millions uninsured?

2. I work for a living, never been on welfare, always pay my share of taxes, never beat my dog, love my family and believe that Charles Rangel, if he broke the law, should go to jail just like anyone else.

3. For a guy that basically said Bush never ran up any deficits - now that's delusional, you should think twice about accusing others of lies.

[mark l.]

"Since 2000, government spending has increased by more than 55 percent. Even when adjusted for inflation in constant (2000) dollars, federal expenditures have risen by just short of 29 percent. During this same period, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has only increased by 17.3 percent. Thus, over the last eight years real government spending has gone up nearly twice as fast as the actual U.S. economy."

wouldn't dispute the numbers, but the implcations are that we had a less than conservative govt. hence, conservatives ditch the gop.

by the wiki numbers, federal spending from 02-05 rose 18.9%, while gdp rose 9%.

how obama increasing the budget by 18% in his first year should make conservatives feel better...just don't see it. I'm sure that those predicted years of 4 to 5% growth are probably just as underestimated as the numbers they based their unemployment projections on.

[x11b1p]

WPE you do realize that many conservatives were against TARP. I wonder if McCain had come out against it, might he had picked up more conservatives votes, yet that would mean that McCain is a conservative? I dont beleive Bush was smart enough to push tarp with the ends/means game being that obama's desire to spend would effectively pack so much debt in 2009 making it hard to sell HCR's huge price tag. No, instead, i mark Bush as a neocon, not a conservative, and we are suffering financialy as a result of it today. Its time that everyone in Congress start subscribing to a policy of economics that consists of looking not only at the immediate but the longer effects of any act or policy by tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. For far to long this country (by both d and r elected officials) looked at only the immediate benefit for one particular group (example CRA act) while sacrificing a better policy of looking at the long term results. two misguided ways of thinking in my opinion in congress have lead us to where we are financialy now: looking at immediate consequences and only looking at the consequences to a samll group when inacting policy while neglecting other groups. case in point the bailout, case in point the stimulus, both are examples of how immediate gratification was achieved for small groups while no long term consequences for the entire group as a whole taken into consideration. Now we have a 1.4 trillion dollar defict instead of stupidly having a 500 billion dollar deficit. We have a 10-15% unemployment rate, where had we done nothing or at least cut taxes wich is a proven remedy while halting spending we might be at an 8% mark, however i dont know b/c its all speculation given the fact that the same type of speculation for the success of the stimulus bill was incorrect. Today we are suffering the results from the recent past or remote past, why keep going in that direction using the same fallacies for justifying the past and current spending sprees. Paying taxes is compulsory, and if it was voluntary, I wonder how big our government really would be versus how many charities we would have doing and providing the services the government did? However, since taxes are compulsory, and we must all pay them, and not just payroll taxes, why do we continue down the road of spend spend spend, while we all know in our gut that anything done in excess has consequences, or to put it another way, even the miser or spender while engaging in their lifestyles realize that they are heading for a future of debt and poverty.

[Ad rem]

Let's not forget the good news. Ted Kennedy has remained sober for the last nine weeks!

[narciso]

Good god, he's wanted the public option as a way to single payer since 2001, if not longer. The death panels are reflected in his indifference to his own
grandmother who raised him, hip operation, as well as
the work of Exekiel Emmanuel, who has a problem with
the hippocratic oath, which in 2,500 years old

[mark l.]

"Ted Kennedy has remained sober for the last nine weeks!"

two thoughts:
dead bodies ferment, or they just imbalmed him in jim beam.

[MDr]

"Ted Kennedy has remained sober for the last nine weeks!"

If Chevy Chase was still at SNL, he'd sure have fun with that.

[jcrue]

My life and my country have not improved since Obama took the helm. He a private doing a General's job.

Damn the polls.