By Jim Hoover

The Republicans have made an excellent case for replacing all House Republicans who voted for the Paul Ryan budget plan. It is a budget so obviously unfriendly to the majority of Americans that Paul Ryan was booed at a town meeting a few days ago.

A Washington Post  poll indicate that 72% of Americans (even 54% of Republicans) favor rescinding the tax cuts for the rich at the same time that Ryan called for more tax cuts for the top 2% income levels. In addition 78% of Americans are against privatizing – in effect killing – Medicare which Ryan’s plan advocates.

All but 4 Republicans in the House voted for Ryan’s bill.

Talk about handing the Democrats a gift!

My prediction is that Barack Obama and the Democrats will blow it.

Above, cartoonists in Australia, The Netherlands, Canada, and the US offer a representative global view of Obama’s perceived political cowardice.

Either Barack Obama takes lightly the desires of Americans or is intimidated by Republicans or their corporate sponsors.

His current oratory disparages Ryan’s plan, but his past performance grants little hope of backbone renewal for his 2008 campaign rhetoric proved to be more forceful and strident than his weak performance has been.

While Obama and his advisers seem to feel betrayed regarding what they consider a strong performance, The Rasmussen Reports poll show that 47% (only 25%, strongly) of voters somewhat approve of the president’s performance. With great certainty, I would say that this poll indicates a belief that he will never fulfill his campaign promises.

Let me give some examples.

He discarded the single-payer health care system, even the public option, well before health care reform debate began. To the delight of the health care industry, he pushed the Republican plan of the 1990s, a relative giveaway to the health care industry (shades of Bush Medicare Prescription Plan).

Thug politics, including the tea party movement (funded and promoted by the Koch Brothers), almost killed healthcare reform, with a belated support campaign from Obama and the Dems.

He appears too cowardly to get into the war against the middle class in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Maine, to name a few. In these states Republican governors and legislatures are taking away rights and disbanding local governments elected by the people, for example, Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Like a punch-drunk fighter in a ring, he has consistently taken to the ropes. He is a contender who considers his own TKO a victory.

Wall Street traders are artificially jacking up gas prices by some 70 cents per gallon when Obama’s regulatory agency could stop the practice. So far, he has done nothing while the reckless Wall Street speculation threatens further economic recovery.

His bailout of Wall Street bankers had more passion than the bailout of people being foreclosed, this while he gave lip service to troubled homeowners, many defrauded by companies like Bank of America which didn’t even have papers on foreclosed mortgages.

His defense of such homeowners has been weak or nonexistent.

Intimidated by Republicans, Obama weakened the stimulus, allowing pork-barrel spending by Republicans. Consequently the stimulus didn’t help to turn around the Wall-Street-caused recession fast enough. Moreover, Obama and the Democrats were weak on maintaining unemployment compensation while Republicans attacked it.

While the rich thrived, everyone else faltered.

Leadership with Obama and the Democrats wasn’t there. Obama was always bargaining like a beaten puppy – or not at all.

He had a Democratic majority with the executive and the legislative branches of government. He bargained like he had a position of weakness, caving to the minority Republicans, even when the people were behind policies that the Republicans kept obstructing.

Voters decided they had no champion. The result, Democrats now have a 2/3 majority.

Currently we need more spending to help spur employment. Republican intimidation gives us cuts, bringing a stalled recovery that Republicans hope will take down Obama. Their claim to reduce the deficit is a sham.

Negotiating to avoid a government shutdown, Republicans got more cuts than they even originally bargained for. They got almost $39 billion instead of $32 billion. How’s that for a tough negotiator?

I want to believe that tax cuts for the rich will end.

During the 2008 campaign he said it wasn’t negotiable and he caved. Why should we believe him now when he says the same? By now, Republicans know it is empty rhetoric and the people know it too.

Everything but his rhetoric indicates he will cave again. He is against privatizing Medicare, he says, but Republicans know he will compromise on cuts. He is against social security cuts, but he will agree on raising the benefit age or decreasing benefits.

Obama has lost my trust.

How can you be proud of a loser who talks big but throws in the towel before the battle is over?

Western movies used to tell us that villains, the guys with the black hats, must lose. Paul Ryan and almost all Republicans in the House wear their “Despise the People” on their legislative brand.

So why is it that the Republicans never seem to lose?