Obama Administration Second Term Goals

by paradox

Heavy criticism of the Obama administration for abandoning the vast little people army of the 2008 campaign in its meandering quest for Romneycare seems to have sunk in, for the White House is now seeking help from folks with fresh energy and zest after the 2012 win for help in passing whatever grand bargain deal they can after a fondling embrace with our dear cher cousin Republicans.

I’ll pass, thank you. It’s my fervent wish that the Obama Administration do nothing in this fiscal cliff fantasy, nothing at all, and simply let all this humiliating mess of tax cuts expire with the triggers written into them. So absurdly easily to slowly strangle the Republicans on their terrible politics with credible claims of obstructionism and let it all mercifully die, if something does blow up (nothing will) it can be fixed in January.

Thanks again, though, for the offer, it’s very much noted and appreciated. If y’all want to end the war in Afghanistan next year, implement a public option for healthcare, lower the Medicare age to 50, strengthen Social Security or pass employment stimulus, hey, I’m so your man, I’ll be there.

One of the better lines of the 2012 campaign came unsurprisingly from Charles Pierce, describing the fiercely messy healthcare evolution in which some Obama voters went into orbit and never came down. I never expected much from an effort that mandated insurance from a bunch of crooks (oy), so I never really went ballistic over it all, but it certainly cemented my cool embrace of centrism.

Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon says liberals like myself don’t give Obama enough credit for passing the foundation of healthcare reform, improvements will likely come in the second term. Fair enough, I’ll wait 24 months to see what happens before baking in a judgment on this.

Waiting on this observation begs the question: what precisely are the political and social agenda goals of the Obama Administration for the second term? Fondling Republicans in some fantasy of bipartisanship over ludicrous tax cuts is a seriously bummer ice cold shower after an election win, man what a political letdown, the liberal base of the Democratic Party and the country seriously need some optimistic goals to work for in the second term.

Obama supporters and political junkies here wisely intone the House is still lost to us and the Senate hamstrung with supermajority filibuster rules, little hope for accomplishment here with a president wandering around in a futile quest of satisfying Republicans determined to thwart him (to put it politely).

I see the realism of this, of course, and have given up on the idea of the Obama administration fighting and losing well for anything, so I suppose an appalling tap-dance of the status quo and drones in our airspace are what we have to look forward to for the second Obama term.

[opens hands] Well? What else is there? If there is a credible liberal goal for the second Obama term I haven’t heard or seen it, and I watch closely. I am a small person of modest accomplishments, do I have a long Michael Moore list of liberal demands of what must be done? No. If the White House wants little people help in the second term for liberal goals and agenda I’ll be there.

I’d so be there for ending the Afghanistan war next year leaving no one behind, there is no excuse or reason for sacrificing our people one more day in that hellhole. Somehow the White House will have to develop a political and media strategy for the inevitable Republican braying that Obama lost a country to the Taliban terrorists, I don’t see how waiting a year will help with that but there’s nothing else to do.

John Cole of Balloon Juice says a serious backlash to the exploitation of the American worker is growing, and the Occupy movement should have been a serious warning that the status quo won’t be tolerated much longer. Blaming House Republicans about what we can’t do for the second Obama term isn’t going to cut it for the country or the Party, not by a long shot.