Obama Offers Hard Truths to Supporters (great AP Article)

[Perky]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_HARD_TRUTHS?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-08-29-03-24-27

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama has a habit of telling interest groups what they don't want to hear, even at the risk of alienating audiences critical to the prospects of a presidential candidate. Not to be undone by his rivals, the Illinois senator has made remarks befitting the myriad of forums and debates he's attended, praising the work of unions, upholding Israel to Jewish groups and decrying President Bush's spending on education.

But he's also uttered words not often heard, especially when Democratic constituencies gather. For example:

-Obama told the National Education Association that performance-based merit pay ought to be considered in public schools.

-Cuban exiles are considered one of the keys to winning Florida, but he disagreed with leaders who want a full embargo against Fidel Castro's government and instead called for allowing travel and money to the island.

-Michigan voters play an important role in national politics, but Obama visited Detroit to lecture the state's biggest industry for failing to improve automobile fuel efficiency.

"I don't do this for shock value," Obama said in a recent interview.

"There may be people who chose not to support me because I'm not telling them what they want to hear or reinforcing their preconceptions," he told The Associated Press. "I want to be elected to the presidency not by having pretended I was one thing and then surprise people with an agenda, but to get the agenda elected, to get a mandate for change. And you can't do that if you're not doing some truth telling."

Obama's approach was a signature of chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband in the 1992 presidential campaign. The strategy is known in modern politics as a "Sister Souljah."

[izzie]

1. Well he is right for me and just why I like him so.

A man who thinks and with a new way of thinking. Just why did not the auto co. work to change their ways? Why are we so up tight about Cuba? Silly, and smart people need to look at this stuff and I am happy this man is, plus saying some thing about it.

[Connie_Corleone]

2. This is one of the main reasons I support Obama.

Speaking reality to the people.

[comtec]

3. Good on him!

It takes stones (and high approval ratings) to say the truth to power(that's the people if you didn't know :) )
Detroit is a hole who should have been making better cars for at least 30 years now!!!!

The Cuban exiles are generally the worse of the worst coming from Cuba (they're exiles for a reason) and VERY reich wing and not going to vote for a damn black democrat anyway. why waste your breath on them anyway?

as for performance based pay.... what are the standards? I know MANY talented teachers, and a few crappy ones. What they need to do is across the board RAISE TEACHER PAY AND INCENTIVES... like... NO TAXES ON TEACHERS! IMHO Teachers should get a across the board tax cut. punt! For all the crap they have to do, and the hundreds of non-paid hours most teachers put in a year preparing for their classes, and caring for their kids, they deserve no less!

Teachers need better, pay, permanent, free, top-tier health care (my step dad is retired, and has to shell out for his own health care until he's 66 (* raised the age) for Medicare. my mom is one year younger, so they will have to dole out a LOT a month until they are both 66 for medical! what a crock!!!

Both sets of parents (Mom n step dad, n Dad n step mom LOL) are fine, and retired after years of service to the people. But if they had been private workers, i shudder to think what their retirement might be looking like right now. Currently I am working in The Netherlands. It is likely I will have to retire here because I doubt the US will be in any shape to live in in 30 years. (also jumping the pond is bad for one's accrued Soc Sec, unemployment doesn't help either)

Point being Obama needs to fight to repair Soc. Sec as well... I hear Al Gore still has a lock box... never used :)

[Adelante]

7. I've known several Cuban exiles who are not right wing

They'd left Cuba because they were gay and times were hostile there for gays. But it didn't make them right wing in political philosophy and that they would discriminate against a candidate on the basis of race is ridiculous. I think the exile community you're referring to is much diminished by attrition at this point, as well, and being replaced with a more open-minded generation who might appreciate Obama's point of view on Cuba.

[MethuenProgressive]

4. Obama's copying Bill Clinton's DLC strategy

From the OP: "Obama's approach was a signature of chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband in the 1992 presidential campaign."

