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Dear President Obama: You've Pretty Much Blown It
Dear President Obama:
I have written you several open letters. Each one seems to be more critical of your efforts thus far. Consequently, at least to me, the evidence of your continued poor performance is more magnified with each passing decision and action on your part.
Where do I start?
You've had a chance to stand up to the terrorist Israeli state, but despite hints at doing so you have apparently resigned yourself to continued support for their immoral and illegal actions. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
You had a chance to address the ills of Wall Street and the financial industry in general and Congressional complicity with them, but you shied away from the tough action that was necessary and even hired as advisors some of whom were at fault in the first place. Yes, the free-fall economy seems to have stabilized momentarily for those in the upper echelons of wealth, but not for the regular guys on Main Street. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
You have had more than one chance to tell the Pentagon and its Congressional friends, along with the military warmongers we've created, that the people are going to take over again, as the Constitution directs. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir - and in a big way.
You made lots of noise (some too kindly call it rhetoric) about the need to overhaul the nation's health care and insurance debacle. But when it has come right down to it, you decidedly were absent - the term "missing in action" seems most fitting here. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
You managed to get awarded a Nobel Prize for reasons I do not fully understand. Apparently is was for you gift of articulation, but certainly not for your gift of "walking the talk." I had hoped it was providential in some way, but so far it seems like the opportunity it provided to inspire actions consistent with the award's aura, have evaded you. A Peace Prize for escalating a war? Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
You apparently understood the malignant hold of large corporations on our nation's and the globe's economic system, but the campaign contributions you accepted and your behavior thus far indicates that you buy into this charade of "free market" thinking. It's about time you grabbed these folks by the lapels instead of coddling them and even collaborating with them. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
Your seem to lean toward acceptance of the overwhelming evidence of global warming, and you occasionally utter something about the need to address it, but then your actions, as of yet, indicate only a passing interest. Will you not try to save the planet? Will you not push our nation to sanity and responsibility? Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
Your grasp of enlightened educational improvement ideas also seems to have revealed a serious lapse in judgment. Charter schools, merit pay, standards and testing? These are arcane and perilous ventures sir. Each is flawed both psychologically and philosophically, not to mention financially. Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir.
In all of the above, and much much more, you've had a chance. There's still time to get your head on straight, to match your walk with your talk, to surround yourself with new thinking, and to discard the failed theories and practices you inherited. There are over 300,000,000 of us out here sir. Limiting yourself to the same handful of "insiders" reveals that the change you had in mind was nowhere near what many of us envisioned and is needed. Sadly though, thus far you've pretty much blown it sir.
You sought this job with all your energy and commitment. What you inherited is quite frankly beside the point. Now it's yours - and ours. We are ready to make sacrifices and change ways. Are you? Thus far you've pretty much blown it here sir. There's still time.
125 Comments so far
Show AllI agree. I would add the failure to direct money toward creating jobs and converting to a green economy (firing Van Jones.) Also, appointing a spokesperson for chemicalized agribusiness to direct food policy.
Your cricisms apply not only to Obama but to practically all of our elected officials at the national level, with a very few exceptions. Our state and local reps also lack all imagination and passion; they are pretty much on board with the overall agenda. They never connect the waste at the national level with budget woes on the local level. If they did, they would require an end to the optional wars and that more of our high Federal taxes be returned to the states for education, health etc.
Joe
Obama has kept one promise.
The promise to all those banks and wall street investment firms who made him one of the top three all time largest beneficiaries of campaign contributions from commercial banks, wall street investment banks and mortgage brokers.
Obama has presided over the largest bail out of certain failed banking institutions with taypayers money, including 1,000 of Billions of dollars in taxes not yet collected from our children and grand children.
No Drama, Obama, who believes in stealing from the children of working class Americans and giving the money to the richest of Americans.
Now that is change you can believe in ... NOT.
Obama has not blown it, he is doing exactly what the financial and corporate interests who bought him the election put him there to do. To believe otherwise is naive: it shows a profound mis-understanding of how politics actually works in the USA.
Spot on!
my thoughts exactly!
