The vent session is on in Minneapolis, as progressive bloggers and activists convene for the annual Netroots Nation conference.
Swayed by messages of hope and real political change in the 2008 campaign, many liberals in attendance expressed their deep disappointment with the Obama administration. A main topic of discussion being how they feel the president abandoned their liberal causes like gay marriage, the public option in health care form and extending Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, to name a few.
One panel discussion title says it all: "What to Do When Your President Is Just Not That Into You."
Will the liberal base break up with Obama before 2012? The White House is doing everything they can to smooth things over.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer got grilled today while taking part in a Q&A at the conference. His defense: yes, change has been slow and it hasn’t always been dramatic enough. But, it’s still better than a Republican in charge.
Tonight, we’ll be talking about the conference in depth with Lt. Dan Choi and Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
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Did I just hear the attention w hore Dan Choi compare himself to a batter woman? He is no better than a tea party loon. He proves the poin that the far left and the far right are both alike, they both attack President Obama
I think Dan Choi needs to back off and realize that there are more important issues facing everybody in America right now. Gay rights is an issue that the President has advanced, but being faced with the opposition he faces, Gay issues will take time and patience to resolve, just like every other issue we face.
And what is this Jobs Bill that the progressives keep harping about? I have yet to hear a progressive describe just what a Jobs Bill would entail and how it would be implemented. Sounds like fancy sound bites. Sounds just like Republicans.
I am a liberal, but the progressive faction of our party is beginning to embarrass everyone.
No your are wrong it's the liberal side that is and embarrass they have gone along with GOP on everything.
Can we not fracture into the two headed snake in which the Rep/Bagger have desenergrated into please! I don't think I can take another party with a bunch for extreme nuttier beans running around saying they represent me and my views. Find some common ground and work together to fight the real threat our democracy which are the Baggers who have hijacked the republican tent and have all the moderates in the party undergoing“ Bagger reeducation” (code for brainwashing) in the basement!
I have a real problem with Progressives being so hard on the President. He is one man dong his best.
Because he doesn't make everyone happy they say they won't back him?? Do they realize the alternative?? Give me a break..work to get the Republicans out of power so something Progressive can be done!!
Obama has back off of things he said he wanted to end and other stuff he got done. And for progressive to go after Obama it tell Obama the truth and lib's have a hard time with this.
How is Obama's economic recovery plan working for you guys? Going on 3 years now..
How is that 9%+ unemployment and rising inflation working for you? Where are the jobs?
How's the illegal war in Libya and the covert war in Yemen - War #3 & #4 - working for you?
Where are all the anti-war protests??? Hypocrisy in action because now its Obama.
How is the rising price in oil and gas working out for you? What is Obama's energy policy? He doesn't have one.
How is our relations with our best allies, e.g., Israel & UK going these days? WORSE!
How is that federal budget coming along? You know.. 3 years and still NO budget!
How is that $14+ Trillion DEBT and Democrat led DEFICIT working for you?
Clinton said that Healthcare & Social Security are in CRISIS due to spending - still in denial?
Why are troops in Iraq and Afghanistan when he said they would be out a year ago?
What has Obama done over the past three years that benefited ALL Americans?
here's your answer from "the libs". not one that you will read of course.
president reagan said, "i am not worried about the deficit, it is big enough to take care of itself".
reagan also said, "gov't is not a solution to the problem, gov't is the problem".
gov't has to be the solution to this problem. and in looking back through history, it is reagan's and your beloved republican party that created it.
republicans love to say that this is obama's debt. yes, he is president, but he has been responding to the deficit and the wars that were left by bush.
this recession is comparable to the depression of the 30's, and there is no way we are going to climb out of this in two years. why do you think the republicans haven't been addressing the problem of jobs since they took over the house. they haven't brought one jobs ammendment to the floor of the house because they know there is nothing that can be done immediately. this is a slow crawl unfortunately, in response to another mishap created under the bush administration and his republican party.
the republican party loves to leave a deficit in its wake. bush, the worst president in american history, has left our nation in a disastrous position, one that will take time, at least 10 years, IF THE RIGHT THINGS ARE DONE.
and lets remember that the republican party and the blue dog democrats have a say in whether we get out of iraq and afghanistan, or whether gitmo closes. the president may have ideals, but can't get things done when the congress votes against him.
of course we know that much of this is political, and a bigoted reaction to our president. given the dissention that we see in washington, unlike anything we have seen before, worse than their hatred of clinton, some of it has to be racism, i believe.
