Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Campaign Adviser Losing Patience with Obama

As always, blogging offers me a wonderful escape from the reality of my life and provides a form of therapy that is most helpful. It also keeps me up to date on news and politics and - in the case of today - demonstrates that I'm not the only one about over Barack Obama's weak kneed spinelessness. Politico has a story on the growing frustration of Steve Hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager who oversaw the Obama campaign's field organization, over Obama's unwillingness to stand up and fight for what voters put him in office to do. As I have noted before, Obama and the Congressional Democrats began Obama's term from a commanding position of strength and a mandate to effect real change, yet instead they have allowed themselves to rolled by the liars and nutcase in what should be the increasing irrelevant GOP. Here are some highlights from Politico:
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One of President Barack Obama’s former top campaign advisers is “losing patience” with the White House, he told POLITICO Tuesday morning, as frustrations among the president’s liberal allies crest over issues from health care legislation to gay rights. “I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it's doing right now,” said Steve Hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager who oversaw the Obama campaign’s field organization and was an architect of his early, crucial victories over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa and South Carolina.
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Obama, he said, “needs to be more bold in his leadership.” “I’m not going to just sit by the curb and let these folks get away with a lack of performance for the American people,” he said, speaking of Washington’s Democratic leadership as a whole. “I want change just as much as
a majority of Americans do, and I’m one of the many Americans who are losing patience.”
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Still, he remains close to some top Obama aides, and his blast from the left is a mark of the depth of dissent even within elements of the organization that elected the first black president. His public comments are “nothing I haven't directly said to folks in the White House,” Hildebrand told POLITICO in an interview from his native South Dakota. . .
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“The problem is, Obama isn’t listening enough,” Hildebrand said, according to the report. “I love him, I love Michelle, I want him to succeed, but all of us need to put pressure on him and Congress to do the right things. The American people put confidence in the Democrats because they thought we could get things done, and if we fail, they’re not going to give it back.” “I gave up a lot to elect Democrats, and I expect them to give it up for me. I’m going to speak loudly. The Republicans don’t have power unless the moderates and the Blue Dogs give it to them — which is what they’re doing now,” he said in the speech.
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“There's basically three different parties, and one of those parties tends to be the barrier to getting anything done — and that's the Blue Dogs in the House and the moderates in the Senate,” he said in the interview. “Change is not going to come by people in the Beltway deciding we should have change. It’s going to come because they’re feeling pressure from all over the country.” “I know where Barack Obama is on these issues and I don't question his sincerity or his honesty towards trying to solve them,” he said. “I do question whether or not the Congress as it is constituted right now is going to have the capacity to ever deliver on some of the most critical issues facing our country right now.”
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He said in the San Diego speech that gay rights was among the issues that had spurred his disappointment, mourning that after his 22 years of working for Democratic candidates, “we haven’t come very far,” according to the report. “The government still doesn’t treat Gay people equally. Should I continue doing what I’m doing, or should I be a strong voice from the outside?” he said.
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I fear that unless Obama gets on track and assumes a forceful leadership roll, he may well be looking at a primary challenge in 2012. And to be honest, I think I'll probably back the challenger based on the pathetic performance Obama has delivered to date.

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