Senator Obama is and has always been centrist on the issues

[Rudyabdul]

That's one of the reasons why I support him. I am disappointed in the bitter attacks he's been getting from his supporters and their using of right-wing talking points. Don't you realize that the right is using your anger and disappointment against you?

I feel that many of you downplayed his message of unity and compromise and made Obama into something he never was. You all thought the message of change was about a far-left progressivism that would override the right because that's what many of you wanted, which is understandable after 8 years of being battered by the right-wing agenda... do you think it is okay for the left to do the same thing? Change is not necessarily about revolution. Obama has always been about inclusion, which isn't possible if only the left progressive agenda is pushed. Now progressives on the left are disappointed that their image is not being acted out.

I have listened to Democrats talking Obama up as a left-wing progressive and thinking that wasn't quite what I saw him to be. Yet I felt happy with his candidacy because he seemed to me to be talking about sensible compromise politics: It's a method that, when it works, gets things done to benefit the greatest possible number, but not all, and usually not those on either end of the spectrum.

Obama's commitment to the idea of unity, of valuing all and including all, is fundamental to his message and goal. He is not a liberal ideologue. He is a liberal open to compromise. He is also a sensible, rational, responsible leader who takes care to work out pragmatic solutions to difficult problems.

In Psychology, I learned that when people first fall in love they go through a process called cathexis, in which the lover makes the beloved into something he or she wants and needs the other to be. After a period of time, both lover and beloved begin to see each other as they really are. This is what is happening with liberal progressives and Obama now. A relationship reality check is going on. It is not that Obama is "flip-flopping," but that liberal progressives are coming to see him for who he is-a grownup, thoughtful, non ideological politician who offers Americans a balanced, inclusive, and cooperative political future.

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[babylonsister]

1. Welcome to DU, Rudyabdul, and thank you for your

reasonable, logical, sourced post. :hi:

[Skittles]

2. know what disappoints me?

people entranced by Obama who see ANY criticism of him as "right-wing talking points". FUCK that.

[Rudyabdul]

5. I didn't say ANY

I never said that ANY criticism of Senator Obama is right-wing talking points. When I hear Democrats call Obama a flip-flopper, unreliable, cant be trusted... they are using right wing talking points. It's okay to disagree with Obama's positions or statements on certain issues but don't attack his character.

[elocs]

3. You say Obama is:

"...a grownup, thoughtful, non ideological politician who offers Americans a balanced, inclusive, and cooperative political future."

You know, I'm not sure liberal progressives are particularly interested in that. What they do want is for Obama to unquestioningly and without compromise jump through their hoops and do what they advise. Or else.

[Vincardog]

4. I supported Barack over HRC because I did not want another cover up of the * crime family. I do not

expect him to become a raving liberal but I do expect him to treat Progressive Populist causes a something more that political talking points to be mouthed before the election and actively resisted after. The "Center" in todays environment is FAR to the right of Nixon and is not anyplace we should be helping anyone go.

[stillcool]

7. What's the point?

There is no 'we the people'. We are red states and blue states. We are separated by black, brown and white color bars. We are Republicans and Democrats. We are separated by God, Guns, and Gays. No one is going to do anything different unless things 'change'. And nothing will 'change' unless a small slice of the 300 million people that 'we the people' are can actually be united for some common cause. Not going to happen.

[Lautremont]

6. I need a definition of the word "centrist."

Does it mean trying to appeal to the most people at one time? Does it mean trying to hit some balance between pragmatism and idealism? This latter is a definition I've sometimes seen here, and it strikes me as the ripest kind of bullshit, because the implication is that the left is pure idealism and the right is pure pragmatism, and it gives me the impression that the wet noodles who seek to marry the two are nutless spectrum-straddlers with no real convictions. I'd prefer to think Obama is not such a noodle.

On the other hand, I never did think of him as particularly progressive, so I'm not one of those having eighteen heart attacks because they're all blindsided by this apparent shift.

[Ian David]

8. Obama Says His Critics Haven’t Been Listening (‘I am someone who is no doubt progressive’)

Obama Says His Critics Haven’t Been Listening (‘I am someone who is no doubt progressive’)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3390982&mesg_id=3390982