I don't think I'm Progressive....since I see that as extreme and the far Right....I know that the President is working everyday to make things better and taking care of business, an that he is not Superman.....I wouldn't vote for a Republican, because I'm sure I would go to hell if I did. We have been in hell as fair as I'm concerned Under GW, and this Republican congress. I see what the Republicans are doing to this country and some times it does feel as if Obama is not paying much attention. I wish he would start making more appearances and talking tough to the Republican....we need some "Fired Up" enthusiasm from him.
Thankful Mom-3182614
"..I wouldn't vote for a Republican, because I'm sure I would go to hell if I did."
#4 - Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:39 PM EDT
That says it all!!!! A typical MSNBC and Ed Schulz viewer!!!
I feel that Dan Choi made some valid points but I think he should acknowledge that President Obama made sure that the Don' Ask Don't Tell bill was repealed. Dan should see that this was a real step forward. Also, as Lawrence mentioned, the states are starting to repeal bills banning same sex marriage. This accomplishment should also be acknowledged. Much more needs to be done but at least we are finally moving in the right direction in spite of the right conservative attacks on the middle class and their attempts to force their views on us.
Need a Rewrite for Lawrence!
Dan Choi made his bones on DADT. Obama never made a promise during the campaign about making gay marriage legal. What is this--what have you done for me lately? Think back how many times you saw Choi on Countdown, Maddow and other programs including The Last Word. Now think about how many times he mentioned gay marriage.
Lawrence should have called him on this. Sure all Progressives would love to have a public option, equality for all, an exit from all these ridiculous wars and a program that would get this country's economy on the right track.
We also should be smart enough to know that this not reality.
I thought Lawrence was going to come through when he asked Choi who he would vote for. BUT he let him ramble on with some ridiculous non answer.
Go ahead Choi vote for Nader next time. Maybe that will help Perry become our next President.
How much trouble can we get into with a Republican ex governor of Texas being President?
C'mon man.
I'm not a fan of Dan Choi,I honestly feel he's a jackass, who seek his fifteen minutes of fame, and thank you Lawrence for helping him. I am all for everyone being treated right, fairly, but I am fed up with the likes of Choi and others who blame President Obama for every dam thing. If they can't get everything they want they act like a bunch of whining babies and I am dam tired of it.
AMEN! Why the hell can't these folks get the the fact our 2 party democracy is designed to obtain a consensus and a consensus is a compromise in which neither sides gets EVERYTHING they want! Obama is not the second coming of Christ he is a man who has to obtain a consensus with congress to get anything done and we all know the Baggers are obstructionist and clinically insane! Choi needs to grow a pair or borrow a pair get in line and wait his damn turn!
By the way, the Obama economic recovery is doing a lot better than G.W.Bush eight years of horror. Just think if you have a brain, if Bush had left a serplus for Obama like Clinton left for Bush, just imagine were things would be. Of course Bush would have still had the country in two unnecessary wars. So Bush had eight years to put this economy in a dam mess, and I do mean a dam mess, and only a stupid idiot would think that in three years everything would be great. We just avoided a second depression thanks to Bush. This President have had to deal with Tea-Republicans who only agenda was to see to it that he fail, even if the economy fail also. They don't give a darn if people suffer, well they do care about the rich, but the middle class and poor, they could care less about. Boehner have some nerve asking Obama where are the jobs? I would like to ask Boehner where are the jobs that he promise? He is not House Speaker just to sit on his orange butt and do nothing, but stab the poor and middle class in the back. Am I going to ever stop blaming Bush? Let me put it so you can understand, HELL NO!!!!!
Yesterday before Obama’s speech in NC he was holding some kind of jobs council meeting before his speech where someone was talking about the difficulty of the permitting process. The man speaking mentions that Obama’s team probably clued him in on the permitting difficulties after he implemented the stimulus and Obama joked that “shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected”:
This is just offensive. One trillion dollars wasted on a stimulus that didn’t work and now he’s joking about being wrong on shovel-ready jobs? Running up our debt by one trillion dollars at one fell swoop is something to joke about now? We are at 9.1% unemployment by normal figures and people haven’t been able to find a job for years and all of a sudden shovel-ready jobs is a punchline?
What about Mitt Romney sitting down with unemployed workers and he made some comment about he was unemployed. With four mansions and millions and millions of dollars, Romney has the nerve to sit before unemployed folks and talk about him not having a job. I guess he was trying to funny. Some of that good old Mitt humor. Romney has no job because he choose not to have a job, but he will have those millions to fall upon when he still have no job in 2012.
Lawrence, please don't have Dan Choi on again...he should be on Fox News ranting about President Obama. He's a superficial actor ramping up gay marriage for his own benefit and narcissism -- he's very sickening and he throws a bad light on the real cause...gay marriage. I think all people should be equal and have the same rights for all, but the gay community should pick a better spokesperson for their cause, and not Dan Choi, because he turns people off and he's very irritating to say the least.
