(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
This video was made by a former OFA volunteer out of frustration with OFA and the White House. The White House and OFA have been corralling support for the status quo that exacerbated the current economic crisis not to affect real change.
President Obama’s capitulation on the two year extension of the Bush tax cuts, the estate tax deal and cutting Social Security contributions that was made behind closed doors, has been more than enough for another OFA campaign aide, Sam Graham-Felsen, a media consultant and freelance writer who organized the grassroots strategy as chief blogger for the Obama campaign. In a Washington Post Op-Ed, he argues that it isn’t just the left that President Obama has left out but his most valued asset, the very people who put him in office:
“Obama [has] a vast network of supporters, instantly reachable through an unprecedented e-mail list of 13 million people. These supporters were not just left-wing activists but a broad coalition that included the young, African Americans, independents and even Republicans-and they were ready to be mobilized…Yet at seemingly every turn, Obama has chosen to play an inside game. Instead of actively engaging supporters in major legislative battles, Obama has told them to sit tight as he makes compromises behind closed doors.”
The problem is that President Obama has not only capitulated on everything from Health Care and Financial Regulation to this latest “craptacular bipartisan capitulation” as msblucow, the creator of the video so aptly states, but that the President has embraced the “politics as usual” which he campaigned to change because it’s easier. What Obama did with this tax bill is not a win for him or the American people. He did not “work with Republicans” he caved to their demands and he did it behind the backs of the Democrats. Not exactly the way to get re-elected.
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to the use of the phrase “Hippie Punching” mostly that it is “getting old” but mostly that it has nothing to do with real hippies or victimization, an argument used by ardent Obama supporters. Understand that it is a metaphor, most likely originated by Atrios who is a master of metaphor. The phrase describes a political strategy whereby a Democratic pol seeks to gain politically by taking a shot at liberals. It’s basically the same thing as triangulation.
Thank you, david mizner, for that explanation
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that makes so very hard points about some of Obama’s supporters
is going to have an impact.
How things have changed. Six months ago the author would have been troll rated into oblivion for that.
I (and many of us) saw the things that the video is illustrating more than a year ago during the HCR debacle. I’m glad that more people are coming around, but I have been very impatient in waiting for them to do so. And now, the coalition that we might form to pressure the President has much less potential. I am having a very hard time forgiving people for not helping us apply pressure to get the best possible legislation. The losses are devastating.
And this latest tax deal “loss” is not a loss at all, it’s a forfeit.