If I were a betting man, I'd say there is no way President Obama beats Mitt Romney this fall, but unlike many progressives, I don't blame this on the giant anti-Obama noise machine. It's definitely there, along with the forces in the shadows who would prefer a Romney presidency.

Instead, I blame what I think will be President Obama's defeat squarely on President Obama, and I've been searching for the perfect example of where he screwed up - then tried to lie his way back from it. During the search, I found an awesome paragraph by a columnist named Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com and connected some dots on my own.

First, do you remember how blatantly President Obama rolled over for Big Pharma during the healthcare debate? Here we were going to address the outrageous problems in healthcare, and before the process even started, President Obama cut a secret deal with Big Pharma that not only guaranteed they wouldn't be hurt, but actually enhanced their position. It was one of the early "Uh oh" moments of the Obama administration.

Of course, that's all been overshadowed by the mandate, etc...so I wanted a smaller, more tidy example of what went wrong, and I found it with the issue of medical marijuana. During the campaign, Obama's position was that he wouldn't, “use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws about medical marijuana.”

Asked to explain why his administration acted differently by going after medical marijuana dispensaries in California, for example, President Obama said, "I can’t nullify congressional law. I can’t ask the Justice Department to say,'Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books' . . . ."

Here comes the money paragraph from Glenn Greenwald:

"That’s about as vivid an expression of the President’s agenda, and his sense of justice, and the state of the Rule of Law in America, as one can imagine. The same person who directed the DOJ to shield torturers and illegal government eavesdroppers from criminal investigation, and who voted to retroactively immunize the nation’s largest telecom giants when they got caught enabling criminal spying on Americans, and whose DOJ has failed to indict a single Wall Street executive in connection with the 2008 financial crisis or mortgage fraud scandal, suddenly discovers the imperatives of The Rule of Law when it comes to those, in accordance with state law, providing medical marijuana to sick people with a prescription."

That's the President Obama B.S. factor that is going to cost him big in the fall. As far as connecting the dots: You know who opposes medical marijuana more than any other group? Big Pharma. The industry doesn't want to compete with a medicine it doesn't control, and as in the healthcare debate, President Obama was right there selling out a wide swath of his supporters in 2008.

My band played the mainstage of the Hempfest in Seattle for several years. The event drew 70,000 people later in each day. This is one of the most spirited movements I've ever seen, and the way President Obama sold them out, and then tried to lie his way through it, is a small, tidy example of why he will probably lose in November. Of course, he'll have plenty of people to blame - including a frenetic stampede of Palinesque morons from the right - but at the top of the list, he should put himself.

And remember, those prisons for profit have to be 90% full to provide slave labor for the likes of the investors such as Wells Fargo and Chase.
Who better to be sent off to,the gulag than powerless, sick, poor people?

Porn star, ball player, or President. It's of little use to have a big stick if you never take it out and use it.

Then there are his utterly broken promises on the tax system. He had the votes, and simply didn't do what he promised he'd do. He thinks people have forgotten. He's wrong.

Not only is Obama being disingenuous about prosecuting well-connected law breakers vs. medical patients, Bill, he is totally misrepresenting his executive branch powers in regard to medical marijuana. He doesn't have to “nullify congressional law,” because he already has the legal power to change marijuana’s classification from a Schedule I drug.

From: http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2012/04/25/obama-lies-about-federal-marijuana-law-to-rolling-stone/

Under current law Obama effectively has the power to unilaterally make medical marijuana legal. Obama is not legally forced to wage a war on medical marijuana; it is something his administration is actively choosing to do.

We're gonna need a bigger stick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW5IdwltaAc

You think this is a bad President? So do I. But wait for President Mitt and his Republican controlled congress and his Supreme Court picks. You can nurse your precious principles as the country sinks back into the 19th century for a generation to come.

Isn't it already there?

In some ways, going back to the 19th century is exactly what we need to do. How about going back to December 23rd, 1893? Then we'd have exactly 20 years to warn America about the Federal Reserve Act.

If America does collapse, that's the single most important mistake in our History: Selling off the ability to control our currency to private banks. The people who own these banks have been tightening their grip on us ever since, and using our own currency to siphon the wealth of America off for their own devices.

The 19th Century? I wish we could go back to the 19th Century and try this again.

The final straw will be when Hillary agrees to be his running mate, in an attempt to put a lock on the process. I'm not certain it would work, but it would showcase exactly the evils of the Democratic party, and the left in general.

Romney-Rubio. Has a nice ring. Where can I sign up?

Ewwwww.

You all talk big, but I know you'll be inking that little blue bubble in November.

Seriously, is there anyone here who voted for Obama in 2008 that is actually reconsidering their vote this time around? People just like to complain (me included) and it seems easier to do that when your man is elected and disappoints versus the opponent who shoves things down your throat.

I voted for Obama in 2012 but will not be voting for him again. I was duped, never again. That said, I reject the notion that there are only two choices. I'll be voting for a 3rd party this year in protest. Again.

Both parties are the same. Bought and sold. If you don't see that then you are naive.

What's with the sudden unusual(?) spate of speech-op appearances and screenface time of Biden, like, a dozen TV 'spectrals' since Groundhog Day, roughly? Maybe I can see but not compensate for my very hypersensitivity to prelude indicators (or imaginings) of a nine-eleven op Sequel associated with the solar eclipse coming May 20.
In wildest imaginings of political-intrigue MIC-made 'crisis' (not-to-be-wasted per Rahm Emanual), then the November ballot is Biden vs. Rommey.

It seems to me it's an open question whether or not by some 'departure' of Obama from POTUS position it would mean he takes with him the Dem.voters' disgust at the failures and lies of him personally, and (maybe) not transferred to Dems or the Dem.Party generally; or, in other words, I'm unsure whether or not We the Folks, (WTF) charge and fault Biden the same or as much as Obama.

Just, jeez loo eaze, massmedia sure has been rolling out some Biden brand introduction recently, finally(?) after 3 years during which Jay Leno out walking could not find 2 out of 10 street-meets who could name the Vice-President.

I'll be voting 3rd party. Throw away vote? So be it, but the whole two-party system seems like a set-up con to keep the same corrupt factions in power. For me Obama is the most disappointing president ever after watching him betray his platform and the movement that supported his rise. We all knew Bush was an idiot going in, but Obama seems like a calculating cypher who duped his willing believers.

Bill McDonald, your precise pointing at currency corruptions, caused by and since the 1913's Federal Reserve presence in America, being the root of the whole bushy problem grown out a hundred years, reminds me of Pepe Escobar's expert brief explanation for all of that century, for this economy-collapse situation, and for the future wealth of the world -- one word: BRICS -- here, in CommonDreams.org's aggragation, in original from TomDispatch.com.

I voted for Obama in 2012 but will not be voting for him again.

You already voted in 2012?

Allan L, did you click onto INFO's youtube? Your comment becomes somewhat irrelevant.

INFO, I think it's likely even worse than your link cited:

http://knowledge.asb.unsw.edu.au/article.cfm?articleid=1427

I nominate Gibby for COMMENT OF THE YEAR!

"Porn star, ball player, or President. It's of little use to have a big stick if you never take it out and use it."

MJ - Good catch on the typo. Have a cookie! :-)