(l NP ) great speech Mr Obama

[David Morris]

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
> The prime constraint on him is Congress.  That's reality, not an excuse.  I think he is a pragmatist who will take what he can get from Congress and move on. This frustrates me, because the Congress's disfunction is a huge problem and Obama doesn't seem to want to tackle it.
[...]
> There are also areas where he hasn't pushed enough, like in nominating judges or people to the FRB.

Congress - specifically the Senate's filibuster rule & anonymous
nomination holds & the GOP's unprecedented abuse of both - AND
Obama's acquiescence to it, ARE the problem[s].

This quote was telling last month:
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"There has been a fundamental lack of seriousness on the other side,"
Obama said. "We've spent the last 20 months governing; they have spent
the last 20 months politicking."

In reference to the upcoming November congressional elections, Obama
said: "Well, we can politick for three months. They forgot I'm pretty
good at politicking."
--------------------------------

The problem is that Obama sees a difference between *governing* and
*politicking*.  He sees politicking as not serious, and thus disdains
from using his bully pulpit in the manner that FDR did so admirably.
He wants to be aloof, cool, and clean.  That's his biggest failing.