I think President Obama has done more in 2 years than any President has done in 8, so Dan Choi calm down, no, just shutup!!! I think the President promised JOBS in during his 2008 campaign.
"Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the private sector workforce has shrunk by 2.6% while shedding 2.9 million jobs while the federal workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 7% while adding more than 144,000 jobs. Now, President Obama's FY 2012 budget proposes adding even more people to the federal payroll. Specifically, the President wants to create an additional 15,000 federal government jobs including 4,182 additional Internal Revenue Service employees 1,054 of which will be needed to implement Obamacare alone."
and the Democrats cant find a way to get back to spending levels from 2 years ago???
pw, sttp, ilp,
i hope you enjoy these #'s and facts.
democrats are not the only ones in washington responsible for "cutting spending", which is the only thing that you are concerned about. the issue is the budget which also includes tax increases, not only spending cuts.
your posts are very one sided, very partisan. the # that you must be referring to when you are writing are the spending cuts on gov't programs over the next decade of 4.3 trillion. you have yet to mention in your posts the 4.2 trillion in tax revenues the republicans want to cut over the same period.
gov't spending needs to be brought under control, and the democrats agree with this. but the republicans (you) want to slash vital programs to pay for more tax cuts for the rich.
PRESIDENT REAGAN raised taxes many times when the deficit hit a peacetime high of 6 % of gross domestic product.
clinton raised taxes in 1993, including higher income taxes on the wealthiest americans. by the end of clintons term the budget had been in surplus for four years.
W. and congress undid that surplus with 1.65 trillion in tax cuts, mostly for the wealthiest americans (his base). by HISTORICAL STANDARDS, the economic recovery of the bush presidency was exceptionally WEAK. by early 2009, shortly before Mr. Obama took office, the congressional budget office projected a budget deficit FOR THAT YEAR of more than 1 trillion. yet the republicans say this is "Obama's debt".
these are the facts of the economy, which you need to hear.
the budget for 2012 needs budget cuts, and not just from the 12% discretionary part of the budget that affects the most vulnerable of our nation. i understand that these people do not matter to you, it is the rich that matter to you. the cuts need to come from defense also.
tax increases from possibly the middle class and the wealthiest americans are also needed to increase revenues. correcting the deficit on the backs of the poor and vulnerable is bad public policy and bad economics.
the New York Times said that stimulus spending since President Obama took office-including tax cuts account for about 600 billion of the current 14.2 trillion in accumulated debt. the bush-era tax cuts coupled with major new spending for two wars and a Medicare drug benefit (bush) have added 3.2 trillion to the debt.
i don't think reagan made the case for tax increases, he just snuck them in, because he had to, to decrease the deficit. President Obama needs to make the case for tax increases based on the reality of our dire situation, not on the ideology of tax-cuts-above-all.
all we hear about from the republicans are tax cuts tax cut tax cuts for the rich, and spending cuts that will affect the most vulnerable. i don't know about anyone else, but this makes me think very poorly of the republican party.
Yeah, Choi, go ahead and vote for any Republican that you like...I dare you!!!!!!!!!
Well said, ValerieW. Dan Choi sounds like a bully and the airtime he gets is wasted time for gays.
We had just avoided a second depression, and it would have been all G.W. Bush's fault. But it was avoided thanks to the things the President did.
I have to agree with those voicing their dislike of Dan Choi and his attack on the President. He reminded me very forcibly of this episode on The West Wing , and while I do not know if Mr. O'Donnell wrote this episode or not, i am sure he will remember it !
In this episode, a very rich gay movie producer was bearing up on Josh Lyman ( not physically ) for not making President Bartlet come forward and oppose a certain piece of Republican legislation that was infringing on gay rights. They knew the bill would not pass but that was not enough for this particular person. The following exchange is what leaped into my head as I listened to Dan Choi spout :
Let Choi go ahead and vote for Tea-Republicans, and let's see where gay marriages will be. The Republicans would be talking about repealing DADT.
They ARE talking about repealing DADT !
My apologies that the transcript did not copy and paste correctly above.
ANOTHER OFFICIAL FAMILY VACATION FOR THE OBAMA FAMILY
First lady Michelle Obama's official visit to South Africa and Botswana next week will focus on engaging African youth and paying tribute to the cultural heritage and political struggles of both countries.
Her schedule includes a hearty mix of public events, visits with local consulate officials and tourism, and The Washington Post will be on the ground with her to provide you live coverage.
