Life After Obama

The centrist Obama has disappointed, so what's down the line? Here is a bit from a NY Times op-ed by Maureen Dowd that identifies one possible candidate, Andrew Cuomo, who has shown nerves of steel and a dedication to progressive causes. Here's the key bit:

If a politician’s character is defined by what he chooses to put himself on the line for, then Cuomo has shown character.

I asked him if President Obama had missed the moment when he stuck to his position at a Democratic fund-raiser for the gay community in Manhattan that states should decide the issue.

“No, there will be other moments,” he said diplomatically. “The president comes to New York and they ask him that question. That question didn’t exist a year ago. There’s been an amazingly rapid evolution on this.”

But, for many gays, Cuomo is now the civil rights leader among elected officials, a role President Obama should have proudly held. Cuomo, who now has a huge and excited base of millions of volunteers, activists and donors across the country, can press a button and raise millions.

And that, of course, has led to talk of 2016, when he could face his neighbor Chris Christie, who says he is not a fan of the gay marriage legislation, and even Michele Bachmann, who reacted to the joy in New York by saying she wants a Constitutional amendment protecting marriage.

I wish Andrew Cuomo challenged Obama in 2012. I'm tired of Obama coming in a day late and dollar short on big issues, I'm tired of Obama negotiating with himself until he's given the Republicans everything they want before he sits down to "negotiate", I'm tired of a guy who claimed "change you can believe in" but has delivered more Bush policies for four more (and threatening 8 more) years. The US doesn't need more years of wars of "choice", more years of warrantless wiretaps, more years with Guantanamo being a torture camp outside the law and making the US the shame of the world. The US needs a social progressive to roll back 40 years of abuse and misrule by right wing Republicans and "centrist" Democrats who roll over an look like "me too!" Republicans.