The Overwhelmingly Unreasonable Expectations of Great Expectations (Rants)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 8:00AM 
So everybody's mad at Obama, right?
The Great Hopemonger isn't moving fast enough. We aren't getting it like we want it when we want it and we want it right now -- Veruca Salt-style. We want the world. We want the whole world. We want today and we want tomorrow. We want it now. Health care? Gimmie that shit. Ending "Don't Ask Don't Tell?" What's the hold up? Gitmo? You're ruining my personal life while keeping me professionally in bidness, dawg. The economy? It's all kinds of effed up. Two wars and you got the Nobel Prize, son? Folks are confused. And everyone all day, every day, "What happened to that hope with a side o' change I ordered?" "He's drifting towards Bush!"
Um. Can we hit rewind repeat on that?
Let's face it, 2009 was a weird, sucky year. But, best believe it, it was a weird, sucky year for the President too. All he did was inherit a nightmare, put his name on it, claim it and say "I got this," then watch the world burn. And he could sing "We Didn't Start the Fire" and bang on that piano as much as he'd like, but his poll numbers reflected those acres of hope ablaze as people watched their livelihoods turn ascinder.
Now before we begin impeachment proceedings I have two words for you: President McCain.
Yeah. OK. I'll be honest. I'm disappointed. I wanted someone to exact some vengence for the last eight years of fucked-upped-ness. I wanted a warrior king or queen to wreck shop, toss folks around, kill 'em all (politically) and let God sort them out. But I didn't elect Hillary Clinton, the second most vindicitive person in politics to be president. I voted for Barack Obama -- The Great Hopemongerer, Mister Go Along to Get Along Bipartisanship, let's be level-headed about this shit and rational. I voted for the grown-up. The diplomat. Mr. Maturity. I voted for someone who wasn't ruled by their ego and would legislate with a level head. And let's face it, it's not like Congress, despite being a so-called "Democratic Majority" has been extra helpful in getting Obama to meet his lofty goals.
I never, ever understand why any Republican would get out of sorts over Democrats. Nine times out of 10 these euridite beasts of burdeon will fuck themselves. All the Republicans really have to do is sit back and watch the Democrats commit ritualistic, political suicide on themselves as they abandon principle and pride the minute someone says "boo." The days of the LBJ shit-kicker are over. The last Democrat anyone was afraid of was Bill Clinton and he was done in by his own overly exploratory, chubby-lovin' dick. You don't have to run opposition research, have an organized strategy or even make a lick of fucking sense. Just let the circular firing squad get to going and the Democrats will rush to fall on their own swords out of ass-covering and push-polling.
And I say this as someone who has only voted for one Republican, once, in my entire life -- the Governator himself, who, outside of California, would be loudly called a RINO to his face -- Republican In Name Only. I, like a lot of people, are stuck with this sorry sack of silliness because the alternative is Michale Steele and the Dancing Honest Injuns. Re: My earlier point -- President McCain.
At the end of the day, when the dust settles, when the pundits shadditup, curl up in their rompers and take a siesta, Obama's still the best friend a progressive/liberal/moderate has. Really. I know. It sounds crazy. It's not. At the end of the day, Obama wants to close Gitmo. He wants to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He wants to help the Middle Class and the poor. He wants health care for all. He wants to end both wars. He wants what we want. It's just not that easy, not that simple to get it.
You can be mad at Obama. You can critique Obama. You can light a fire under his ass, but don't act like you'd be better off under an administration that wasn't even operating under a moderate-to-progressive platform. The Tea Baggers aren't calling him Hitler for the hell of it. Change is in the air. Change is coming. You just can't expect it to show up in a year.
Shit. All Bill Clinton did was claim folks in a public setting and they were ready to ride or die for him. While I don't give this advice in dating, selecting sexual partners, business partners or deciding which store to shop from -- give a brother a chance.
Remember the alternative. Save the hysterics for 2012.
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Reader Comments (36)
Exactly. I also don't understand why people are surprised that we're in Afghanistan and that he isn't as far left as people thought he was. If anyone listened during the campaign, he never pretended to be against war in Afghanistan and he always warned that change "would not come right away." As soon as he wanted to do something drastic (healthcare), people didn't act like they actually wanted it. I'm not saying I agree with everything Obama does, but I'm not surprised about anything either.
that's the nature of american society. everyone has always been like this, including the posters on this blog. so why get mad at people having high quick expectations now? and gitmo's still open over a year after he "promised" to close it. i bet there are people who think we'd be better off with mccain. but that's why people are conservatives and others are liberals. both sides of the coin think they're the best for american society.
I needed that. It's where I'm at for the most part, except for the "transparency and accountability" no show. Honestly, I'm not a bit shocked by the past year but am personally disappointed by the lack of transparency and accountability that I voted and campaigned for.
Also remember that every single second that guy is in office he's a symbol of Change. He's Black. His wife's Black. His girls are Black. People have gotten over this so quickly but it affects the world and it does heal part of a huge wound America drags with it into the future. Every black kid on the planet has a new hope, a new level of achievement to strive for.
And every child of a racist, right wing family will look at him every day on the news and will have to have a different consciousness about black people. The stereotypes of that child's parents can't possibly be as strong in the child with Obama in office.
So if he achieves nothing, he's already changed the world. He's inspired us and made all of us rejoice in Possibility. That's why he got the Peace Prize. He did that before even setting foot in the oval office.
Don't lose the HOPE people- or the bad guys win.
WE LOVE Rev Wright - Wink!!!
