Maybe it’s a consequence of having been raised by a committee of wolves, armadillos and hippies, but although I want the government to do lots of things I agree with, I don’t really expect it.

I mean, I’d like to see pot, heroin and LSD dispensed legally by vending machines. Government-funded abortion clinics in every city and hamlet. “In God We Trust” stricken from my money and the tax exemption removed from every church, synagogue and mosque and mega-church preachers catapulted into a special 90% tax bracket. I’d like the right to gay-marry Rachel Maddow. I want government officials to create special gay incentive tax-free zones to reverse urban blight.

I’m kidding about some of this stuff (well, sorta), but I’m not joking about my low expectations. If Obama enacts the agenda he ran on, I’ll be happy even though it won’t fulfill my wildest lefty fantasies, not by a long shot.

However, I do think we progressives should be thrown a bone, and soon. Pat Buchanan (of all people!) made this point the other night. If Bush can stock the CDC with anti-science Young Earth nutballs and put Arabian horse show honchos in charge of FEMA, I think Obama could maybe appoint an unabashed believer in evolution to lead a government-run scientific organization. Maybe even an out of the closet atheist! C’mon, Barack. Throw us a bone! (I’ll wait patiently like a good doggie.)

I think you’re missing the point about the consternation over Liebersack.

I was not mad at Obama, I was stupefied that the congress actually has learned nothing in the last 3 years.  My anger was directed at the old boys club in the senate for continuing to act like world-class door mats.

BTW - By chill pill, do you mean we should just accept anything Obama does, no questions asked?  That reeks a bit much of fealty to me.  I will continue to try to hold the overton window as far left as possible, no matter how hard Big O and the Spineless Wonders on the Hill try to tack right.

By chill pill, do you mean we should just accept anything Obama does, no questions asked?

I just think that the reason that the freak out was so strong was that it was not a reaction to Obama, but more of a culmination of frustration to possibly the most ineffectual Congress, EvAr!

I mean, when did filibusters become merely the threat, a procedural vote-type thing?  I don’t recall seeing Republicans reading from the encyclopedia even once, although somehow the filibustered almost everything that came over the transom.

So I’m just saying that the freak-out was a long time coming (after Fisa, military comissions act, etc, etc, etc).

“BTW - By chill pill, do you mean we should just accept anything Obama does, no questions asked?  “

From my perspective, no way. Can’t see it happening, and I don’t see anyone seriously saying as much here.

But apart from slowly assembling what will hopefully prove be an at least competent team - and we only have Obama’s track record in the election to go on when gauging his abilities on this - there is NOTHING happening here right now other than Bush trying to scrabble out the last weeks of his tenure and give Obama writer’s cramp in January from naysaying his parting gift of retrograde executive orders, the media filling the news vacuum on the new administration as best they can, and a whole load of conjecture all round.

All the fulminating on blogs may have some oblique effect (who knows, such a web-savvy campaign may be monitoring sites like this and others that consider themselves significant), but the proof will come in January and beyond.

Right now, what other than a mix of some political personalities that many of us find at least bemusing is there to get worked up about? Or is the state of the US - along with what Limbaugh and others are rushing to label the “Obama depression” - already Obama’s sole responsibility?

If I suggest that you let the fire be set before you try to hold his feet to it, that’s not a question of stifling dissent, it’s a question of conserving energy.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil. But if it squeaks regardless, what’s the use of oil?*

* (c) Eric Cantona, 2008

Marin,

you are right..we shouldn’t be freaking out as much..but allow me to play devil’s advocate for a sec (not sure who the devil is, but you know what I mean)

Whenever Republicans take power, the very first thing they do is make their base happy. When Bush was in power, guess what he did….Appoint 2 right wingers to the supreme court, stack all federal agencies with Bible Thumpers or Corporatists (remember Monica Goodling?), immediately announce new tax cuts for the super rich because they just weren’t rich enough yet etc etc.

When Democrats take power, they want to “compromise”. they dont want to “antagonize” the American people. they want to hold hands with Republicans and sing kumbaya so that all Americans can see just how accomodating they are. Sure it doesnt matter they give a big fuck you to the liberal left or the netroots community who helped their sorry asses get elected…no sireee, cant do that because that would earn the wrath of of Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin and they would be branded unpatriotic, and we all know how scared Democrats are of them. Remember how they made Daschle cry?

Every time Democrats have come to power, this is all they have done. They have insisted they are not just representatives of the left wing Democratic party, but of all people. Like you so assiduously point out. When Republicans come to power their first priority is to enact the agenda on the basis of which they were elected. Obama and the Democrats have to work all for all people, when in reality what that really means is that they dont have the balls to get anything done. Of course we cant judge Obama just yet and I will be waiting to see how his judgement on the Lieberman issue plays out (but we do know that he got Ned Lamont screwed in the CT Dem primaries). But the Democratic Congress cant be let off the hook. As far as change goes, the change that Obama promised..i have not seen it…all I have seen ‘more of the same” so far. I hope you can forgive doubters like me for freaking out at Obama’s actions. Yes he has outwitted us everytime we have questioned his judgement in the elections, so Ill eat crow now, but I wont be so forgiving in yr or 2 from now if I dont see results.

