Check The Diagonal

Yes We Can and Why I Did

“But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible
odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't
try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a
simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.”

-Barack Obama, New Hampshire 2008

There are dozens of recaps and impact analysis stories on yesterday’s historic health care reform vote in the House so I’m not going to do that today.  I am ecstatic that affordable health care is now a right for all Americans.  This is what change looks like and is exactly why I voted and worked so hard to elect President Obama. 

Instead I’m going to tell a story about why I care so much.  Those of you who believe in fate or even dumb luck might appreciate it.

I’d never been to Iowa before, yet there I was, freezing my ass off in the December arctic cold in front of Des Moines International. I was waiting for my new boss who had invited me to a customer call to assist in my ramp up. That’s typical for life in sales, August worldwide sales meetings in Arizona, or winters in Chicago or Des Moines; it’s never South Beach in January. The company we visited were not good prospects but we were flying out the next morning and they were really nice guys, so at the end of the call we invited them out for dinner. They declined, a Democratic Presidential candidate named Barack Obama was speaking at a local high school and they wanted to go hear him. After some education on how seriously Iowans take their civic responsibility we could only accept their invitation to join them.

At this point I have to admit that I was seriously unhappy with this turn of events. I was cold, there was no sale, and I wasn’t going to get a cocktail to soak my miseries with.

As corny as it may sound what happened next literally changed my life forever. It wasn’t the speech itself, which was a combination of his red state-blue state speech from the 2004 Democratic Convention and his Iowa victory speech. This was the first time I’d ever heard a politician speak without depending on personal pronouns to carry the point. The speech wasn’t about him or the shiny new job he wanted to get his hands on or how he was going to single handedly make my life better because he was so great. The speech was about the people in that gym and it was about personal responsibility and accountability and perseverance and accomplishment in the face of the longest odds. It was about the failures of cynicism and the power of hope and what could be accomplished if Americans would stand up and work for change, because we must, not selfishly, but on behalf of each other.

For my entire life I equated my own personal success with wealth creation, with hustling to get ahead and get by. I had escaped the ghetto of my childhood and never looked back. At that moment I realized that I learned all the wrong things, and that I’d lived my life in a very shallow and meaningless way. Now I feel very strongly that if all I do with the balance of my life is to create more wealth in order to create more distance between myself and where I came from, I will have failed miserably. 

I was 39 years old the day I voted for Barack Obama in the Georgia Democratic Primary.  It was the first time I’d ever voted in my life and looking back I have a lot of guilt associated with my non-participation in our government, especially considering the Bush 8 years.  Understand though, where I come from parental guidance was a daily lesson in what not to do and politicians only pandered in my neighborhood during the closest of elections only to disappear again the day afterwards.  In my eyes, and in the eyes of my community, voting was a privilege reserved for downtown people, rich people and more specifically, rich white people and so I never wasted my time or my energy on voting.  The only thing registering to vote got you was jury duty.  I was wrong. 

Those nice Iowans I met that day took their responsibility seriously because it is.  Elections matter.  If President Obama has taught me anything over the past two years its that one person CAN make a difference.  Perfect isn’t achievable, waiting is untenable and ambivalence, in the way I was, is inexcusable.  But if we each get up and try to do only what we can, great things can be accomplished.

“When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge -- we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility -- we embraced it. We did not fear our future -- we shaped it.”

-President Barack Obama, White House 2010 

 

Fucking Progressives

The entire country was able to see the Brown win coming a mile away.  Coakley was without game, period.  The people of Massachusetts, the American public and even the winning Republican Senator Elect Brown all confirm what we also already knew; this was NOT a referendum on President Obama or his agenda. 

The big story of the week isn’t Brown and his big win, it is the collective collapse of the Democratic spine spurred on by Progressives who seem capable of only thinking in terms of Utopia and cannot tell the difference between what is best and what can be accomplished. In the absence of Utopia they simply throw up their hands and quit.  Weak.

Here is Krugman from yesterday making me ill.

But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.

