The president supports repealing the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] and enacting the Employee Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA], but he knows that neither will happen in the next two years unless attitudes change dramatically within the Republican caucus. As for his own attitude, he hints again that he might be coming around to supporting gay marriage, but for now he is sticking with the civil unions argument.
It looks like the administration is going to stick with the Environmental Protection Agency as its primary enforcer on climate change issues, and they aren’t backing down to the incoming House chairmen who will be launching ridiculous investigations about everything except how to deal with rising temperatures.
The Republicans caved on the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Those goddamn punks exploited our firefighters and police officers for all they were worth and then didn’t want to help them deal with the health consequences of their heroism.
The President got 71 Senators to give him his START Treaty. Never have the Republicans been more shameless. They literally threatened to kill a treaty because they didn’t like that gays got some acknowledgement of their basic human rights. Some of them went ahead and voted against it because they were mad about procedural issues.
Obama ate the Republicans’ lunch but he didn’t get everything:
The largest disappointment, he said, was the Dream Act failure. He said he gets frequent letters from kids whose parents brought them here from other countries as small children and are treated as illegal immigrants when they grow up.
“It is heartbreaking,” Mr. Obama said. “That can’t be who we are. To have kids, our kids, classmates of our children, who are suddenly under this shadow of fear, through no fault of their own.”
For now, it is who we are. But we’re doing okay. It’s been a great two years. I am going to miss Speaker Pelosi though. One day they’ll be an office building named after her. She was that good.
was the DREAM act?
What is this, idiot’s poker?
The biggest dissappointment was when he gave the Repukeliscum what they wanted for nothing – the extension of the billionaires’ givaway. That pretty much did it for me. He got very little for it, and didn’t even have the courtesy to include the Democrats in the negotiations.
“for nothing”?
are you for real?
Meh, it’s like refurnishing the house while it’s burning down because of the atmosphere is so hot because of carbon. I don’t blame him for that, anyone who worries about climate change has just been crushed in this country, but it is the biggest failure of his presidency and of the American people as a whole.
EIA projects climate catastrophe
Yep. I supported him over Hillary specifically because I thought he’d tackle climate change before health care. We’re pretty much fucked.
for START and DADT. I thought both were dead. But the millionaire give-away is a real hard pill to swallow. It’s in now permanently. There is NO WAY that the house constituted as it is will consider anything like letting those taxcuts expire.
It was the deal he could make. There is no supportable argument for allowing the damage that letting all cuts expire would have done. As it is, the bill as passed pleases everybody but us lonely advocates of a progressive tax structure. The sad fact is that a pretty orthodox economic position in the whole rest of the civilized world is quickly becoming high weeds in Washington, D.C. The rich in America have taken rough charge of this show, and there’s not much any president can do about it.
Letting them all lapse was highly highly overstated in the impact. And when you have the single thing that the republicans wanted, you don’t make that deal immediately. It would have been much better to push them REALLY HARD, but Obama is incapable of that. He is a crappy negotiator, just really abysmally crappy. I hsve no idea how he played poker. He must have lost thousands of dollars.
Dude, he just won the following:
And you keep insisting that he is a lousy poker player.
Give it a rest.
He might have been denied all of that if he followed your advice, and he certainly would have been denied almost all of it.
There’s been lots of talk on the left about Obama not being is a “fighter” or a “good poker player”. I think, nearing the end of the first two years of his presidency (and the most productive and progressive Congressional session in decades), we have enough evidence to say that he does fight and he can play poker. However, his style is not the one many progressives would prefer.
The last month is a good example. First, he cut the tax deal. That meant giving the Republicans a victory on their top legislative priority (tax cuts for the rich) for the next two years. (It also removes that issue from the table for the next two years.) In exchange, Obama got a bunch of UI and EITC money that will keep 2 million people out of poverty next year, along with the “middle-class tax cut”—which means he can run for re-election having kept that promise despite the worst economy since the Great Depression.
Second, with taxes off the table in mid-December, there’s now time to deal with the next issues in line: DADT, DREAM, New START, Food Safety, 9/11 Responders. Note what these issues have in common: they’re widely popular—especially with the Democratic base. And with taxes off the table, the “obstructionist Republicans” meme finally gets some traction.
“I am persistent.” That’s the heart of what Obama said about himself as a politician at yesterday’s press conference. For progressives seeking to advance a progressive agenda, that’s useful information to keep in mind when developing strategies to advance our issues.
And with taxes off the table the Republicans will have to actually confront those in their own party about the debt. Obstructionism is now irrelevant. What are they looking to block? Make the president look bad how? By not doing what?
In total it should make for a more responsible and effective government.
Hell ya, that is one awesome Prez we have. Kicked ass and took names for two years, while taking friendly fire and unfriendly fire. One badass motherfucker.
Great job on almost everything. Too bad he sold our asses up the river on Net Neutrality.
http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/sign_netneutrality_3things/?source=typ-fb
Just stop.
He didn’t sell out asses down the river. He just kicked the can down the road.
“I am going to miss Speaker Pelosi though. One day they’ll be an office building named after her. She was that good.” Maybe we could rename DC after her?
