Did you hope you elected an FDR in 2008 and were disappointed to find out you got a Bill Clinton?

[yurbud]

without the sex of course?

Clinton at least had the excuse of dealing with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress for most of his presidency, but like Obama, he started with comfortable Democratic majorities in both houses--and lost them by being a corporate water-carrying stumble-fuck.

Obama has the 60 votes in the Senate Democrats kept saying they needed to get anything done, but so far, it looks like he isn't aiming any higher than being 3% better than the worst president in our history, George W. Bush.

[Brickbat]

1. I heard everyone talking about FDR but never saw him.

[jkshaw]

6. I saw him and I loved him,

as did my family, what was left of it, and as did our neighbors, our entire town in New Jersey. Obama will be as beloved as FDR as many on this board will see in their lifetimes. My only regret is that I most likely won't live long enough to see Obama's leaving the White House in eight years -- in triumph.

[NYC_SKP]

2. This OP manages to smear two popular Democratic Presidents.

Good job. :eyes:

[yurbud]

10. so you just come here to be a cheerleader?

[NYC_SKP]

49. It's my job, Yes. But it doesn't make your poll any less a smear of two popular Dem Presidents. n/t

[JDPriestly]

37. Clinton did some things well, but he really messed up a lot

especially with NAFTA.

[icee2]

3. I voted for FDR and got GW Boosh nt

[imdjh]

4. I voted for FDR, and got a political eunuch

[FiveGoodMen]

5. I voted for Clinton and got Bush

[Mojambo]

7. No. I knew I wasn't voting for an FDR

I did have some hope that I might get something better than Clinton.

Jury's still out on that question.

[WI_DEM]

8. I voted for Obama and got Obama

first, he is probably the most liberal president we have had since LBJ and second, it is too early to say what kind of president he will be. If he gets health care he will be remembered for a landmark domestic achievement and if the economy begins turning around (reasonable to expect by 2012)he will easily be re-elected. Furthermore if he does follow thru on withdrawal from Iraq next year and presents a time line to get out of Afghanistan then he will be remembered for those things too. Another point I would like to make he has already changed the world opinion of us much for the better which I consider a big achievement considering what he inherited.

[CBR]

11. I like your subject line.

Obama isn't FDR, Clinton or LBJ (or W). He is Obama. It is that simple and, on that note, far to early to tell what that means.

[Kaleva]

15. +1

[depakid]

9. I was under no illusions about Obama's center right propensities

having followed his Senate career and read between the lines of what he was saying during the campaign. Did I hope my assessment was wrong? Yep.

Was it? Thus far it hasn't been on a host of issues.

[Brickbat]

13. Yup, that's what I'm seeing.

Well said.

[RoyGBiv]

12. Pathetic ...

I might have more sympathy for this sort of criticism if it approached some level of reality, just a wee bit of historical awareness.

FDR has apparently become a mythological creature.

Roosevelt was not a popular individual at this point in his terms of office. Know what a very poplar phrase for the NRA (National Recovery Administration) was before it was declared unconstitutional in 1935? Never Roosevelt Again.

If you want to do comparisons, do direct ones, and while you're at it contrast the functioning of Congress during both times as well. Then you *might* get something you can put into yet another of these polls.

[WeDidIt]

14. I voted for Barack Obama and got Barack Obama

People need to pay attention to the news and the names on ballots. Neither FDR nor Bill Clinton were on my ballot.

[yurbud]

16. is your sig line a joke?

[WeDidIt]

26. Nope

Kucinich ALWAYS screws teh pooch on the big votes. The one thing I've found I can count on with Kucinich is that if there will be a very important vote that will be close, he'll ALWAYS vote with the Republicans because of some claim about principles. At least with Blue Dogs you'll get their vote every now and then on the big ones.

[yurbud]

27. at least you're honest and don't pretend to be a progressive (apart from Teddy avatar)

[WeDidIt]

31. Which makes Kucinich a pretender because he does claim to be progressive

which he ain't because he voted against the stimuls and against HCR.