And your alternative is what?  Get a backbone and do your job as a leading Progressive voice in America.  Present alternatives.  You are a Nobel Prize winner, get out there and explain to Joe Democrat what the angles are.  There are countless angles.  Prescribe don’t whine and cry.  If you can’t do that, get out of the way and STFU.

Brown is not really important.

My head is full from the pundits and experts and palm readers on the MSM and the blogosphere selling the American people conflict.  Our MSM is the greatest reality TV show.  People need to go back to thinking about Haiti because this story doesn’t really have legs. Brown does not have to be important and here’s why:

· It is easy for a candidate to pull a Sarah Palin by pretending to be something he is not, say he drives a truck and co-op Obama’s message of change to get elected by a wave of populist anger when the person he is campaigning against forgets to campaign and takes a Caribbean vacation with the fam. He basically ran uncontested. But now he has to show up for work and vote and his record says he is to the left of the other New England Republicans.

· The Democrats didn’t have a supermajority when Obama was elected and frankly it has been used as a curtain for Republicans to hide their obstructionism behind or obstructionist behinds or both. Message to Democrats: Call them on their bullshit. The average American doesn’t even know what a filibuster is and has never seen one. Make Republicans filibuster everything live on CNN; climate change, Wall Street reform, healthcare. Create more shit for them to stand up and filibuster. The key is not to run away but to run ahead faster. Force them to reconcile the misleading untruths of their populist messages with the truth of governing.

· For the record Obama’s agenda polls at a 60% approval rating in Massachusetts. This was a referendum on Coakley, and frankly she earned every bit of the ass-kicking she got last night. Chokeley should stick, it fits.

We all know the Republicans are unfit to lead America but now we are going to find out if Democrats have the balls to.

I don't feel terrorized con't

David Rothkopf thinks Obama might be the only person in the United States that got the tenor just right on Captain Underpants, Al-Qaeda and terrorism this holiday season.  Good thing he’s President huh?

“Obama's reaction to the junkbomber incident was precisely right and just what you want from a leader: Dispassionate, thoughtful, and calculated. He gave his team the time to assess the threat, the breaches and the right next steps to take. At least one person in the United States, Barack Obama, seemed to recognize that the objective of terrorism is to promote terror and sought to defuse that effort by handling the threat with the proportionality and common sense that has long been missing from U.S. counterterrorism strategy.”

He goes on to echo what I think was right about Fareed’s commentary on Sunday and how I generally feel about terrorism.  They can’t win unless I’m terrorized and I’m NOT terrorized.

“Fourth, terrorism by definition is only successful if it produces "terror" -- the kind of hysterical over-reaction we are once again seeing -- yet this fact does not seem to have resulted in very many critics toning down their hysteria or shrillness. (The Republican Party has the collective cool on these matters of Prissy helping to birth Melanie's baby in Gone With the Wind.”

It is worth an entire read.  He goes on to talk about what these petty distractions and petulant arm waving really cost our country.  It is significant.  For every moment the GOP and the MSM waste on the semantics of the word War or Terror is one moment that cannot be spent on fixing the real problems that face America.

After 8 long years, this.

"Ultimately, the buck stops with me,"

-President Obama

Punks jump up to get beat down

It’s interesting to watch a collective Republican response to the Christmas Day attack that is based purely on their fear and lack of faith in American fortitude.  This post from the White House is the exact way to handle the Dick Cheney Right these days.  They are the party of irrational hysteria and fear and should be spanked with impunity.

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President.

 

And

There are numerous other such public statements that explicitly state we are at war. The difference is this: President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and – unlike the last Administration – we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered.

The Chicago Way.  Watch and learn, Dick.

What a difference one year makes...

At Plunderbund, the impact and meaning of the “Captain Underpants” attack and President Obama’s change we can believe in.

There is no fear.  No panic.  No alarmism.  Not coming from this White House, not from any authorities, not from the passengers (who seem almost thrilled to be the heroes) and as a result, not even in the media.  Republicans started whining from minute one, and got more whiny the less the White House used their preferred language of belligerence.

Al Qaeda seems almost miffed that we aren’tpanicking.  I can’t really recall Al Qaeda so loudly and immediately claiming credit for any attack, not even 9/11.  And yet, they’ve done so here, praising testicle toaster as a failed martyr, making him a banner headline, because the American response isn’t giving them enough ink.

