Thanks for that analysis, worm. Short, sweet, and right on point.

Why do Obama’s former supporters no longer support him?

Because of what he’s done, not because of the color of his skin

The question why people only one in four (a mere 25%) ‘support’ Obama’s
economic plan is answered with the same response as “why has Obama lost White
support? or Black support? Asian support? or Hispanic support?

Because people have trouble trusting Obama after three extensions of the Bush
tax cuts, non-reform of the financial system, insurance company subsidies passed
off as ‘health care reform’, etc.

People saw that “Change You Can Believe In” immediately morphed into “Double-
down on the Status Quo”.

Leadership is built on trust, but three extension? And now Obama’s suddenly
going to change? Hmmm.

Adding to long festering doubt about both Obama’s motives and actions is the
immediate and lingering Geithner fiasco, who was appointed to continue Bush
financial policies into the Obama Presidency.

Geithner is now Obama’s ‘point man’ for “America’s Jobs’ Plan”.

Geithner’s a guy who stayed up nights shoveling tax payer money to bankrupt
financial corporations, including foreign banks, persuaded Obama that ‘bonuses’
for CEOs of bankrupt corporations should be encouraged (resulting in a “hands-
off” policy promoted by Obama) and was then elevated to Secretary of the
Treasury by Obama.

A guy Suskind fingered as Wall Streets’ inside guy.

And a guy who continues to block what Obama says he wants.

A recent example (week of Sept 18 2011):

Obama’s expressed principle: “Buffet Rule”:

“No household making over $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of its
income in taxes than middle-class families pay.”

The Geithnerism designed to first obscure and then delay and finally avoid a
directive from Obama:

“Now, there are lots of different ways to achieve that principle. How you do it
depends on what you do to the broader tax system as a whole. … We’re going to
fight to make sure that’s part of what Congress considers and ultimately delivers.”

This rhetoric leaves open lost of ‘different ways’, including a ‘flat tax’: A Heritage
Foundation ploy to lower taxes for the rich, eliminate your mortgage deduction
and continue to treat wages at a higher rate than dividends or capital gains.
Geithner is a clever guy.

Would you express ‘approval’ of this? Obama does.

Update:  From the Wall Street Journal, Sept 22 2011 –

“Banks could be allowed to continue making risky bets with their own capital,
according to a draft version of the so-called Volcker rule that dilutes the
provision’s original ban on “proprietary trading.”

At issue is how regulators and banks define “hedging,” or trades designed to
offset risk taken by a bank, usually on behalf of customers.

The law originally defined hedging narrowly as trades tied to specific bets.

The new language, contained in a 174-page draft proposal for the rule released to
regulators in August and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, says hedging can
cover bank risk on a “portfolio basis,” including “the aggregate risk of one or more
trading desks.”

In effect, that opens the door for banks to make all manner of bets on the market,
observers said, because a bank might define the risk to its portfolio broadly, such
as the risk of a U.S. recession.”

Geither’s US Treasury Dept helped draft these rules.

Would you express ‘approval’ of this? Obama does.

That’s a powerful reason why Obama has lost support of Blacks, Whites, Asians,
Hispanics, thinking Republicans, Independents, Progressives and Democrats.

Hilarious.  All of the Hissing blatta republicanus candidates are whackos. Shenonymous

There is one, who is not shown in the Scherf-Bush family line-up at
http://scherf.com/club.htm 
Click down the list to see the line-up.  Who is missing ?
I wonder why - - .

Two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot!

Anyone who believes a politician will do what he says he gonna do is ready to purchase a collapsing bridge I have for sale.

Obama followed through on a few of his promises which for the record may be better then most politicians, and I will suppose pretty damn good considering the controlling party of NO!

One thing about politicians, if I like what they are saying and if it is not bat shit crazy, they are more likely to get my vote than a politician who sounds bat shit crazy and planning on something which is asking me to bend over and spread em.

Well damn that Obama, he did not lower the price of Tequila, who should I be mad at the Republicans or Obama?

He needs to present concrete details of what intends to do if he is re-elected and has a cooperative Congress.  dipconsult

His first plum is, “I will tax the rich to pay for programs that support the poor.”  As fairy-tale-ish as the USGOV official report of the 9-11 Conspiracy Theory, courtesy of the GHWBushSr entourage.

“Mr. Obama” established a pattern with his reversal of pre-election promises, 2008-2009.  Which, since then he has repeatedly cemented.
Obviously, some think he will alter his already concreted pattern?

Another concrete detail, this half-White Brit born in Kenya continues to insult the Blacks, half-Blacks and partial Blacks that voted him in. (the Whites as well)

dipconsult,

“We in Europe are dismayed and US racism (worse than ours!) makes us even more dismayed. Whatever Obama’s faults - and he’s certainly no economist and didn’t choose the right guys to advise him on finance - he’s vastly preferable to anything the now ideologically paralyzed Republicans will be offering.”

A few of us in the Ununited States feel the same way!

Summers was a prime example of Obama choosing the fox to watch the chicken coop. I will be skeptically optimistic and watch to see if Obama holds his line in the sand! Actually I would like to see Obama shove the stick next to where the Republicans keep their heads.

