“Change we wanted to believe in feels like more of the same”

[unixronin]

Politico.com says the left is starting to sour on Obama, reporting that “A few, like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, have even hurled the left’s ultimate epithet – suggesting that Obama’s turning into George W. Bush.”

A growing number of organizations, bloggers and pundits, many of whom kept quiet about slights in Obama’s first few months, are now going public with their disillusionment.

“On torture, change we wanted to believe in feels like more of the same,” the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement Friday.

“I have a sickeningly familiar feeling in my stomach, and the feeling deepens with every interaction with the Obama team on [gay] issues. They want them to go away. They want us to go away,” the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan wrote last week, dismissing Obama’s pledge to end the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy as “toilet paper.”

Apparently one of the candidates under consideration for the SCOTUS nomination is Jim Corney, a deputy AG in the Bush administration Justice Department. Obama aides say he would be “a viable choice because he stood up to the White House over wiretapping and criticized what he saw as efforts to politicize the Justice Department.”

Hey ... maybe if he stood up to Bush over wiretapping, he might stand up to Obama over wiretapping too. Sounds like a win to me.

The article makes interesting reading though. Frankly, it sounds like for an increasing number of the left, the honeymoon is over, and the new Emperor’s new clothes are starting to look a little shabby and thin.

Michael Meyers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition said many Obama supporters (with support from voices on the right) built him up to be more of a liberal icon than his public speeches and writings ever justified.

“They invested in Obama everything they wanted the next president to be. They thought, ‘He’s black, liberal, anti-Iraq War… urban, young.’ He was all of that and smart and he went to a radical church. They just knew,” Meyers said. “They exaggerated him. They saw him as a messiah. No president is a messiah.”

Got that? “No president is a messiah.” And any Presidential hopeful who tells you he is a Messiah (or hints at it) is a liar. A mandate from God is not a qualification for the Presidency. The oath of office doesn’t say anything about being a messiah. It’s all about upholding and defending the Constitution and faithfully executing the duties and responsibilities of the President.

Comments

[merlinpendragon]

There were a lot of people who were duped by wishful thinking, but (think all the gods & goddesses) it is beginning to look like he's going to have trouble hanging on to enough votes to gain re-election. How many days left?

[ithildae]

There is little political resiliency from either side anymore. We are a microwave society, and we want all our pet causes worked on right now. I think President Obama has more patience than his constituents. He is working on a four year time table, not four months. He also is picking his priorities very carefully,, too many initiatives before congress allow the Republicans to nitpick all of them, and nothing he really wants will get sent to him. He also knows that unless the economy gets better, fast, he will be on the defensive for the rest of this term, and he won't get another. That kind of focuses the mind.

[writerspleasure.livejournal.com]

i wonder who was saying all this before he was elected?

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

There is a chasm between the leaders we need and the leaders we want. I think this most recent election is proving the wisdom of that old saw.

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhat amazed by the utter inability of otherwise very intelligent and critically thinking liberal friends of mine to grasp the simple concept that There Are No Sudden Twists Or Turns During The Empire's Death Throes.

There is a very finite amount of "change" that can be allowed for America at this stage, as our power gradually and inevitably recedes on the world stage. Everyone goes down fighting, and there's only so much 'out of the box' thinking a drowning man can afford. He's more concerned with self-preservation.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Usually, the president get voted in by people firmly at one political wing or another, but then has to govern from the center to get anything done.

In the US, these wings are far from the center. I have yet to get my mind around the essence of this divide ...

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

unpleasant consequence of two party winner takes all voting systems. no room for middle ground.

[msa.livejournal.com]

Well, they sold their soul and pretended they had some party unity to win an election.... the fiction that is Dem party unity is painfully obvious again.

An election they could have won easily with a better candidate, and with open, honest, and thorough vetting of that candidate.

Instead, just to make sure, they went out of their way to buy that election and paper over any issues with their selection. The media went along, and failed to do its job and ask the hard questions.

Frankly, I have no sympathy for them now. They failed to do their due diligence, and now they can go to the White House with the candidate they have, rather than the candidate they wanted. Or something like that.

Meet the new boss, same as the old... wiretapping, civil rights, Gitmo... they've stayed the course.