Anyone else noticing how closely aligned the American Neoconservative and Islamic extremist interests and responses are becoming?  The more Obama takes away both groups’ power of fear and hate over the American people the more apparent it becomes. Look no further than Pat Buchannan calling for the torture of the spoiled rich kid, testicle-less, failed underwear bomber.  He was telling us everything he knows before he got off the plane.  What is the use of torture at this point?  We know information obtained through torture is flawed and generally useless.  What Pat is really advocating for here is punishment.  The Neocons aren't interested in actionable intelligence, only the illusion of its possibility, what they really want is to hurt people, bad.

 

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Of course this humiliation of Al Qaeda will cause them to try even harder in the future and we should remain vigilant and expectant of additional attacks on American soil, but what a difference one year makes.  We’ve lost so much after being governed and controlled by the politics of hate and fear for 8 long years.  One year later, I like the look of the politics of hope and change so much better.

Death to the Dictator

With the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri the Iranian people have added another powerful martyr to their cause.  He was Iran’s most senior cleric and an outspoken anti-government voice who promoted the idea of normalized relations with the United States and that dismissed the reelection of Ahmadinejad and the Khamenei government as corrupt and illegitimate in support of the current Green Movement.

A few short months ago the favorite chant of the Iranian people was “Death to America.” That has been irreparably replaced by “Death to the Dictator.”  The government in Iran has beaten, raped and murdered their own people in a fight to keep the same tyrannical control they fought to be rid of in the 70s and the Iranian people are paying attention.

The Iranian government is hopelessly trying to downplay the significance of his death in the state controlled newspaper Kayhan via Enduring America:

"there were “a maximum of about 5000” in the crowd at the Montazeri ceremonies, as reformists “completely failed to create “a popular gathering”

As you can see in the video linked by Andrew Sullivan below the crowds were of course much larger. 

 

What we are witnessing first hand is a government unable and unwilling to adapt to the changing times.  A John McCain Presidency would have signaled a welcome continuation of Bush/Cheney policies for Iran.  America would be very near to or already at war with Iran and imposing strict sanctions that would harm the Iranian people directly giving the illegitimate government of Iran the distractions they so desperately need, in the form of a very familiar American devil, in order to slow the progress of the Green Movement.   

Instead we have President Obama who has inspired the great segments of the Middle East to move towards more mutual understanding and cohabitation, and who seems quite content with letting the Iran government rattle their sabers if it likes, without reaction.   The Iranian government does not know how to respond to this outreach and so it is behaving the same way it did, with great success, during the Bush/Cheney years.  They have test fired missiles, refused to curtail or have their nuclear program inspected, provoked Israel, and in the process of cementing their illegitimacy, committed hellacious human rights violations on its own people.  They are begging for a straw man.  Thankfully the Obama Administration so far has refused to give it to them.

On Hope

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.”   -Reinhold Niebuhr

 

 

I take a lot of heat for my unwavering support of President Obama. But you’ve got to understand my perspective before we go there.

I grew up in a time and place where the greatest limits we faced as children were the ones we created in our own mind.  The public schools we attended were halfway houses filled with stillborn brilliance and parental guidance was most often a shining beacon of exactly what not to do.  Hope was a luxury reserved for other, more fortunate children growing up somewhere else.  Instead our wishes were all ones of instant gratification filled with band-aids for our future which looked more dismal than our present. That’s why welfare children in the ghetto are the best dressed, it’s why our sneakers were our prize possession, and why the lure of the live for today life on the street was so strong.  These things allowed me to forget that there was very little to be hopeful for.  Instead we learned to survive a day at a time. And that’s the tragedy of a hopeless existence; living day by day and check to check forces us to live in the NOW, hope becomes tomorrow’s unaffordable luxury.  Fuck a dollar and a dream, ya heard?