Ditto! The only one to have "blown it" is you Mr. Barkley for believing that Obama (or any Democrat and Republican) is going to do anything differently.
There you go again Rich...spreading that truth crap around.
You're right, RichM. And I was one of them. I came out of my left wing corner just once for the reasons you stated, and I'm back in it for good. Obama proved to me that anyone who accepts corporate money answers to them, not to us. I was foolishly clinging to a quote from Harry Truman "You can take their money, but you don't have to do what they want". Obviously Obama's no Harry Truman.
You were one of those crying in the wilderness "Don't be fooled". I should have listened.
Let's all pester Ralph to run against Chris Dodd. And frankly, I don't care whose money Ralph accepts. This man I am convinced will do right by us. He always has. Although I can't see any corporatist throwing money away on him unless they see him as no more than a spoiler. But why would they want to spoil Dodd? He's their man.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
BeForKids sez:
"Obama proved to me that anyone who accepts corporate money answers to them, not to us. I was foolishly clinging to a quote from Harry Truman "You can take their money, but you don't have to do what they want". Obviously Obama's no Harry Truman."
************
This is very true--the greatest change that has come over the US in the past generation is the "us vs. them" mindset. Although I have no way of proving it, my suspicion is that all those who are leading candidates for the presidency (in other words both the Presidential and Vice Presidential nomminees of both major parties) are sat down and told in no uncertain terms what will be expected of them should they win.
Along with this the violent history of "lone, crazed gunmen" bumping off so many who would not cooperate is also reviewed, along with the tragic things that happened to both spouses and children is also reviewed. I realize that, strictly speaking, it makes very little difference whether Obama is an amoral cynic or an moral coward as far as the rest of us are concerned. So do the rest of the king (or queen)-makers.
Poet
On the money RichM.
You told this and many other truths long before Obama was even on the national political scene and pretty much everything you have stated has come to pass. Don't be bashful about accepting this accolade.
Good to see you around.
Chlamor at your service.
You always save me lots of effort, RichM.
Great summation, but like others here I have to point out that the "blown it" depends on your perspective. Obama has done exactly what he was hired to do. That the American people have had their hopes crushed, that the party that was the straw we grasped at has turned out to be such a betrayal, I think they see it as a bonus to see us so divided, bewildered, dismayed and disorganized. The opposition to corporate rule has been defeated. The Big Tent of the Democrats has been set on fire and we have scrambled our separate ways. It is quite a triumph for the people who set up Obama for election. It is a disaster for us, but icing on the cake for what Immelt's CNBC calls the "overclass."
Here is my open letter to Obama:
Dear President Obama,
To begin with, I did not vote for you in the election. Instead, I voted for the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney. As a progressive and an environmentalist, I found your continued coziness with corporate America to be appalling, misguided, and too shortsighted for the good of our country. In theory, the President ought to be a bearer of wisdom, and as such, requires a uniqueness of uncommon character; someone who can make unpopular decisions against the entrenched powers of wealth, the military industrial establishment, even when the results of those actions lose voters.
I know this goes against the currents of the political orthodoxy when marketing guru's that are ubiquitous in our culture are telling you otherwise. But contrary to contemporary political reasoning, it is my view that any politician holding the trust of public office, ought not look beyond his or her first term; choosing instead to govern - not according to the latest corporate investments he receives into his campaign accounts - but for general welfare of we-the-people and those without voice or access to enfranchised power. Many thought you were such a man. In the year, we have sadly learned otherwise.
I am troubled by the course you have taken in your administration. Your campaign struck a deep archetypal cord with many, including young people. This phenomena was sign of hope, and of change that your marketing schema was built upon something more than lip service. Sadly, your Administration has taken a direction inimical to the very norms you promised in the campaign and followed similar standards of the Bush Administration, but this is especially true for your military buildup in Afghanistan and now war escalation.
Furthermore, I was recently struck by the contrary rhetoric you have used to describe several unrelated events as measured against recent military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In characterizing your hope of appointing a Supreme Court justice prior to appointing judge Sotomayer, you noted a key virtue key in your search was "empathy" in a potential nominee.
