One thing that I denigrated the last president for was his near-constant pandering to his electoral base. When it came down to what was good for the country versus what was good for his base, Chimpy went for what was good for his base. He couldn't be bothered to rush right back to D.C. when Hurricane Katrina flooded the Gulf Coast, but he hurried back in order to sign a bill allowing the federal government to intervene in the Terry Schiavo matter. The flooding and near-abandonment of a predominately Black city didn't bother his base one bit, the actually cheered for it, but the stopping of food to a brain-dead white woman incensed his base and Disgustus Maximus responded.
Compare that to his father, who agreed to a tax increase that was, to a considerable amount, responsible for the balancing of the federal budget in a few years. That incensed his base.
President George H.W. Bush was a one-term president. Chimpy served two (unelected) terms.
President Obama is following the Bush41 model. By doing so, he seems intent on pissing off his base of support. Sure, the rich folks who give to Democrats will probably support him in 2012. But he is not really giving the voters in his base, the Democrats who offset the batshit-insane Palinites, a reason to turn out and vote for him.
He had better get a clue sometime soon.
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You make a great point. The President really does need to consider the base a bit more. The Republicans and their supporting right wing media continue to frame every debate leaving the President and Democrats on the defensive and having to move to the right or be derided as liberals. The mainstream media continues to repeat this idea that we're a center right nation, but all the studies I've seen that break down the issues without applying labels demonstrate that we're actually dead center or center left.
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