Nader is attempting to throw in third rail ideas, which I even happen to agree with, maybe Obama will address some of them, which would make the line in the sand more definitive. Well for me it would. But I know and feel Nader’s politic agenda is to liberal for the majority of Yahoos in the nation and his ideas have a reasoned thoughts chance in Congress. 

I cannot believe the Repulcians are brazenly touting populism as a bad thing, this is their plan?

We in Europe are dismayed and US racism (worse than ours!) makes us even more dismayed. Whatever Obama’s faults - and he’s certainly no economist and didn’t choose the right guys to advise him on finance - he’s vastly preferable to anything the now ideologically paralysed Republicans will be offering.

One thng seems obvious - he must offer concrete hope and a sense of direction. He’s just begun to stand up for himself (and for us too!). He needs to present concrete details of what intends to do if he is re-elected and has a cooperative Congress.

In that case race prejudice will be much diminished - people want hope and a convincing economic policy for America’s future (and getting those missing jobs quickly).

Once again Bill confuses the real issue and creates a false analogy.  No! Bill Obama will loose because he is a liar and has not done much of anything he had promised his supporters he would do. He is a cowardly leader and has shown that he is owned by his corporate sponsors.
It has NOTHING to do with his color and all to do with his performance. 
  Bill, when the hell will you apologist get it. We have a corrupt political system and all the political nonsense that goes on is simply theater to brainwash the weaker minds such as your own.

The reality of this “post-racial” Obamanation is that if Troy Davis were white Obama would have happily granted him a presidential pardon.

Ruthlessly honest equals lucidly candid.  Leefeller is
uncanny in his ability to see into the folly of political
schemes.  The irony is that he thumps our brains to
take a ‘sober’ look for what is really important.  Those
bumps from his Tequila bottles are bumps of knowledge. 
I for one am grateful for his Tequila.

Lee,
It’s a rare event whenever anyone here admits they are wrong. Most would rather die than admit even glaring errors, even where they are errors of fact. Sometimes the mental gymnastics to try to save face can be as absurd as this exaggeration:
“Well, if you turn your compass upside down and look at it in a mirror then it’s correct to say the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East.”

No, it’s still wrong.

So to have the guts to admit you have your facts wrong and therefore, your resulting analysis is wrong, puts you in a rare group here, the ruthlessly honest.

Timothy Gawne, September 21 at 4:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

(sigh)  No, this is completely wrong.

Obama’s race is his main asset.  No matter how much he sells out the nation to
Wall Street, he can count on getting 99% of the black vote.

(Sigh) So many opinions, so many refusals to do the homework first. Obama’s approval rating among African Americans is dropping as well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-ratings-among-blacks-falls/2011/09/21/gIQAqzJdlK_story.html

Many anti Obama folks posting here sound like they should just quit whining and vote Republican. There is no definable third party, if there was I would support it,

A seeming paean to “Ill sit here while you do the work. Call me when its done”.

Many anti Obama folks posting here sound like they should just quit whining and vote Republican. There is no definable third party, if there was I would support it, especially if I found their platform worthy to my high goals, standards and ideals and if especial if they supported lowing the price of Tequila.

I will take this time to admit a mistake I did on another thread, for some reason the thread keeps kicking me out, so I am admitting it here instead.

Shenonymous wrote an enlightening post connecting the Republicans to the cockroach and used some scientific revelations describing the Republican relationship to the cockroach! In my eagerness to support this enlightening theory, I remembered the Mexican Revolution and the song, “La Cucaracha”! I made one of my famous unsound assumptions and thought the song had something to do with the Mexican Revolution and was addressing the cockroaches in the Mexican Government the Federlalis as government opportunists and I connected the dots to the Republicans and the elite.

After checking into the meaning of the song “La Cucaracha”, I discovered my unsound assumption was totally wrong.(they usually are)  The song “La Cucaracha” has many different lyrical meanings and was not necessarily addressing the Revolution or corrupt Federalism. 

So when I posted the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz75hArCDpk&feature=related  I was once again using an unsound assumption; My apology for any misunderstanding from yet another unsound assumption, which also ‘mis respetos para Mexico’.

Hilarious.  All of the Hissing blatta republicanus
candidates are whackos.

The Hawaii experience undermines the premise of this article. In the Islands, ethnic and racial groups often vote for candidates of other races, instead of their own race. Japanese are the largest group of voters, but none of the past four governors was Japanese (Hawaiian,Filipino, White and White). One U.S. Senator is Japanese, the other Hawaiian. Both members of Congress are Japanese females. Personalities, union support, and policies play a much larger role than race. Although ethnicity remains a factor, it is hardly the deciding one.

ITW—At this time, the Democratic Party honchos seem to be playing the race card not against the Republicans but against those proggies and non-establishment Blacks who might dare to stick up their heads.  But that will use it up.  I guess they’re trusting that the Republicans will nominate a wack, of which several are on offer.  Then they can play their ‘We’re the ones who aren’t crazy’ card.  But can they rely on the Republicans?  I doubt it.

