Harsh Truths For Changing Times

The credibility gap between pre-election and post-election Obama has been tough to process. Through 2009 and 2010, I lurched between ever more desperate optimism and straight disillusionment. It was comforting, like a pain killer, to believe Obama was a three-moves-ahead, chess master kinda guy and that everything would come right in the end... but the clock ran out and it didn't.

The disappointments were many: I went from hopes for single-payer healthcare to a Rethug-lite, reheated Bob Dole plan from the 1990s. I went from expecting the ends of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to watching the Obama admin launch a re-brand operation instead. I went from seeing his futile bipartisanship to... erm... more futile bipartisanship.

Then came the midterms. And the "three-moves-ahead" theory was well and truly busted.

The Obama Dems may have curb-stomped the GOP in 2008. But by 2010, those winners were clearly out of steam and incapable of strategizing their way out of a wet paper bag. Yes, for even the most die-hard Obama supporters, times changed.

Unless we want to live in denial and delude ourselves like Teabaggers, we liberals need to bite the bullet and come to terms with the fact that Obama ain't cutting it. He's a good guy who aced the job interview. But as much as it hurts to admit it, he's not up for the actual job. It sucks. No-one likes to admit they were wrong. But slap on your 20/20 hindsight bifocals and read the damn chart: that great wave of optimism and hope Obama inspired in 2008 was clearly misplaced.

If my words make you mad, make you want to hit the denial switch and say 'quit picking on Obama', we need a 'come to Jesus' moment. We need to consider harsh truths. We can't keep backing a loser because all we're doing is empowering the other side. We can't keep backing Obama and giving him that endless benefit of the doubt because the wingnuts are closing in... And, thanks to the mid-term rout,  Tea Party patient zeroes are already in DC and the disease will spread if we don't find a new leader with the will to fight it. We don't need a guy like Obama who just wants to compromise and work with the Ebola virus. We need a f*cking leader who'll fight it. Just ask Dr Soros:

Liberal billionaire George Soros privately told Democratic donors there may be better places for their funds than Obama, the Huffington Post reported. "If this president can't do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else," he said, according to multiple sources.

Soros is right on. Obama ain't cutting it. Even though the Soros crowd denied the "liberal king-maker' was calling for a primary challenge, it's pretty damn obvious he was. Soros is way too wily to be throwing word bombs like that around with alacrity. So rest assured, there will be a primary challenge. Obama will do an LBJ and announce he doesn't intend to seek reelection. There will be someone else running on the Dem ticket in 2012. Wanna take bets?

But if you're still in denial, still rooting for Obama and hoping he finally summons some spunk in the fourth quarter, let me scare you straight with this:

Though she lost the election to Barack Obama when paired with John McCain in 2008, Palin thinks she could win in a rematch. "I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and…trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing."

Palin is the most laughably sh*tty candidate ever. She's even light-years behind less nuts GOP'ers like Huckabee and that guy who looks like the Fonz. But Obama is now so down, so clearly swimming out of his depth, so f*cked... even Mooselini smells blood.

At this point, dropping your faith in Obama should not be considered an act of betrayal, an ADD flip flop or a self-absorbed admission of bad judgment: It's a necessary first step in a fight for survival. Unless, of course, you're comfortable with Palin/Paul 2012 overseeing the disintegration of America into a corporatist serfdom.