what are barack obama's flaws?

ballhog

insufficiently cruel

digustingly considerate

disappointingly pragmatic

wait, wtf @ "communitarian" being a bad word? That's a totally common category in contemporary political philosophy, used for those who see communities of individuals rather than isolated individuals as politically central. Or did I miss some kind of joke, with the Hitler references and all?

yep, no one deifying him on ILX.

it's called glee, morbius

pure, unadulterated sheer fucking glee

morbs tomorrow i will toast to your unrivaled principle and then get drunk

on wednesday i will be hung over

on thursday and thereafter it will be l-r: obama, BIG HOOS
http://nynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/14-cat-meets-eagle.JPG

poor kitty gonna get raped

for "The Wire" multitudes:

Obama as Tommy Carcetti

Obama’s victory is consequently a watershed in American politics, and it should be enthusiastically celebrated for that reason alone....
The grim reality, however, is that Obama (like Carcetti) will spend his first term campaigning for his second term, a campaign he actually began in his acceptance speech in Chicago on election night... If he wins a second term, he’ll spend it shoring up the prospects of both the Democrats in Congress and his aspiring Democratic successor to the throne--again, by cultivating the “center.”

Obama will undoubtedly be better than Bush was and better than McCain would have been, and the differences matter. But a realistic assessment of the scope of those differences is imperative. Without it, people who really care about changing this country’s direction will end up counting on one man, Obama, instead of on themselves to bring about the change we need. Those people will inevitably be disappointed.

...All told, the outlook for a new day in America is poor. The bottom line is this: When you think Barack Obama, think Tommy Carcetti. He probably has a good heart, but he is confronting a vast array of institutional forces aimed at preventing him or anyone else in power from doing the right thing. To have any chance of getting the results we want out of his administration, we cannot just sit back and expect him to work his magic. We must organize, agitate, and pursue independent initiatives (like ballot measures) to get what we want (like single-payer healthcare) at the state level. And we must carefully scrutinize Obama’s every move and harass and harangue him relentlessly just as if he were John McCain or George Bush. From the point of view of every American left of center, the principal advantage of Obama over McCain is that it is at least possible that he will listen to us. We cannot let that advantage go to waste.

what are barack obama's flaws? [Started by and what in April 2008, last updated Thursday, November 6, 2008 11:40 AM by Dr Morbius on I Love Everything] 17 new answers

And we must carefully scrutinize Obama’s every move and harass and harangue him relentlessly just as if he were John McCain or George Bush. From the point of view of every American left of center, the principal advantage of Obama over McCain is that it is at least possible that he will listen to us. We cannot let that advantage our shitty blogs go to waste.

Greenwald's on it already on his shitty left wing blog.

Oh great, the WBC is going to picket Obama's grandmother's funeral. (don't wanna link to their site though)

Alfred, do you think Obama should work on repealing DOMA before or after he gets to work on the economy, energy independence, and, say, getting the troops home from Iraq? I say this with the belief that DOMA is bullshit.

Obama (like Carcetti) will spend his first term campaigning for his second term

Maybe a minor quibble, but this is kind of off, since Carcetti was leapfrogging to a higher office (from mayor to governor) in a 2 year span, not trying to ensure his chances of being re-elected to the same. And doesn't every prez immediate begin sweating their 2nd term the moment they start their first? There's kind of a huge difference between being so ambitiously careerist that you're too busy pursuing the next job to be good at the current one, and getting to the highest possible post and making moves to try to stay there longer (which usually involve being good at that job). Still, I enjoy the implicit parallel that a white man getting elected to run Baltimore is kind of like a black man getting elected to run America. And of course Obama should be carefully scrutinized, just like every president.

Alfred, do you think Obama should work on repealing DOMA before or after he gets to work on the economy, energy independence, and, say, getting the troops home from Iraq? I say this with the belief that DOMA is bullshit

Not at all, and, regrettably, I'm not sure it's even one of his campaign promises. I was more interested in the second part of Greenwald's argument.

ah gotcha.

Combine all that with the fact that only a small minority is actually affected by DOMA's injustices, that many Democrats will insist none of this is worth the "risk," and that many Obama supporters will refuse to criticize anything he does (marvel at the number of commenters here saying that Obama's choice of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff is right because . . . it is Obama's choice -- just look at this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this).

and yeah i agree, refusing to criticize the dude is ridiculous, but harass and harangue him relentlessly isn't much better.

Que, if he takes a stand or is going to back sign legislation you disagree with, are you going to write or phone? That's all "harass and harangue" means.

+ or march or...

i guess it probably depends on the legislation & the position he takes on it, etc. etc. i don't give politicians blank checks. . . but nor do i have a chip on my shoulder about them.

i also reserve the right to respectfully disagree with said dude

Obama and Congressional Democrats deserve some time to figure out what they will do and what they will prioritize. It's irrational to criticize them for things they haven't done. It's probably politically wise for the first steps they take to be related to the economy, and there are numerous other non-economic priorities of vital importance that nobody should wait for (restoring habeas corpus, closing Guantanamo, imposing a government-wide ban on torture). But repealing DOMA, and certainly its most destructive part, is a quick and important way to establish who they are, and doing that is consistent with, not contrary to, prevailing political sentiment.

truth bombastic and really fantastic

I'm writing a letter to Messrs. Elect & Pelosi & Reid today in this regard.

Obama's 10 Worst Ideas

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Obama cannot bring change to Washington. There is no one in the Washington crowd that he can appoint who is capable of bringing change. If Obama were to reach outside the usual crowd, anyone suspected of being a bringer of change could not get confirmed by the Senate. Powerful interest groups--AIPAC, the military-security complex, Wall Street--use their political influence to block unacceptable appointments.