Obama’s drop in respect and confidence has little, if anything to do with his
color.  The man is half white remember.  It was everything to do with his
deceits.  He was voted in because many believed that Obama was opposed to
the middle eastern conflicts.  We thought that he would bring our troops home. 
Instead, the man has expanded the war theatres.  It is astonishing.  We watched
Obama proclaim a desire for universal health care as he instructed Speaker
Pelosi to get it done in Congress, but instead Obama was holding secret
meetings with the big Pharma in the White House.  The public would not have
known, but for someone sharing that information.  Obama was supposed to get
our economy back on track..Instead, he places Goldman Sachs affiliates, et al to
positions of power.  Hence, we were burdened with Geithner, Summers,
Poulson.  Men insisting that tax payers pay more while banks, etc. gave billions
in bonuses to their leadership.  Obama is not the man he pretended to be.  He is
not a failure.  He is simply no better than republican leadership.

While any reasonably sane person can see with a few minutes reasoning that racism is both illogical and harmful, it doesn’t change most people.

Watch Jay Leno interview people on the street.  The point of course is humor, but the message is that most people, regardless of their race or ethnicity are acutely ignorant of the simplest facts of the world around them. I don’t care if it’s Jay asking about how many feet to a yard, or Palin voters being asked precisely what they think their Sarah would do, diplomatically. They are ignorant, intellectually lazy, and worse, make life-time decisions that affect them and their fellow citizens based on the last lying attack ad.

What this means is that racism is EASY to play off so many people.  A friend of mine, who has lived in our town FAR longer than me and knows most everybody, tells me he knows a lot of people who did not like McCain and certainly not Palin, but when they got in the booth they just couldn’t pull the lever for a Black man. It’s insane. It’s inane. It’s deadly.  In fact, to decide to vote that way is suicidal.

And we’ve seen just how suicidal our society is.

But I DO believe that once a person is President, you have to judge ‘em by the decisions and deeds, not the size of his ears, or a goofy facial expression.  Or his color.

Are the Democrats playing “the race card”. Unless they are damn fools they are. (which means they may not be).

The Republicans have been playing the race card since Obama locked up the nomination.  And the day he took office the TeaParty race card began to be played, daily.  A favorite is Obama as The Joker, sliding in the old racist “spook” image of Blacks in an “acceptable” way because it’s piggy-backed on the Batman movie “The Dark Night”.

After some fits and starts the Teaparty had to regulate the more blatantly racist stunts—the Obama dollar bill with watermelon patches on the White House lawn, stuff like that.

Has Obama fucked up left, right and center?  Damn straight!  Has he given the Right insane amounts of ammunition?  Of course!  Would he be in deep shit trouble if he was White?  Of COURSE.

But don’t think for one second that the Right isn’t working 24/7 to convey the image that this BLACK man isn’t good enough to be President.  Not this MAN, but this BLACK man.

It’s a shame that racism is still so ingrained in our being.  I hope my children and yours are better than that.

Anarcissie,

Wouldn’t you be feeling pretty desperate if you were the Democratic Party establishment?

I think it’s interesting that the Democratic Party establishment is playing their race card this early in the game.  They must be feeling pretty desperate.

The apologizing and white-washing continues (no pun intended) IF Mr Obama
loses in 2012 it will more likely be because he has failed as president; because he
caved and WILLINGLY participated in enabling a corrupt financial class.  He’s done
ZERO to rectify the unprecedented financial abuse and he has certainly ignored the plight of the poor at every turn.  NO! his rhetoric of late about jobs and taxes seems to be no more that the campaign button being pressed in the hopes that the neglected get confused or forget his dismal performance. The race card strikes me as a cheap attempt at justifying a historically disappointing presidency. AND whatever political mutant ends up replacing him should be attributed to Mr
Obama’s failures and incompetence, NOT race.

His ethnic heritage is as unimportant as where he was
born given he is just as human as anyone else.  Now if it
can be proved he was from Mars born of Martians, that
would be different…but maybe not if the genetic structure
of Martians were the same as Earthling humans.  But that
is just a silly point because all the reasons for criticism are
not physical. 

Indeed the genetic make up of Mr. Obama is black and white
the partition of which would have to be determined by genetic
testing.  Haplogrouping research has determined a great
variety of but definite genetic distribution.  I suggest reading
about haplogroups on Wikipedia.  You would see that
chromosomes are grouped into haplotypes and named from A
to T.  Among a few others such as Asian, European (white) are
of the group G whereas East African, North Africa, the Middle
East, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans are of the
Haplogroup E1b1b (dark skinned).  This is more than a social
difference, but it is ultimately insignificant with respect to
societies or their political postures.

The fact that genetic overlapping regularly takes place in the
intermixing of peoples and their progeny turn out to be wholly
as human as their parents, testifies to little if actually
detectable difference.  One haplogroup is not any better at
their existentiality than any other.  It is a matter of social
constructs that determine the differences based on skin color. 
However, skin color, while an obvious physical difference, is
not an absolute marker of haplogrouping since an identified G
caucasian can have very dark skin and African ethnics of the E
group can be very white in complexion.  And other factors
could be involved.  While inheritance from parents is probably
the greatest factor, there was a moment in past genetic history
when skin color was chemically determined (genetically) and
by the amount of melanin in the skin cells that interacts with
vitamin D (sunshine).  Once it became part of the genetic code
of a family, following the path of evolution, which still allows
genetic changes caused by other, accidental factors, the
following generations most frequently “inherit” their parents
characteristics.  Both parents.

