Debt despair

I want to keep on just blaming the Republicans who are sticking to their promise to do everything in their power to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Just saying No to anything he proposes is not honest negotiating. They have drawn a line in the sand against any revenue increases, including such sane and simple suggestions as eliminating tax breaks for purchasing and operating corporate private jets.

For two years, I have been standing up for Obama against my progressive friends who insist that he could be doing more, showing stronger leadership; that he is being too quick to compromise, too often announcing his fall-back position at the beginning.

The point I kept making was that Obama had not abandoned our ideals, which are his ideals also, but that he was doing the best he could with the opposition he was given. I said, over and over, that we should not blame him, but blame ourselves for not electing a Congress that he could work with. We should not give up on Obama; we should redouble efforts to elect a Congress to help him in 2012.

With great sadness, I am slowly coming around to admitting that I am very disappointed in him. I really believe that he has a personality inhibition against being the bold, assertive leader we need. Given his background, that is in no way surprising. In another time, with less determined opposition, he has the makings for a great leader. But he's not a great leader against strong opposition.

I didn't expect it, because on the campaign trail he seemed bold and assertive. But that's very different from actually governing and doing the backroom stuff that LBJ was so good at. Here was a white man from Texas who got the Civil Rights Act passed against massive resistance from powerful Southern politicians. It wasn't because he was too quick to compromise; he knew how to exert his strong will and the power of his office.

I now agree that Obama is taking the wrong path in trying to negotiate with Boehner and Mitchell. He is negotiating as you do when you have two sides that are both committed to finding a solution. That is not the case with Congress. The Repubs are committed to making him fail. And time and again, he wants so badly to get something accomplished that he gives away too much and too soon.

They have learned that all they have to do is dig in their heels and just say no. And eventually he will cave.

I'm afraid that's where we are right now on the debt ceiling crisis. They are saying "NO" in thunder and determination. What's he going to do?

I fear that he will cave and give up on raising taxes on the wealthy and the corporations, and take it from the poor and elderly.

Please, Mr. President, prove me wrong.

Ralph