In a passionate and blunt article in the new issue of the Nation (February 1, 2010) Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders (I) assesses the plight of the Obama Administration as we head into the November 2010
midterms.
Senator Sanders is at pains to describe the dramatic difference in the year since Obama's inauguration. First
he challenges the "bipartisanship" strategy:
http://www.thenation.com/...
the Democrats--including the president--have absurdly continued to stumble along the path of "bipartisanship" at exactly the same time the Republicans have waged the most vigorous partisan and obstructionist strategy in recent history.
And then he makes a wonderful point concerning the disastrous framing or lack thereof by Obama and his team:
Instead of making it clear that the first two years of the Obama administration would be about digging the country out of the incredible mess that Bush's eight years left us in, (deep recession, financial collapse, record-breaking deficits, disintegrating healthcare system, two wars, lack of respect from the international community, neglect of the environment), Obama, incredibly, has enabled tens of millions of Americans to now believe that Bush's failures are his as well.
Obama is no FDR:
Unlike FDR in 1933, who consistently denounced Hoover's Republican policies as the cause of the country's perilous condition, Obama appears very reluctant to be partisan and point out to the American people the cause of our current crises. Can one imagine Obama, for example, telling the American people as Roosevelt did in 1936, "I welcome" the "hatred" of the "economic royalists" whose greed has devastated the country?
He then excoriates the evil of the right-wing:
In response to Obama's genteel and bipartisan outreach, the Republicans have undertaken an unprecedented campaign of rhetorical savagery. The Right-Wing Echo Chamber of Fox News and talk-radio has implied that Obama is an "illegitimate" president not born in the United States, that he is a friend of terrorists, that he is an antiwhite racist, that he rules unconstitutionally and that his administration reeks of Chicago-style corruption. And those are the respectful attacks!
Sanders then pivots and says its not too late and lists a series of ACTIONS the president can take.
Perhaps most important, let Obama be Obama. Bring back one of the great inspirational leaders of our time, who is more than capable of taking on the powerful special interests and rallying the American people toward a progressive agenda and a more just society. We have too quickly cast aside the audacity of hope as being too audacious.
The entire article is brilliant and worth reading. Senator Sanders is a true patriot and leader.