Yes, I am a Obamabot. Hate me if you must, but I'm a genuine fan of the man and the moment. I believe he is honest, earnest, and genuinely cares about America and its people. But I'm beginning to waver in my belief that he's not what his haters on the left say about him. That he is weak. A caver. A capitulator. That he's ball-less. Or worst of all: a Surrender Monkey. To read what's on my mind, follow me below the squiggly.
Let's talk about what Obama seems to be lacking other than spine. I can forgive him that because he may simply be genetically incapable of standing up to the Republicans and their Tea Party puppeteers. There are all manner of disorders, mental and emotional, for which individuals are not to blame. They were born that way. I'm beginning to think Prez Obama was born genetically wired to avoid the spilling of blood at all costs, even metaphorical blood. Think about it.
I grew up with a guy who was built like a linebacker, but the idea of sticking a worm on the barb of a hook and seeing blood pulp ooze weakened his knees and made him tremble like he was confronted by a rabid, foaming at the mouth Rottweiler. He'd cover his eyes when I would giddily thread a big fat blood-gorged nightcrawler onto a hook. I had to bait this guy's hook for him! That's Obama. The Republicans are the worm, and even though he can talk tough about what he'll do to that worm, when it comes right down to showtime he hasn't got the heart, as we say in the hood. He punks out. He can't bait his own hook.
He tells himself (and us, in a televised news conference) that "we must take a balanced approach" to dealing with our debt and the debt ceiling. That everyone must share in the pain. That we must all "eat our peas." I think he means it. But place the hook and the worm in front of him, he can't do it. So, I won't call him a coward. He's not a coward any more than my old linebacker friend (who jacked up more than one mofo on the street, right in front of my eyes, during our youth on the streets of Newark). Instead, I'll say he appears to be genetically incapable -that is, he can't help it. He really can't- of standing up to the Republicans.
But here is what I really don't understand about my President. Why, or how, is he such a terrible, god-awful negotiator? Back in December when he (rightfully, I thought) traded a two-year extension on the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to avoid millions of unemployment benefit recipients being cut off right before Christmas, he failed to also insist at that time on raising of the debt ceiling as part of the agreement? He would've gotten it. The Bush tax cuts are the Holy Grail for the Rethuglicans, and the Tea Bagging A-holes had yet to be sworn into Congress. Why on God's green earth would he give as his reason that he was sure the Republicans would be reasonable (later, about the Debt Ceiling)? Oh. My. God. Is Obama stupid or just naive?
Then he compounds the felony by going on TV in front of the entire free world and announces that there must be shared sacrifice and no deal is acceptable without including revenue, aka more taxes. He said it. More than once. He received praise on this website for saying it. Even some of his haters, the closet Pumas, and some people so far to the left that Che Guevara would've been considered a Goldman Sachs broker by comparison; all gave him props for it. It wasn't universal but damn near.
So what did we get in the final Debt Ceiling deal? No revenues. As an Obamabot, even I don't understand that one. Worse, he unilaterally disarmed by saying weeks ago that he would not use the 14th Amendment solution. Why? Even if you won't use it because you privately believe it to be unconstitutional, why would you tell the enemy? Why not allow them to believe you just might do it? I've never played poker, but if I ever do, the last thing I would do is explicitly, publically, truthfully, FOOLISHLY, tell my opponents the cards I DON'T HAVE. Why? Why, Mr. President? WHY???
Right now, I'm stunned. The man is book smart (obviously) but not politics smart. He has to be the worst negotiator in the history of the presidency. His heart is in the right place, but his political instincts totally suck. My God, who is advising him? Is there anyone working for the POTUS who is capable of thinking three moves ahead? I never thought the POTUS would miss Rahm Emanuel so badly. Were Rahm still here, Cantor would've gotten a dead fish in his mailbox instead of a conciliatory scowl from Obama.
Not voting for President Obama in 2012 or pushing a third party candidate is not the smart move. All it would do is hand the entire government over to the Republithugs. We'll see DADT (or some version of it) reimposed. We'll see a lot of our gains rolled back. We'll see two more right wingers appointed to the Supreme Court -for the next 30 years- locking up a conservative America for one hell of a long time. We have to somehow channel our anger -or in my case frustration- with this President and help him do better at the thing he for which he is least gifted: dealing with the Republicans at the negotiating table. Let's turn our anger on them, not on each other. Eating our own is exactly what the right wingers are hoping we will do. And too many on DailyKos, people who can't see the forest for the trees, are foolishly giving 'em exactly what they want.
In the meantime, I'd like some of my fellow Obamabots to explain for my benefit our President's horrible negotiating tactics. Maybe I can recapture that magic feeling and be motivated to get out there and work hard for the President's re-election instead of going through the motions.