Obama will be accompanied by her daughters, Malia and Sasha, her mother, Marian Robinson, and her niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson, on the five-day goodwill tour that will take her from a meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela's wife to a safari in a Botswana game resort.
and W. was on vacation for the first 8 months of his presidency when he should have been paying attention to the warning he got that planes were going to strike the world trade center.
condaleeza rice said the warning was "vague" and that it was "not clear".
care to comment on THAT?
Cenk ran smack into our true political system kicking and screaming—bless his heart—when the so called ‘Progressive’ Congressman bluntly, and calmly dictated the current retirement age shall be raised to seventy years of age; the same truth as when professional, political pundits could not offer a reason to Cenk why both Parties agreed to extend The Patriot Act. Experienced Lawrence could probably explain in layman’s terms that swearing to defend our Constitution—NOT American people—simply mean defend the United States Government from enemies foreign and domestic, because that is what our Constitution really is; a political structure (framework) with ‘peoples rights’ only expressed in amendments. While watching Rachel for the first time in Iraq, she was blasting George W. by pointing out his drastic policy changes projecting Conservative ideology; thinking brave, very brave considering Rachel was criticizing a man who controlled the most powerful instrument in our known Universe, The United States Government—hence, my continued addiction to watch MSNBC to see if this network would ever make an impact. Rachel could easily have been labeled a ‘terrorist’ ending in water-boarding at Guantanamo according to law that the Legislative Branch passed—The Patriot Act. The Executive Branch—The President—of this instrument has become so powerful that the very same Constitution is often ignored, e.g. Article One states:
[Congress shall have Power...] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Meaning this single man can send a deadly missile up anyone’s ass with impunity. Anyone serving in the Military knows that marching, saluting, and saying ‘yes, sir!’ means you are now an automaton sworn to obey the President’s orders to kill anyone; even domestic taxpayers. Yes Rachel, brave, very brave you were.
MSNBC reports political news, not only with irrefutable facts (good or bad), but also explains detail implications to our society (sometimes impassioned); quite a unique phenomenon. Most likely its evening programming was created to counter the heavily bias and inflammatory Fox Network who streams mostly disgusting criminal activities that creates self hate (points out how human we are), and then injects selective, negative sounding political ‘reports’. Cenk—of course—sounded surprised at the Congressman’s remarks as would most United States citizens who incorrectly believe elected officials work for citizens, but really work for the Government itself. Citizen’s are welcome to express suggestions, campaign for candidates, but must fund the structure by paying taxes—that is our only obligation to agreeing to ratify the Constitution; oh wait, also to kill people. Political candidates make sickening, gooey speeches on how they will fight for the ‘people’ when in fact they must swear allegiance to the Government and against its enemies foreign and domestic. Candidates make political promises, as they often do, but once in office, they have no obligation to keep those promises; instead they ‘spin’ their actions or outright ignore confrontational questions like: Why are you not legislating on behalf of the people; Why are you favoring corporations rather than Joe Blow; Why are you giving tax benefits to rich instead of the working class; Why have you restricted our Bill of Rights; and so on—oh yes, outright lying to their electorate works as well. The Wisconsin political scandal may prove important to our history, but only results will tell; it is an interesting political development (possibly the only counter against big money interests' lobbying).
President Obama obviously is no different than another man who found himself in control of, but sworn to defend this powerful entity by borrowing more money (that we citizens must repay) to not bail out citizens troubles (hence the Republicans pointing out the Auto Bailout was unconstitutional), but instead fund Federal and local governments—probably to keep order from us pissed off citizens. In all fairness to him, here he thinks he has become President of the United States; makes a charming commitment to his daughters to be Superman and rid the world of nuclear bombs; discover no money in the Treasury; his instrument is in debt; the auto makers are bankrupt; the State Governments are bankrupt; the entire banking system is missing 500 trillion dollars; the largest insurance company insured the entire mess; and citizens expected him to repair the Bush damage. Oddly, killing a single man who was never convicted of a crime probably saved his political seat.
Over the years in American evolution, some ‘bones’ have been tossed to us poor citizenry, Medicare, Social Security, etc. largely due to the need in stabilizing the government revenue stream—taxpayers—at the same time projecting the illusion that Government money finances these entitlements, but in reality is fully funded by taxpayers. As expected, everyone wants to spend money on themselves and Medicare and Social Security entails a lot of money where both Parties want control over; although it is “our” money, the Government now owns it and we citizens have no say as the good Congressman dictated to Cenk how it is going to be.
