Concession On Tax Cuts Sends Obama Fans To New Level Of Despair

Dan Froomkin's got the lowdown:

Despite his protestations at Tuesday's press conference that he had no choice, President Obama's concession to Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy appears to have sent many of his historically most fervent supporters to new levels of despair.

The president's refusal to fight harder against the massive giveaway to people who need it the least has disheartened not only activists, former Obama advisers and members of Congress, but his grassroots.

In a poll taken just before Obama announced his agreement with Republican leaders Monday night, an overwhelming majority of former Obama campaign donors and volunteers said they strongly oppose extending the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year. And nearly three fourths said they oppose a deal with Republicans, according to the Survey USA poll commissioned by MoveOn.org.

More here.

Here's a fun little game I've started playing. Well, it's more of a bet with myself: no matter how far Obama swerves to the right, no matter how ineffective the Democrats in Congress are, liberals will continue to support the party. If I win, I'll buy myself something useless and nice. Victory will be based on liberal turnout for the 2012 election. I hope I lose, which will unfortunately mean that the GOP will do well, but it will also mean that the left has turned a corner, that they've given up on a political organization that has been coasting on its liberal reputation for over a decade. I'm pretty sure, however, that I'll win. The left probably will turn out in droves to support the Democrats in 2012. Then the pathetic hand-wringing combined with foolish hopes and wishful thinking will start all over again, and frankly, I'm starting to get sick of it.

No, I'm not at all happy about this fucking stupid tax compromise. It's utterly irresponsible and shows with absolute certainty that the whole deficit thing is just a grand GOP performance. Obama could have taken to the bully pulpit to explain to the American people how massive tax cuts for the rich are completely contradictory to deficit reduction, could have made it the rhetorical centerpiece to some truly game changing presidential action. But Obama is obviously not interested in changing the game. And I've known that since before he was elected. Hell, anybody who listened to what he actually said, I mean, beyond all the "hope" and "change" bullshit, has known that since before the election. Consequently, while not happy, I'm not shocked or surprised. Indeed, I pretty much expected the standoff to turn out the way it has.

So while I condemn the President's actions here, I reserve most of my scorn for the shocked and surprised liberals who are wildly befuddled that their hero is behaving exactly the way he said he was going to behave. Man, conservatives are evil, but liberals are just contemptible.

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