[yurbud]

32. so a faker would stand up against the Bush administration while all the Blue Dogs were still

sieg heiling?

[Kid Dynamite]

45. So Progressive = Party Line Dem?

It seems you are using your own peculiar definitions

Neither the stimulus or HCR are progressive

[Blue_In_AK]

17. I knew we weren't electing FDR.

I deliberately kept my expectations to a minimum. Obama was not my first choice, or even second. He's leading about how I thought he would.

[morgan2]

18. knew he was a Clinton and didn't vote..

[arcadian]

19. I didn't vote.

Voting is a sham.

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. I polled 'too early'.

I had no illusions about him being FDR - hell, most the time FDR wasn't FDR - but did hope he would be somewhat better than Clinton, and so far he seems to be with his efforts at restraining K street excesses.

I still hope he is just playing it cagey on several fronts until he gets healthcare done and the economy rolling again, but am quite disappointed that he is so acquiescent to the big money. Even there, though, I'm not qualified to comment - my financial expertise ends with balancing my checkbook.

[gleaner]

21. I chose option 1 .....

I voted for the kind of sweeping changes that FDR made to pull this country out of a major depression, which seems to be the way we are heading. I don't remember FDR, but he left a history of progressive change and restoration.

I don't even know if we got Clinton this time. Clinton telegraphed a moderate, conservative lite course and that is what he did. Obama offered something better than that but he has not delivered. We are more or less stagnating and it might get a lot worse before it gets better.

[Chorophyll]

22. I never thought he'd be an FDR.

That said, he hasn't even been in office for a year yet. He inherited a shit-load of trouble that can't be fixed overnight. Let's see what happens -- and let's not be shy about letting him know what we want.

[rucky]

23. I voted for not John McCain

and got not John McCain.

If this is going to be another Clinton presidency, I demand more sex.

[Soylent Brice]

25. agreed on all points.

[notesdev]

24. Clinton came off more as a Jack Kennedy than a FDR type

[MerryBlooms]

28. I voted for Obama and received Obama

I don't understand the 'get everything done yesterday or else ...', crowd - I'm beginning to think some people elected him for a 6 month term.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. He pulls in the wrong direction every time and you think all he needs is more time?

Maybe if he goes to the right for long enough he'll circle the globe and wind up on the left?

[MerryBlooms]

34. Not exactly

I feel he's trying to represent the entirety of our country - the left, right and centrists. He was elected to represent us all, unlike the last administration who only represented the right. Whether we like it or not, we're not all left leaning and I've always believed we all deserve to be taken into consideration - no matter who is our President.

The last administration didn't take into account our nation as a whole - we on the left were basically silenced and demonized, that was wrong, I think this administration is trying very hard not to make that same mistake. We may not agree with the other side, but they exist and we can't ignore that, nor should we. I don't expect President Obama to straighten out eight years of fuck-up in less than one year. How long will it take? I'm not sure, but I'm not willing to condemn him just yet.

[FiveGoodMen]

35. I don't WANT him representing the Tea Baggers.

Crazy doesn't deserve a voice in government.

[MerryBlooms]

36. I don't either

but it's not my choice who exists and who doesn't. Like it or not, we're all in this mess together. I'm thankful each day Michele Bachmann belongs to Minnesota's 6th district - I can't imagine being so far around the bend to vote for that piece a work.

Things may not be progressing as I'd like right now, but there's no way I'll NOT fight to keep Dems in the majority. I'd love to see more Bernie Sanders' elected. Sanders represents my beliefs more than any other elected official. Thank you Vermont.

[pampango]

39. Well said. And welcome to DU. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

55. Hyperbolic Nonsense

While i'm impatient for more assertive action, not getting exactly what I want is not the same as pulling in the wrong direction.

