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Discussion: ATRL for Obama 2012
Member Since: 10/17/2011
Posts: 1,788
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For anyone interested in some excellent writing about politics and how important an Obama victory is, I highly recommend you go read Charles Pierce's politics blog at Esquire:
Quote:
For Obama, the Clock's Running in His Own Head Now
By Charles P. Pierce
Nov. 4 at 7:47PM
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...#ixzz2BJQ73o2K
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The line wound around the field twice, the way the lines have always wound around the buildings twice, even since he broke through in Iowa in the early winter of 2008 as something so new and something so very different. But there was something a little melancholy around the edges of the crowd waiting to see the president on the football field at McArthur High School as the sun began to set this Sunday afternoon in 2012. It wasn't manifested by a lack of enthusiasm. The field were filled, and both sides of the bleachers were, too. They cheered wildly for Charlie Crist, who, to my knowledge, has never previously demonstrated an ability to awaken the lion in anyone's soul. They cheered wildly for Democratic national chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose speech got completely drowned out because the president's motorcade turned onto the grounds while she was speaking, and the people at the back of the bleachers saw it, and they touched off a wild celebration that swept through the stadium and fairly well made Schultz a tiny formality.
But the rallies have been so much a part of what made the president into the president, they were so much a part of his original identity as an authentic political phenomenon, that you could feel the realization dawn throughout the stadium that there simply will not be many more of these. Win or lose, the president will not campaign again. There will be no more music, no more shiver of anticipation, no more cheering merely at the sight of the limousine with the flags on the fender. No more Fired Up. No more Ready To Go. Barack Obama-as-phenomenon is about to come to an end, one way or another.
If he wins, there will be four years of slugging it out with an enraged Republican party, particularly in the House of Representatives, and an even more recalcitrant Republican minority in the Senate. There is no glory in that. There is no emotional wave to ride. It is the gritty impossibility of dealing with a political opposition in a political context in which everybody, including an unprecedentedly implacable opposition, knows that they only have to pay attention to him for two years, tops, because then it is time for everybody to run for president again. Historically, in recent years, second terms go horribly awry: Watergate was a second-term thing, so were Iran-Contra and the Clinton impeachment. Against all possible odds, George W. Bush was worse in his second term — Katrina being the most conspicuous example, but his bungled attempt to "reform" Social Security into non-existence is a strong place horse in that derby — than he was in his first. Absent a war, second-term presidents start leaking influence almost from the day they're sworn in. All of these dynamics are all the more powerful in the case of a president whose political opposition never has really accepted him as president in the first place.
If he loses, I fear he will be treated as a historical blip, an accident of history brought to the presidency by an economic collapse and eight years of almost unimaginable bungling and war. He will be treated as a kind of meteor — bright, lovely, and ultimately a burst of flame that passed quickly as the country got handed back to its real owners. I do not want to speculate what the president's most devoted partisans will conclude from that, but it will not be good.
So there was a little touch of blue on everything as the president came down the chute running out of the home-side bleachers, working people all the way down the rail. There was no real sign of fatigue in him, except for a certain roughness in the lower registers of his voice. He launched into what has become his standard stump speech — that the change he promised in 2008 has arrived, but that the change is ongoing, and that he is standing against a return to the politics that failed so badly that his candidacy became possible in the first place. There were the usual low spots — will he never understand that the people at these rallies do not care about The Deficit? — but the president has rung one particular change into the stump that seems to indicate that he recognizes that, even if he is re-elected, which seems likely, his shelf-life as someone who can influence policy is running out, and that there is a political opposition dedicated to accelerating that process.
"I want all Americans to work together," he said, after citing the work he had done in the past week with Governor Chris Christie in the wake of the storm that blew into New Jersey, and the crowd erupted again. "If you want to break the gridlock, you should vote for any leader — Democratic, Republican, Independent — as long as they want to get things done.
"But," he said, leaning a little bit into the words, "if the price of peace in Washington is that we make it hard for college students to pay down their loans, or turning Medicare into a voucher program, or throwing people off their health care, then that's... a... price... I'm... not... willing... to pay."
The first part of that is pretty standard-issue Obama. But that last part, the part with the real edge on it, that's new. That's a sharp, gleaming blade that will be withdrawn out of the wound before you ever know it ever went in. He looks and sounds now like a man with a clock running in his head, and the clock is running past election day and into the lame-duck session and into the new Congress in January. There is still justifiable skepticism about his hunger for a Grand Bargain that will leave 70 years of Democratic social policy in ashes. But, at the moment, he sounds as though he knows precisely the political landscape over which he has travelled over the past four years. He knows where the solid ground is, and he knows where you find the mire. There is a price, finally, that he will not pay.