This was awesome stuff. I couldn’t be more proud of the entire Democratic caucus. The Senate’s Dems also seem to be serious about filibuster reform. http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/senate-s-returning-democrats-unanimously-favor-filibuster-re
form-20101222
Pelosi has been wonderful. As has been the President. History will look very kindly upon their accomplishments, and much more clearly upon the brutal adversity they faced.
And history will not look kindly on the party that chose endless obstruction at a time of national crisis. Hopefully history will also chronicle their decline into a southern rump party.
Have you seen the latest census results?
Good luck with your southern rump wish…everyone is moving to the South, or its close political cousin, the inter-mountain West…
BTW…the only exception to the trend…i.e. a “Blue State” that gained an electoral vote, was…
Washington State.
What do I like about Washington State…
NO STATE INCOME TAX!
And liberal voters there just voted down a proposition that would have, for the first time, levied a state income tax, but only on evil rich people.
Yep, everybody, including all the hispanics who hate the repukeliscum since the repukeliscum hate them. Texas is gonna go blue really soon.
Liberty, just to add to dataguy’s point, pretty much everyone expects that when the Census Bureaus releases more detailed demographic information next year, it will show that 100% (or more) of US population growth is among groups of voters that lean strongly Democratic.
[How it can be more than 100%? Example: If the population in Tinytown USA grows from 100 to 101 because 10 residents (9 of them Caucasian and over 50 years old) died and they were replaced by 11 residents (3 Caucasian, 2 African-American, 1 Asian, and 5 Latino—all under 70, 6 of them under 18), there’s a marginal benefit now, and an increasing benefit as time goes by, to Democrats.]
Just as previously “red states” Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida have swung “purple” in the past decade, there’s a good chance those states will become increasingly “blue” while states like Arizona, Georgia and even Texas become increasingly “purple” in the coming decade.
Good post. I fully expect to see Speaker Pelosi return to that role in Jan 2013.
That would be awesome. I volunteer to help carry the ceremonial litter.
Amazing, just amazing. Bravo!
Perhaps this can be partly chalked up to holding the senate in session as the Xmas holidays loom ever closer.
I just don’t have time to get into the reporting, but what happened? Apparently the republicans blinked. Why?
All I wanted for Christmas was an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts…
Good work, O!
Second best act…business can write off 100% of investment expense in the current year, as opposed to amortizing over five years…good work! This move will have THE single biggest impact in reducing the unemployment rate in 2011.
I just hope to God that the repeal of DADT and the ratification of START do not harm our national defense…when I read Weekly Standard, I crap my pants…
Progressives…please reassure me that repeal of DADT and ratification do not harm our ability to defend our country…
Please!
First of all, you need to realize that the Weekly Standard is a Koch Brothers funded rag that has zero dedication to the truth and which is almost solely dedicated to making people crap their pants.
The START treaty is not going to hurt our national defense. It will help us in numerous ways. First of all, if we are going to actually be able to lead an international effort to fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we need to have credibility. This treaty proves that we are serious about eliminating our own nuclear weapons over time as part of a process where everyone else does the same. If we try to argue that only countries that have nuclear weapons should ever have them, we lose. But if we argue that we all should reduced them and eventually get rid of them, we can win.
As for DADT, the worst you could say is that some individual units might suffer from a lack of unity when individual soldiers wind up distracted or involved in infighting. But our overall national security won’t suffer. In fact, it should improve. We’ll have more translators and more people willing to serve. Gays that are serving won’t be distracted or have to lie about who they are. Resources won’t be diverted to dealing with investigations.
You have nothing to worry about.
As for you desire to see the Bush tax cuts extended, it is a strange thing to put at the top of your wish list. We probably will see some stimulative effect from it, but it exacerbates our long-term structural debt and makes it much harder to balance the budget over time. It will weaken us and make us more vulnerable to some economic contraction in the future if/when our creditors lose faith on our worthiness as a solid investment.
reassurance. People have have told you why ending DADT won’t harm our national security in a few different threads. Either you believe it or not.
I also have to ask would you have asked the same question when the military was integrated under Truman? Remember we were fighting the Korean War at the time. That was a much larger issue.
Of course there will be some small hiccups along the way but the benefits far outweigh that. For example we lost valuable Arabic translators because of DADT.
As for START who are you going to believe an admittedly conservative periodical or Secretaries of Defense and State from both Republican and Democratic administrations as well as former President George H.W. Bush?
I agree with you about Pelosi. She was so damn good, and she did in perfect hair, Jimmy Choos and Dior. Pelosi kicked ass.
Well said, rikyrah. All the Democratic commentators who argued Pelosi should have stepped down as House leader after the November elections are, in my view, the same as those who urged Clinton to resign when the Republicans impeached him. Fighters fight, and there are no rewards for quitters.
Nice to still see your pompoms still match your increasingly short skirt!
http://www.openleft.com/diary/21215/obama-with-sufficiently-diminished-expecations-everything-looks-
huge
Gimme an “O”
“O”
Gimme a “B”
“B”
…
“Yayyyyyy!”
ROFL