Perhaps I do resemble a fan when it comes to Obama.  I can find no wrong in his consistent effort to change our conversations and outlook and direction in positive and substantive ways.  Conversely I find nothing at all redeeming about an opposition refusing to play out of spite.  What matters is that we pay attention. Progressives who are angered about the Afghanistan escalation and Hawks who were pleased with the Nobel Speech clearly have not been paying attention to Obama these past few years.  Those positions are old and he is exactly who he said he was.  If we are going to allow others to spoon feed their opinions to us, pawned off as our own, we are going to be disappointed and misled.  

I have plenty of policy and tactical disagreements with the President.  He has been slow on GITMO and DODT and DOMA and weak on equal rights for same sex partners.  I think there should be top level war crime prosecutions for the torture administration and I think Joe Liebermann and Republican obstructionism should be publically unveiled for what it is and punished.  But I didn’t vote for Obama to carry my water to the White House and enact policy the way I think he should.  I voted for him because of his character and his intellect and his willingness to try hard.  Hope is not a strategy and it’s not blind optimism either, but what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve and President Obama has given that power back to me and others in this country and for that he has my support.   

 

“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” 

-Barack Obama

 

 

I'm feeling all WTF today....

With work and school and life and the holidays I am way too busy to be here right now but I'm just so disgusted with the left's reaction to the Obama speech on Tuesday I had to drop a link and a few quick thoughts. 

Republican wingnuts and tea baggers are absolutely bat shit crazy, this is a fact.  If the past 8 years taught us anything its that Republicans have NO business governing a majority when their ideals and ideas are skewed to satisfy such a ridiculous and insane minority.  The Democrats on the other hand have no business having a majority they don't know what to do with.  They lack the balls and political instinct to move any agenda forward.  On health care, military and foreign policy, spending, taxes, stimulus, you name it, President Obama's worst enemies reside on HIS side of the aisle.  I'm exasperated by the uselessness of the left.  In 3 years Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney are going to be the legitimate Republican Presidential nominees...getting a picture of the alternative yet.

Jamelle Bouie sums it up nicely here:

This isn't a one time thing either; throughout the speech Obama calls for more troops and more resources to be directed towards the war in Afghanistan. The simple fact here is that Obama has done exactly what he said he would, and it's ridiculous for liberals to claim that they've been "betrayed." No, they just haven't been paying attention.

Yes, Barack Obama's decision to double-down in Afghanistan will cost us thousands of American and Afghan lives, but frankly, that pales in comparison to the destruction we know right-wing foreign and domestic policy will cause. In a mere eight years, the right-wing was responsible for two invasions (and hundreds of thousands of lost lives), the destruction of a major American city, torture, illegal spying on American citizens, indefinite detention, and the near-total collapse of the global economy. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to be pissed at Obama -- lord knows I am -- but threatening to inflict that on the the world again is irresponsible verging on criminal.

Stained by our Nation's Original Sin of Slavery...

What do the GOP and Keith Bardwell, the racist Louisiana Justice of the Peace who denied an interracial couple a marriage license have in common?  They both used the "some of my best friends are black" racism defense this week.  The GOP here and Mr. Bardwell as quoted by the AP here.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

"They" even get to use his bathroom.  Do they come in the house through the front door or the back?

I still believe that the racists of the South are endangered as an ever shrinking minority.  But stories like this don't make it easy for me to do so.  We live in the South.  I'm white, my wife is hispanic.  My children are obviously not accepted by Bardwell and people like him.

I sat down with my family last night and re-watched Obama's Philadelphia speech on race and I feel great hope for their future this morning. There is a reason Republican party identity is at all time low and their embrace of racism is one of them.  The masses are rejecting Michael Steele's black-face, gettin jiggy wit it nonsense and they are appalled, as are we, by Bardwell and people like him.

But what we know—what we have seen—is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope—the audacity to hope—for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”  -Barack Obama

 

The GOP Heroes

The page is here.  It is as stark a reminder of the craven depravity and racism inherit in the Republican Party establishment as we are going to get.  It started with the election of an unqualified, unprepared Michael Steele as RNC Chair as Black token and culminates in a GOP page for Republican Heroes that is dominated with Black and Latino faces, including Jackie Robinson who was not a Republican. 

