Obama's Real Opposition

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


How 'bout:
Middle-class tax cut.
Re-regulate the financial sector.
Rescue homeowners from foreclosure.
End the lobbyist-oversight revolving door.
Develop alternative energy.
Institute universal healtcare.

The thing is that none of that seems like the 'change' that he talked about anyway. I'd prefer the healthcare system just stayed ****ed up the way that it is instead of it being ****ed up by Obama. The middle-class tax cut is only $80bn anyway.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Didn't he get like 52% of the popular vote? That's no mandate.

A) What Zkrib said. The perception of such an inspiring "sea change" is as important as the vote count itself.

B) I didn't say it was an ironclad mandate, just that it differed from those of Carter & Clinton to make a poor analogy. Obama has 52% with a 7% spread and a 40% spread in the EC, meaning 52%/7%/40% versus 43%/5%/36% for Clinton and only 50%/2%/10% for Carter. The numbers speak for themselves.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Hell, with their gains, they probably think it's a Democrat mandate rather than an Obama one

They'd probably recognize that a good chunk of their gain can be attributed to straight-ticket voting by people who were convinced to swing Dem by Obama or wouldn't have voted at all were it not for him.

Now whether they think the voters would pay enough attention to burn them for antagonizing him from the left is harder to say, but since Obama did cast himself as more centrist than them, shifting over to at least moderate GOP challengers wouldn't be too unrealistic. Let's also not forget that in 2010 there won't be the sort of Obama-fixated turnout that there was in 2008 or will be in 2012, which hurts Dem numbers, and that midterm elections almost always lose seats historically, which should make them all the more careful, at least for 48 months or so.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Aeson
mob rule "mandates"

Representative Government

[chequita guevara]

Re: Obama's Real Opposition

Good.

[MrFun]

Re: Re: Obama's Real Opposition

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Good.

To hell with you wishing for the Democratic party to implode or self destruct to further your communist agenda.

[Impaler[WrG]]

The MSM is in a mad furry right now to deny the Obama mandate exists or claim that acting upon it will ruin him. Its all looks so desperate which has me pleased that change is very likely. I think the democratic leaders in congress will work well with Obama, its clearly in their best interests to do so as they would suffer a backlash if they fail to bring forth the new legislative initiatives they promised. The house Republicans are completely irrelevant given the even wider margin in the house, and in the senate I doubt the moderate republican senators up for re-election in 2010 will be able to filibuster without dooming themselves, a good number are from states Obama won and the demographic trends all favor him. On top of that theirs the Obama network/machine which can direct enormous resources into those races. It theirs even one successful filibuster of Obama legislation I'd be shocked. Given all that I would like to see congress go even further then Obama has proposed and create a single player national health care system, it would be a unimaginably superior system and would shut the Republicans out for thirty years.

[Ramo]

Originally posted by Darius871
I suppose the biggest flaw in the OP's analogy is that neither Carter nor Clinton had as big of a mandate as Obama does, so it would behoove Congressional Democrats to play ball with him for a while. Not sure how long that'll last though.

The biggest flaw in the OP's analogy is that Carter was a fluke (produced by Watergate) who was presiding over a party fracturing and a country marching swiftly towards the right, and the Dixiecrats weren't finally killed off in Congress till '94. The Dem Party is much more ideologically homogeneous now than nearly any point in the past.

It has also learned a few lessons in pragmatism. For example, the left certainly isn't going to kill universal health care because it's not single payer (as the WSJ suggests).

[Ben Kenobi]

The MSM is in a mad furry right now to deny the Obama mandate exists or claim that acting upon it will ruin him.

Wow, I didn't know that ABCBSMSNBCNN were conservative.

[DanS]

This type of infighting has been de rigeur for the Democratic Party over the years, so it's pretty safe to suggest that it will happen.

But I was pretty impressed that Pelosi and Reid followed Obama's lead on the bailout. We'll see how long that deference lasts.

[Bosh]

Like Ramo said this is the first time that a Dem president has had a Dem congress that isn't a weird and not very united coalition between Northern Democrats and Dixiecrats in a very very very very long time. Comparing it to Carter or Clinton's situation is pretty wrongheaded. I'm sure if Obama ****s up he'll find new and creative ways to do so...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
While this op-ed is a bit over the top (it is the WSJ's ed page after all), it makes a very good point that the leaders in Congress aren't exactly interested all that much in what President-elect Obama wants to do and rather want to push what they want to do.

A little over the top? Ever since Ruppert Murdock bought the WSJ the editorial page has gone from right to hard right. I do think Obama has to be more center left then left (and that will mean angering some democrats) but it doesn't mean he has to be straight down the middle between the Republican position and the positions various democrats take.

[Blaupanzer]

I love having the guys who backed the other candidate try to tell us what our mandate is. If bush had a mandate in 2004, and you all said he did, then Obama has a bigger one now. That mandate is to move national policy back toward the middle class in stead of being for the upper class.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DanS
This type of infighting has been de rigeur for the Democratic Party over the years, so it's pretty safe to suggest that it will happen.

But I was pretty impressed that Pelosi and Reid followed Obama's lead on the bailout. We'll see how long that deference lasts.

Like Republicans have never done their fair share of infighting.

[chequita guevara]

Re: Re: Re: Obama's Real Opposition

Originally posted by MrFun


To hell with you wishing for the Democratic party to implode or self destruct to further your communist agenda.

Nyah nyah