Even if a person is genetically identified by haplogrouping,
racism is a psychological disposition and is a socially
constructed phenomenon.  It cannot be dismissed, though,
because that is how racist prejudices are built and
perpetrated.

One of the most important ways for this world to become
more humanized, as a disease of society, it is vital to
eliminate racism.  The problem is there are individuals who
see themselves as better than others.  The trick is to stay
moral yet find ways to either change them or neutralize them
if it is not possible to help them reconstruct themselves.

There are two distinct ways to eliminate racism: Since racism
is a learned, emotionally-charged reaction that leads to faulty
logical conclusions about other people the imperative is to
weaken people’s disposition to classify themselves and
others into races; the other way is to eliminate negative
attitudes, that is, the negative emotional reaction toward
members of other races.  However, if this second approach is
to work, people would still view themselves as Black, White, or
whatever, but they purge their negative attitude toward others
as belonging to specific races.  It becomes seen as natural to
be identified as belonging to different races but seen as equal
in their humanity.  What is natural then becomes a guiding
principle.  Since racism is a social construct, it is obvious that
education of the ignorant and reeducation of those who have
had teachings that builds racism into the mind is required. 
The only action left is to do this in the face of rampant racism. 
Good luck.  It is said that changing the world begins first with
changing oneself.

Some posters seem to cling to notions that some kind of “blame the black guy” syndrome will be the decisive force in making Obama a one-termer. Maybe, but only to a small degree. To me, it seems more likely that the decisive force in an Obama loss will have been the extremity of the disjunctures between rhetoric and reality. Obama’s racial “otherness” factors into these perceptions, but not in the way gerard describes. Instead, Obama’s sellouts are compounded by the fact that he is Black. Clinton’s sellouts to Wall Street were masked by a good economy and by some notable foreign policy successes in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, but also by the fact that he was a White politician who had, by that point, already earned the moniker “Slick Willy”. Some unseemliness from Clinton was tolerable, all things considered, and people voted for him knowing full well he was a scoundrel. Things are much different for Obama - a guy who ran on a platform of moral and ethical steadfastness, a Black community organizer with a squeaky-clean image. Again, it seems more the glaring disjunctures between Obama’s rhetoric and his actions that will eventually do him in politically. A bad economy is just the cherry on the sundae.

Pardon me!  I guess I should have started my previous comment with “In a manner of speaking ...” or “The conventional perception is…” etc. etc.
Maybe: “For all intents and purposes ...”

Mr. O is not ‘part White’ or ‘part Black’.  ‘Black’ and ‘White’ as racial terms are social constructs, not physical qualities.  If Mr. O is constructed as ‘Black’, as he is, then he is ‘Black’ regardless of his ancestry, appearance, physical qualities or culture, because that’s how we currently construct our racial myths.

One interesting thing going on now is that many of the attacks on Mr. O, especially from the Left, are so obviously and explicitly non-racial, that the Democrats and the liberal establishment will be at great pains to construct a myth of racist oppression and assign all opposition to it.  But as we can see from the present shill, they’re working on it.  It’s a mistake, too, because the electorate at large isn’t going to care what Boyarsky thinks of them once they get to the voting booth.  What’s going to matter is 10.2% unemployment, bailouts for bankers, and the next phase of the Middle East death-and-destruction circus, soon to be upon us.

Following the usual theories of the lesser-evil folks, I guess you should all register as Republicans and vote for Romney.

Wait just a minute!  The United States people tolerated more-or-less-racism for decades from a government that follows the people’s dominating belief:  That is, “We, the U.S., are superior to all others; therefore we deserve (entitlement!) to rule the world economically and militarily.”
  The United States thinks of itself as “white”,  of most other nations as “not white.”  The rest of the world (the vast not-white majority) refuses to be dominated, tries to “fight back”, and suffers mightily due to their refusal. Frustrations of trying to deal with the aggressive prejudices of the “white” U.S. increase.
  When the United States people, in a “see, we are NOT racist!” moment, elect a charasmatic part-black (part-white) guy for president, they are divided between self-righteousness and unacknowledged, unvoiced fears, prepared to sink the ship if things don’t go well.
  Things don’t go well. Ergo, everybody run to the right side of the ship, blame the part-black guy, and jump overboard.
  It’s called “It’s not my fault!” but it’s really lack of self-awareness, honesty, moral courage and imagination.

This suggest my attention if horses could fly and Reverend Wright was white, he would be deemed right and probably a Tea Bagger working for ass bite Perry!

Anarcissie wrote: “I assume Boyarsky is a shill for the liberal establishment, so the present article may be a shot across the bow of the aforesaid Blacks and proggies precisely in order to emphasize this point: if they oppose Mr. O, they will be tarred with accusations of racism and betrayal.”

