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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.
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