"I'm still waiting" for change. The woman, at the meeting arranged and broadcast live by CNBC, said she was "exhausted" defending the president, "exhausted defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now." She said she and her husband "thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives, but it's starting to knock on our door. Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: Is this my new reality?"

http://www.newser.com/...

The online accounts are brief summaries, whereas as the print version of The Post devotes the front page and entire two page spread to highlighting this one quesion by one questioner.

The comments are filled with schadenfreude and taking the woman's comment as proof of the failure of Obama's presidency and agenda. You get the usual right wing talking points of letting the free market system take over, stop taxing job creators, etc., as the solutions for the current economic doldrums.

leftsux

I do love seeing liberals suffer.

steveack

09/21/2010 11:27 AM if she still supports the empty suit, then she's as clueless as he is!

WhoHitJohn

09/21/2010 10:39 AM This woman has been kicked in the teeth by this inept empty suit that has turned "hope and change" into "hoax and chains" and yet she still supports him 100%. Velma Hart has a problem that goes way beyond the street-hustling community organizer.

NewCitySteve

09/21/2010 9:34 AM When your core voter supporters begin to turn on you it's time to revisit your agenda. You can't spend or tax your way out of a recession. The electorate does not like having a health care plan jammed down their throats. The electorate is very tired of endlessly hearing how wonderful Muslims are and does not appreciate your utilization of NASA to publicize whatever meager contributions that they have made to the world. Take your medicine in November and work with the new Republican Congress and maybe things will work out for you...and more importantly us.

What is supposed to be ironic about this woman's frustration (according to these accounts) is that the woman is a) black b) a veteran and c) works for the government.

President Obama responded by giving some examples of change that he had enacted already for the middle class including more access to student loans and credit card reform for consumers. She was dissatisfied in accoutns afterwards because he did not honestly answer whether this was 'her new reality' or not. One commenter (distinguishing himself from the right wing schadenfreuders) made and interesting remark welcoming her to the middle class and the reality of what the middle class is today, which he says black people pulling themselves out of poverty discover that the middle class is no panacea either.

I don't know where she lives but she says she is sending her two teenage daughters to private school, and she and her husband are afraid that they are returning to the franks and beans era of their lives.

This incident brings up so many questions and issues it's hard to know where to start.

Is private school something the middle class should expect to be able to afford? I wish I knew where they live but most public schools outside of the inner cities are very high quality schools, reflected in unaffordable property tax rates, which is not something the President of Federal Governemnt can do anything about.

The electorate that voted for President Obama definitely projected their expectation of 'change' onto him. I interpreted his change message as applying to the government and how it would work. He did talk a lot about restoring the middle class but that isn't what I thought he meant by the famous 'change' slogan. Much of his legislative agenda is geared towards helping the middle class and Vice President Biden's main agenda was supposed to be helping the middle class. That seems to have dropped off the radar.

This degradation of the middle class has taken many decades to get where it is today. It will take a long time to restore. I can understand the difficulty and frustration of the hardship being encontered as I am part of it, but is it in any way reasonable to expect a massive cultural shift in a year and a half?

Probably the only thing that can really make a difference is to reform the tax code. And look how much opposition that one step is already getting, despite the fact that Obama campaigned on it and ran on it and was elected on it. This kind of Town Hall and that speciic question seems like the perfect opportuity to advocate for tax reform as a way to shore up the middle class, I don't understand why he doesn't come out and say that the only way to restore the middle class is to start by changing the inequality of income distribution through fair tax policy.

Interested in hearing your thoughts.

UPDATE: Velma Wants a Pony!

'I Still Have Great Faith in This President'