Do we netroots people ask for much? I don’t think so. But after working so hard to defeat Lieberman in CT, and after all the shit slinging he threw at us, it takes a lot of chutzpah for the Democrats to lecture us on the benefits of bipartisanship. No one asked Lieberman be kicked out of the caucus, but a message had to be sent. Instead the message that came out of all this is “fuck you netroots, you are just a bunch of dirty fucking hippies. there are no consequences when Democrats take power”

and those who hold the first group’s little hands, sooth their fevered brows and read them a good night story.

I must stand up and represent for the people who tell the first group to StFu already.

Thank you.

Oooh, another day, another fabrication!

The topic of whether certain approaches by Obama might endanger his lead—in a year that plainly favored Democrats—came up on my site on rare occasions, but that was hardly the font of our concerns about his candidacy. But please pretend it was, if that makes your life more fulfilling.

As to the strength of his approach, was it just a bad dream where McCain pulled virtually even in the polls before some kind of, well, historic financial meltdown? I guess so.

My major gripes with Obama’s campaign were based on the fact that, in a year when the country hungered for real progressive change, the Greatest Rhetorician of the Millennium served up the weak tea of post-partisanship.

The talk of the Beltway now is this “Team of Rivals” crapola, as opposed to say, Truth and Reconciliation and recognizing Reagan and his descendents as failed, corrupt ideologues. Instead, Ronnie’s been further bronzed as “transformative,” and the Lieberman accommodation may be a harbinger of more forgive-and-forget to come (or it might not).

IMHO, running on this frame was a big squander, because Obama could have reclaimed “liberal” the way Reagan buffed “conservative.”

In any case, in our respective ways, we’re hoping that the 44th presidency will be a good one. Some of us approach it with less certainty that it will play out that way, and with different philosophies about whether skepticism is a healthy posture.

Whenever Republicans take power, the very first thing they do is make their base happy. When Bush was in power, guess what he did….Appoint 2 right wingers to the supreme court, stack all federal agencies with Bible Thumpers or Corporatists (remember Monica Goodling?), immediately announce new tax cuts for the super rich because they just weren’t rich enough yet etc etc.

And how has that approach worked out for them the last couple of election cycles?  Bimbo, I was one of the original fucking dirty hippies and I have seen a lot of election cycles.  I haven’t seen Barack Obama before.  Bringing about “change” means putting together a team of people who understand how to get legislation passed.  The “change” will not come so much from those people being on Obama’s team but from Obama’s agenda that they will be putting into place.  I had a lot of mixed feelings too about the Lieberman fiasco (which I expressed in an earlier thread) but in the long run, he’s not worth it.  Turning him into a martyr would not have been worth it.  He’s got 2 years to go and, even if he does keep his seat, if the Dems pick up a couple more Senate seats next time, Liebs will probably be history.

As to the strength of his approach, was it just a bad dream where McCain pulled virtually even in the polls before some kind of, well, historic financial meltdown? I guess so.

Speaking of fabrication.  For about 5 days McCain had a convention bounce when everyone was all gushy about Sarah Palin and her little sparkles.  But she would have tanked McCain’s campaign on her own if the financial crisis hadn’t occurred to make the election a lock for Obama.

And some of us think that vastleft is a giant steaming load…

Oh BTW, marin, it’s DrAng.

C’mon, Barack. Throw us a bone! (I’ll wait patiently like a good doggie.)

After all the crap we’ve lived through the last eight years I think anything Barack changes would be a t-bone steak!  But, I’d like a bone too.  In particular I would like to see the “war on drugs” formally declared a disastrous fail and some meaningful legislation enacted so we’re not throwing pot dealers in jail only to emerge a few years later as hardened criminals.  Victimless crime is a huge oxymoron.

Remember when Joe Biden said they would have to do some things that would be unpopular?  Well, keeping Lieberman tops my list of unpopular stuff.

Not going to stop loathing Leiberman but not going to have a cow over it either.  The new administration is going to do a good job overall.

“As to the strength of his approach, was it just a bad dream where McCain pulled virtually even in the polls before some kind of, well, historic financial meltdown? I guess so.”

Um. Actually, even Fox News had to admit (via one of its more sporadically truthy anchors, Shep Smith) that according to their pollsters, McCain started tanking the day after after Palin’s Katie Couric interview. The financial crisis supplied the rest of the nails in the coffin.

Seems to me that the two main categories of annoying people on left-liberal blogs and forums are 1) those who continually bash office-holders and others while pitching leftier-than-thou pronouncements, even when they’re apparently not very far left in their views, or don’t even have much understanding of what it would mean to be so; and 2) those who bash anyone who dares to criticize “mainstream” (corporatist, DLC-ilk, AIPAC-shill, etc) Dem office-holders under any circumstance. See DU for a zillion examples of the latter.

Hmm, this seems like the time for the chill poster again.

* (c) Eric Cantona, 2008

Kung Fu Cantona??

“Kung Fu Cantona??”

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown in to the sea.