Insightful comment. I agree, and would point to reception Tavis Smiley and Cornel West received from many “progressive” quarters during their recent poverty tour. The hostility these two outspoken advocates for social justice received from the Left certainly seems to support the viewpoint of those like Cyr who (rightly) point out the willful ignorance and willing complicity of many liberals in this society’s ongoing corporatization.

On the other hand, I also remember some fairly harsh criticisms of Obama originating from Maxine Waters and others in the Black Congressional Caucus when they got together last month. Most likely politics as usual, but it does suggest that the Black community is recognizing Obama for what he is and that their support may no longer be a given.

The tiny minority seeking a survivable world can’t be expected to repair what so many millions of conservatives and liberals continue to corporate party partner together to destroy.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

It is acutely easy to damn your own country instead of
taking part in fixing it by getting off your ass and go to
work to make it better.  Yours is the path of feeble-minded
cowards.

What do you do to stop racism?  Nothing except to moan
about its fall out.  It is ridiculous to keep comparing Obama
with what would happen if he were white.  He isn’t, he is only
half white.

With Canada providing NATO troops for the invasions and occupations of the Long War OF Terror resource wars, and with Canada being so earnestly engaged in the most ecologically insane extraction of tar sands it’s apparent that Canada is now competing for the Nobel Prize for depravity.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

“What can’t go on, won’t.  Its that simple. You are a failing culture, violent, selfish, arrogant, increasingly illiterate and isolated.  A dangerous rogue.  The Empire is collapsing and your racism, endemic, is only one of the symptoms of the unfolding tragedy.
-Bill in Canada”

Bill in Canada;...Do you happen to have a room for rent?

Of course the pending implosion may turn out to be so very catastrophe it may reach into the bowels of the world including Canada, maybe I should look into finding a room in Fiji instead where it is bit warmer then next to the North Pole Canada anyway, plus you guys have all that fracking going on!

I am Especially noting the ‘selfish, arrogant and increasingly illiterate’ part of your statement Bill from Canada. though it really hurts me to say this and hits home, but at least we finally have something with the clearest of facts and solid real living breathing proof right here on these threads!

Actually Bill, a nice synopsis of what ails US!

I suspect that race and racism may, on balance, have been of advantage to Mr. O.

It has certainly served to keep important sections of the Democratic base quiet and down.  No Black politician, no ‘professional progressive’, wants to be the one to take a Black president down.  A white man who did as Mr. O has done, especially with regard to the economy, would already have two or three serious opponents snapping at his heels.

Based on his past writings, I assume Boyarsky is a shill for the liberal establishment, so the present article may be a shot across the bow of the aforesaid Blacks and proggies precisely in order to emphasize this point: if they oppose Mr. O, they will be tarred with accusations of racism and betrayal.

In the corporate-state’s elections the conservative and liberal collaborators are allowed to choose between interchangeable corporate pre-selected “electable” candidates.

In 2008, the corporations selected two McCains. The corporate party collaborators fought over whether the McCain candidate to be seated should be colored white, or colored black. Liberals prefer to have something devious about their choice so they can claim they were just fooled again, so they chose the black colored McCain.

The choices between sames that the collaborators make usually result in benefiting one group of corporations more than another, dependent upon sponsorships.

What’s “historic” about the 2008 choice is that none of the corporate sponsors of either McCain has been left unrewarded.

While the permafrost has become impermanent the permanent government has become more permanent… because there are too many natural persons choosing to be (R) & (D) corporate collaborators.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

Anyone who can look at that picture and not be gripped with a deep sadness needs to have a heart examination.

Race or not, the only to get this country going is to pull together. Then when we get it together, we can go back to being little silly racist. Mortality has a way of sweeping away the things that don’t really mater.

“WAKE UP PEOPLE!”  We don’t have time for this!
Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )

FIGHT THE CAUSE - NOT THE SYMPTOM

the only side obama is on is white and that’s the irony of politics check out obamanation by Lowkey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFGotlEd-Cs

Race… nationalism… morals… all kinds of thing will be littering the media’s channels. That is to be expected, for they must make a profit. But they also are the arm of the spin machines. They will filter the appropiate data that will be the fabric of the ideal candidate the power brokers choose.

Left… Right.. liberal… conservative will be tossed around as well. It makes us voters feel good to *identify* with something. It is well known candidates make strong changes in their platform to become electable after the primaries end. Talk about honest candidates!! We got ‘em.

But at the end of the day, those who are in the positions of power will at some point come to a conclusion who the next president shall be. Republican or Democrat is not important. Liberal or conservative is not important. as long as the new president will be compliant with people in positions of power. The phone calls will begin. you know… make sure there are plenty of voting booths in some areas that we need to win… and not enough in areas we think the opponent will win. Then the spin machines go to work and before you know it a polished candidate that the people of power can live with emerges.

This was very evident in 2004. The man who actually went to war was labeled a traitor and the man who bought the easy way out was given a pass.

And so goes American politics…...............

“Is Obama going to lose? Very likely if either Perry or Romney (especially Romney) gets the nomination.”