The week you made that statement it was reported half a world away in Pakistan that upwards of 100 or more non-combatants were hit with covert air strikes via unmaned drones. The news immediately projected images over the airwaves of the bodies of innocent children and women strewn around the strike site. I was struck powerfully by the juxtaposition of your use of vocabulary about "empathy" alongside of the murder of innocents. It reminded me of various other uses of antiseptic standards when referring to the loss of innocent life.
continued:
Another image popped into my mind of a campaign speech you made about your own daughters and terrorism. Surely you are bright enough to understand that human life covered in language like "collateral damage" diminishes the scope, praxis, and value of empathy and compassion as qualities you might hold. Holding an antiseptic view of life is contrary to empathy and compassion. Furthermore, it renders illegitimate your credibility when you choose to conduct escalating war, covert strikes, both contrary to campaign promises which includes your assertion of withdrawing all US troops from Iraq. Now your Administration asserts that upwards of 50K troops will remain in country perpetually. I am sure you can appreciate to my concern for your actions that are contradictory to your rhetoric.
Another area of personal angst is your use of the term "clean coal" to describe a pivotal aspect of your environmental plan. As someone who worked on the front lines of the environmental movement in the non-profit world, we both know that "clean coal" is nothing more than a fantasy shrouded in obfuscations and dishonesty.
While I commend your efforts in other areas on the environment, moving beyond anything your predecessor did in eight years, your current efforts are still too little and too late for a planet in peril. We also both know that "Trade and Cap" is a shell game supported by the biggest polluters on the planet, and one the Earth cannot win. We need a carbon tax urgently, and this is supported by Al Gore, Bill Mckibben, and Robert F. Kennedy to name a few of the bigger environmental advocates with name recognition, but I can assure you it is shared by all environmentalist not dependent on corporate cash infusions.
Your Administration also took the Grey Wolf off of the endangered species list recently to accommodate corporate cattle ranching. I urge you to rescind this policy and return the Grey Wolf to the endangered list to protect the species from extinction. Appeasing corporate interests is not an act of wisdom in my view.
I would also urge you to reverse FISA laws diminishing our personal rights and restore Habeus Corpus on those being detained in U.S. and foreign gulags.
The huge corporate giveaways to corporations under TARP legislation was a great mistake in my view. Moreover, your Administration demanded the UAW renegotiate their contracts downward as a condition of billions of our money being placed in the hands of Corporate Executives without a similar request from them. Even the windfall that was given out under the auto loan bail, along with TARP funds, had no accountability standards guiding the use of those funds. This is appalling and ought to require immediate investigations to determine where our money went, and how it was used. Moreover, if collusion with those who wrote that bill are determined, immediate criminal investigations ought to be launched.
I urge you to honestly consider the hope so many placed in your candidacy prior to the election, and begin to act in a manner consistent to your vocabulary. If you continue on your present path with continued escalation of war and perpetual occupation, it is highly likely that great harm will be done to the political process, of the hope so many placed in your hands seeking to guide us out of the abyss the Bush Administration put or collective soul.
My voice carries no significant power to determine that wisdom will become a formative force in any future decision you might make. Only you can determine whether it is a virtue or an albatross to the ends of political expediency. Obviously my call is not appealing to pragmatism, the god that rules our current political process. But as a historian of theology by training and interest, I can assure you that the political pendulum can swing back just as quickly.
Thank you for your consideration. I know you will do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Chris DeGetmon
Thank you for sharing that!
Bravo! Could not have said it better.
"I know you will do the right thing."
. . . some of the people some of the time . . .
I agree, there's not enough time, and besides, he doesn't care.
The best liar ever elected president: Barack Obama.
George W. Bush must be laughing his ass off.
"George W. Bush must be laughing his ass off."
You are right. Imagine, he walks away in disgrace leaving behind the smoking wreckage of our country post 9-11, the biggest failure of defense by the world's biggest defense apparatus, completely trashes the economy, and nine months after he leaves office his successor has done such a spectacular job that nobody even remembers the Wanker.
But speaking of the Wanker, we went into Afghanistan with "dead or alive," and the Wanker shocked us a few months later saying he no longer cared about Osama bin Laden and it was Osama been Forgotten. Now we're back on the hunt. Which is it? Are we watching reruns?
