Lessre of Evils

The progressive and liberal Democrats have learned a few lessons this week with President Obama's negotiation with the Republicans over extending the Bush-era (2001 and 2003) tax cuts. They learned not to trust President Obama anymore. They kinda' knew this from the healthcare negotiations when he jettisoned the much needed and wanted public option and then he whined about the progressives and liberals for "not reading the detials" of the whole bill.

They learned the President will give away almost every good bargaining chip the Democrats have to get what he and not the Democrats think is a good deal. The deals turn out to be a very poison pill, giving key and important issues to the Republicans and getting lesser issues for the Republicans. They learned Obama would rather capitulate than fight. Apparently the President doesn't understand his one big chip, being President.

They learned he doesn't know how to be president and how to act to get effective and meaningful laws for America and the American people beyond what the Republicans will agree to. In short, Obama is intelligent but not smart. He is bright but not wise. And he lets others have more power and make decisions for him. Not a good president in my book.

And he is not loyal to his word. All the promises he made in the 2008 campaign are, as the song goes, "Dust in the Wind" and lost to political history on how to win a base and then forget them in office.

The Democrats also learned that with the President from now on, he is and will be the lesser of evils. He's not on the side of Democrats anymore. He's said as much as he's the President for America and Americans. Except he has conveniently forgotten where he came from and who got him elected. The progressive and liberal Democrats and independents. We've not only been swept out the door, but the President has yelled at us twice now in public from his podium.

They, and we, have learned he not going to stand up for us anymore beyond what the Republicans will agree to, which is nothing.

The President will learn the lesson, however, which he overlooked when he agreed to this bill with the Republicans. It will add $700 Billion to the budget deficit and national debt. On his watch. And the Republicans will surely hit him hard on this in 2012, despite being party to the the bill. They will argue the tax cuts didn't increase both but it was all the other costs.

The President doesn't seem to see, let alone understand, the Republicans don't see tax cuts and loss of income to the government and adding to any deficit and debt. They're intentionally bilnd and deaf to words tying tax cuts to debt. They see it as money earned by the people and stolen by the government.

It's why they called the tax bonuses to the rich as tax cuts for everyone. They see all of the tax cuts as one and not separate issues between all of us, remember we all earn under $250K, and the rich. The Republicans are all-inclusive when it comes to people, rich and poor alike. But that's not their goal, but the richest 2-3% of Americans earning more than $250K.

The Democrats learned the President also seems to see things this way. He would rather add $140 Billion to the national debt over the next 2 years than fight for protecting Americans from this debt. And he'll see the Republicans will bring this back in the 2012 campaign by calling him for raising the debt that same debt.

And he'll stand there and have to take it as that's exactly what he did, and then explain it to us, ordinary Americans who recite his own words. We have also learned, again, what the Democrats learned this week. President Obama lied. All politicians lie, but he was to bring "Hope and Change" to Washington. We learned those were empty words.

And so we saw another lesson in typical presidential politics, not what we were promised. We saw the emperor has no clothes made by the ordinary people, but by the rich. He's the very person he fought against in the campaign, and he now wears the clothes proudly and denounces the ordinary folks like us.

Maybe he should look at his campaign speeches again. We remember his words but apparently he's deliberately chosen them.