[WS:] I do not think there is a contradiction between these two positions.
The reality on the ground is that austerity measures are in the pipes, because they are in the interests of the ever powerful capitalist class.
Expectation that they can be defeated if fought is unrealistic.
On a second thought, however, I realize that Obama is likely to lose in 2012. With that in mind, I think it would be more honorable for him to pick up a fight and be remembered as someone who took a stand and lost (like in the film "Glory,") instead of falling into oblivion as a weak one-term president.
As to your second point about strikes etc. - I think these are the weapons of the past that today lost any tooth. Engaging in them is purely symbolic and ceremonial - like the military men displaying swords, daggers, and bayonets on parades. What is tragicomic about it is that nobody expects the military to fight wars with these ceremonial weapons of the past, yet few if any expect the working class to fight modern class warfare with anything but these ceremonial weapons of the past.
As I said time and again on this list, the state is the best weapon against capital that the working class has ever had, but that weapon is like Excalibur - it must be first freed from a stone. There is a small chance that it may happen in Europe or in Latin America, but it is highly unlikely that it will happen here.
So my refusal to bash Obama presidency has more to do with my refusal to play the main American blood sport - bashing the government - than "embracing Obama administration." I can understand lefties engaging in such a rhetoric in countries like, say, Germany or Russia, but not here.
It reminds me, btw, of an old Soviet joke. An American and a Russian meet at a bar and start bragging how good their own countries are. The American says "In my country, I can go in front of the White House with a sign denouncing the president of the United States, and nothing will happen to me. That is true democracy." The Russian replies "Big fucking deal. In my country, I too can go in front of the Kremlin with a sign denouncing the president of the United States and nothing will happen to me either."
Wojtek