Fighting Words From Obama

Yup, he's finally come out swinging. At his own base.

Two years ago, I could never have imagined my blog being so anti-Obama. Jeez, the guy used to talk like a champ and genuinely sold me on hope and change. But that was then and this is now. Now we've crossed the credibility hump and 'hope and change' are just hollow buzzwords... almost as hollow as Fox News' "Fair and Balanced". And I've had it. Majorly.

So to hear Obama rail against us 'progressives' today not so much stung as inspired a big ol' middle finger directed due north at the White House. Asked by the WSJ what he thought of liberals who accuse him of abandoning core principles and refusing to fight:

The president compared current complaints from progressives to sparring over health care reform, saying that "this is the public option debate all over again." Then, Obama said, while he was able to pass reform Democrats had fought for for a century, they instead viewed it as "weakness and compromise" that there was no public option. "Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done."

I don't think I've ever heard such a depressing public admission of weakness from a sitting president. Never such a frantic waving of the white flag when times most demand leadership. OK, Obama, I get it. You're no leader. You can't even whip your own party into line to get a vote going, let alone stand up to the GOP. You have no interest in getting your message out and informing the people so that ignorance doesn't become the default setting for public opinion. Instead you just let the Republicans frame every debate, let their skewed version of reality prevail and then shape your policies to fit. Is there no-one close to you who can quietly and politely point out that you're behaving like a world-class f*cking loser?

True, as you say, "this is a big, diverse country" and "not everyone agrees with us". But you don't even seem to agree with yourself. You won a f*cking landslide and were given a big fat mandate to run as a progressive. And what happened? While Bush famously thought he served only the folks who voted for him,  you have the opposite delusion: you choose to serve only the loudest 20-30% who would never vote for you in a million years while treating those who would support you like so much dog sh*t.

Yes, healthcare reform was a struggle and ended up as an aborted catstrophe. Why? Not because the great American public are somehow philosophically opposed to better healthcare and the mess they ended up with was their preference. It turned into an abortion because you refused to fight. You refused to counter the lies and bullsh*t. You refused to press the case. Basically, you pussied out to the Tea Party and the corporate fascists.

Yes, unemployment insurance might have been blocked by the GOP if you hadn't caved on tax cuts. But you laid the ground work for the GOP taking the unemployed hostage. You led the hostage right into the damn house by caving in advance. Instead of standing up for the middle class and getting this sh*t sorted months ago, you stood up for the f*cking GOP. And now you want to attack me for my unicorn dreams of social justice? F*ck you.

So next time, just be honest. Don't attack me for still clinging to the same principles you sold out for the price of a pat on the back from Mitch McConnell. Don't try and justify your weakness by saying "nothing would get done" if you actually tried. Jeez, that's the definition of the term loser. You're not a loser if you fight and lose, you're only a loser if you never fight at all. So just step the f*ck down and let someone else do the damn job if you can't.