If Obama was a ThirdWayer....

[mylye2222]

He would have CAVED before the RWers before their shutdowns.
He would not have done Obamacare.
He would have invaded Syria. ..
And the economy would not had gone up to the result we know.

Thats a good proof.
IMHO.

[RobertEarl]

1. Yep

Obama rejected the 3rd way

Oh, he hired a bunch of them and they sure made a mess of his administration. Just imagine if he had not hired any of them, and instead hired Leftists to do the work. We'd have had single payer, banksters in jail along with Cheney, etc.

You think Obama has learned his lesson?

[AgingAmerican]

2. Obama's administration

Has always been riddled with third wayers and investment bankers. 'Pragmatism' is the calling card of the Third Way.

[ucrdem]

3. K'n'R

[leftstreet]

4. The ACA is a third way program. UK stopped Syrian invasion

etc

The ACA is a for-profit health insurance program very similar to the GOP plan

The Parliament vote in the UK forced the WH to withdraw the plan to invade Syria

The economy has 'gone up' for the wealthiest, not the average person

Obama, the Reagan Democrat, is the ultimate third wayer

[pampango]

12. The ACA is actually patterned after the very Democratic Massachusetts legislature's plan.

Romney submitted his GOP health reform plan. The Democrats in the Mass legislature made so many changes for the better that Romney vetoed the eventual health care reform law. The Democrats in the legislature passed it over Romney's veto. I would still prefer a NHS style health care system but I do not pretend the the ACA is a GOP plan.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Obama >>is<< DLC/Third Way. No question about it.

[LawDeeDah]

6. says you

[ucrdem]

7. Not according to Third Way. They don't like him:

http://perspectives.thirdway.org/?p=3879

[mylye2222]

8. Thanks to you

To educate us.

[AgingAmerican]

11. On the contrary

They brag about him...

http://www.thirdway.org/about

[ucrdem]

13. Can you quote the text? Thanks. nt

[SMC22307]

19. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Or in this case, pictures.

[ucrdem]

21. A pic of the president signing a bill doesn't mean Obama is a member of Third Way.

There's no text claiming that he is, and in fact, he is not.

[AgingAmerican]

31. He is under their influence

Which they brag about on their website.

[Cali_Democrat]

37. Aren't you a Hillary supporter? nt

[AgingAmerican]

38. No

nt

[AgingAmerican]

33. Sure

Health Care

Third Way helped shape and pass the Affordable Care Act.

Third Way fought successfully for a market-based approach to cost control in the ACA. We also developed a messaging framework built upon a series of reforms that would provide "stability and security” to the insured, and President Obama took our framework and used those exact words repeatedly, including in a speech to a joint session of Congress in September 2009. In a moment when the bill was failing, his shift to our message tipped the balance and helped pass the ACA.

You want some more?

[pa28]

35. You mean this.

We don't just sit around and think, in a tank or anywhere else. We get results. Our ideas have been adopted by the President, Congress and other policy makers.

http://www.thirdway.org/about
Visit the link and click "about"

[SMC22307]

17. Obama, Joe, Nancy and Harry... the gang's all there! (n/t)

[hootinholler]

26. That's because he poached a bunch of them for his administration

I'd be pissed too if someone hired all my talent away from me.

[Rex]

9. I agree. The POTUS is in no way a libertarian.

Capitalist yes, libertarian no.

[wyldwolf]

10. good god. Are you ALL newbies? He STATED HIMSELF he's a New Democrat

President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, he offered a statement of solidarity.

“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.

The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19862.html

For conservatives still trying to fit Barack Obama into their old tax-and-spend-liberal box, Tuesday was a very bad day. In the morning, the president gave a tough-minded education reform speech demanding more accountability from schools, teachers, students, and parents. The same afternoon, he brought members of the House New Democrat Coalition to the White House and told them, "I am a New Democrat." According to Politico, Obama went on to describe himself as a fiscally responsible, pro-growth Democrat who supports free and fair trade and opposes protectionism.

