====Obama certainly wasn't going to win the Republicans - that was and is his illusion - but he had the goodwill and support of his party and the non-aligned to build on. Political opinion was changing, as the congressional and presidential elections and polls confirmed, in reaction to the financial and housing crises, growing inequality, and unpopular wars abroad, all of which were identified with the Bush administration and, increasingly, the legacy of Reaganism.
I simply outlined above what Obama had promised during the campaign - improved unemployment and other benefits for the working class, including card check, as well as major public investments in infrastructure, social services, and alternative energy. It was not "wishful thinking...an "inaccurate assessment of what was possible" by Obama and his advisors if they genuinely wished to fight for it. Bourgeois democracy in crisis is capable of deeper than usual reform as the New Deal, which served as a model for the incoming administration, demonstrated. Was this not also your view at the time?
^^^^ CB: No. I don't agree that what you outlined was what Obama promised during the campaign. He didn't campaign that far left. Wish he had, but he didn't. I did not assess him as a social democratic candidate. It would have been patently dillusionary to be seeking "bipartisan" Congressional support for a social democratic program. It would have been dillusionary to seek majority Democratic support for a social democratic program in the US 2008-9. We just barely stopped and got a toe out of Reaganism.
By the way, GM was put through bankruptcy, and the CEO was fired. Even the Detroit Free Press had headlines complaining about the unequal treatment with the Wall Street rulers.
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On the other hand, Obama never indicated that he would continue the Bush-Paulson program of bank bailouts. Summers had, in fact, written op-ed pieces strongly critical of that approach. When the administration continued the policy, it was not only a large part of the left which opposed it but a bevy of economists, former regulators, and financial journalists who had immpecable mainstream credentials.
^^^^ CB: He voted for the bailouts in the Senate.
What did Summers say ?
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