Guy who knows Obama: He's much more liberal than he lets on

[mollymongold]

I was watching cspan and they were going over the election. This man named Rothenberg said he ran into someone who knew Obama. He said Obama's much more of a liberal than lets on..for instance he's not really in favor of the death penalty. However, he is a pragmatist, and likes different opinions...also, he wants to have legislative accomplishments, and he wants to be re-elected. I just thought I would share.

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. anyone who read his second book

knows the guy's not a centerist in ideology, but a moderate in temperment, which is better than being a centerist, ideologically.

[Uzybone]

2. Of course he is, he campaigned way to the left of both Gore and Kerry

and even then he had to sound centrist because thats the only way he could win. Id rather have a pragmatist than an ideologue of any stripe.

[sandnsea]

4. His platform was exactly the same as Kerry's

You could exchange the meat of their speeches and not know who said what. Obama came after Katrina, gas prices, Harriet Miers, and a whole host of obvious failures by the Bushies. As well as being a much better orator.

[Uzybone]

5. We cant ignore the Iraq War

Or campaigning hard on minimum wage and raising taxes on the rich. Kerry never went there. I'm not disparaging Kerry by any means but Obama is clearly to the left of Kerry.

[sandnsea]

7. Bullshit, you didn't listen

Kerry called for withdrawal from Iraq by the middle of 2005. He led on it in the Senate, much more than Obama did. He fought to raise the minimum wage and raising the taxes of the top 2% came directly from him. There is absolutely NOTHING in Obama's platform that wasn't in Kerry's first.

[Indenturedebtor]

9. I don't remember any of that stuff from Kerry

I also don't remember the focus on transparency, national energy grid, massively increased funding for science, national healthcare, etc.

Kerry is awesome, I love him, but there are differences.

[sandnsea]

13. Then you didn't listen

My god. You don't remember his call for a new Manhatten project for energy independence? Or saying we should all have health care as good as a Senator gets? Or opening the federal health plan to everybody, and subsidizing it? Or calling for a return to science again? There is no difference between Kerry's and Obama's platform, except I'd trust Kerry to stick to it more than Obama will.

[Uzybone]

11. I'll have to do research, because I dont recall Kerry

ever campaigning on raising taxes on the rich. I don't even think he campaigned on letting the Bush tax cuts expire. He didn't campaign on withdrawal from Iraq, you are making that shit up. He even said he would still have voted for IWR even after we knew there no WMDs.

[sandnsea]

14. You didn't listen to HIM

You listened to what idiots, including those at DU, said he said. He absolutely DID call for ending the war. Go read his speech in Missouri from the summer of 2004. My fucking god, he was beat to hell over letting the Bush tax cuts expire and could never get anybody to hear him when he said he was only going to raise taxes on the top 2% in order to pay for health care. You didn't listen, you just didn't.

[politicasista]

16. No, people didn't listen

Many were punch drunk with media spin from the Rovian machine, which is too bad.

[politicasista]

18. He did not hear that question

He had hearing loss from Vietnam. Of course, it was a Rovian trap. Democrats should have been defending that gaffe like they did with Obama's "Spread the Wealth" and Biden's "tested" comments but they weren't.

Sandnsea is not making none of that up. It's the truth, that DUers and the media continue to ignore.

[peoli]

3. he is the most liberal president this country has ever had. I have always said that.

[changemonger]

20. Probably , but that doesn't mean much

His first major appointments are a clear sign that he won't govern as the most liberal president .

[Basement Beat]

6. I crave a liberal president....

[liberalpragmatist]

8. Obama strikes me as a "skeptical liberal"

He strikes me as someone with firmly liberal and progressive instincts -- he has a very idealistic liberal vision of the world, but he's a bit of a burkean when it comes to getting there.

I'm sure his instincts are right there with most DU'ers, but he's skeptical about the possibility of radical, abrupt changes, which he fears isn't sustainable and can cause unintended consequences.

If you look at Obama's theory of change, it's basically the idea that one needs to pick battles wisely and do a lot of groundwork -- building broad public support and being a little bit cautious about the change you're implementing -- there's nothing wrong with big changes, but they need to be well-considered so to avoid causing unintended consequences and they need to have broad public support so that they can take root firmly.