Romney is Bob Dole and Rick Perry is George W. Bush on steroids. The question then becomes, “Exactly how stupid is the American voter?” Since 70% of them want universal health care, 70% of them were opposed to the Iraq war (as was Obama) and around the same 70% think 9/11 was an inside job: they are clearly not as stupid as you and the Republicans like to think they are.

Another factor is that if they were as stupid as the Republicans would like them to be, Bill Clinton wouldn’t have been re-elected, Bush and Cheney wouldn’t have had to rig the 2000 election to get into the White House and American voters wouldn’t have queued for hours to vote for Obama and make sure that Sarah Palin and John McCain DID NOT get into the White House because the Republicans had done it again, after the two wars they fought entirely on credit and their lawless approach to banking and finance sent the global economy into a nosedive. The American voter does not forgive financial humiliation or military humiliation and the Republicans gave them two terms of both while they dangled the scary bogeyman of ‘terrorism’ before them. I think the voters can distinguish between George W. Bush and Obama. Every time he opened his mouth, they knew it was George W. Bush, because only he could be so stupid.

Anthro - we are assuming, incorrectly, that bringing
Obama down is based on his governance, but when it is
clear that in the process the nation will be brought
down also, it’s equally clear that the behavior of the
perpetrators is irrational. Since racism is an
irrational belief - completely unsupported by science -
I’m assuming that racism is the motivating factor in
bringing down Obama.  (Kind of like the old A,B,C,
thing?)

If America is a racist utopia, Obama would not be living in the White House today. Payson

Depends a bit on how “racism” is defined.
Why did all major candidates march down to the AIPAC totem pole in 2008 and beg for support?
Which branch of the “israeli” tree do Zionists and the 1900s Scherff family of Doerlitzsch,
Germany, derive from ?

Felicity,

I agree with you in principle, but your logic is, well—not logical.

It’s not just Obama’s race.
It’s not just Obama’s weak-kneed response to Republicans.
It’s not just Obama.

Yes, there are many Whites who, no matter what, cannot bring themselves to vote for a Black man, even here mainly liberal and moderately conservative New Jersey.

Yes, Obama has caved and catered to the Right, costing him the Left, and the Right STILL hates him as some insane “Socialist” (not understanding the word).

But Obama is just the rubber tip on the rubber spear.  What we see Obama doing, was done by Reid and Pelosi.  THEY caved in to Bush and the Republicans when they were in the minority, and again, even when they held the majority 4 years, 2 of them when Obama was the freshman Senator from Illinois.  IT’S NOT JUST OBAMA! IT’S THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!  They have began turning spineless in 1982, when Ronald Reagan out-maneuvered Tip O’Neil and convinced the Blue Dog Dems to abandon their party and principles to vote for his tax cuts.

It hit again in the catastrophe of 1994, when BOTH houses were convincingly lost, and even the Speaker was defeated in his home district—unprecedented..

Since then, Democrats have grown more and more timid, like a sexually abused child who couldn’t fight back against repeated rapes…..And there the analogy ENDS because they damn well COULD have fought back and didn’t. 

Yes, Obama picked Summers and Geithner and allowed Summers to marginalize the ONE MAN with a history of making it work: Paul Volcker.  But why DID Obama do that?  “Corporate Handlers!” I read here, but that’s not right.  It was the “elite leadership” of the Democratic Party who guided this green new President to these horrible choices—Reid, Pelosi and the rest of the gang.

Is Obama going to lose? Very likely if either Perry or Romney (especially Romney) gets the nomination.

Yes, it WILL be his fault. But not solely. It will also be the fault of the spinelessness of Democrats, particularly in the Senate, where they still hold a majority.

Think about this: If Obama was nothing but a perfect corporate shill, why would the Powers that Be even DREAM of letting him be defeated?

Oops—Logical analysis.  Gotta cut that out.  Contradicts the “Vast Conspiracy” theories. (yawn)

I, at least, don’t have enough information to agree,
or disagree with Mr. Boyarsky.  But, of all the past
presidents beginning with FDR, even the hated Mr.
Nixon, that I’ve lived under, the opposition by
Republicans (and some Democrats)in Congress to
anything and all things Obama is unprecedented. 

The welfare of this nation and its people has taken a
back seat to the jihad launched to get this president
out of office. Bringing down an entire nation in the
process of bringing down its president, by any
standard is irrational:  Racism is irrational. 
Therefore, I’m moved to conclude that driving Obama
out of office is finally based on the color of his
skin.

@Leefeller

Thanks, and yes—I got signatures to recall repubs—I would hardly have marched
in 15 degree weather to oppose Democrats (even those who disappoint me).

We are still exploring the recall of Walker, but it’s looking positive. The state is
divided, but support for public workers is increasing as the discussion moves
beyond “they get better benefits than me” into the general erosion of pay and
benefits for the middle and working class.

I am not speaking in any “official” capacity. Just what I read and hear at the local
level.

Anthro,

I support your efforts if your collections were to recall the Republicans, what is the status on the Walker recall, not hearing anything about it?

Lefties: Eat the rich—not your own.

I marched every day in Madison for two months and collected signatures for a
fairly successful recall election—what have you done but rant to a blog?

