It's the jobs, stupid

The editors at AlterNet got together and made a list of the ten failures of President Obama that make them angriest.  It is the usual litany of complaints you'd expect from those of us on the left--failure to prosecute big banks, the drone programs, NSA surveillance, the President's too easy and often capitulation to republicans, among others.

You know what the list doesn't contain?  The single failure that should make all Democrats angriest--the administrations inability to improve the jobs market.  Yes, I know a President in and of himself cannot create jobs, but he can sure push an agenda, and it's not as if President Obama didn't have the legacy of FDR and his public works as a guide.  It isn't as if we don't need a lot of work on the country's infrastructure.

Look, the items noted by the editors at AlterNet (truly one of my favorite sites) are all well and good, but we on the left all too often fail to note that those issues, while important, aren't usually so with a majority of Americans.  As we embark on the 2014 election cycle, you'd be hard pressed to come up with 10% of the American people who believe any of these failures to be among the most important issues of this year's elections.

The second greatest tragedy of Bill Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky (the first being the hurt he caused his family) was the good will of an excellent economy he wasted having to spend two years fighting the ridiculous republican impeachment fiasco.  To think of the good he could have done for the country with an electorate full of Americans with good jobs and economic optimism.

If the editors at AlterNet really want Americans to make surveillance on Americans or racism in the war on drugs a priority, they'd do well to focus on the economic well-being of working class Americans.

Otherwise, they're very likely to stay too damn busy just trying to survive to care.

Peace,
emaycee