Area Politician Would Like To Amend His Previous Comments
Barack Obama in 2004:
Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America.
Barack Obama in 2012:
There are no red states or blue states, just the United States. pic.twitter.com/xm7EFGjK
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 1, 2012
Barack Obama, almost exactly ten years, and 30 years too late:
Each of us has to pick a side. Do we allow our democracy to wither? Or do we choose to make it better? That’s the choice we face, and it is a choice worth embracing.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 22, 2022
Welcome To The Party Pal
4 comments:
I admit to personal bias here, because I like the man; I like his personality and (what I can see of) his work ethic. I tend to believe that his repeated, self-harming efforts to reach out to and work with the Republican caucus during his presidency were not corporate pandering, but heartfelt attempts to work within the model of an America where leaders may disagree on methodology, but nevertheless share the goal of promoting the greatest good to the most citizens, and causing the least possible harm. In effect, he really believed there still really was a United States of America.
That said, he was ruinously wrong, and his high-minded attempts to reach a governing consensus hamstrung many parts of his presidency. I wish we'd had the fighter he's finally found himself to be as the President he was while in office.
But with that being said, I'm glad he's finally found a stronger voice. I hope Americans listen.
I wonder if Obama's hesitance to be more militant is his own experience of always being outnumbered in every situation, and knowing that however "liberal" people might be, when the shit gets real, they wouldn't have his back. So mollifying and cajoling were his tools, not confrontation.
Obama was absolutely required to espouse "civility" David Brooks-style because doing anything otherwise would have been seen as uppity brought out a political lynch mob within his own party. Obama betrayed his heritage, opportunity and every expectation by not using his bully pulpit to stick a silver-plated fork into the liver of white MSM America and eat it with fava beans and a nice chianti. But it's likely true that he and his family lived in the shadow of daily hatred and fear, so just holding their own with some dignity and hope is more of a feat of progress than most people will realize. These are my preferred views. But there are others obviously explanations, a top one being Obama is just another dry, new-monied executive functionary, who understands how to cater to the needs and wishes of the banking and oil industries.
Yeah. I agree with the above. I had my doubts from the first with Obama when he introduced his economic team before his inauguration. They caused the crash that got Obama elected. I felt better when he saved the auto industry but was let down when he caved to Bushfeld (Joe Liberman) and the public option went poof. But the thing that really got me was Obama was willing to play poker with the social safety net and he nearly caved to Boehner but the only thing that saved it was Boehner couldn't take yes for an answer. Then came the non fight for his own SCOTUS nominee.
Eventually I came to this site...
https://www.obamatheconservative.com
It is to say the least to me an eye opener. I still admire Obama. HRC would have done much the same had she won the nomination and that is the problem. The Democratic Party can't be the party of Wall Street and the rest of us working stiffs.
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