New poll has Mass. Senate race in a dead heat

[Berkut]

Just...wow. What a disaster this year has been for liberals.

I wonder how soon the Languish Liberals will abandon Obama? It already seems to be happening elsewhere, but I suspect the Languish crowd is a bit more stubborn than most.

Why would a lost Senate race in Massachusetts induce anyone to "abandon" Obama?  The only reason I can think of is to not back a loser.

Not just the lost Senate race, of course.

There seems to be a growing percepetion that Obama is No True Liberal. A moderate in sheep's clothing, so to speak.

What has suprised me is the rapidity with which the Languish swing vote has abandoned Obama.

Why would that be surprising? It's not like it was all that strong of support to begin with.

Personally, he has done about as well as I could have hoped - I suspect my own tepid support is exactly why the more hardcore liberals are getting rather pissed off at him.

After all, if McCain's his Iraq and Afghanistan policies are looked on pretty favorably by me (as an example) you know they are going to be pissing some people off.

[derspiess]

Anyway glad to see a RINO take office. 

I wouldn't call him a RINO.  He's maybe slightly on the moderate side of the GOP, but as a conservative I don't find anything hugely objectionable about him.

[Berkut]

Do I count as a Liberal?

Do you believe in the ideals of limited government and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, and free markets?

If so then yes.

[derspiess]

There seems to be a growing percepetion that Obama is No True Liberal. A moderate in sheep's clothing, so to speak.

That is one of the perceptions I'm seeing.  The other is that Obama is still The One True Liberal Redeemer, but he is being either misled or controlled by those around him, or that he is showing a momentary lapse of judgment by placating the somewhat more moderate factions of his party.

[derspiess]

I was off the bandwagon before the Democratic primaries were completed.  I still, you know, hope he does a good job.  Either that or I just have to hope the Republicans come to their sense sometime between now and 2012.

Unless Obama magically becomes a conservative, I will continue to hope he fails

[Ed Anger]

I just hope Obama gets off his target fixation. There is more to governing than fucking healthcare.

[derspiess]

The funny/sad thing for the GOP now is, though, I bet Brown is now their #1 prospect for a Presidential run.

I would have a hard time finding a reason not to support him as a primary candidate.  I mean, he's no community activist or anything, but he has a decent resume.  We had a GOP actor as Prez, why not a male model? 

[derspiess]

I just hope Obama gets off his target fixation. There is more to governing than fucking healthcare.

The Obama that governs least governs best

[Ed Anger]

I do enjoy Spellus' and DG's agony. So delicious.

If only CountMoveOn.org was here, my nipples would explode in delight.

[The Minsky Moment]

He is smart enough to learn to fill it before his first term ends, but I am not sure that this will be enough to save his presidency.  By the time he learns to be a President, there will likely be a hostile legislature.

Worked for Clinton.

[grumbler]

Worked for Clinton.

Agreed, and that's why I qualified my answer as I did.

I would love to see a re-enactment of the Clinton-bipartisanmoderates partnership that brought in welfare reform.

I would argue that Clinton as president was always a stronger leader than Obama as President ever has been, though.  Clinton had much less to learn than Obama about being President.  Obama has a lot more charisma and better judgment on his side, though.

[jimmy olsen]

There seems to be a growing percepetion that Obama is No True Liberal. A moderate in sheep's clothing, so to speak.

Obama is still The One True Liberal Redeemer, but he is being either misled or controlled by those around him, or that he is showing a momentary lapse of judgment by placating the somewhat more moderate factions of his party.

It's the Czar's advisers!

[OttoVonBismarck]

Clinton was able to accomplish things as President because he's the son of a car salesman; he knew how to make deals happen.  Clinton is a natural deal maker.  Obama hasn't shown he can hammer through a deal on anything substantial yet, I think part of the problem is Obama just doesn't know how to work with other politicians very well.  He'll have to learn if he wants to have anything to campaign on in 2012.

Obama is smart and he speaks well, but there's many reasons I said he was too inexperienced to be President.  One of the important ones is, you don't learn the art of back room politicking in any book or by teaching constitutional law classes, that's stuff you only learn by doing it.

I also said before the Democratic primaries were over that Obama was a moderate politician and that the fringe left would hate him.  Pretty much his entire behavior as President can be characterized as moderate.  He's not done anything stupid in Iraq (he's doing a controlled withdrawal just like I always said), and he's devoting more resources to Afghanistan (the fringe want us out of there right now); he's also shown he isn't very committed to the liberal sacred cows.  He abandoned the public option pretty readily when he realized he needed to do that in order to pass health care reform.

[Queequeg]

I would argue that Clinton as president was always a stronger leader than Obama as President ever has been, though.  Clinton had much less to learn than Obama about being President.  Obama has a lot more charisma and better judgment on his side, though.

His first year was a disaster.   

[Faeelin]

I also said before the Democratic primaries were over that Obama was a moderate politician and that the fringe left would hate him.  Pretty much his entire behavior as President can be characterized as moderate.  He's not done anything stupid in Iraq (he's doing a controlled withdrawal just like I always said), and he's devoting more resources to Afghanistan (the fringe want us out of there right now); he's also shown he isn't very committed to the liberal sacred cows.  He abandoned the public option pretty readily when he realized he needed to do that in order to pass health care reform.

Of course, the moderation he's espoused hasn't gotten him anywhere, has it?