President Obama's Second Term?

If President Barach Obama wants a second term as president, it is beginning to look like he will have to run as a Republican. After all, he has played a significant role in making Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the most powerful legislator in America.

After lambasting President Obama last night for his total abandonment of the progressive principles that originally secured him the presidency, Keith Olbermann began a "countdown" to the next presidential election.

In a press conference yesterday the President announced the tax package he had brokered with Republicans. The absence of input from legislators of the President's own party was evident in the stunned horror of many of its members. The deal included extension of unemployment benefits, a temporary cut in employment taxes and a two-year extension of ALL the Bush Era tax cuts. The President insisted this debt-swelling deal was the most beneficial agreement possible and neither side got everything it wanted. Senator McConnell's obvious delight with the deal during his own press interview belied this statement.

During his speech, the President once again "wagged his finger" at progressive members of his own party who have expressed growing disillusionment and frustration with his administration. It did not seem to occur to him that the folks who elected him took him at his word when he promised elimination of the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest among us that increased polarization of America's "haves" and "have nots;" when he vowed to take on the insurance industry and fight for single-payer health coverage for all Americans; when he stressed the importance of structural reform of the financial industry; when he swore he would close Guantanamo Bay; when he outlined "change you can believe in."

It is true the diversity of the Democratic Party worked against him. Conservative Democrats are often ideologically closer to Republicans than their own party's mainstream. Corporate money flows in the coffers of elected officials who support corporate agenda and money talks - often, stridently, effectively.

But the man who penned "The Audacity of Hope" is one lousy poker player. From the beginning he folded solid hands to aggressive bluffs. Now, even if he makes the final table, which is very much in doubt, he will do it with a short stack that will not survive the first few blinds.