This constant demand for ideological purity in the face of political reality is tiresome.
GAC

[Raine]

30. I wanted FDR ... I'm getting more Bush nt

[L0oniX]

33. FDR? We don't need no stinking FDR. We need to end the corporate control.

[Kid Dynamite]

43. If you believe that

you can't possibly believe it matters how is elected President..since POTUS is pretty much the epitome of coporate control..

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. Clinton? No, I voted for a possible Bill Clinton and got Tony Blair

:grr:

I never expected an FDR-like personality from Obama.

[Kid Dynamite]

44. How "Left" of you

Seriously, if that was your opinion Lydia LEFTCoast..why did you vote for him in the first place?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. Because the Republicans were downright crazy

but I'm not going to let that scare me anymore.

[VMI Dem]

40. I voted for "not John McCain".

The jury is still out.

[branders seine]

41. Obama is no Bill Clinton

[Marr]

42. C'mon-- everyone should've known Obama was a corporate Dem the moment

the corporate media started praising him after the 2004 Democratic Convention. Remember that? There was one unified opinion in our media that Obama was the Democrats' big new star-- completely out of the blue.

Anyone could see the Republicans were riding themselves out of power, and any Democrat being praised by our corporate press had to be a fellow stooge. I voted for Obama, but I knew what he was. Everyone should've known he wasn't FDR.

[WonderGrunion]

47. I didn't vote for Obama to intern the Japanese

Even FDR isn't FDR.

[yurbud]

50. I didn't vote for Bill Clinton to give away the media to the far right and sign NAFTA

[defendandprotect]

53. "You can only really be betrayed by those closest to you" . . .

which is why the co-opting of the Democratic Party by corporations makes so

much sense -- !!

[yurbud]

57. Clinton, ''I feel yur pain (cuz I'm still holding onto the knife in yur back)''

[jpak]

48. What a stupid post

:puke:

After 8 years of Bush and Cheney, there are DUers that bash a Democratic President and Congress?

pathetic

[TexasObserver]

51. I voted for Bill Clinton and got Herbert Hoover.

FDR? Get real. The president had FDR's opportunity, but he blew it, and he's still blowing it.

I'm comparing him to HH because he had a chance to do so much, and he's done so little with it.

He's so worried about being the great mediator that he completely loses sight of the fact that the GOP is never going to be reasonable. You kick them in the nuts, then you do it again. Rinse and repeat.

[yurbud]

58. ouch! yep and since the GOP is a rotting corpse, it's really their corporate patrons he's

compromising with. But like the Terminator, they will never stop, will see every compromise as a temporary setback that they work immediately to undo.

That is why radical action on health care and other issues is needed. If we had single payer health insurance or at a minimum, a strong public option anyone could choose, they would not be able to undo that anymore than they could undo Medicare or Social Security.

[defendandprotect]

52. K&R . . . but didn't vote . .. I knew who I was voting for, but still disappointed . . .

because I continued to hope.

[deutsey]

54. I'm not surprised so far but I'm disappointed nonetheless n/t

[nemo137]

56. I voted for a candidate I was sometimes frustrated with

and, hey, that's what I got. I'm baffled by the all-or-nothing attitude about the president.

[Javaman]

59. I voted for Obama because he was the dem nominee.

I never ever expected an FDR nor a Lincoln or even a Truman, but what I certainly didn't expect was him to turn into another LBJ.

We no longer live in a time of FDR's. They don't exist anymore, at least on the national stage. All the FDR's are too idealistic and too smart to get involved in the shark tank of politics.

Besides, our political process has been completely neutered by lobbyists and corporations.

We are so far down the rabbit hole that anything resembling the concept of government by the people for the people has indeed vanished from this earth.

[shotten99]

60. That's it. Keep crucifying him. McCain would have been better!

Jesus fucking Christ. It's not going to be a utopia. It could always be better, but give me a break.
If people keep kicking Obama in the nuts, we'll end up with a GOP Congress that would do hair brained shit
like impeach him for not staying the course from Bush's policies. Get it together. Really...