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Do You Think Obama Could Pull a "Bush"?

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DemocracyInaction Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:42 AM
Original message
Do You Think Obama Could Pull a "Bush"?
Edited on Fri Jun-27-08 09:44 AM by DemocracyInaction
I hope so and pray so; but doubt he will. Remember "Mr. Compassionate Conservative" and "Mr. I'm a Uniter Not a Divider"???---and then once Bush got his useless ass into the Oval Office he hung a hard right and has never veered back. I'd love to have Obama do the "center" thing during the campaign (as he is doing), take the oath, and then hang a hard left!!! Jesus, wouldn't that send the nutcake right over the edge. Imagine all that power Bush usurped which they thought then was just "peachy keen" but what their reaction would be knowing it was now in the hands of Obama! God, they would be digging bunkers, posting guards, sending messages by pigeon, etc. in their paranoia. Actually, it is going to take a Democrat doing just that kind of turn in order for the people to get rid of the brainwashing they have been under and see what it's like when a government actually does work FOR them. They need to be lead to water and their noses shoved in it until they finally get the republican crap washed out of their brains!!!
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WeDidIt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
1. Your concern is noted. n/t
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Umbram Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:23 PM
Response to Reply #1
13. Did you make it past the title, or just post immediately? (nt)
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RUMMYisFROSTED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:45 AM
Response to Original message
2. I was going to ask the same thing.
My guess: You'll see positions play out that constitute policy between the primary and GE rhetoric.
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katandmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:51 AM
Response to Original message
3. If only. But Bush was a puppet. Obama seems to be calling his own shots.
Unfortunately.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 09:55 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. So you'd prefer another puppet? nt
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katandmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:33 PM
Response to Reply #4
15. I prefer that Obama be held to the exact same standards DU holds everybody else
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:35 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. You didn't answer the question. nt
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Mrs. Overall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:08 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. Why is it "unfortunate" that Obama is calling his own shots?
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katandmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:31 PM
Response to Reply #5
14. Because he has no one but himself to blame for his flipflops -
Which makes him an outright liar. Which I consider more unforgivable than being a puppet.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #14
19. You've got a tough choice if flip-flops bother you so much...
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15924.htm...

It’s a delicate dance, and John McCain is ‘liable to break a hip’
Posted June 19th, 2008 at 10:05 am

snip//

The past couple of weeks have been especially difficult when it comes to McCain flip-flops.

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.

* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.

* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.

* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)

Wait, I’m not done with the last two weeks yet….

* McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.

* He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion, he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

* McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.

And these come after these other reversals from April and May:

* McCain believes the telecoms should be forced to explain their role in the administration’s warrantless surveillance program as a condition for retroactive immunity. He used to believe the opposite.

* McCain supported storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported moving “towards normalization of relations” with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.

* He argued the NRA should not have a role in the Republican Party’s policy making. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported his own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997. Now he doesn’t.

* He wanted political support from radical televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain supported the Lieberman/Warner legislation to combat global warming. Now he doesn’t.

And these are the flip-flops I’ve noticed earlier:

* McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”

* McCain is both for and against a “rogue state rollback” as a focus of his foreign policy vision.

* McCain says he considered and did not consider joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.

* In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.

* McCain has changed his economic worldview on multiple occasions.

* McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions.

* McCain is both for and against attacking Barack Obama over his former pastor at his former church.

* McCain believes Americans are both better and worse off than they were before Bush took office.

* McCain is both for and against earmarks for Arizona.

* McCain believes his endorsement from radical televangelist John Hagee was both a good and bad idea.

* McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting “irresponsibly.” His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.

* McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal.

* In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.

* On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.

* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.

* McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

* McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.

more...
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katandmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:34 PM
Response to Reply #5
16. Because his lies can't be blamed on anybody else
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QueenOfCalifornia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:25 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. One of the weirdest
posts ever... And let me tell you, this place is where the weird is knee deep.:eyes:
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katandmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:35 PM
Response to Reply #8
17. I'll take that as a compliment, from a land where Obama's flipflops are
principled decisions where everybody else's flipflops are pandering.
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caledesi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:09 AM
Response to Original message
6. Your concern is duly noted. NT
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MyNameGoesHere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:19 AM
Response to Original message
7. * only got to where he is because he was enabled by
enablers. So do i think it could happen to Obama, Clinton, or any other president.yes it could. The enabling here is a fine example of that. In the past DU has always called out Dems on jerking to the center. All we heard about HRC was how much she was like a republican. And then it gets embraced and exalted when Obama does it? WTF? I am a supporter of Obama. I will not enable him though. he is wrong on many of the current issues. he was absolutely right before on those issues. He has this thing won, he does not need to go to the center. That is what is dismaying.
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crankychatter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:27 AM
Response to Original message
9. what made bush powerful was a complicit congress - esp the lockstep GOP
Obama will be dealing with a hostile, special interest influenced legislature, even IF, we get a solid Democratic majority

He couldn't "veer left" if he wanted to
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DemocracyInaction Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Cranky--thanks for actually reading!
I think some just read the title and think I want Obama to go center or right. I want him to use "whatever" to get in and then go LEFT! The country just sat there and yawned when Bush went right; so why not yank them to the left and stop living on our knees in front of the rich and corporations and introduce programs to actually help the people. Hell, we are all still going to pay taxes---the people can't get it through their stupid heads that they can either pay for fucking wars OR they could start paying the same (or less) for things that actually help life in this country!! Go left, young man, go left.......
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crankychatter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 11:46 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. he has to hammer out deals with the "enemy" -
there is NO WAY around it

He's been talking about it for years

Why are people surprised?

Centrism, as practiced by the DLC types, is a function of corruption.

It's the effect of our representatives funding their campaigns and being in bed with the same special interests as the GOP.

Centrism, as Obama understands it, is the old school, pragmatic, hammering out agreements by finding common ground... bringing resolve and concensus wherever possible.

These are worlds apart. One can be a true progressive without practicing "Tyranny by the majority."

That pesky scholar, actually DID his homework. How dare he, eh?
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:18 PM
Response to Original message
12. Everytime I heard a Republican say"we have to wiretap, we have to torture, yada, yada, yada,"
I'd say what if a Democrat were in the WH?

Typical reaction was a ghostly pallor and incoherent mumblings.

I'm confident Obama's got the chops and the cred to do turn left in the WH.
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SemiCharmedQuark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-27-08 12:38 PM
Response to Original message
20. But Obama's pre-election voting record is solid. Anyone that looked at Bush's past knew he was
Edited on Fri Jun-27-08 12:38 PM by SemiCharmedQuark
no compassionate conservative and, to put in mildly, completely incompetent.
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