Race is an issue for some or many, I have no idea. Racism is real, then there are the bithers, the Obama is a Muslim crowd, if he is so what, rather a Muslim then a Perry.

Obama just drew a line in the sand, about time I say!
Hope it is real, he is going to need to prove himself in the next 13 months, I think he can prove himself to the determent to all the Obama haters out there. I will give him a chance, for he is better than the alternatives, (this may be programed and a manipulated plan) what else is there?

Obama’s three years of compromising positions made the Karma Sutra positions look like a Republican Think Tank working on the word no!

Obama has had nothing but obstructions from a Republican Congress whose only objective and goal is to make Obama fail, seems they are doing a great job from what can see posted here!

Hell in the Red states they are working overtime to make it harder for Obama to win, by frikiing with the voting systems and voting registration, so most of you may get your wish!

I plan on voting for Obama and we need to rid Congress of the ass holes.  Lets face it the Mass Media covers the Tea Bags like they are the Cats Meow as if they are a majority of people in the USA, when all they are is a small hot air escaping low tire!

Obama lost me the day he brought on Summers and Geithner to continue the work of Clinton & Bush II in looting our country.  To top those appointments he would have to appoint Cheney as ambassador to Iraq.

Oh well! (Heavy sigh!)

It seems that one has the option of standing back and being a spectator to our nation’s bloody demise, or the option of trying to turn this ship of state around, a task which appears to be more difficult than trying to turn around an aircraft carrier, at cruising speed, in a river.

Boyarsky’s analysis is cogent and depressing. Being a person who has had a Left perspective since my formative years it pains me to have to agree with Lafayette’s past appraisal of some on the Left as being the “Looney Left.” Lafayette is also correct in blaming the American people for the sad state of affairs we are in. We are a corrupted and decadent people with centuries of bad karma to overcome.

Racism has been one of our nation’s great shames since before the time of the nation’s inception. Fortunately overt racism is evident only in the minority, but subliminal racism is still evident and a characteristic of the majority. Convincing people that they are subliminally racist would be a task as difficult as turning around the ship of state, but it is evident here at truthdig, and elsewhere, by my appraisal.

Turning the ship of state around and stopping this nation’s ever increasing shift to the Right is complicated by the fact that Obama and Democratic Politicians are not free from the decadence that envelopes this nation. Obama and Democratic politicians are well meaning but tragically naïve and wrong headed. The Democrats believe that they are serving the interests of “We the People,” but their policies are weak, ineffectual, and immoral in the final analysis. Even so, the people of this country will look back with longing at Obama if the Republicans should achieve power and implement their policies once again.

The corporate media, Citizens United, etc, make the possibility of turning the ship of state around even more remote. “We the People of the United States of America” and the peoples of the world are under the thumb of unfettered capitalism and globalism; a huge destructive tsunami not a beneficial rising tide. At present, any restraints, no matter how seemingly insignificant, are preferable to further elimination of restraints. This is our political reality. Changing this political reality can only be perceived as a mammoth task, and that task can only be accomplished incrementally, guided by reason, logic, and rational thinking, not by counter productive emotionalism and irrationality.

My God

Truthdig is now attempting to spread the kind of lies that corporate media(or is it the other corporate media now) are attempting to say.

That white voters are angry, conservatives are angry, that the tea party are angry. That is the meme that the corporate media are attempting to push. That the Obama/Democratic Party apologists are attempting to frame.

Man, this is just so sad and transparent. Oh well.

Firedoglake and New Progressive Alliance
and
October2011.org

Carry on

The author of this article is clearly a third-rate thinker and writer. Pity that Truthdig, with excellent writers such as Hedges and Scheer, publishes this drivel.

Alas, the more intelligent and well-informed Juan Cole is also tainted by his support for NATO war crimes in Libya.

Wall Street’s greatest sugar daddy spoiled his own reelection.

This article needs a comparison of Obama’s popularity across the entire race
spectrum, not just a narrow focus on whites. Then could I believe it’s headline is
true.

Race is not nearly as big an issue as the economy. And the other factor is the young vote- Obama won because he had a huge turnout from a demographic that usually stays home on November 4. They are jobless and disillusioned- they may stay home again. I also agree with others- bad as he is, he’s quantom leaps better than that psycho Perry.

Lafayette,

You seem to refuse to believe politics in the USA is a rigged game.  Last time I checked our elections, our politicians careers, and our media are financed by Corporations.  Yet you blame the electorate that is necessarily busy making an honest living for not “breathing down their necks” to assure they vote in opposition to their puppet masters.  Fat chance!  I would suggest it is you that needs to study history.

Constructive debate, however, is an order of magnitude more difficult.  Lafayette

Agreed.

Why don´t you give it a try. At least once.

Blah, blah, blah ... lotsa hateful spite and ad hominems on this thread. And always from the same posters.

Obama this and Obama that. He’s evidently, whichever colour, the devil incarnate.

You’ll miss him when he’s no longer around. Cuz it’s either him or Romney or (worse) Perry.

Then what will you do? Turn your spite on either one of them? Way too late - lotta gud that’s gonna do.

