Mercury News: Obama Needs to Find a Backbone

I've been deriding the spineless wonder in the White House for some time. Those of us who voted for Obama in 2008 wanted a leader, not simpering follower. But the latter is what we got instead of a forceful leader who actually believe the statements and promises that he made on the campaign trail. Some Democrats have been none too happy with my criticism of the Liar-in-Chief, so it was nice to find an e-mail this morning from a reader in California directing me to a San Jose Mercury News editorial that goes after Obama big time for his pathetic lack of leadership. It's nice to know that it's not just me that sees this president as a growing disaster who appears headed to failed president status. Personally, from what we've seen over the last two years, I have little confidence that Obama will/can change. I suspect that by the end of his term, Obama will make Jimmy Carter look like a very forceful president. What a disappointment. What a betrayal. Yes, I hope I'll be proven wrong, by I am surely NOT holding my breath. Here are some editorial highlights:
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Man up, Mr. President. The image of a whimpering, apologetic loser that Barack Obama presented to the world Wednesday after his Election Day shellacking was an embarrassment to those of us who had cheered his own decisive victory two short years ago.
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America elected Obama president, and America needs a strong president -- all the more so when he's under siege. But as Republicans gear up for the fight of their lives, Obama appears to be ironing his white flag. If Obama cannot revive the fiery eloquence and forward-thinking agenda that won America's hearts and minds in 2008, then he's destined to be a one-term president -- perhaps not even his party's nominee in 2012. America saw a different Obama in 2008. We need him back.
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Obama should have learned from the health care debate that attempting to compromise with people who aren't interested is futile; you end up with inferior policies and disappoint your supporters. Yet the president already is caving on extending the Bush tax cuts that help the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and will add $700 billion to the deficit. This even though recent polls show that a strong majority of Americans supports ending those tax breaks -- and, by the way, continuing health care reform.
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[H]ere's the choice. Obama can spend the next year offering up wishy-washy legislation, begging Republicans to help him pass it and seeing them shoot it down anyway. Or he can go to the American people -- taking a page from Franklin D. Roosevelt's playbook -- and summon up the eloquence that moved voters two years ago. He can stand up for ideas they overwhelmingly support and make clear the problem is not him but the opposition party. He can drill in on the Republican "Party of No" strategy and make it an embarrassment, which it should be. He can force the opposition to the negotiating table, where they can forge compromises in the best interests of the country.