Obama, Buyer's Remorse?

It seems there are a bunch of people who are now unhappy to find out that Barak Obama is a politician. This a guy who started his career in Chi-town politic and in that city and Illinois they play the game in a rough and twisty manner. Barak knows how to be careful with his language and how to read the public. Many of the unhappy people have not paid attention to what he has actually said, rather what they wanted to hear. They also are apparently unaware of how the politics of legislative bodies works.

Let's start with what he's said versus what people wanted to hear. In February when it became clear that the Supreme Court was going to hear the DC gun ban case on the basis of individual versus collective right he said clearly that he did not see how the 2nd Amendment could not be read as an individual right. He was not and is not a friend of gun owners in general, what he is being is a realist about what the ruling means. He is neither responsible for the ruling nor is he a fan of the outcomes - challenges to blanket bans and capricious or draconian licensing.

He has repeatedly stated that we need to leave Iraq more carefully than we went in, that his 16 month withdrawal plan was subject to conditions on the ground. Anyone proposing military strategy that ties themselves to one particular line is a fool - need I mention George II? The simple fact is that a withdrawal or retreat is one of the riskiest military maneuvers and things can go bad suddenly and drastically. Many people are aware of this and it is politically stupid to ignore that people are aware, and just as stupid to ignore that his opponent is trying to make political hay out of military inexperience.

Ignorance of legislative politics leads to unrealistic and rigid expectations. The FISA bill that has people in an uproar was decided some time ago, like virtually all bills. The speeches on the floor are window dressing, all for looks, the positions were fixed long before all the public relations talk on the floor. Supporters were courted and counted, amendments offered and accepted or rebuffed long before you see it. Political calculations were made by both Parties and individuals regarding votes. Many of the "maverick" votes you see were Party approved to allow a legislator to appeal to home voters without damaging the vote outcome. On odd occasions a Party will deliberately sabotage a vote or an amendment, there are costs involved that make this rare. Even more rarely a legislator will cross the Party position when his vote matters. People see the show and think it is the reality, it is not and cannot be. You may hear explanations on the floor or partisan attacks but this is for the show not the action. Read Obama's explanations and forget the media's and Republicans' and the web's nonsense.

I am entirely unsure now and in the past how people expected Obama to achieve consensus and bipartisan accomplishments from a hard left position. If you are actually left and you actually expect to elect a politician from that point of view, I would assert that your home is LaLaLand. Wishful thinking regarding leftism is silliness, the country is not left, it may be drifting more left than in recent years but the starting point for that drift is what counts. This country is centered much more right now than when RMN was President, so much that he now would be considered left of center. Any drift that is talked about today is encouraging but it is not what many seem to think it is. Obama's home districts both in the Illinois legislature and Congress are fairly liberal in outlook compared to the nation in general and even there he has been pretty measured in his politics, this isn't new. Buyer's remorse is not reasonable nor sensible and feeding the media and Republicans attack material is not a good idea nor based on facts.