The Problem With Choosing An Affirmative Action Candidate
There is an increasing anger and frustration among left-liberals in America over President Obama's increasingly obvious incompetence. Paul Krugman and others points out that Obama seems to fail to understand how to win negotiations, which is why Republicans are able to get Obama to agree to their policies, despite controlling only one (the House of Representatives) out of three decision making government institutions. By contrast, when Republicans in 1995 controlled two out of three decision making government institutions, they were outmaneuvered by the far more politically savvy Bill Clinton.
In all likelihood, Obama will similarly surrender almost completely to Republicans in the fights over raising the debt limit and next fiscal year's budget, even though the Bill Clinton example showed that isn't necessary.
To clarify, since I agree with Republicans about the need to cut spending, I think that Obama's weakness and incompetence is good. But I can certainly understand why left-liberals are angry since Obama's incompetence causes their cause to fail again and again.
However, with some exceptions such as Krugnan that already during the 2007-08 Democratic primaries saw through Obama and saw how incompetent he was, this is actually a case of poetic justice.
When you think about, just why did Democrats choose Obama in the primaries over the much more savvy and (initially) well-funded Hillary Clinton? Well, it basically comes down to two points.
1) Obama sounds good when reading from a teleprompter.
2) Obama is "black" (actually he is just half-black, but never mind that now).
While it may be true that a few white racists who otherwise would have voted for him might have abstained because he was "black", he likely received far more votes (particularly in the Democratic votes) because he was "black", both from black voters and from some academic leftist whites who were under the illusion that a "black" president would heal America's racial conflicts and/or be just compensation for past mistreatment of blacks.
And given how close the Democratic primaries were, it is basically certain that Obama would have lost -and lost big- to Hillary Clinton if he had been white and had a similar background and views and abilities.
So for all of the Democrats that chose Obama entirely or partly because of the fact that his father was black despite the fact that it was obvious that he wasn't competent, their current frustration with Obama's failures is really a case of poetic justice punishing them for choosing a candidate on an affirmative action basis.
In all likelihood, Obama will similarly surrender almost completely to Republicans in the fights over raising the debt limit and next fiscal year's budget, even though the Bill Clinton example showed that isn't necessary.
To clarify, since I agree with Republicans about the need to cut spending, I think that Obama's weakness and incompetence is good. But I can certainly understand why left-liberals are angry since Obama's incompetence causes their cause to fail again and again.
However, with some exceptions such as Krugnan that already during the 2007-08 Democratic primaries saw through Obama and saw how incompetent he was, this is actually a case of poetic justice.
When you think about, just why did Democrats choose Obama in the primaries over the much more savvy and (initially) well-funded Hillary Clinton? Well, it basically comes down to two points.
1) Obama sounds good when reading from a teleprompter.
2) Obama is "black" (actually he is just half-black, but never mind that now).
While it may be true that a few white racists who otherwise would have voted for him might have abstained because he was "black", he likely received far more votes (particularly in the Democratic votes) because he was "black", both from black voters and from some academic leftist whites who were under the illusion that a "black" president would heal America's racial conflicts and/or be just compensation for past mistreatment of blacks.
And given how close the Democratic primaries were, it is basically certain that Obama would have lost -and lost big- to Hillary Clinton if he had been white and had a similar background and views and abilities.
So for all of the Democrats that chose Obama entirely or partly because of the fact that his father was black despite the fact that it was obvious that he wasn't competent, their current frustration with Obama's failures is really a case of poetic justice punishing them for choosing a candidate on an affirmative action basis.
posted by stefankarlsson at 8:17 PM
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