After reading his column, I have to scratch my head a little.
Check out Chuck Todd, NBC's chief White House correspondent, openly speculating that President Obama is going to embrace same-sex marriage because he needs money from gay people. "Gay money in this election has replaced Wall Street money," he reported. NBC's David Gregory agreed. For some reason, neither man seemed to think this theory reflects poorly on the president.
Then the conventional wisdom shifted. Observers were basing their guesses on the fact that HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Vice President Joe Biden had both made statements in support of same-sex marriage. The same-sex-marriage supporters who praised these developments were as quickly dismayed when the White House walked back Biden's statements, insisting that like Obama, Biden's views on the subject were still "evolving," a euphemism that seems to mean they'll favor either marriage equality for gays or discrimination against them depending on their moment-to-moment judgments about what's best for them politically.
Sounds like Mitt Romney's position!
He goes on to list about a dozen intitiatives that Obama has failed to deliver to progressives on (thus, the snarky jab at "gay money") but fails to list even one initiative that Obama has succeeded with.
Like Lily Ledbetter. Like healthcare reform (such as it is, it's still the first success attempt at passing a fairer system for all.) Like any number of other initiatives that came up and passed in the first two years.
Things like this require political capital and if you have an opposition party who's announced aim is to prevent you from having a second term, you have to deal with the hand dealt you.
Even on the list of things he claims Obama has not accomplished, Obama has accomplished a lot. Take, for example, this ridiculous claim:
Obama tricked anti-war voters into thinking that he wouldn't order American troops into battle unless there was an imminent threat to America or a declaration of war from Congress, then went to war in Libya, violating the War Powers Resolution, even though neither condition was met.
Sixteen confirmed troops set foot in Libya, and those were to help in the rebuilding of the US Embassy in Tripoli and none of them were anywhere near the battles. Some rumours placed the number as high as 12,000, but that was Alex Jones, the famous conspiracy nut, humping that theory like a chicken.
Now, he has a point in one regard: Obama made plenty of promises on the campaign trail that he hasn't kept.
And....your point is? If every politician who ran for office kept all their promises, no one would run for office anymore.
We'd have a dictatorship. Those are the only folks who can guarantee their promises.
Friedersdorf is clearly terrified that, OMG!, Obama might actually be free to make good on many of his promises in a second term!
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