Wojtek
^^^^^
> Commentary: Will 'SNL' skit sink hopes for Obama?
>
> By Ed Rollins
> CNN Senior Political Contributor
> Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is
> senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the
> American Presidency at Hofstra University. He was White House
> political director for President Reagan and chairman of the National
> Republican Congressional Committee.
>
> NEW YORK (CNN) -- Since its debut on October 11, 1975, "Saturday Night
> Live" has spoofed, ridiculed and hammered presidents and other
> political figures without regard to political affiliation or any other
> sensitivities.
>
> The perfect parroting of Sarah Palin after her vice president
> nomination, by the immensely talented Tina Fey, started the downward
> spiraling of the governor. People started looking at her in a
> different light, and she was judged as a less serious candidate.
>
> Saturday's skit portraying President Obama as a man who made a lot of
> promises and hasn't been able to fulfill many -- if any -- has been
> analyzed over and over with a constant rerun of the "SNL" clip.
>
> In the comedy skit, the president is asked about unrealized campaign
> promises, including closing Gitmo, combating global warming, allowing
> openly gay people to serve in the military, withdrawing from Iraq,
> improving the status of the fight in Afghanistan, reforming health
> care and several others. On screen the response on a check list was:
> that each item was "not done."
^^^^^^^^ CB: My sense is that the reports of O's political demise are greatly exaggerated and laughably pre-mature.
These statements by Rollins and others, after 9 months of O's administration, are suspiciously hasty: as if O promised that the whole "list" would be accomplished in his first 9 months in office ! It seems ,shall we say, discriminatory that Obama is held by so many to a ridiculously strict and impatient standard that I can't remember any previous President being held to. What are the motives and consciousnesses of these people, just about all white, demanding that he do this impossible task, which nobody with any sense would expect him to do ? Do these people think that most Black people don't notice this disparate treatment of the first Black President ?
Which segues to : particularly on civil rights and anti-racism , the pronouncements that Obama's campaign was not of high quality, nor that he has not done any thing significantly in his short time in office are obvious half-truths and lies. I want to say who do y'all think y'all's explaining racism to ? His speech on race in Philadelphia during the campaign was , fyi, historic and quite correct. In just nine months he has signed a Pay Equity Act (! ) Hello, do these people know how long this has been at the top of left and working class feminists' agenda ? wake the hell up; his Attorney General has announced a major shift in policy to traditional civil rights litigation; he appointed the first Hispanic woman to the US Supreme Court; he has added an office of Urban Policy to the adminstration ( "urban" is now a political synonym for Black; you know like "urban radio") Has any President except Lincoln or Johnson done anything comparable on civil rights after just nine months in office ? Not that I recall. And what specifically are all these "radical anti-racist" white people demanding a President is supposed to do on civil rights in 2009 ? Veteran anti-racist _activists_ like me are asking you ( and who the hell do you think you are foolin' ? smile). I've been criticizing discussions on racism on this list for years , and suddenly all this posturing as if to the left of Obama on racism !!!. Guess what . You are not to the left of Obama on racism. And hangin' out with BAR , Reed et al. is not getting you there. Give me a motherfucking break.
I can tell you one thing, Wojtek, in 2012 Obama is very likely to garner a majority vote from the number one expert judges of anybody's civil rights/ anti-racist record - women and People of Color.
Other issues: a whole lot of members of the working class around here support the bailout of the auto industry; and things are pretty quiet from the anti-O chattering class about the winding down Iraq war front. It's real cute trying to act like his plan for ending the war in Iraq is a nothing. We'll see how many people are pissed and how many like the health care law. He still supports employee free choice. Excuse me that he hasn't been able to do it in 9 months; I realize he was supposed to bring socialism in these 9 months, but you know.... He spoke at the AFL-CIO convention. When was the last Pres to do that ? Stopping the Bush Star Wars plan is , as James H. said, an unalloyed good. He also declared for nuclear disarmament, something I think no President has done since Kennedy at least I can't remember the last time. Stem cell research is "freed" to save and cure lives an extraordinary advance; Bush should be put in jail for that delay alone. O increased unemployment benefits. I benefitted from that myself, and may again. There are thousands of Detroiters getting stimulus money for home repairs many of whom I have talked to directly on the telephone or know personally. That its not enough is the Republican and right Dems' fault , not Obama's. The State of Michigan got about $ 500 million for its bankrupt situation , too. That saves a lot of jobs and services.
And that ain't all.
Sorry, Obama has approximaely zero responsibility for the unemployment rate being huge. Even if ignorance blames him, there is lots of time for that to fall by the objective processes.
This doesn't even cover all the evil shit McCain would have done that has not happened. Of course, that's speculative. But it is certain that there about five to ten things there that are a blessing by their absence. Bush or McCain would have been avidly supporting the coup in Honduras. Obama has said the elections will not be recognized if under the current regime.
I don't like paying off Wall Street and the healthcare monsters, but get real. They are _the_ ruling class, and it's quite a big lie to claim that Obama promised he would overthrow them. And Obama makes monotonic, emotionaless declarations in support of "the market" not heartfelt ones like the Reaganites.
Pretty funny declaring O to the right of liberals. I guess people have forgotten what a liberal is. He looks a lot like a 20th Century liberal, which is to the left of all Presidents for the last 30 years. He has all the signs of breaking with neo-liberalism. That's why the right is redbaiting him as a socialist.