Danielle:
Thank you for keeping it real. What I’ve noticed from January 2008 until now, so many Americans have projected onto President Obama ideals that he was, ahem, “the great liberator” from our political Egypt, i.e. the Bush years. Progressives and independents collective disappointment should not be from the lack of accomplishments during Obama’s first year; rather, it should be that they even THOUGHT that someone who inhales and exhales the same O2 and CO2 that we do, could, in one fell swoop, rectify over three decades of Reaganomics, Clintonomics, Cheneyonomics, and failed foreign policy. If he could get that done in 365 days, then I have a bridge in Mojave Desert that I would like to sell.
President Obama’s not Jesus Christ, so progressives need to stop looking for the holes in his hands.
Good points! As far as transparency, wouldn't you think 2009 was more than enough, albeit unofficial? I don't need it on a silver platter when there's a buffet stocked up!
Hear hear.
Obama ran on the twin mantras of hope and change. He hasn't delivered either, so I guess he is a victim of his own rhetoric. Either that, or it is still all Bush's fault.
well said, welcome back snob!
people want a miracle.. yet they want everything to remain how they want it.
Why excuse Obama for making promises he either wouldn't or couldn't keep?
The essential argument of this post is that "the other guy (McCain) would have been worse." I'm sorry but that weak argument doesn't fly anymore. It's an indictment of our two-party system that we only have a choice between a) a party that is totally dominated by big corporations (republicans) or b) a party almost totally dominated by big corporations (Democrats). I always thought Obama was overrated. It wasn't his fault, of course. The voters were so eager for change from republicans that the Democrats could have nominated an old, mangy yellow dog and he would have beat McCain. Obama's style is to get everyone to personally like him which is foolish when you see that the rightwingers are going to call him a NAZIS socialist no matter how much compromise Obama and the Democrats make with them.
Copy and paste this link to a Frontline documentary of how Obama became Harvard Law Review president
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5m6YFBcixo
It's very interesting and shows how Obama is most comfortable around conservatives. I'm not complaining about how the economy hasn't rebounded yet. I don't hold that against Obama. My problem with him are specific legislative proposals or lack thereof that he has made. His lack of leadership during Health care reform. His opposition to reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada. The deal he cut with the pharmacuetical industry in exchange for Medicare not negotiating prices for drugs. That silly gimmicky proposal to freeze the budget except for defense spending sounds like something Ronald Reagan would have done. And he has surrounded himself with Wall Street insiders like Geithner who helped create this mess. I'm sorry to say it but Obama is just another corporate, triangulating Democrat like Bill Clinton. He's losing his base and there's a good chance he's going to lose reelection if he doesn't do more to differentiate himself and from republicans.
You're right Scott. No politician ever in the history of the world has ever over promised. Read my lips, NO NEW TAXES!
HULawyer, I see your side and Danielle's side. I am torn. We will never have a progressive President as long as we have this political system. All of this two-party, first past the post electioneering really needs to go if we are ever going to get real change.
Great post!
You know I also find it hard to believe those that drank the 2008 election kool-aid still don't get it.
Our country didn't arrive at it's current condition overnight. It has taken a little over 500 years and that kind of history can not be undone in 365 days.
I laugh at how everyone is expecting President Obama, the magical Negro, to descend from Mt. Save Black People with his Harry Potter wand and *poof* we live in a post-racial, post-feminist, benefits for all America, where we get to eat our cake. Are you kidding me?
The kind of change that President Obama promised is going to take decades to realize and quite frankly a dictatorship, not democracy, might be needed to really pull it all off.
In the meantime, we need to stop pinning our hopes and dreams on 1 man. After all he is just a man.
@ Lisa. You're right. We need to get private money out of elections. That's the fundamental problem. Obama got a lot of money from people who work in the pharmaceutical industry. We need public financing of federal elections so that they only thing a pol needs to worry about is how many votes he/she will get due to policies he/she has supported. With the recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to directly spend money on the election or defeat of a candidate, this country is falling further into the control of corporations.
Lisa J:
Bush 1 didn't keep his word and was voted out. I can only hope the same things happen to Obama. However, from some of the comments here he can say whatever he wants and folks will still support him. Are Repubs the only ones expected to keep their campaign promises?
"In the meantime, we need to stop pinning our hopes and dreams on 1 man. After all he is just a man."
Divalive basically sums it up. When the Obama campaign started to pick up momentum, I knew he would be in trouble. People were too engrossed and not looking at things realistically, basically they were love drunk. Now the butterflies in the stomach are gone and reality has set in. Ain't that many things changed since 2007, we're still in a 'rut'.
But I'm not mad at Obama. He can only do so much. And the partisan ways of our political system doesn’t allow for much change, so what do people expect the man to do?
I just find it amazing that people expect 1 year to erase EIGHT. I don't even read the bs ... I will make up my mind after his FOUR years, to see if I like what he has done.
This is probably a dumb question, but why is Hillary the second most vindictive person in politics? Good post.
@ Tara
There is no such thing as a dumb question. That was just be being cute. You could argue that she is the most vindictive, but I think there are some folks who would out do her. Like say, Tom DeLay, who put the fear in his fellow Republican House members who hated dealing with him. Bill Clinton, her hubby, is pretty vindictive. So is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Sarah Palin is doing battle with a 19 year old, which shows she can hold a grudge like mad. But at the end of the day, the most vindictive person in politics will ALWAYS be the dead corpse of Richard M. Nixon. That mofo never forgave, never forgot.
http://www.commondreams.org/print/51968
I see scott is here with his Republican victim complex. What was that bit Bush II claimed about restoring moral order and being a man of the people?
Thank You! You said all that needs to be said.