Failure to stop renewing tax cuts for the rich

Pres. Obama in NYT, 12/7/10 (another day of infamy?) tried to justify his failure to stop renewing tax cuts for the rich:

“I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts,” Mr. Obama said. “I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”

Facing questions about his “core principles,” Mr. Obama referred to the health care debate, in which liberals accused him of abandoning Democratic ideals when he gave up on a government-backed “public option” health care plan.

"This is the public-option debate all over again,” Mr. Obama complained, adding: “Now, if that’s the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then, let’s face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of pre-existing condition, or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.”

“I’ve got a whole bunch of lines in the sand,” he insisted, adding: “Take a tally — look at what I promised during the campaign. There’s not a single thing that I have said that I would do that I have not done or tried to do. And if I haven’t gotten it done yet, I’m still trying.”

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Failure to stop renewing tax cuts for the rich is a symbolic as well as a policy failure which might lose Obama the 2012 nomination. It compounds exponentially with his failure to put anyone from Wall Street in jail who were involved with the fraudent CDO's and CDS's and to stop the bank bonuses. The excuse (made by Summers and Geitner) that the bank bonuses are contracts is bogus because contracts based on fraud are non-binding at minimum and void at maximum. The bonuses should be put in escrow and a Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate. If that happens, Dems may have more of a chance to win if Obama runs. Obama does not listen to anyone. The parallel to Jimmy Carter made by Walter Mondale in the New Yorker is ringing truer by the day.