A reader writes:
I find myself infuriated by your reader who reports great discouragement on the part of some 2008 Obama supporters who have discovered, to their horror, that politics is hard and that one victory in a presidential election does not make a sea change in a political system. OF COURSE this is discouraging. But I am horrified by a President Romney (without any principles but his own power) or the ignorance of a President Palin. These discouraged 2008 voters would, because President Obama is not able to immediately cure a dysfunctional system, abandon our political system to the Tea Party and the current faith-based (in a bad sense) Republican party?
I am not enthusiastic about President Obama. I wish he were more confrontational, but I can't abandon my country to the sort of bullies that have been revealed in this debate. If we don't fight for this President (or for another candidate of reason and common sense), than the toxic know-nothingness will have been rewarded! Do we really want to abandon the future of this country to the sort of politics that would inevitably follow such a triumph of non-empirical and tribal political brinksmanship?
Obama is not a savior. He is not a magician who can magically cause change. But we are adults here, and if we don't fight for a saner group of elected officials, we deserve the misrule that will follow with a President Palin.
The core point is that if you want to disempower the extremists, becoming one is not a long-term option. What Obama is trying to do is represent reason in an age of emotion. The minute he stops doing that will be the moment the Palinites win. Until then, the fight continues. And it maddens me to see so many liberals walk off in a huff. Another writes:
They call him weak, YET he defeated the Clinton Machine (remember she was the frontrunner for a lonnnnng time) …
They call him weak, YET, within his presidential powers and influence, he with the help of then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Leader Harry Reid. got major, HISTORIC legislation passed from Lily Ledbetter to Healthcare to DADT to too many others to have to keep repeating to prove this man is competent and serious …
They call him weak, YET, while the GOP was crowing he was too weak to handle a hostage situation with Somali pirates, he had already sent over a team to get the remaining hostage and gave the order to shoot to kill …
They call him weak, YET, he found and took out bin Laden …
They call him weak, YET, he's been the one Democratic president to break the GOP's one-stop messaging that has been prevalent for over 30 years …
They call him weak, YET, he predicted that he'd have this debt ceiling situation handled by the deadline – and by the end of tonight it will be.
If this is him being "weak", I'll take his "weak" over Bush and Cheney's faux-style of strength any day …
The Dish 