Yea, it's a rerun. And a very bad one. Like a recent season of The Simpsons. We were all hyped up and this is the shit we get?
Very nicely put!
Do you really think he was lying? I thought he was Bush-not-so-lite when he was running for office. I was bemused and, finally, horrified that he got such a following on the basis of pretty but content-free speeches, and even more appalled when he proved to be just what I'd thought he was. In other words, I can't see him as having lied because all he gave us were meaningless platitudes and now he's doing just what he intended to do which is to be the 2nd coming of Dubya but without the mangled English and the in-your-face strutting.
Of course, I'm still sorry he turned out to be what he promised.
Dear Robert Barkley Jr,
You're writing to the wrong person.
Obama is just the General Manager of The Place, Inc.
If you want action, you will need to write to The Owners of The Place, Inc. directly.
If they agree with you, they will forward instructions their General Manager, BO, on how to proceed.
Thank you for shopping The Place, Inc.
Regards,
Bank of America, Sachs of Gold, Man, Citi, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo.
Obama's manual for the Presidency, "To Serve the Middle Class," might contain a shocker for the reader, just as "To Serve Man" contained a surprise for the viewer of that episode of "The Twilight Zone."
I think we know by now whom Obama is serving the middle class to.
"I think we know by now whom Obama is serving the middle class to."
Nicely put!!
Progressives (and Obama) are Doing Better Than We Think -- and We Won't Know What We've Got 'Til It's Gone
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/30/progressives
_and_obama_are_doing_better_than_we_th/index.php
Huh?! What evidence do you have of that conclusion?
Thanks Broadway.
He has done some good things that I don't feel McCaine/Palin would have done.
We'll See if more troops and war spending brings more War or Peace and if the middle class continues to shrink.
Big things count too.
German Chancellor Bismarck, a war-hawk if there ever was one, did several 'good' things too. He started the western world's first social security system which President Roosevelt copied in the 30's. To judge a president one must weigh the 'good' things against the 'bad' things. What does your weighing say?
War=debt
War=terror
and it eats up good things.... Life is a love story, we are screwed.
More here:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
I often wonder how President Jefferson, if he were alive, would judge American Progressives.
My guess: hopeless conceders.
Dear Robert Barkley Jr,
There have been several open letters prior to the election stating that there was no substantial difference between Obama, McCain and Bush. And still you rushed in with blind faith and hope thinking that Obama would somehow be magically different.
Magic is an illusion just as blind hope is illusion.
Consequently, the end to the war, single payer health care (medicare for all), corporate corruption reform are all off the table.
And expecting Obama's actions to change are beyond foolish. The expectation of change is deadly, suicidal, and just plain silly.
I'm not saying that voting third party can effect change because the power elite play dirty and are killing machines without significant remorse (not enough to stop killing if it interferes with money).
But isn't is far stupider to give the man the stick that he will beat us with (which is what you do when you vote corporate democrat)? At least when you vote third party, your forcing the power elite to at least find their own stick.
so it goes
Hope is the opiate of the masses.
Welcome to Bushes third term.
Barkley left out the Constitution, torture, prisons, rendition, Habeas Corpus, FISA, warrantless wiretaps, etc...
Also, at what point does a sincere person stop pretending that the abusive partner in a relationship might listen this time?
"Oh please, you promised you would treat me differently than my last abusive partner, now i've endured months of abuse from you, numerous episodes of abuse, but i still think you might hear me this time... my dear President..."
Soetoro got the Nobel Prize because he stopped the Israeli submarine deployment of nuclear armed cruise missles...
...sshhh.
I understood that to be a sub and a nuke armed missile cruiser, two nuke ships off Iran. Finally a rational possibilty for the Prize.
While Barkley does a good job on categorizing Obama's failings, he misses the main point. Obama has caved in to the financiers who provided him the money to run for the presidency.
The securities and investment sector provided Obama almost $15 million, "miscellaneous business" gave him $16.5 million, according to opensecrets.org. Interestingly, opensecrets has no line item for defense contractors that I could find on their web site.