[marimour]

10. i'm a very skeptical liberal.

I'm all for some compromise that allows us edge the country more and more liberal without triggering hard resistance from the right. I think that kind of liberalism has the potential to keep us in power longer instead of these sudden changes from rep. to dem. every 4 or 8 years.

[iamthebandfanman]

12. i think its called being fair

and respecting everyones point of view.

thats what makes him a centrist... sure, left leaning.. but still a centrist.
he wont let an ideology blind him or force him into a quick decision.

personally, i think this was how the presidency was intended to be... i dont think the founding fathers ever imagined an 'extremist' from any ideology to take hold of power and those that dont agree be damned...

[Peace Patriot]

23. I tend to agree with you. And I think some are taking the Rahm Emmanuel appointment

the wrong way--as a big Obama tilt toward DLC-ism.

But there is another way to look at it. Obama now has the DLC's boy on a tight leash, right next to him in the WH. Emmanuel has to perform, as to getting Obama's policies thru Congress, or he's out. And who better to ride herd on the DINOs in Congress, than the guy who put them there? I think it may turn out to be the most brilliant appointment, ever. Obama had to compromise with the DLC-Clinton faction to get elected in these corpo/fascist coup circumstances. (Bushwhack corpos 'counting' all the votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code! I mean, come on.) Biden as VP was the compromise moment. And probably giving Emmanuel a big spot was part of the deal. But what spot? WH chief of staff couldn't be a better place for Obama to keep an eye on him, and use his aggressive political talent and insider knowledge to rescue "Main Street" (all of us).

I was like everybody else at first, about the Emmanuel appointment. Like, Good God, so THAT's how it's going to be?! But then I thought it through, and I'm much favoring the "brilliant appointment" theory, at this point. Somebody over at another thread was crying, 'Clinton won!" at this appointment. But it may be just the opposite. Clinton--or, rather Clinonites--the DLC--have been outfoxed.

In all the writings about Obama, one theme comes through again and again and again. He LISTENS. He likes to hear contrary opinions. He's open-minded. And--very unlike Bush & putrid company--he is not ideology-first. He is for what works. He respects practical knowledge and suggestions. He is also very different from the Clintonites/DLCers in their almost hysterical panic at losing control of the Democratic Party for corpo/war profiteer purposes, to the grass roots. Obama respects the grass roots. They do not. He is a real Democrat. And they are not--they are Corpo Democrats. (They may be well-intended, thinking that, 'what's good for the Corpos is good for America'--but that is who they really represent.) Obama doesn't have this panicky attachment to the neo-liberal IDEOLOGY. And it IS an ideology--and they react just like ideologues when they think their ideology is not succeeding.

This is a key difference between Obama and the prior leadership of the Democratic Party. It may not make him a leftist, exactly, but it sure may make him a great president--as to getting things done on behalf of the people.

[AlCzervik]

15. i saw the same program, it was post election analysis for the US chamber of commerce.

[BunkerHill24]

17. Liberal! I wish he was Health-care Marxist...there I said it!

[Jennicut]

19. Obama is liberal but a pragmatist, gee I knew that the whole time. Is the media stupid?

We all knew that after watching the debates with Hillary for months on end. Obama has always been to the left of Clinton, Gore (when he ran his campaign, he is more liberal now) and Kerry. But he also is practical and wants to work with others in both parties to get things done. Its pretty much why I and many other voted for him.

[elocs]

21. A pragmatic Liberal--now that's a rare and welcome creature.

Pragmatism is not a common Liberal trait or characteristic. Too often Liberals steadfastly back what they believe is right to be right regardless of any negative consequences or reality and sometimes you take what you can get, finding the balance between principles and reality. Yes, Obama is pragmatic and that is the biggest reason he will get things done.

[liberalpragmatist]

24. Awfully flattered

:hi:

[democrattotheend]

22. That's always been my sense

That his instincts are pretty liberal but he's pragmatic, not dogmatic, and that he genuinely considers different points of view and wants to hear every side before making a decision. He seems inclined toward compromising in order to get something done on the grounds that something is better than nothing. Usually I agree with that, but the danger is that he compromises too much, so that the legislation has so many loopholes it becomes useless.