Obama Caves Again

 EDIT: Man, when I get fired up, the hyperbole just gushes forth. If it's not obvious, nothing here is quite as bad as I made it sound. Quite. But I'm still voting for Jake in 2012.

Start digging the bomb shelters again, 'cause Obama just handed the '12 White House to the fucking nut job that thinks she's here to nuke the Russkies*  in accordance with God's will. I swear this guy desperately doesn't want to serve a second term - why the hell did he campaign the first time, anyway?

Obama is cementing his place on the list with Pierce, Van Buren, Adams (both of them), Polk, Buchanen, Hayes, Harrison, Taft, Hoover, Carter and Bush I. A single term will suit him just fine.

The latest bit of capitulation on his part is reaching across the isle to give rich people money.  $700 Billion dollars to rich people, to be precise.

He could have stood his ground, stuck to his principles, and made a big stink about how the GOP was causing all our taxes to go up by insisting on fillibustering to keep tax breaks for millionaires from running out. Hell, I'd have gladly coughed up the $3,000 the "average American family" was going to have to pay in taxes, just to see a Democratic leader actually find their fucking spine. But instead, he caves, which allows the Republicans to claim that their strength and leadership saved us all thousands.  Just hand the election away again, why don't you?

Let me remind you of his previous position regarding the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich, back in 2007. It goes something like the first 9 seconds of this video:



Whatever happened to that brilliant idealist who was going to clean house and fix the system? I loved that man. He sure gave some rousing speeches. He was all full of charisma and genius. I wonder where he went? In his place is the guy who says crap like this (while knuckling under to the teabaggers)...

Obama: GOP threatened ‘collateral damage’ if wealthy didn’t get tax cuts

"I've said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts," President Obama said. "I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers -- unless the hostage gets harmed. Then, people will question the wisdom of that strategy."
"In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed," he said.

Jesus Husein Christ, Mr. Obama, everyone who's ever watched an action-adventure movie or a single episode of 24 knows that "the President of the United States DOES NOT negotiate with terrorists and hostage takers". As you keep waving that damn metaphor in one hand, and the white flag in the other, take a moment to think about what you've just done.

Could you send a worse message, Mr President?  You just:

• Looked like a wimp and a coward. You drew people's attention to the Hollywood-driven trope of what the President of the United States is supposed to be, and then ran screaming from it like a bullied 12-year old would.
• In the process, reminded us that you are an effete elite liberal milquetoast brainiac who spends his time reading books instead of watching movies like a real American. You announced to the world: "Remember when you thought I was hip and cool (and young)? Yeah, I'm not really that guy. I'm his much-nerdier (and older) father."
• Capitulated to, and thus emboldened, the tea-bag radical Right. You conceded the initiative to all those clueless junior Palin-clone congressmen your party lost the elections to last month. Apparently, you've forgotten that they are not reasonable. Given up ground to them will not ingratiate them to you, it will not earn you brownie points, or get them to reach across the isle.  That is the whole point of why the Michelle Bachman's and Christine O'Donnel's of the world are so fucking scary - because they are idealogical nutjobs with a failure to understand cause and effect or basic human decency.
• Sent a message to the fucking terrorists that you actually are willing to negotiate with them, all they have to do is threaten to kill more Americans. You've encouraged them to imperil us. ...Or, at least, that's how idiots like (me and) Fox News are going to choose to interpret that sound bite. For an eloquent, educated, intelligent man, you sure are good at giving your enemies ridiculous quotes than can repeat out of context.

Every one of those perception issues is going to cost this country, it's people, and your administration. Every one of those points is going to undermine your ability to get re-elected.  Your entire first two years has been all about back-pedaling and making concessions, and it's gotten us nowhere.

Just as none of us noticed when you gave us our Stimulus bonus in the form of $16 a paycheck break instead of a lump sum check we would have had to take to the bank, virtually no one in America will notice when they don't pay an unexpected $3,000 dollars more come April 15th.You have gained nothing by caving.

The sad thing is, the President (assuming he's not secretly the scum-sucking money-serving scum-bag that I don't think he is)  clearly imagines that by bending over backwards like this he's actually preserving his principles and doing what's right. He thinks he's being mature, realistic, and centrist. He thinks that in doing so, he's making the next two years a little better.

I ask you, Mr. President, What hurts America more, taking $3,000 out of our pockets, or getting us all Killed by Palin sometime in early 2013**? As much as I like my money, I value not being nuked just a little more. So why are you giving up the game to the other side, when the correct is so damn obvious.

The right play here would have been to hold your ground and refuse to buckle. Then the tax-breaks for everyone would have expired. The new Congress reconvenes in January shortly before your State of the Union Address, in which you could have drawn attention to the fact that unless Congress gets it's ass in gear, we'd all have significant tax increases. That (plus their own greed) would motivate them to put the breaks back in, and if they proceeded to put in the cuts for the richest again, you'd have yet another opportunity to repeatedly point out that they were doing so specifically to benefit the rich. You could hold on to your principles there, and rest assured that the damn Republicans would have no choice but to fix it pronto, or else they'd be the ones standing to loose an election over it.

About the only way the Democrats could get my vote back would be with a Kucinich-McDermott ticket. That's particular pipe dream has about the same odds as the DNC mastering the ancient art of necromancy to raise FDR and Wellstone from the grave for 2012.

 I'm voting Jake in 2012. Jake, I'm counting on you to hold me to that.

Footnotes:
*: Whom she can see from her front porch, don't ya know.
**: Remember, the church she attends teaches that it's God's plan that the Apocalypse will happen in our lifetimes, and Alaska will serve as a refuge for the least evil of those who are left behind after the Rapture. I'd be surprised if she waits 10 minutes from be sworn in till the missiles are in the air.