Obama Is No Liberal!

[wuapinmon]

Obama Is No Liberal

By James Bennet

It was a beautiful moment when Barack Obama, with his election, drew the left and right together in one powerful conviction: that he was a raging lefty. It didn’t last long, of course. For the right, every day now brings exhilarating proof of his secret socialist mission; for the left, each day brings more disillusion: Afghanistan; Guantánamo; rendition; no prosecution of Bush officials; immigration; Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; a health-care law that, okay, might be the most ambitious social legislation in 45 years, but didn’t create a single-payer system and was heralded by a truckling executive order on abortion. Promises broken, promises deferred—and also promises inferred. How could he not be a lefty, given that he makes such poetic speeches, given that (and here’s another assumption shared with the far right, an uglier one) he’s black? Yet deep down, of course, the purists always suspected him, and are as titillated as Tea Partiers to remain in righteous opposition. To what? A wintry pragmatism joined to a novel (for our time) seriousness about applying government to make life better in a nation that, sure, might be willing, even eager, to elect an Indonesian-educated black Hawaiian with an unsettling name, but that finds the full agenda of the unforgiving left, like that of the unhinged right, a bit of a stretch.

[BlueHair]

He's a Centrist.

[il Padrino Ute]

Only a communist would think that Obama isn't a liberal.

[BlueHair]

Only a communist would think that Obama isn't a liberal.

I guess if we are using the Teabaggers as a guide, Obama is a liberal. Chris Cannon was too liberal for those guys.

[il Padrino Ute]

I guess if we are using the Teabaggers as a guide, Obama is a liberal. Chris Cannon was too liberal for those guys.

I didn't mean to infer that you were a commie; I didn't see your post until after I had posted.

Obama is no centrist. Look at what he's pushing.

I still wish you wouldn't use that term for the Tea Party.

[Coach McGuirk]

Obama is in no man's land. He isn't right, and he isn't left enough for the libs.

[BlueHair]

Obama is in no man's land. He isn't right, and he isn't left enough for the libs.

So.....He's a Centrist

[Coach McGuirk]

So.....He's a Centrist

Left of center. I would say he is farther left of center than Bil Clinton, who, fwiw, I think was a pretty damn good president.

[BlueHair]

I didn't mean to infer that you were a commie; I didn't see your post until after I had posted.

Obama is no centrist. Look at what he's pushing.

I still wish you wouldn't use that term for the Tea Party.

I can't resist. That's what they originally called themselves.

Honestly, Obama never had a shot, but he hasn't done anything to improve the situation. Republicans everywhere should be grateful that he won because it didn't really matter who won. The winner was destined to be a one term president.

I know I am in the minority here, but I think the only real solution to the economy would have been to cut all discretionary government spending and pretty much eliminate all types of entitlement programs. I always joke about how I would rather spend taxes on the health insurance than war, but the truth is we can't afford either.

[Uncle Ted]

I can't resist. That's what they originally called themselves.

Honestly, Obama never had a shot, but he hasn't done anything to improve the situation. Republicans everywhere should be grateful that he won because it didn't really matter who won. The winner was destined to be a one term president.

I know I am in the minority here, but I think the only real solution to the economy would have been to cut all discretionary government spending and pretty much eliminate all types of entitlement programs. I always joke about how I would rather spend taxes on the health insurance than war, but the truth is we can't afford either.

I agree. What happened to all the classic liberals?

[il Padrino Ute]

I can't resist. That's what they originally called themselves.

No, they didn't. That is what the assholes at MSNBC called them. The Tea Party has never referred to themselves in that manner.

[Clark Addison]

No, they didn't. That is what the assholes at MSNBC called them. The Tea Party has never referred to themselves in that manner.

I will show some solidarity with IPU on this. Although I don't agree with them in many ways, calling them tea-baggers is immature. I don't like name-calling from either side.

[BlueHair]

I will show some solidarity with IPU on this. Although I don't agree with them in many ways, calling them tea-baggers is immature. I don't like name-calling from either side.

There's no doubt I'm immature, but this group scares me like no other.

[venkman]

Obama is a hard-core radical leftist wrapped in a thin veneer of centrism. Ya gotta scratch a little below the surface folks!

[statman]

Obama is a hard-core radical leftist wrapped in a thin veneer of centrism. Ya gotta scratch a little below the surface folks!

He's a hard-core leftist, who's just pragmatic enough to realize that some of the positions he's supported in the past (Gitmo) are just plain stupid...