It is obvious they are stretching to prove a point.  But, its the wrong one.  It is the same ol"some of my best friends are Black people" point.  It is a racist defense made by a racist entity trying to hide the fact that the majority of their party members think Obama is either the Anti-Christ or born in Kenya in order to pander for minority votes.  What the RNC cannot seem to fathom is that Barack Obama did not win the 2008 Presidential Election BECAUSE he is Black.  He won it DESPITE the fact that he is Black.

Obama's big gay speech....

....was incredibly small and nothing new since the campaign. 

The fight for equal rights for gay Americans is the civil rights movement of our time and it deserves better attention than it is getting from Washington especially considering the fact that their rights are already guaranteed under the Constitution.  This is not a states rights issue and should not be left to the states to individually decide. 

I'll concede to all of Obama's rethoric and well wishing on the subject as soon as he says or does anything concrete regarding DOMA and DODT.  Until then, not another speech on the subject, please.

Thoughts on Republicans not for America

There was this thought from Steve Benen yesterday:

The president was just honored with one of the world's most prestigious accolades, and the GOP has an interest in undermining any potential benefits the White House might receive as a result. But coming on the heels of last week's delight over the U.S. losing the Olympics, Republicans have set themselves up as the party that roots against the country, and this morning, echoes the rhetoric of the Taliban.

I am just not sure Republicans are thinking this through.  The reflex predictability in their response to anything Obama related is comical at best, tragic at worst because American Democracy depends on TWO functioning parties.  They are working overtime to align themselves AGAINST American Hope and Pride, two sentiments that are deeply critical to American culture and success.

For a test I posted thisjoke list of Republican talking points to the Obama Nobel win to a Rush/Beck/FOX Republican family member of mine and instead of getting the joke, they cheer-leaded the list.  They missed the point entirely which is that Republicans no longer need to speak.  We all know what they are going to say related to Obama before they say it.  They have no stake in the game outside of spoiler.

As an American citizen I feel like a spectator or some sap waiting to become collateral damage to the Republican Party in their war against Barack Obama.  The entire job is supposed to be about the American People, not Republican disdain for not being in power or being led by a black man.  For an example of how much Republicans do not get that,read RNC Chair Michael Steele's response to the Nobel Win here.

Question, is Obama's greatest talent the ability to make his opponents all look like grade-school age, spittle flying out of the mouth, mental midgets?  I am starting to think so.

The Peace Prize

I planned to write a long defense of the award filled with partisan vitriol which would have included a reminder of the great many Bush Administration failings on peace and human rights but I don't think its necessary anymore.  The "what" that has changed in the past 9 months is clear to anyone paying attention.

Instead I am simply feeling very proud right now.  I am proud to have supported President Obama for the inclusive, well reasoned way he promised to conduct America's business in the world as I watch it come to pass.  I am proud that America's standing in the world has increased so much in so little time.  I am once again proud to be an American.

The Lede at the NY Times has a nice compilation of world reaction including this from Shimon Perez:

“Very few leaders if at all were able to change the mood of the entire world in such a short while with such a profound impact. You provided the entire humanity with fresh hope, with intellectual determination, and a feeling that there is a lord in heaven and believers on earth.”

 

Not Correct

I think Andrew Sullivan is the smartest, most interesting blogger on the net today.  That said, sometimes I think he picks the trivial stuff to hit Obama on to ward against being labeled a fanboy.  Genius if that is true, not so much if he really thinks this bit below.

He jumps Obama for the Olympic attempt here:

Most of all, it was a dreadful piece of judgment. The president deserves every inevitable brickbat from the right; and David Axelrod should know better than to have left his boss this vulnerable at this critical juncture. I suspect the input of Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama. But the buck stops with Obama and he blew this one big time.

This seems heavy-handed and unfair.  What was Obama to do? Ignore his hometown and his country's shot at an Olympic bid in favor of political expediency while all of the other finalist country's leaders were flying to Denmark? 

No, Obama chose the lesser of two evils.  He tried and lost but at least he is seen as having tried.  To not go would have resulted in far worse condemnation from the Right, feeding their already vibrant meme of "Obama hates America."