Looks like Obama doesn't hate the DLC as much as his supporters do.

[AtomicKitten]

5. the comparison was specifically the style of campaign being run ---

not policy

[MethuenProgressive]

6. "not policy"? How does Obama's "policy" differ from the DLC's?

Warren Buffet, Hollywood, exclusive fundraisers, voting with Hillary on every Iraq vote, reaching out to Republicans...
If it quacks like a duck...

[KittyWampus]

8. What's the "DLC" Policy on Cuba Embargp? You made the statement, now back it up.

What's the DLC policy on fuel efficiency?

[MethuenProgressive]

10. That's his only policy diff with the DLC?

are you sure?

[draft_mario_cuomo]

16. Obama's PAC gave money to 72% of the Senate DLC, plus Harold Ford

What does that tell you about how anti-DLC he actually is?

[Perky]

18. Its call making firends and scrtching the back of fellow senators.

Its not like they had Primary opposition.


That is an absolutely meaningless number.

[mrgorth]

9. Just keep waiting

for Clark to jump in.

[AtomicKitten]

13. I merely pointed out the article is talking about campaigning style.

Obama came out hard against the Iraq war in 2002 before it was cool ... Hill and Edwards voted for the war. Obama voted for funding a couple times, the last time he voted "no."

The rest, well, you're kinda riffing on the "DLC must die" meme. Obama is not DLC, has rejected the DLC (this has been posted a gazillion times). As much as people want to summarily lump he and Hill together, there is a distinction to be made without breaking a sweat.

Bonus comment: IMO people who are adamantly opposed to Hill might want to consider throwing their eggs into the basket of a contender who can defeat her. Kucinich is not that candidate as much as people here want to believe he is a contender. So that means Edwards and Obama. Edwards' eagerness to invade Iraq and his complicity with this administration in selling the war eliminates him from consideration IMO. So that leaves Obama as the most viable shot of defeating the SS Clinton.

[CTLawGuy]

11. The article is wrong about this

Sister Souljah was not an instance of truth telling. It wasn't meant to send a paritcular unpopular but valid policy message to blacks, it was meant as a cynical way to communicate to white voters that Clinton was not a tool of black interest groups. In the same vein, Clinton went to Arkansas in the middle of the campaign to execute a mentally retarded man to show how tough on crime he was.

[PATRICK]

12. Clinton did it once

Specifically it was to delineate a new balance after Jesse Jackson's effect on the Dukakis campaign. Times had changed already anyway. This constant realism unfortunately can be overdone, really dampening any one of the groups that hit the shoals of Obama's approach. I guess Walter Mondale, only remembered for his "Where's the beef" in the age of the quip blip media circus, is not the example they want to bring up when he promised to raise taxes at the convention. Sensible, real, and good for 20% more loss of votes.

Overdoing things and trying first one tack then the next are typical of the first presidential run often for reasons that have nothing to do with innate skills or the wisdom of the moves. The effect always moves to handicap the newbie with lack of experience worries. You have to give him credit for strong effort and the ideas have substance way beyond a "put down". It is a difficult, if not impossible, position to be in. Only boldness has a chance, and boldness carries the highest price as well.

[KaptBunnyPants]

14. Sister Souljah?

I thought that was about Clinton demonstrating his contempt for the Left in order to appeal to swing voters. Calling for higher fuel efficiency or opening up relations (mildly) with Cuba doesn't really seem to be in the same category. At least the call for merit pay is a pander to the right, making it similar to the infamous Sister Souljah moment, but by keeping it wonky it's not nearly as inflammatory.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

15. Will he tell us the hard truth of how many troops he will keep in Iraq indefinitely? nt

[AtomicKitten]

17. Edwards does not propose complete withdrawal.

He said he would not leave troops in Iraq for an "unspecified length of time." That means he will leave troops in for a specified length of time, he just forgot to mention how long.

You might want to ask what Edwards what he really intendeds to do instead of relying on twisting his double-speak to mean what you want it to mean.