QUIET OBAMA ACCOMPLISHMENT

I haven't been watching TV much recently, so if this has been reported and I just missed it, forgive me. But it seems that the plan Obama has hammered out with BP re the Gulf oil compensation plan is an AMAZING accomplishment.

Under present law (thanks again, Bush-Cheney admin), an oil company can only be held liable for $54 million in claims. WA Senator Patty Murray is trying to change that with a new bill, but in the meantime, that's the law/regulation or whatever you want to call it.

Obama has gotten BP to fund a $20B fund to pay the people hurt by the Gulf oil disaster -- and it isn't just $20B, according to Ken Feingold, who is administering it.  It's replenishable by BP if $20B isn't enough -- and as the efforts to stop the flow have failed miserably, it may be necessary to pay fishermen, shrimpers, hotel chains and other tourist industries who depend on tourism, etc. for numerous decades.

This is HUGE. This is so huge, in fact, that some GOP folks are calling it a "shakedown."  One GOP fellow has apologized to BP for the inconvenience of being required to help beyond what is actually required of them. 

Kudos to BP for agreeing -- but the greatest kudos go to Obama's folks, who doggedly pursued them, cajoled them, and reminded them that this disaster is a public relations nighmare and that only by doing the right thing could they ever redeem themselves as a company in the eyes of the world.  That must have taken some doing...  That's diplomacy (or clout) of the highest order. 

Because of the way this has been handled, the American taxpayer shouldn't have to put out an extra dime to rescue the Gulf; BP had agreed that they made the mess, and they'll clean it up.

So in addition to health care reform, mitigating a global financial meltdown, smacking Wall Street upside the head and almost 100 other things this administration has done, it has also had our backs during this presently-unmitigated catastrophe in the gulf.  The oil continues to gush, the white sands of Florida continue to turn foul,  people continue to hurt and fish, foul and mammalian wildlife contine to die, but one thing is certain: Obama is focused on what CAN be done to make certain something like this will be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and then WHEN it occurs, the companies responsible will honor their moral and ethical reponsibility to fix it, whatever it takes, for however long it takes.

That's leadership. That's quick-witted strategy. That's the fellow I voted for.  I have never been more proud of a vote in my lifetime.

I hope every other person who voted DEM in 2008 will take stock of what has been accomplished against enormous, vitriolic odds and realize that this administration is getting results. In just 18 months we're a helluva lot farther along than we "should" be, given the virulent attacks and stonewalling of the other major party.  And it's only the beginning, as long as we turn out in large numbers this year again and use the ballot to proclaim, "Good job!  Keep it up!"

I hope Obama supporters will get busy following the 4th of July and volunteer to make phone calls, go canvassing, and reach out to friends and family to underscore to all you meet that you've seen what can be done when you have representatives in Congress and elsewhere who have ours backs and who do the right thing, even when it's hard...

Obama Supporters are Still Gung Ho ...

I've been reading and hearing recently about the GOP's prognostications for November. They're laughable, the imaginings of fevered, delusional minds. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, the hope that "saying it and seeing it in your mind will make it so" (you know, Rhonda Byrne's The Secret with all its trappings!) but, based on what I know, it just ain't gonna happen.

I've been calling Obama voters for three weeks now as a volunteer for Organizing for America and, with rare exception (less than once in 100 calls), the folks who voted for Obama are in awe of all he has managed to accomplish (93 definable "wins") in just 16 months against tremendous odds, and all plan to support him by supporting his Democratic stalwarts this year during midterm elections.

True, some feel the President hasn't yet addressed "their" issue adequately, or that he hasn't been as progressive as they would like him to have been on some of the issues he has tackled (health care reform chief among them), but none of the voters I've spoken with plan to "throw out the baby with the bathwater" because of it. Most realize the necessity of baby steps, of getting a bill passed into law that can be massaged into something better down the line.

The bottom line for most Obama supporters is this: whatever he does deal with, he seems to get done with remarkable regularity. He's a do-er, not a dreamer or a faux promise-maker. Those of us who like what he's doing are very, very pleased.  Those who don't... well... they're vocal and vitriolic , but there are nowhere near as many of them as there are of us. And I don't see them creating many converts because they so often sound like crazies. (They've even voted against bills they sponsored because Obama mentioned that he would support them. Yeah, like I said: crazies!)  

The GOP right now reminds me of the vitriolic band of animal activists who carry signs reading "Experiment on Criminals, Not on Animals." Totally bizarre. The humane movement, as a voice seeking relief for animals,  needs to remain humane even with its messages if it hopes to gain the vitality of additional supporters.  The moment it suggests that inhumaneness or uncivility for anyone (including criminals) is OK, they've lost their moral standing; they've sabotaged their own message. 

The GOP seems to be doing something similar these days, so I'm really not all that concerned that they're going to rally enough additional troops to regain control any time soon. They're just pissing off a  whole lot of people who might otherwise be inclined to listen if they weren't being shrill and unprincipled. Do I care? I should (more than I do) but as long as they keep insisting on shooting themselves in the feet, I can't help but laugh... 

By far, the vast majority of people I've talked to are delighted with what Obama has done, with his proposed next steps, and with how things are moving along.  To think any of them would vote in ways that would thwart him is ludicrous. For what reason?  So the "Party of No" can un-do what he has managed to do?

It's just not happening!

I could tell the GOP how to turn it around, but since I'm an Obama supporter, I'll keep it to myself, thank you very much. They wouldn't listen anyway. They're so busy living in the echo chamber of their outrageously inaccurate talking points they can't hear anyone else.

Which is a shame... but it does make my job easier: encouraging people to turn out again in large numbers to support a President who is intent on actually fulfilling the agenda we voted him in to accomplish.

As long as he keeps doing what he's doing, as well as he's doing it, it's easy to keep his supporters fired up and ready to vote for the representatives who support his agenda -- and ours.