Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Barack Obama has a lot of work to do

2012 is WIDE OPEN for the Republicans.

Unlike 2008 when the sitting VP did not run, which made it wide open for both parties.

2012 is sizing up all the wannabee presidents on the Republican side.

While we watch that side show, we need to work on our own show.

It starts with Barack Obama re-energizing his base, period.

kos put on the front page, "Obama can side with Big Business, or the voters".

kos is right about what he wrote in reference to the Chamber of Commerce. Does anyone in their right mind actually believe that the Chamber of Commerce or those Banksters and Gangsters on Wall Street will give Barack Obama the time of day? It was their corporate money that was heavily invested in the 2010 mid-terms that helped to elevate the Republicans win. All the robber barons want is for the next two years to be destructive, convoluted as the first two years.

Yes, the first two years was convoluted and full of mixed messages that the public never understood. The GOP was not challenged on lies and given the bully pulpit to spread all the lies they wanted to, while our side sat back like crickets.

I don't want to hear all that President Obama and the Democrats did because in actuality for many Americans it was minimum, not enough and many did not know about it.

I am looking at 2012 and if Barack Obama continues to coddle up to the same folk that basically gave him an "F and U" then he is going to have a hard 2012.

President Barack Obama emerges from a bruising midterm election with uncertain prospects for the next one in 2012, according to a new McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll.

Nearly half of his own base - 45 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents - want someone to challenge him for the Democratic nomination, according to the poll.

And, assuming he wins re-nomination, barely more than 1 in 3 voters, or 36 percent, said they'll definitely vote for him, while nearly half, 48 percent, said they'll definitely vote against him.

"There's some serious electoral jeopardy and his position is very tenuous," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which conducted the national post-election poll.

There are some angry folk in the Democratic Party. Many who wanted this administration to concentrate on the economy and jobs, when in the end it was the economy and jobs with the perception that the White House did not do anything that led many to just say forget it when it came to going to the polls.

That is what happened.

And we can sit around here and argue with each other or look at this in the reality it is.

2 million individuals are about to be thrown off unemployment in December, right around the holidays. An extension is needed, while we are still the majority in power, seems like very little is being done.
Paul Gilbert lost his job managing a restaurant in Phoenix in May and said he's had a terrible time finding a new one.

"I have put out at least 25 resumes a week and have only had two interviews," Gilbert told HuffPost. "I want to work. I love to work. I'll do anything, someone please give me a job."

Now he's worried he'll lose the $240 a week he's been receiving in unemployment insurance. Despite a historically bad job market, two million people could be cut off from their unemployment benefits during the holidays if Congress fails to reauthorize federally-funded jobless aid that expires at the end of the month. Gilbert said the Arizona Department of Economic Security told him he's in the cutoff boat.

"It's going to be a long December for a lot of people," Gilbert said.

What kind of fucked up party are we in? I don't get this. Are these millionaire Democrats in congress (yes, many are that) so far removed that they don't get what is happening out here? Don't you see? This is why the voters don't see a difference between the Democrats or Republicans. Especially, since we continuously have Democrats acting and voting like Republicans.

In the meantime, The Robber Barons had corporate RECORD PROFITS, while the rest of America (mostly middle class) is struggling harder than ever. This coming from gangsters and banksters who have funneled massive amounts of money to Republicans, have smeared President Obama (who has been generous to these greedy fucks to the hilt), and continue to whine about not enough tax breaks, etc. When is this going to stop?

This is what the public is upset about. And it can not continue. Not if we want to win in 2012. Many here forget that we were losing over 700K jobs a month when Barack Obama assumed the presidency. What the public wanted and demanded was to fix this economy and create jobs. This did not and has not happened. When the average Joe and Josetta are sitting at their kitchen table or on their computer in Quick Books balancing their checkbook, they do not want to continue to hear about how you stopped the bleeding in the economy because their bleeding has not stopped. These are the same folks who are taking continuous hits on their wages, hours cut, and many lost jobs, barely existing on unemployment, losing their homes. Along with these challenges, they have children who must be taken care of, many who want to go to college and frankly can not because it is too expensive. And let's not talk about how the poverty rate has grown in record number. The only focus the Obama Administration needs to work on is the one with the public and what they want, not big business who has made massive amounts of money off of our backs. President Obama can not continue to coddle big business and do nothing for the ordinary man. If he continues this, he will be a one term president.
Obama's political weakness helps explain why so many Republicans are thinking of running for their party's nomination against him. That race is wide open, the McClatchy-Marist poll showed, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the early leader, but several others are competitive.

With politics about to pivot toward the presidential campaign, the poll underscored that Obama's standing will be a major factor.

He enters the second half of his term with his approval rating holding steady at 45 percent, 48 percent disapproving and 7 percent undecided.

"The good news for Obama was that, after the midterm, there wasn't any greater desertion," Miringoff said. "That's the best news. The bad news for him, people are still very tenuous about him."

His political problems start with his own base.

Months ago, I laughed at any Republican running against Barack Obama, but I am not laughing now. Why? The Republicans kicked our ass in the communication game, the message game and the framing game. They did not do SHIT to deserve taking the House of Representatives back, but look what happened. If we continue to concede everything to them, not stand up for what our principles are, we are going down. And if Barack Obama does not start standing up and speaking in frank, lay man words so the voters GET IT, he is going to have some real issues in 2012.

Remember, of the polling out here from the populous, they don't like either party. That means that they see no difference between the two parties, which means why should they vote. And these are the voters we need to come back to us, not the shilling at each other on Daily Kos, but that voter we touched in 2008. We need them badly in 2012 because right now, they are just not into us.

Finally, the continuous argument of not criticizing this administration is weak. Millions did not show up for us on November 3rd for a reason and it surely was not because they read some diary on Daily Kos that made them stay home. They stayed home because we have not done anything for them that they can see tangible here and now in their lives. The bottom line is this; there are way more poor folk, middle class folk, than rich folk. Continue to not do anything for your own people out here and they will continue to sit on that couch and not vote for you.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

Home Page