What issues and policy changes should be on Obama's back burner (the B list)?

[bluestateguy]

Obama has made a lot of promises, and that is good, but he can't do everything at once. FDR, LBJ and Reagan methodically set priorities and remained focused on a few issues at a time, and then moved on to the next issue(s). Naturally, some constituent groups did not like being on the B list, instead of the A list.

What interest groups should have to just have a seat, take a number and wait their turn in the Obama Administration?

[democrattotheend]

1. It looks like his A list is the economy, energy, health care, and dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan

And it looks like the stimulus package is his first order of business. Probably everything else will take a back seat for now, and I guess that makes sense. I think he should deal with the broad issues that effect the most people first, and save the stuff that is primarily for specific constituencies until later, especially divisive social issues. And I say this as a member of an interest group that has a wish list. What I want him to do is different from what I would advise him to do if I were one of his advisers.

[patrice]

6. It makes sense to prioritize, so we can see who does what clearly enough for 2010.

If we hope to get ANYTHING done, we MUST change Congress.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. My guess: almost everything I care about will be.

Not likely:
Human rights for everyone - backburner.
Actually ending the war - not so quick.
Rolling back the patriot act - not likely.
Real economic reform - not unless we have real economic collapse.
End the war on drugs - not in my lifetime.

Possible:
some form of universal healthcare
some substantial effort at restructuring the energy infrastructure to support a sustainable economy.
some form of a recommitment to universal higher education.

Likely:
more of the same wrapped differently.

[opihimoimoi]

3. Excellent comments....KnR

[cali]

4. More of the same? That's just so ludicrous

that it's hardly worth having a discussion with someone who thinks Obama's policies are just like bush's only "wrapped differently".

[Warren Stupidity]

7. thanks for your support

perhaps you might have asked why I said that instead of assuming that I must mean that "Obama's policies are just like bush's". Is that the only possible reason why nothing much will change? Could, for example, deadlock in the Senate stalemate all efforts to enact substantial change regardless of Obama's intentions? Is that possible? No of course not. Instead what I must have meant is that all of Obama's policies will be identical to Bush's.

In fairness to your flippant insulting response, many of Obama's policies will in fact be quite similar to Bush's. Consider the stupid bullshit Global War On Terror. Obama has no intention of ending that insanity, no he intends to win this purported war by killing lots more Afghanis. I see that as the same shit sandwich with a new wrapper. I still voted for the guy knowing that. His decision to keep Gates on doesn't bode well for Iraq either. My guess is that he will buy into the current Light at the End of the Tunnel theory and not withdraw within two years, and probably not within his first term.

So what I actually think is that generally where Obama's policies differ little from the current Washington Consensus bullshit, he will have success in implementing those policies, and where his policies differ from the status quo, where they represent significant change, success will be rare at best. As I wrote, health care is perhaps one area where some good might really happen, and that is nothing to sneer at. Obama ran as a centrist in a country that is one of the most rightist democracies on the planet. That makes him a center-right politician. He will not make huge changes. I still voted for him and continue to support his administration.

I freely admit to being a pessimist on these matters. The last two Democratic Presidents gleefully participated in the rightward lurch of our system. If events prove me wrong, it is all good.

[mondo joe]

5. Any investigation into Bush/Cheney misdeeds.