Bitchin’-in-a-blog is the easy part. Any nincompoop can do it. Constructive debate, however, is an order of magnitude more difficult.

Only for grownups ...

He should be saying this all over the country. Maybe it will be enough to help him overcome the
obstacle that threatens his presidency.  Boyarsky

Several obstacles threaten Obama´s presidency.  Essentially, the facts of his voting record as
Senator from Illinois and his voting record while occupying the POTUS slot.  Combined by the
facts of his being born in Kenya, with clearly British heritage, and his higher education records
which contain numerous “lacunae” and two falsified “birth certificates” he has provided. 

His recent Robin-Hood type, pre 2012 election promise to take from the rich and distribute
among programs for the poor, is typical.  Promise the “poor people wish list” pre-election,
continue the dismantling of the U.S.A. after being elected.  Same old same old.

““He’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t have a clue how to get this country going again.””
—Mitt Romney on Obama

Sad to say, right on both counts. 
But Obama could win again anyway.

——-

Obama’s re-election depends upon 3 things:
1) Who the Repubs put up against him.  (90% chance it’s either Perry or Romney. Either could beat him, or not—too soon to tell.)
2) Whether there is a viable 3rd candidate (from either left or right).  Looks unlikely at this point.
3) The unemployment rate on election day.  Sadly, no reason to think it’ll get any better.

2 important points to remember:
1)the obvious: the election is not THIS November. 
2)ergo, there’s time enough for a turnaround.  Unemployment at this point in Reagan’s first term was higher than it is today.

It was liberal racism that delivered the manic popular mandate for the most corporate owned POTUS ever, Obama.

Liberals were so absolutely astonished that a dark skinned man could speak in complete sentences that they never bothered to listen to what he said, when he did not make the promises they keep claiming he did.

If Obama hadn’t been only half-black he’d never have received that liberal popular mandate, because it was his being half-white that gave comfort to liberals — comforting assurance that Obama would strive to be as white as he could possible be.

Obama’s positions have been whiter than white — the same old Democrat shit, wrapped up in a chocolate coating.

If Obama was Black (inside and out) liberals wouldn’t have voted for him. Hillary would have been corporate installed as POTUS, instead of just becoming Field Marshall (Secretary of War).

http://www.chenangogreens.org

No the only one responsible for this is the big Oreo himself. Because he’s a fake.

HISTORY LESSONS

We are presently “paying the Piper” for extravagant spending beyond our means (on cheap credit) coupled with some very clever cupidity both on Main Street and Wall Street with property-sale debt instrument mechanisms.

Each generation forgets the lessons learned by the previous. And we are paying the price of the naiveté of this present generation that binged on credit-fueled spending. Do you think they have learned their lesson?

I don’t. George Santayana: Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

We are indeed climbing out of the Mess, but the journey is protracted because of some Crazies we elected to Congress in the mid-terms. Once again, we the sheeple, failed to understand the lessons of our political history.

Austerity is the very same mistake that our government made in the early 1930s, which resulted in the long, long period known as the Great Depression. In fact, America was saved by the stimulus spending forced upon it by WW2.

We needed WW2 to pull us out of the Deep Doodoo! That fact is incredibly stupid. In fact, so imbecilic that one wonders why the Rabid Right is not proposing yet another war presently. (It would do wonders for their friends at the M-I-C.)

BLAME THE OTHER GUY?

We love to point the finger of blame at some culprit. I like personally to point at the Plutocrat Class that seems to have a stranglehold on politics in LaLaLand on the Potomac.

And yet ... let’s not forget that we, the sheeple, are also responsible. In the manner in which we allowed the Crazies into Congress by not voting in the midterms. The way we voted twice for Dubya, which encouraged him to go crazy in Iraq. By voting far too often into Congress the rich who have not the same concerns and therefore priorities as the “ordinary people”.

Worse yet - by not voting at all. (We have a rotten voter turnout record historically.)

IT’S UP TO US

For this Mess not to repeat itself, we, the sheeple, must get into the nitty-gritty of politics in order to understand what we rightly should expect of the representatives that we send to Congress and the White House.  Having an attractive spouse with 2.3 charming children is nice but not nearly enough.

They need to see that we are breathing down their neck and actually care about the way they vote and why they vote.

And when we are not happy, rather than bitching-in-a-blog, we should be down in the streets showing our contempt for what is happening.

prozon, September 20 at 3:11 am Link to this comment

So how did he get elected the first time?

Is this a real question or are you being sarcastic? Can you possibly be unfamiliar with history as recent as the previous administration?

“No more of the remote Obama.”

Promise?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/killin/

So how did he get elected the first time?

What a bunch of absolute nonsense. Does no one proof read these articles for value prior to putting them up?

The message seems to be that as the economy dips racism grows. The real facts of Obama’s plummeting numbers, whether among whites or others, lies with his abysmal record and his refusal to keep his promises.

Democratic loyalists like Boyarsky are becoming more and more desperate to paint a false picture of this President’s failures rather than come to grips with the simple fact that Obama is in way over his head and is just not up to the job he won.

Who cares who is The Salesman in Chief of the sham democracy?