Political Disaster in the Making

Another take on the election from a progressive voice, Dave Lindorff, which also mirrors that of Matt Taibai from Rolling Stone:

But despite the lackluster candidates in both Virginia and New Jersey, I
think it’s safe to say that there was also clear evidence that the losses, and
the margins of the losses—huge in Virginia’s case, and significant in normally
safely Democratic New Jersey—provide evidence that the Obama presidency, and the
prevailing Democratic strategy of minimalist legislative initiatives on health
care reform, global warming etc., expanded and unending war in Afghanistan,
support for Wall Street and neglect of the one-in-five Americans who are
unemployed or underemployed, are a political disaster in the making for
Democrats in general and Obama in particular.

The president came into office on a wave of populist enthusiasm and high
expectations for the “change” candidate Obama promised. No change has been
forthcoming now for over nine months, and with the president now past the
first-year anniversary of his historic election victory, the latest election
results suggest that his presidency could already be headed for the
rocks.

2010 is an election year that will see all seats in the House, and a third
of the seats in the Senate up for grabs. Typically, a president’s party loses
seats in that election even when things are going well. When things are not
going well, the losses can be significant.

Obama had a chance, coming into Washington after a big rout of Republicans
last year, to set out an agenda of major progressive change. He could have
called for expanding Medicare to cover all Americans. Instead he handed health
reform over to Congress and immediately put out the word that he was open to
compromise with Republicans, thus dooming reform from the outset. He could
have announced a thorough review of America’s two wars, and then set in motion a
withdrawal form both Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead he dithered on Iraq, and
added troops in Afghanistan, assuring that both these disasters inherited from
the Bush/Cheney administration became his own disasters, which will now drag on
through his whole term. He could have declared a global climate emergency,
and announced a job-creating crash program to develop renewable energy in the US
and to make the US a leader in renewable energy R&D. Instead, he did almost
nothing in this critical area. As for the economic crisis, he could have
taken a progressive stand against the abuses of Wall Street, ordered a criminal
investigation of the banking class, broken up the big banks and established a
new regulatory system to put an end to the era of casino capitalism.
Instead, he put the bankers in charge of Treasury and poured trillions of
dollars into the largest banks, allowing them to grow even bigger and more
predatory.

Voters, their collective assets shrunken over the year by $14 trillion,
understandably are left wondering how, aside from better verbal skills, this
president differs from the last one.