There will not be many more of these. There are three more days, and then Fired Up and Ready To Go will join All The Wat With LBJ and I Like Ike as ancient prayers. If he loses, there will be a powerful movement to render him, and these rallies, as footnotes. If he wins, he will be president again, and it will be a dusty, grinding job for as long as the calendar allows him to do it. At the end, with Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" pouring out of the speakers, he turned from the podium and, just for one second, he did a little dance step. And then you could see the discipline reassert itself again. Ever since he came upon the scene, he has been a candidate who has had to rein himself in, someone who could sing Al Green, but just a line, someone who can dance, in front of an adoring crowd, but just one step, and then gone again. On the press riser, his senior staff was watching him do it, and they all smiled, and the sunset fell across their faces.
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/26/2001
Posts: 22,475
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Quote:
Originally posted by I Am Music
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I know that it's not REALLY his fault, but...I keep saying that Mitt Romney would be a terrible President for the children of America, and not everyone is listening... 
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Member Since: 6/10/2011
Posts: 12,511
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 4,663
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How is the Electoral College looking for Obama?
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Member Since: 1/11/2011
Posts: 385
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Is obama leading in most of the battleground states manily Ohio and Pennsylvania?
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Member Since: 8/17/2010
Posts: 3,155
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Member Since: 1/11/2011
Posts: 385
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Quote:
Originally posted by (Cole)
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it looks every good for Obama i'm not worried at all he gets Ohio, Romney is done! I don't look at those CNN polls that don't mean anything.
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Member Since: 8/23/2011
Posts: 11,596
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Member Since: 3/19/2012
Posts: 4,663
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Quote:
Originally posted by Stephen
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Thank you 
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Member Since: 8/20/2011
Posts: 12,590
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Popular Vote: Virtual Tie
Electorial College Predictions for Swing States:
Ohio- Obama
Iowa- Obama
Nevada- Obama
Wisconsin- Obama
Colorado- Obama
New Hampshire- Obama
North Carolina- Romney
Florida- Romney
Virginia-Romney
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Member Since: 8/16/2011
Posts: 3,505
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Obama has had my vote since day one, was never a question  Getting up extra early to vote Tuesday
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Member Since: 5/18/2011
Posts: 17,136
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Quote:
Originally posted by LP54
Popular Vote: Virtual Tie
Electorial College Predictions for Swing States:
Ohio- Obama
Iowa- Obama
Nevada- Obama
Wisconsin- Obama
Colorado- Obama
New Hampshire- Obama
North Carolina- Romney
Florida- Romney
Virginia-Romney
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Don't the polls show Obama ahead in Virginia and also ahead in early votes?
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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Quote:
Originally posted by Doc
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My new avi.
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Member Since: 12/4/2010
Posts: 37,894
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Quote:
Originally posted by Red
Hey, even under the worst-case scenario, the response to the results will be absolutely hilarious.
But I have faith in America that they won't doom themselves to four years of hell. We'll see if my faith was misguided in two days.  |
Obama will win. 
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Member Since: 8/26/2012
Posts: 3,733
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Quote:
Originally posted by I♥COCKiness
Don't the polls show Obama ahead in Virginia and also ahead in early votes?
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He's also up by about 1-2 points/tied in Florida according to some polls released in the past 4 days 
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Member Since: 10/12/2002
Posts: 21,317
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Obama will win...
What drives me nuts is the others say they AREN'T voting for Obama because Romney will get jobs growing, make the economy stronger and blah, blah, blah BUT his plan doesn't favor ANY of those outcomes... What kind of delusion would make you believe in something that makes absolutely no sense?
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Member Since: 8/26/2012
Posts: 3,733
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I can't wait for Tuesday 
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Member Since: 10/9/2009
Posts: 6,108
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In 48 hours we will know who will be the president of the united states for the next four years!
It all comes down to this. 
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Member Since: 3/15/2012
Posts: 2,801
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i'm so excited about this, i'm not american but in my International Business class my teacher give us 1 or 2 states to all of us alums and ask us to guess if Obama or Romney will get the electoral votes.
I got New York state, which was very easy to tell that Obama will win there, but some of my mates were in trouble guessing.
i follow every day the Huffington Post map, and can't wait for Tuesday night to know the truth, go and vote americans! this is your time!!!
A new era is about to start for you.
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Member Since: 10/9/2009
Posts: 6,108
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Quote:
Originally posted by Dark Phoenix
i'm so excited about this, i'm not american but in my International Business class my teacher give us 1 or 2 states to all of us alums and ask us to guess if Obama or Romney will get the electoral votes.
I got New York state, which was very easy to tell that Obama will win there, but some of my mates were in trouble guessing.
i follow every day the Huffington Post map, and can't wait for Tuesday night to know the truth, go and vote americans! this is your time!!!
A new era is about to start for you.
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Obama has said that his next big task will be comprehensible immigration reform! Like healthcare before, this needs a huge reform.
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