No More Excuses (by Bob Herbert)It's time to stop making excuses for Barack Obama. With so much at stake in this election, his performance at the debate on Wednesday night was indefensible.
Ever since he was elected, there have been reasons offered, either publicly or privately, for why Obama has been unable to fully engage some of the nation's most important challenges. Despite the rampant increase in poverty in the worst downturn since the Depression, Obama supporters whispered that he couldn't do more for the poor and couldn't speak out more forcefully on their behalf because that would not be politically advantageous. So nearly all of his economic initiatives had to be couched in language that referred to the middle class, even though the poor were being hurt far worse. LBJ could launch a war on poverty but not Barack Obama.[...]
On Wednesday night nearly 60 million television viewers got to witness this chronic unwillingness of Barack Obama to fight. He did not hammer Mitt Romney for his ugly, all-too-revealing comments that demeaned nearly half the population as slackers and ne-er-do-wells. He did not go after Romney's terrible job-creation record as governor of Massachusetts. He did not assail Romney for his callous contention on 60 Minutes that people who don't have health insurance actually do get care -- in the nation's emergency rooms. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die," said Romney. "We pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care."[...]
The president let his people down. And if he's capable of doing that in an election that is clearly so important, it means he's capable of doing it again if he wins a second term.
h/t triv33 for the article
Comments
Good morning.
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It's a failed Presidency
and he is a failure as a President.
But the jaw-dropping part for me is the number of people - and they are legion - who adamantly refuse to recognize or acknowledge this. Democrats eight years ago shook their heads in utter disbelief and even despair at the number of Republicans who would go to any lengths to justify and defend George W. Bush's failed Presidency. And now many of those same people are doing the *exact same thing*. The Patriot Act under Bush was indefensible. Under Obama, it's acceptable. Tax cuts for the uber wealthy and the Wall Street bailout under Bush were a national disgrace. Under Obama, they're not so bad. Guantanamo and indefinite detention under Bush were war crimes. Under Obama, they are apparently not. And on it goes... the list is damned near endless.
I don't understand it. I never will. Wrong is wrong. Wrong doesn't become right just because it's a Democrat doing it.
Well said.
I would sum it up this way:
If Bush did something or failed to do something, is that okay with you?
If no, then it damn sure isn't okay when Obama does it.
Tonight's Party--
A Night At The Pub. We'll be doing songs that make going to the bar fun, songs you sing along with and I'll be taking a small stroll down memory lane to a little dive bar that used to be my home base.