'I hate Democrats more now that I am one than I did when I was a Republican,' writes John Cole. Liberal blogs letdown over Obama

Liberal bloggers reacted with renewed despair over news that Democrats could drop the millionaires’ surtax provision in their version of the payroll tax cut extension and that the president backed off his veto threat on legislative language about terrorism detainees.

“It appears Obama will not veto the Defense bill with the hideous detention policies, and I just heard that the Democrats have dropped the millionaire surtax for the payroll tax cuts. I never knew the amount of depression and self-loathing that was involved in becoming a Democrat. I honestly think I hate Democrats more now that I am one than I did when I was a Republican,” wrote progressive John Cole at Balloon Juice, in a blog post titled “Time for the Annual Collapse.”


Other left bloggers complained that the decision to cut the millionaires’ surtax on the payroll tax cut bill would be giving up an electoral advantage.

“So much for a really good talking point for Democrats in 2012,” wrote Joan McCarter on Daily Kos, adding that she was skeptical “Republicans would compromise even after this concession. “

Conservatives appeared unexcited by the concession on the payroll tax cut, but gleefully noted that the Democratic base would be angry over it.

“[It’s] not so much a big win for us as a big loss for them,” wrote conservative blogger AllahPundit on HotAir. “His [Obama’s] base will hate being forced to drop it given how well tax hikes on the rich poll, even though realistically there was no way Democrats were going to walk away from extending a payroll-tax cut for the middle class to try to get Republicans to bend on this.”

Gnashing of teeth could also be seen in the liberal blogosphere over the Obama administration’s decision to back off a veto threat of the National Defense Authorization Act after lawmakers addressed some of the White House’s concerns, but allowed indefinite military detentions to continue.

“The bill overall is ripe for abuse. The White House simply didn’t want to take the political hit for vetoing a bill that ‘supports the troops.’ And they weren’t aroused enough by the thought of indefinite military detentions to mount any serious opposition to it,” writes David Dayen at FireDogLake.

The liberal TalkLeft blog wrote that the new Defense Act had only “slight changes to the detainee provisions,” which meant that “indefinite detention is here to stay and Guantanamo is not closing anytime soon.”

AMERICAblog, another progressive website, merely linked to Human Rights Watch’s statement that the refusal to veto was a “”a historic tragedy for rights,” but did not add further comment.

The two Democratic Party let-downs are the latest to disappoint liberal bloggers, who were most recently disappointed about the Obama administration’s decision to overrule the FDA’s recommendation to allow the Plan B contraceptive pill to be sold over-the-counter.