Voters repeatedly complain that choices in presidential candidates—suck, for lack of a better word. Well no kidding, but how can one vote for some one that will represent the Government instead of you? Is it possible to ask allegiance to the Bill of Rights specifically like our first American taxpaying citizens demanded? Oh wait, The Patriot Act nullified that, so what else? We (and it sounded like MSNBC also) perked up our political ears when Candidate Obama won the Presidential office (even cried tears of victory for the People), but are repeatedly disappointed. What is our alternative? So, the final question is: Will Cenk become labeled a terrorist and find himself in Guantanamo? Of course! Go for it Cenk, we will send you a cake with a file baked into it.
An addendum to Obama's many problems; he finds the House of Representatives in control by Republicans who re-directs citizenry at NOT our problems, but at un-avoidable, already existing debt and job loss instead at the very root of our problem; our Government's powerful direction should be directed at restoring the Middle-class wealth so we can prosper and pay to clean the mess. Most Americans want to live a peaceful life, raise children, and watch good entertainment, but do not realize how we vote determines which direction the instrument of destruction or good can go. The vote of the masses is the only control 'The People' have over this powerful entity and over the powerful interests.
Disappointed liberals, we're all sick and tired of defending this guy. He failed to deliver us on the "HOPE AND CHANGE" he so dearly promised . We have lost our homes, our jobs, our savings due to his incompetence and bad policies. We now learned that this is just another politician that is willing to say anything to get elected. We gave him a chance to prove himself - he failed. The Obama experiment is over. No more on the job training. Democrats, I say stay home and not vote on 2012.
That's called ileagal voter supression. It's a criminal act. And the bold letters make it look even more grave.
I'm not disappointed in President Obama. If you want to lose your Medicare, or your Mom and Dad lose their Medicare, stay home and not vote. Just another politician, well what did people like you think he were, Jesus Christ. He was, he is a man who is trying to do what is right, and he is getting attack from every hand. The Tea-Republicans wouldn't do anything to help this economy, because it would help Obama. There agenda from day one has been do all they can to stop, block, slow down, filibuster anything this President tries to do, even if it slows down or destroy the economy, even if people suffer because it will help them in 2010 and 2012. I will have no problem supporting this President in 2012. The Republicans is not for the poor or middle class, they are for the rich folks like the Koch Brothers. Just listen to them. Just look at what they have done. Where are their plans to help with jobs, with the housing, is it by cutting taxes for the Koch brothers will that help the middle class? Let's say Obama failed. Okay what is the Republicans going to do to make things better? Is it go back to the eight years of doing things under GW Bush? Isn't that what lead us into this crisis? How soon folks forget. 2010 voters wanted to send the Democrats a message, so voters stayed home, they voted Tea-Republicans in, tell me that message sent made things better how. All I have seen the Republicans do is cut everything that hurts the middle class and poor folks, even want to destroy Medicare and Social Security. They even wanted to stop unemployment benefits, all the while fighting for the Bush tax cuts to become permanent for the rich. In some states Republican Governors want people who apply for welfare to take drug tests. Why don't they want the people on Wall Street or the Big Bankers to take drug tests. After all it was them who was responsible for this financial crisis, not the welfare people. But who do they attack? The poor and the middle class. They are after the Unions, the teachers, they have this Voter ID Bill which they are trying to surpress certain groups from voting. Just look at what the Republican Governors in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, have done. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have been one of the worst, along with Rick Scott of Florida. 2012 it's OBAMA/BIDEN for me.
Where do I post when I want to get a message to Lawrence. For now I just want to express how much I enjoy his broadcasts. I especially like the focus placed on coporate welfare and how we all are socialists. Its also refreshing to have a host who makes mistakes, admitts them and apolgozies. I was a social worker for 8 years before getting fired for defending and advising a client on how to overcome a siutation in which his probation agent and fellow therapists were trying to railroad him to prison, a long story. I was able to contact other agencies with more experience and they helped him acheive justice. I was also a former insurance agent where my native american clients were redlined and discriminated against kept the documents and helped them as much as possible, If asked I would say the mental health system at least in smaller communities is more corrupt than the insurance industry. Alot of confict of interest, its not an exact science many misdaignosed and over prescribed patients and once forced into the system by courts are to regain their freedom. Iam now fighting for my daughter who is court ordered into a resdential program for her mental illness and the whole system make so much money from her and 3 other residents that it funds 12 plus employees, anew van, beautiful new home and all the modern convenieces and we will have to go to court inorder to have a chance to get her mother my ex-wife to become her care-giver. Its a long srory also I know the system and have availed all advocacy to a dead end. She is high functioning and now that she is med complaint should have her freedom back but has false info in her file by a past social worker in order to get her the max funding and nobody want to get involved to help her and us. I