And, So, The Love Affair Ends. President Obama's Political Base Eroding
Michael Payne
Many staunch Obama supporters are barely hanging on and are very displeased with his apparent shift to center-right. Too many of his "achievements" seem to benefit the interests of the Washington Establishment. This is not the same Barack Obama who inspired them during his campaign. They see him as too willing to set aside his principles and settle for far less than what the people of America need and deserve.
In case you haven't noticed, President Obama is slipping badly in the latest polls; a recent Quinnipiac poll indicates that a GOP candidate would defeat him 39% to 36%. Polls can be misleading at times and subject to error, but this one from a respected source should be quite alarming for the Democratic Party. And it's certainly a very bad sign when some fellow Democrats running for reelection would rather that he did not campaign for them. Wow!
How did he manage to alienate so much of his base in so little time? Here is my best assessment of what has happened. These disillusioned supporters were looking for a real visionary, someone who would stand up for what is right, a president who would go up against the Establishment, including the military, and not back down. They got nothing of the sort.
Take the issue of health care reform, a critical need for millions of Americans. The legislation does some good things such as doing away with pre-existing conditions, but it completely failed to address the most critical elements of reform, i.e., controlling costs and eliminating the monopoly control of the giants of the insurance industry. Mr. Obama totally rejected the single payer option and then, when he had the perfect opportunity, he failed to fight for or demand that a public option be included. He settled for half a loaf, gave the insurance companies 30 million more guaranteed customers and let them remain in control of costs.
While health care reform is very important for America, Obama made a serious mistake when he made that his #1 priority rather than concentrating on restoring our troubled economy and job creation. The Stimulus program, cash for clunkers, and the badly managed bailouts of the Wall Street robber barons obviously helped. But these measures were simply band aids on a badly hemorrhaging wound.
The area that I find quite indefensible is the lack of commitment and intensity that Mr. Obama and his advisers have given to critical issues such as foreclosures or job creation; their performance has been abysmal. They talk about helping homeowners and the unemployed but there has been a distinct lack of urgency and creativity to solve these problems; no effective programs to attack the foreclosures, no aggressive programs to rebuild our manufacturing industry.
One reason for a lack of drive and intensity may be that the almost all of his cabinet members and close advisers are Washington insiders or have Wall Street connections. He failed to select even one of the many, highly respected, and very qualified outsiders; that tells us a lot about his management style. It's the path of least resistance.
He watches in silence as U.S. corporations continue to outsource jobs to China and other overseas nations; he does not demand that Congress enact legislation to use tax credits and tax penalties to motivate or force corporations to stop outsourcing and return jobs to our shores. Again, he has bypassed a great opportunity to solve a major problem in America.
On the need for effective financial reform he failed again; he let the Congress dictate the key elements of the legislation designed to reform our seriously corrupted financial system. He watched from the sidelines as this legislation was watered down to sooth the special interests; he did not jump into the fray and use the power he wields to arrive at strong, effective reform.
The issue of "banks too big to fail" fell by the wayside, a most important element needed to prevent another economic meltdown. The legislation should have guaranteed that the U.S. taxpayer would never again have to bail out those deceitful, manipulative financial giants. When this provision failed to be included what did our president do? Once again, he backed down. He took the easy way out and he failed the American people yet again.
How about our endless foreign wars? When he came into office he could have been proactive and accelerated the plan to exit Iraq, and then set up a concrete plan to leave Afghanistan. Had he followed that course, he would have addressed the biggest problem facing America, the massive costs of war that are a major contributor to our economic crisis; he had the opportunity to completely reverse the grievous actions of Bush & Co. but, instead, he passively submitted to the dictates of the military establishment.
Millions of Americans do not like the weakness that they see in this president. He has allowed the GOP Congress to make a fool out of him as they stall everything on his agenda. He has allowed members of his own party, those such as Senators Ben Nelson, Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and others to openly defy him and side with the GOP on critical issues.
What President Obama does not seem to understand, and I cannot fathom why he doesn't, is that the way that he is conducting his presidency is putting this nation in great peril for the future. America currently, with the wars and our continuing economic crisis, is in a weakened state and conditions are worsening. He does not give the impression that he has the courage and conviction to cope with these problems as we hoped he would.
Many of his decisions and actions aren't very popular with the majority of Americans. Of course, the Republicans hate him and everything he does and they are intent upon destroying his presidency. But, the danger to America lies in the fact that he is alienating those who worked so hard to elect him. By alienating his supporters he is, inadvertently, opening the door for the GOP to increase its own base, largely by attracting disenchanted independent voters.
If the GOP gains control of the House and the Senate, the stage will be set for a potential disaster in America. It will make Barack Obama wish that he was still a constitutional professor in Chicago as they try to ruin his presidency and build the case for electing a Republican president in 2012. If the Republicans gain total control, this democracy will be torn apart by dissension; and the currently faltering American dream will turn into a nightmare.
All he had to do was to follow through on the promises that he had made, no more, no less and he and America would not be in this current predicament. In any event, there is still time for Mr. Obama to stand up and be his own man; to do the things that he promised, to reject the Washington Establishment, to make it clear to the military that he is in charge, that they are not, and to become the president we thought he could be.
But time is rapidly running out for both him and the American people. Mr. Obama must come to the realization that his actions are driving supporters out of his base and that, unless he can significantly alter his approach to governing, the American people will suffer the terrible consequences of his failed presidency.
Michael Payne
Author's Bio: Michael Payne concentrates his writings on domestic social and political matters,American foreign policy and climate change. His articles have appeared on Online Journal, Information Clearing House, Peak Oil, Google News and many others.
August 7, 2010
www.opednews.com/articles/And-So-The-Love-Affair-E-by-michael-payne-100806-66.html