So much for the ridiculous talk-radio bid to dub Obama a socialist. As Ruth Marcus points out in today's Washington Post, "The notion that President Obama has lurched to the left since his inauguration and is governing as an unreconstructed liberal is bunk." From his education reform agenda to his team of pragmatists to his heavy emphasis on responsibility, Obama is leading the country the way he promised he would: neither to the left nor right but on a path that's new and different.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_hasbeen/2009/03/yes_he_is.html

Despite the labels hung on him from all sides, Barack Obama has been, either determinedly reluctant, or notoriously slippery about defining himself. But early this month, according to a story in Politico, in a relaxed meeting with right wing congressional Democrats, the president let slip his mask, if only for an unscripted moment. “I am a New Democrat,” declared President Obama, firmly identifying himself with the brand and philosophy, though not necessarily with the organization of the Democratic Leadership Council.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/president-obama-declares-his-dlc-allegiance-says-i-am-new-democrat

Go ahead, spin it, deny, claim you had dinner with him last night and he told you he was joking.

[ucrdem]

15. BAR is a rather dubious source

and none of these show any indication that Obama is a member of Third Way, which he clearly isn't.

p.s. not to get into the bogeyman business, which I agree is dumb, just to clarify that calling Obama "Third Way" is dumber.

[wyldwolf]

16. "New Democrat" is another term for DLC and/or Third Way. Fact

[ucrdem]

18. Yes but "I am a new Democrat" doesn't mean he's a member of an organization by that name. nt

[SMC22307]

20. I don't need to be a card-carrying member of an organization to embrace its philosophy.

Nor does Obama.

[ucrdem]

22. Let's be clear: Obama is not a member of Third Way.

The rest is speculation.

[SMC22307]

24. I couldn't care less whether he is or isn't "a member." He embraces its philosophy. (n/t)

[SMC22307]

25. Member? Perhaps not. Believer? Yes. (n/t)

[wyldwolf]

34. "The rest is speculation"

1. We have no idea if Obama is 'member' of the think tank known as the Third Way that was founded in 2004. After all, that organization is made up of writers, strategists and administrators, NOT politicians.

2. We DO know he is a New Democrat which means he follows the Third Way philosophy as defined and refined throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. How do we know? His words and actions.

[wyldwolf]

23. Of course it doesn't

"New Democrat" is a type of Democrat that follows the 'Third Way" political philosophy. There are and have been several official and electoral arms of the Thirdway:

DLC
New Democratic Network
Third Way

The Senate New Democrat and House New Democrat Coalitions are the Congressional arms of the Third Way movement.

I guess a history lesson is in order. Might make an OP.

[TheKentuckian]

14. No, that would make him one sneaky ass Trojan Horse Teabagger in Democrats clothing.

[still_one]

27. According to the star chamber anyone who disagrees with them are 3rd wavers

[Thinkingabout]

29. Yet when you ask them which issue they do not like the DLC stands, they don't have an

answer. Don't know if they know what they are against.

[Phlem]

28. Why have no bankers gone to jail?

http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/third-way-no-way

[Phlem]

30. It's so much more complicated than that.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-goldman/redefining-the-center-to_b_804327.html

[pa28]

32. "Good proof." you say?

He held firm on government shutdown last time because he finally learned the Republicans were bad actors and good faith negotiation was impossible. The time before that he DID cave and Boehner bragged about getting 98% of what he wanted.

Your next point that the President would not have done Obamacare if he was a third wayer? Here's Third Way's statement about it . . .

Third Way helped shape and pass the Affordable Care Act.

Third Way fought successfully for a market-based approach to cost control in the ACA. We also developed a messaging framework built upon a series of reforms that would provide "stability and security” to the insured, and President Obama took our framework and used those exact words repeatedly, including in a speech to a joint session of Congress in September 2009. In a moment when the bill was failing, his shift to our message tipped the balance and helped pass the ACA."

http://www.thirdway.org/about/a-record-of-impact

Sorry, it seems to me you've made a case that he is a third wayer.

[bobclark86]

36. Yeah, he would have...

Proposed a Heritage Foundation-written health care package.
He would have bombed foreign countries without declaring war.

Oh, wait.

The dude's a moderate (which around this forum is a bad thing, but it's good for getting elected and getting things done).

[mylye2222]

39. Remember also that DLCers

were not particulary happy with Obama being the nominee in 2008...