Your reply contains a collection of links that is, at best, tangentially related to what is stated in Greenwald's article and is not even related to my points. Some of your links are to your own posts. Some of your links are duplicated within your posts. ProSense, thanks for providing them, but maybe you should address the post instead of addressing your fantasy of what the post contained.
NEVERTHELESS:
President Obama has utterly failed at messaging and defining a core set of Democratic policies. Some of the chief progressive (originally: Democratic) policy aims are: human rights, education, social welfare, fiscal responsibility and health care.
In each of these, his lack of articulation of a clear and forceful message to the opposition has hurt the Democrats. Mostly, your links bring up bureaucratic issues that are much less than what is expected of President Obama. In weighing what President Obama has accomplished, one should recall the latter part of Luke 12:48 - "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A48&version=KJV) It is not legitimate to pretend that he was not given a great advantage in the results of the 2008 elections.
By categories:
Human rights is a fail on messaging and policy: President Obama appointed a milquetoast who has neither prosecuted those who illegally invaded Iraq nor prosecuted those who ordered torture. Instead, his appointee has swept it under the rug, so that it may be brought out again the next time a Republican president is in office. I cannot defend President Obama this choice.
Education is a fail since it seems destined to be corporatized at the hands of President Obama's appointee, Arne Duncan. I cannot defend his position on this choice, either.
Social welfare programs seem to be heading towards cuts that, if President Obama had any political foresight, would never have been needed. In fact, the whole debt crisis is one that has been manufactured by the Republicans. President Obama has accepted their messaging as valid and has run with it. More is to be expected of him.
Fiscal responsibility is a fail. The banks have gotten away with their ill-gotten gains. This point will be the hardest one to explain to an independent voter. Why have there been no prosecutions of those who have destroyed the economy, and why have they been allowed to profit by its destruction? Appointing Elizabeth Warren would have been a minor victory compared to actually taking the banks to task over their malfeasance, but President Obama could neither muster the fortitude necessary to appoint her nor to challenge the banks openly and strongly.
Health care is, sadly, also a fail. Single payer health care was taken off the table by President Obama, so that he could make a deal with the pharmaceutical companies. Everyone deserves access to health care. Instead of being strong, President Obama let Senator "They're-Gonna-Pull-The-Plug-On-Grandma!" Grassley et al. dictate the message. Thus, the message shifted to health insurance for all instead of health care for all.
So, is President Obama a weak, ill-focused, worthless politician or does he not share core Democratic (recently rebranded as progressive) values with his base? As stated before, he is neither weak nor incompetent. He just does not share core convictions with the people who have been variously known as Democratic, liberal or progressive and who are a significant and important part of his base, and, therefore, he will never fight for any of these important policy choices.
Though I will likely vote for him due to having no other choice, it will be a cold day in hell before I give his campaign either my time or my money again.