Obama: Maybe Not So Progressive After All
I love reading things like this:
The simple fact is that the vast majority of progressives, having successfully toiled to elect one of their own president, are invested more in his success than in narrow ideological battles. A small minority of progressives prefer to judge the president’s progressiveness entirely by what he does and not by what he says or who he is. Yet, there is nothing in Obama’s personal history nor in his voting record to suggest that he is anything but a committed pragmatic progressive.
…and then reading things like this:
The body of Mr. Obama’s writing and experiences before he became a presidential candidate would suggest that he is instinctively pragmatic, typical of an emerging generation that sees all political dogma — be it ’60s liberalism or ’80s conservatism — as anachronistic. Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party.
In other news, here’s Obama’s hand-picked deficit commission’s final report, and surprise! They recommend cutting social security “for its own sake, not deficit reduction.”
Sheesh: some people wonder why I seem to be negative. It ain’t negativity, it’s a rational response to a depressing reality.
December 1st, 2010 at 11:43 am
Do you always trust Matt Bai’s reporting?
December 1st, 2010 at 12:06 pm
no i do not. But here, i do. The evidence is overwhelming.
hand-picked deficit commission. lying about a public option. support for FISA after promising to filibuster it. Drug re-imporation. No strings attached bailouts. HAMP. escalating in afghanistan. claiming the power to assasinate american citizens without due process. continuing (and expanding) bush’s state secret’s abuse.
he’s not a progressive. he’s no different than Bill Clinton IMO, except he’s not cheating on his wife. Actually, he’s kind of worse than Bill Clinton: Clinton actually fought for things.