Happy Birthday, Mr. President

[garthranzz]

Dear President Obama,

A birthday is a day of reflection and the in-gathering of spiritual energies. It presents a unique moment for analysis and accounting - strengths as well as weaknesses. It is a day of reconciliation, summation and beginning.

I wish you a happy birthday, a day prescient of accomplishments material and spiritual, a day of deeds that improve lives, not just on a grand far-off scale, but moment to moment and need to need, and a day of words that more than they inspire express the principles enacted in those deeds. And may such a day be a new inauguration.

May you have a long life, of health and joy with your family.

That said, I am so disappointed in how you handled the extortion and blackmail from extremists and, to quote VP Biden's accurate depiction, "terrorists," that I can not attend your party. I have actively supported & defended you, even when your leadership faltered against the onslaught. Silence is also a rhetoric. I will vote for you again, but this time reluctantly and with much less enthusiasm. You have allowed the enemies of democracy - not just the principles of the Democratic Party, but of our system of governance - to frame the debate.

I cried tears of joy when you were elected; I understood the challenges. The line may be thin between conviction, compromise and cowardice, but the line is there. I want you to know how painful these last two paragraphs have been to write. On a birthday, presents and blessings are exchanged. My blessing for you, President Obama, is that you be granted the strength to reassure us, the strength to fulfill your promises, the strength to say "no" to the ruinous Republican frame, without rancor but still "no." My blessing to you is the wisdom to express conviction without compromise, and to compromise without cowardice.

My present is my vote and my thanks.

[rury]

1. I accidentally recced this...meant to unrec

For falsely calling the president a coward.

[Kolesar]

2. I'm on it...eom

-1

[garthranzz]

3. An act of cowardice does NOT make one a coward

Read more carefully. We have all committed such acts, and mistaken compromise for cowardice.

I refer you to the Clinton/Gingrich government shutdown, among other examples of brinksmanship.

President Obama had other options at his disposal.

Further, if you accept the premise that the Republicans used extortion and blackmail to get their way, what do you call giving in to the demands of such terrorists?

(Edited: left out a critical word in the title.)

[one_voice]

4. Can we at least give him his birthday?...

Can you just say happy birthday? One day...you have 364 other days to lecture, call names, tell him how he ruined your life etc. Just one day reprieve is that too much to ask...

Apparently...

[dennis4868]

5. here's a good read...

I posted this already but I will put it here because the things the original poster said:

http://www.editedforclarity.com/2011/08/01/debt-ceiling...

PEOPLE! READ THE DETAILS OF THE DEBT DEAL. DONT TAKE THE WORD OF THE PL. THE PL HAS AN AGENDA AND THEY MAKE ALOT OF MONEY OFF OF IT!

[dennis4868]

6. A HUGE BS POST!

wish I could unrec all day long...

Again, even if Bernie Sanders were president, the deal we ended up getting would have been no different than the one we ended up getting. Whe you are dealing with an opposition party that IS VERY WILLING TO RUN THE COUNTRY OFF A CLIFF IF THEY DON'T GET THEIR WAY, you end up with a dysfunctional govt. Anyone who thinks that any other dem president would have gotten the repubs to simply give in and say, "okay, lets go with the progressive budget here." is out of their mind crazy!

[krispos42]

7. I feel extraordinarily let down by this.

I have this vague, horrible feeling that the deal he signed is actually much, much worse than anybody (except a handful of people, perhaps) are aware of.

That it will change things, subtle, seeming unrelated things, until a smart clique of insiders connect the dots and fuck things up.


Like how the power to hire US Attorneys was changed and put in the hands of Bush the Lesser by the USA Patriot Act... and nobody realized how critical this was until Bush began replacing extremist RW assholes as US Attorneys with fanatical RW fuckwads, at his sole discretion.

This basically just sat there for a few years, until *BAM* all of a sudden, purges without checks to achieve a political agenda.