As Alexander Cockburn said of Obama in a pre-election column, column “never has the dead hand of the past had a ‘reform’ candidate so firmly by the windpipe.” Obama confirmed Cockburn’s verdict in his first press conference as president-elect. Disregarding the unanimous US National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran stopped working on nuclear weapons five years ago, and ignoring the continued certification by the International Atomic Energy Agency that none of the nuclear material for Iran’s civilian nuclear reactor has been diverted to weapons use, Obama sallied forth with the Israel Lobby’s propaganda and accused Iran of “development of a nuclear weapon” and vowing “to prevent that from happening.”

The change that is coming to America has nothing to do with Obama. Change is coming from the financial crisis brought on by Wall Street greed and irresponsibility, from the eroding role of the US dollar as reserve currency, from countless mortgage foreclosures, from the offshoring of millions of America’s best jobs, from a deepening recession, from pillars of American manufacturing--Ford and GM--begging the government for taxpayers’ money to stay alive, and from budget and trade deficits that are too large to be closed by normal means....

The change that is coming is the end of American empire. The hegemon has run out of money and influence. Obama as “America’s First Black President” will lift hopes and, thus, allow the act to be carried on a little longer. But the New American Century is already over.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts11102008.html

THE HEGEMON

pika pika!

if you prefer the Titanic, mon, that works

# what are barack obama's flaws? [Started by and what in April 2008, last updated 4 minutes ago] 5 new answers
# not funny [Started by oooh in November 2005, last updated 4 minutes ago] 4 new answers

Paul Craig Roberts is probably right in his overall conclusions, but his piece doesn't exactly speak to Obama's flaws so much as the situation he will find himself in and the limits placed on his choices. Within the context of the office and what can be done right now, Obama will still be a first class president.

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and WSJ & National Review ed:

morbs have you found any blogs by chuck colson yet I wonder what he has to say about obama

what the fuck happened to this guy

looking up roberts he seems to be a 9/11 truther nut among other fringey views.

paul craig roberts also thinks that lincoln was "the american pol pot": http://www.vdare.com/roberts/police_state.htm. he's a complete crackpot.

jeez, Bill Clinton was a war criminal but he has some astute things to say

anyone suspected of being a bringer of change could not get confirmed by the Senate

largely true

Disregarding the unanimous US National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran stopped working on nuclear weapons five years ago, and ignoring the continued certification by the International Atomic Energy Agency that none of the nuclear material for Iran’s civilian nuclear reactor has been diverted to weapons use

Sadly otm

Change is coming from the financial crisis brought on by Wall Street greed and irresponsibility, from the eroding role of the US dollar as reserve currency

Also otm

The change that is coming is the end of American empire.

More wishful than true. We will be weakened, and reduced, but we'll still be the hegemonic world power throughout Obama's administration. Could be true, in a longer time frame.

lol @ ron paul's massive disingenuousness reagan ass-kissing : http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/paul.republican/index.html

Most Republicans endorsed this view in order to achieve victories at the polls. Limiting government power and size with less spending and a balanced budget as the goal used to be a "traditional" Republican value. This is what Goldwater and Reagan talked about. That is what the Contract with America stood for.

http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/inflation.gif

Fuck Ron Paul, fuck XKCD, peace I'm audi 5gs

buying into lincoln hatred is sort of the kiss-the-ring moment for true right-libertarian nutjobs. you find someone that's on that shit you know you've struck GOLD.

Butterfingers Obama Lets Blackberry Slip
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 16, 2009
Filed at 12:31 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama's cherished Blackberry slipped through his fingers Friday -- but it was only a butterfingers moment.

Obama, who has been reluctant to relinquish the device when he becomes president, dropped his Blackberry and its hard plastic case onto an airport tarmac as he emerged from his fortified vehicle.

A Secret Service agent hustled to pick it up.

Secret Service officials are among those urging Obama to give up his Blackberry habit, because it causes security worries. Lawyers think it also poses difficulties in keeping public records.

The wireless e-mail and phone device is Obama's constant companion and link to the outside world.

Told about the fumble, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs quipped: ''That may have solved his Blackberry dilemma, right? Forget the lawyers!''

No word yet on whether the Blackberry still works.

Broke bread with Will, Krauthammer etc.

If he can make new friends of old enemies, then more power to him.

Yeah I think given the response of the conservative pundits that was a remarkably shrewd move. Do I like any of those guys? No. But not having them hate your guts from the get-go is probably not a bad idea.

I am less thrilled about his overall desire to "reach out" to the right though on certain policy matter (those business tax cuts are ugh and his Guatanamo comments this weekend were pretty irritating) but I'm not sure some of that stuff isn't built to fail (i.e. let a dem congress strip it out while letting Obama seem very bi-partisan).

I can't even imagine Clinton having vodka tonics with Newt Gingrich, let alone Bush with Daschle, so anytime a president can seduce the opposing camp's lapdogs is a huge plus.

i know this has probably been covered ad nauseam elswhere on ilx, but fuuhuhuhuhuuck that Rick Warren dude. I realize that it's a purely ceremonial function, relegated to one half hour of one day and it's not like he's being bandied about as replacement for Sec of Ed. if Arne Duncan gets accused of point shaving during his tenure in Australian league basketball (lol), but I feel Barry could have easily found a clergyman (or woman) with gravity and notoriety that embodies Christian principles without the hateful (re: gays) and willfully ignorant (re: creationism) rhetoric.

Agree about the recent Guantanamo comments, but I still (optimistically) expect real progress on the closure as soon as he's in office. Half expect to be disappointed though...