The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on December 31, 2008, 07:37:20 AM
-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8047606
Oh my.
The bitter old lady from Vermont:
cali (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 06:16 AM
Original message
Obama is OUR employee. We have the right to dictate to him. BZZZT.
We have the right to speak our minds to him, to tell him what we want his policies to be. We have the right to call him every name in the book. We have the right to demand he be impeached or tried as a war criminal or whatever, but we don't actually have the right to make him do anything.
The simplistic statement that Obama is our employee and the implicit suggestion that because of that he has to do what we want (whoever we is), is nonsense. Yes, he's the employee of the American people. He's an employee with a contract that enables him to make decisions without us, the people. We assented to being governed by him when we voted him into office. We gave him the powers enunciated in the Constitution.
And the only way we can revoke his Constitutional authority is to vote him out of office in four years. Should he commit high crimes or misdemeanors (or simply lie about his sex life), he can be impeached. But that's not up to us either, as we should well know, that's up to the House of Representatives.
I am not saying that everything Obama does is fine and dandy. Far from it, I'm explaining that Obama has no affirmative obligation to listen to the people and abide by what they want- let alone to listen to one slice of the people and do what they want.
We have the right to petition our government. That's not the same thing as some made up right to dictate policy.
Pretty basic stuff.
Uh-huh. And guess what.
0bama's franksolich's employee, too, just as much as he's the 0bamaite cali primitive's employee, and so we'll see how all of this goes.
MadHound (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:05 AM
Response to Original message
1. We also have the right to fire him in four years,
If he continues down the path he's going, that could very well happen.
cali (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:07 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. And if you'd actually read my OP before commenting you'd recognize that I said that.
And if he continues down the path he's on with the overwhelming approval he's garnered since the election, he'll be re-elected in landslide. Sorry that disppoints you.
MadHound (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:18 AM
Response to Reply #2
10. Well excuse the hell out of me
Gee, I can't repeat something that the oh-so-great cali said? Really now, why are you getting so bent out of shape?
Oh, yeah, that's right, my bad. I implied that your god is actually human and fallible
Hey, keep those rose tinted glasses on, and don't notice those constituencies that Obama is already pissing off, who are already starting to flee the big tent of the Democratic party. I know that reality can be sooo depressing.
alwysdrunk (624 posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Fire him for who? A more "progressive" candidate?
The path he's on? Unless we are still deep in depression Obama glides through in 2012. Because of how and when he was elected this will by far be the most important metric. Unless he royally screws up, there likely be no Republican who can beat him. If you are thinking of a Democratic primary you're dreaming.
Jake3463 (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:12 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. If he royally screws up and that is a giant IF The party should use the primary process. We would have been better off in 1980 with Ted Kennedy than Carter.
MadHound (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:14 AM
Response to Reply #3
7. Democratic primary, no. 2012 generals, certainly a possibility
Obama is starting to piss off important constituencies within the big tent, LGBT, the anti-war folks, the leftists. I can easily see a scenario where these people either go third party or stay home, and we get a Republican instead.
Well now, just how "important" is the LGBT vote?
I'd be more scared of pissing off the Tosk and Gheg vote, the Albanian-American vote, than the LGBT vote.
Jake3463 (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:11 AM
Response to Original message
4. I don't think anyone feels they have the right to "dictate policy"
However, without the moveon.org dailykos liberals he wouldn't have made it out of Iowa and that should influence some of his policies.
cali (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:13 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. sure some people do. I've read post after post saying just that and what you're saying is a far cry from what I'm talking about in the OP.
The skidmarked underwear primitive:
Skidmore (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:15 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. BS. What moved him out of Iowa was that Hillary pissed Iowans off with her "inevitable" claim. As an Iowan, I can attest to that. People really resented being told that they were too stupid to listen to candidates and choose the message and not the messenger. Iowans are very proud of their political savvy and their ability to sort through the BS.
cali (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-31-08 08:17 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Yeah, I think Iowans and Obama's having run a smart campaign there had a lot more to do with Obama's Iowa win than MoveOn or liberal bloggers.
Plus all those tens of thousands of non-Iowans voting in the Iowa Democrat caucuses.
-
They are so funny when they think they matter. :-)