George Will's unoriginal meme

Funny, this "Obama is a narcissist" meme started with Marty Peretz over at TNR who prefers to only support a president when they agree with him.

What I suspect is that the president is probably a clinical narcissist. This is not necessarily a bad condition if one maintains for oneself what the psychiatrists call an "optimal margin of illusion," that is, the margin of hope that allows you to work. But what if his narcissism blinds him to the issues and problems in the world and the inveterate foes of the nation that are not susceptible to his charms?

Joe Klein calls it like I see it:

I don't mind when Peretz, or anyone, goes off the liberal reservation--so long as his argument is carefully reasoned. I've been known to be flagrantly "unreliable" myself...and the Left has been known to be disastrously wrong, from time to time. But at a moment when Israel is intransigent on an important element of Middle Eastern peace--freezing the settlements--and Iran is showing some flexibility in the nuclear talks, Peretz's name-calling and long-distance psychiatry seems the behavior of a brat who isn't getting his way. It would be sad if he weren't so vicious.

The Continuing Adventures of George Will the Idiot.

He test floated this moronic and simplistic Right meme on Sunday on This Week.  On par for what passes for journalism at the Post these days.  Not sure why anyone is listening to George Will anymore... 

In the 41 sentences of her remarks, Michelle Obama used some form of the personal pronouns "I" or "me" 44 times. Her husband was, comparatively, a shrinking violet, using those pronouns only 26 times in 48 sentences. Still, 70 times in 89 sentences conveyed the message that somehow their fascinating selves were what made, or should have made, Chicago's case compelling.

Unfortunately for George, he neglected to read the Obama's speeches.  In almost every case, the use of personal pronouns were a segway for each to reflect on their hometown of Chicago, not themselves.

Michelle Obama:  Chicago's vision for the Olympic and Paralympic movement is about so more than what we can offer the Games -- it's about what the Games can offer all of us.  It's about inspiring this generation, and building a lasting legacy for the next.  It's about our responsibility as Americans not just to put on great Games, but to use these Games as a vehicle to bring us together; to usher in a new era of international engagement; and to give us hope; and to change lives all over the world.

President Obama:  You see, growing up, my family moved around a lot.  I was born in Hawaii.  I lived in Indonesia for a time.  I never really had roots in any one place or culture or ethnic group.  And then I came to Chicago.  And on those Chicago streets, I worked alongside men and women who were black and white; Latino and Asian; people of every class and nationality and religion.  I came to discover that Chicago is that most American of American cities, but one where citizens from more than 130 nations inhabit a rich tapestry of distinctive neighborhoods.

Truth to power?

Republicans seem to think the key takeaway is to celebrate Obama's failure to bring the Olympics to America when in fact they are now reveling in American failure.  The modern Republican party has officially jumped the shark.  Me, I'm happy that he tried. 

I think Joe Scarbourough may be just opportunistically positioning himself for another run at public office as a voice of reason in a Beck/Palin/Rush dominated insane world but to that I say good for him. 

"The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President's mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all."

Personally I'm predicting a blockbuster bestseller by Palin and her eventual nomination in 12' but its nice to see Joe make the attempt for what ever reason.

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Andrew is back and I am happy.  He's not only my favorite blogger but also one of the most brilliant and insightful people in political information distribution today.  The Daily Dish is a must read for anyone, on either side of the aisle who gives a shit.

The Rotten Core

"Nepotism is part of the problem; media corruption is also part; the total uselessness of the Democratic party and the nihilism of the Republicans doesn't help. But something is rotten in America at this moment in time; and those of us who supported Obama to try and change this decay and decline should use this fall to get off our butts and fight for change."

This is a thought that frustrates me daily as I watch Obama's aggressive and necessary agenda flounder and struggle.  Winning the election was supposed to be the beginning, not the end.  Let us not forget that he won despitethe nihilism of the Right and the uselessness of the Left in what was a true American grassroots movement.  Face the facts. There is no liberal media bias and the broad big tent of the Left will never be unified enough for Obama to wield the majority in the way he needs to unless the American public who elected him gets involved.  If not Obama will fail and America will realize its current ambition of a late stage empire destined for the decline and fall.