Unless campaigns are financed strictly by public funds, nothing will change. Further, unless the left wing in Amerikkka becomes as radicalized as the right wing, things will only get worse.
After eight years of Bush and the election of Obama, I finally thought the nightmare was over. But, good grief...I'm afraid everyone in Congress and in the White House (Democrats and Republicans) hates Americans. I have lost hope for this President and the United States.
Todd
Looks like it doesn't it? But don't lose hope for our country. This Congress and this President are NOT America. They are most transitory.
Yep its never been so bad, which means it maybe can't possibly get any worse and as the purpose of this world is to prove the harm in it, if things be truly that bad, then all things will automatically turn toward the good.
it can get worse, --military fascist lockdown, concentration camps, and jackboots at the door...
No one should be surprised by any of this. Obama's position throughout the campaign was that the mistake the Bush administration made was "taking the eye off the ball" in Afghanistan by concentrating on the other stupid war in Iraq. He is really carrying out what any sensible observer of his campaign would expect.
Many Obama supporters believed that his eloquence and inspirational speeches suggested a man who would bring sense, decency, and principle as his predominant influence to the White House. That was a misread of both the man and the current role of the president. Obama places reconciliation and threading political needles over principle, and will not stand up for anything if it means a lot of "drama" and confrontation that he clearly abhors. The man is a reptilian, analytical type with a wimpy streak. Don't expect much from him.
The other point is that both the presidency and the congress have become only weak tools of various interest groups in the military-industrial complex, insurance companies, wall street firms, banks, AIPAC, Neocons, and other assorted fat cats, bullies, and loudmouths. They are the ones who call the shots folks.
2010 is going to be an interesting year. We'll get a health care bill that shovels money to insurance companies--our money, that is. We'll get an escalation of war in AfPak,and a possible invasion of Iran either by us or our Israeli partners in crime. We'll get another year of high unemployment for main street and huge bonuses for Wall Street. We'll get absolutely nothing on climate change reform. And we'll probbly have to sit through more of Prof. Obama's increasingly sickening and untruthful speeches.
Yes, he lies. He lies as good as, or better than G.W. He lied about the comparison of AfPak with Vietnam; he lied about why he sent 30,000 more troops into a sinkhole; and he lied about pulling them out in 2011. He also lied about health care, human rights, closing Guantanamo, and just about every other campaign promise. What lesson will the American people take from this farce? Hopefully, not to be dazzled by the BS and look at substance--like we see in Kucinich and Nader.
I think that you are not observing a liar on all of your topics but a wiggling pragmatist. The end of the road of pragmatism is the abandonment of all principles and ideals. President Obama is close to the end of that road after almost one year in office. He learns fast indeed.
If I had gone to sleep in October 2008 and woke up yesterday I would've thought McCain won the election.
That's a terrific comment!
Memo to Robert Barkley, Jr.:
Next time please proofread your article. All the silly typos kinda took me outta the moment, especially considering you have enjoyed a career in "edjukashun".
And one more thing. Perhaps you would consider expanding on the list to include the continuation of torture and rendition to black sites in Uzbekistan and elsewhere, the continuation of provisions in the U.S. Patriot Act that were due to expire, no meaningful investigation into the yet unanswered pertinent questions surrounding the events of 9/11, the continuation of "States Secrets Privilege" against whistleblowers like Sybil Edmonds, the continuation of environmental disasters occurring within the U.S. (the continued use of the weed killer Atrazine that has now polluted every known waterway in the U.S. and is BANNED in the E.U.) etc.
Those who frequent Commondreams deserve to have a more comprehensive list I think.
How about doing some critical research and giving it another try?
9-11 was an inside job. Recently published automated computer registries show that Flight77's cockpit door was never opened. And anyone who has a voice and political clout who questions the 'official' story (LIE!) will be killed.
Can you give any information about where you got this information?
Obama, the Congress, Corporations, and the MIC are oppressors of the American People. So what do the manly men of America do, drink beer and watch football in a telling celebration of the Roman Circus. Absolute mental cowardice highlighted by weakness, bulging muscles and vacuous heads. Swish!