IndianaGreen
03-09-2010, 04:21 PM
The liberals’ lament: What’s wrong with Obama?
March 2010
The first week of March has seen a number of commentaries in the American media, mainly from liberal pundits, worrying over the declining public standing of President Obama and the growing signs of disarray in the Democratic Party.
Typical is the column in Sunday’s New York Times by Frank Rich, who writes that the problem facing Obama is that “there is no consistent, clear message to unite all that he is trying to do.”
“Obama needs to articulate a substantive belief system that’s built from his bedrock convictions,” Rich advises. “That he hasn’t done so can be attributed to his ingrained distrust of appearing partisan or, worse, a knee-jerk ‘liberal.’”
Similar laments have come from the Times’ economic columnist Paul Krugman, E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post and other commentators who have deplored the failure of the administration to rally popular support. Dionne warned last month that if Obama and the Democrats continued on the current path, “they’ll be washed out by a tidal wave” in the November congressional elections.
The underlying premise of this opinionating is that Obama heads a progressive administration that suffers from a “communication problem” and is somehow unable to explain the benefits of its policies to the American public.
Obama does not, however, suffer from a failure to communicate. He heads a right-wing, big business administration whose policies and performance are rapidly dispelling the popular illusions that accompanied his runaway election victory only 16 months ago.
Working people have seen the bailout of Wall Street and the continuing slide in jobs and living standards. They understand that when the administration speaks of cutting health care costs, it will be the elderly and the lower-paid who will pay the price. They have heard Obama praise the firing of public school teachers in Rhode Island, while not a banker or speculator has been held accountable for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m09.shtml
March 2010
The first week of March has seen a number of commentaries in the American media, mainly from liberal pundits, worrying over the declining public standing of President Obama and the growing signs of disarray in the Democratic Party.
Typical is the column in Sunday’s New York Times by Frank Rich, who writes that the problem facing Obama is that “there is no consistent, clear message to unite all that he is trying to do.”
“Obama needs to articulate a substantive belief system that’s built from his bedrock convictions,” Rich advises. “That he hasn’t done so can be attributed to his ingrained distrust of appearing partisan or, worse, a knee-jerk ‘liberal.’”
Similar laments have come from the Times’ economic columnist Paul Krugman, E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post and other commentators who have deplored the failure of the administration to rally popular support. Dionne warned last month that if Obama and the Democrats continued on the current path, “they’ll be washed out by a tidal wave” in the November congressional elections.
The underlying premise of this opinionating is that Obama heads a progressive administration that suffers from a “communication problem” and is somehow unable to explain the benefits of its policies to the American public.
Obama does not, however, suffer from a failure to communicate. He heads a right-wing, big business administration whose policies and performance are rapidly dispelling the popular illusions that accompanied his runaway election victory only 16 months ago.
Working people have seen the bailout of Wall Street and the continuing slide in jobs and living standards. They understand that when the administration speaks of cutting health care costs, it will be the elderly and the lower-paid who will pay the price. They have heard Obama praise the firing of public school teachers in Rhode Island, while not a banker or speculator has been held accountable for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pers-m09.shtml