My Grand Unified Theory Of Obama

[cali]

Of course this is all guess work, but it's educated guesswork. From observing Obama closely for over a year now, and in particular, observing him since his election, here's my theory.

Obama has a very ambitious agenda. And yeah, most people, particularly the right and the MSM are champing at the bit to paint him as an old fashioned liberal- a term that is not well received in this country. Obama's agenda is indeed a liberal one. What's liberal about it? He want to undo DADT, he wants to extend full federal rights to gays in partnerships- whether you call them marriage or civil unions. He wants to repeal DOMA. He has a very ambitious anti-poverty, urban renewal agenda. He wants to close Gitmo. His environmental agenda is full bore toward aggressively addressing climate change. He wants to appoint justices in the vein of Ginsberg and Breyer. And if you're going to howl about how Breyer and Ginsberg aren't liberals or are just corporatists, please cite their conservative/corporate decisions. They may not be as liberal as you want, but they're decidedly on the liberal side of the line. And Obama has made it clear that he wants justices who can relate to and empathize with ordinary people.

I won't go on too much more. I know most people don't read long posts. So here it is:

How better to push his agenda through than for it to be perceived that he's coming from the center on these issues? If Obama appoints too many people who can be painted as raging pinko commie liberals, he diminishes his chances. The Congress may be largely democratic, but a lot of those dems are hardly liberals and those in the house are loath to go against public opinion in their districts. Obama wants the tide of public opinion at his back. He's keenly aware, that without it, he's severely handicapped.

I'm one of the few here that thinks Obama is more liberal than he presents. And I've long thought that. Could I be wrong? Sure, and time will tell. But the first few months of his administration won't answer that question.

We'll all just have to wait and see.

[tekisui]

1. He is careful, methodical, intentional,

and playing to fucking win. He is ambitious, so much so that he is building a team and a plan that will WORK.

[cali]

2. Yep. But I also think he's far more liberal than most people

realize, and he's determined to see his agenda passed.

[H2O Man]

3. Very good.

Obama is more liberal and progressive than the American public realizes. And that includes many on DU. To achieve his agenda, he must have "power." Being President alone is not all the power one needs, as history shows rather clearly.

As I've noted before, "power" comes from the Latin "posse" -- literally, "to be able" -- and in order to be able to reach his goals, President-elect Obama has to harness all the power possible within the system.

Nominated, for educated and rational thinking.

[cali]

4. Thanks H20 Man. I value your opinion.

I think Obama is a complex and subtle thinker, and I'm convinced that he knows one of the dumbest things he could do, is declare open war on the Republicans. He recognizes that rendering them impotent isn't a matter of an "in your face" approach.

[H2O Man]

5. This morning on MSNBC,

Chris Matthews said that Barack Obama ia taking a holistic approach to a transformational style of politics. It is interesting to note that Mr. Matthews has said that Obama has political skills unlike any politician he has seen in his lifetime.

One of the more accurate definitions of Obama's holistic approach is a version of "liberation theology." Some people are uncomfortable with this, because they associate it with organized religion. It has often been connected with religious figures, ranging from Malcolm to Martin to Archbishop Oscar Romero. It is likewise associated with the psychology of transformation in individuals including Viktor Frankl and Rubin Carter. It is not rooted in the belief systems that are associated with today's organized religions; rather, it is a social/economic/political value system.

It's interesting to note that many of the rigid, right-wingers who viciously attacked Barack Obama, including Jerome Corsi, place Obama's liberation theology as the greatest threat that he poses to Corsi's "America." It is one of the very few times that I've found myself agreeing with him.

[BelgianMadCow]

6. actually, I have similar feelings about Hillary Clinton

and I too have high hopes Obama will govern from the center TO the left :-)

[pdxmom]

7. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think he has a vision and a way to

get there. He understands that you can't just yank the country into the direction you want. Ultimately, the direction of this country is in the hands of the people, not the government. And he has to build the coalitions to accomplish his goals slowly and let the change develop from the bottom up. The people shape the government, not vice versa. He can achieve more if the people come to his views on their own, not by having his views forced on them by drastic changes all at once. And I believe, like you, he is probably more liberal than we are seeing in these early choices he is making.

[cali]

8. Well, I kind of agree with you, but I don't think the people

shape the government too much beyond the ballot box. I do think that it's a a partnership, that governing with a sizable majority behind you, is by far the most efficient way of effecting change.

[qwlauren35]

9. That was something to consider. Thanks.

...

[cali]

10. thank you for reading it. n/t

[NoSheep]

11. I agree with you Cali. I think folks are being to quick to assume negative things

about the choices we see him making right now. These people will be working for HIM now. People love to rant. I have great hope still. GREAT hope.

[dbmk]

12. Completely agree

As a european I am sort of a bystander.

But based on reading Audacity of Hope, the last years primaries and whatever interviews, tv or paper, he has done, I am pretty certain that the man is way more liberal than he presents and than many here apparently thinks he is.

But he also acknowledges that you get nowhere in todays US politics pushing those views hard. So he advocates the middle ground to get some actual movement and solution on issues. So he might not govern from the word go in progressive utopian style. Don't be surprised to see compromise after compromise to begin with. But it will all be done to ensure the train starts moving - and in the right direction.

If he sees a real chance to get/create public backing for a progressive issue - I am pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find a topic where he would not deliver because of his personal beliefs.

The trick is to get things moving in the right direction, and seed and manage the publics opinion of it to ensure the next administration will not undo it. The current administration has proven that the cost of doing that might be rather costly in the end.

[cali]

13. thanks for the European point of view

I actually don't think you'll see Obama making a lot of compromises that will, well, compromise his agenda.

[dbmk]

23. Agree

And I don't mean to say he will take compromises that hurts or contradicts his agenda. But he will take one if he can see reaching the goal eventually that way. And I think there will be a lot of those in the beginning. 1) To get things moving and 2) force across the aisle votes.

Seems like a lot of people expect a complete overhaul of laws and practices from day one. Of course, sometime laws have to precede public opinion. But he can't do that from the start, and if he wants to preserve the precious middle that will ensure a continuation of a blue majority in senate and house - and the public, he will have to take it in steps - and possibly force some hard choices on the red members in the middle of both chambers.

So he has not picked people that are totally in line with him - and definately not to satisfy the hard left. Mind you, I do not use hard left as a deregatory term in any way. Personally I am probably on the left side of that. But realities are different here in Denmark. If I thought it was a viable way for him, I'd be all for it.

He is clearly aiming for the ability to move stuff from the start. He is not taking chances on peoples ability to throw punches in the game. And I have no doubt he will control where they fall.

[SIMPLYB1980]

14. Great post cali lots of food for thought.

:thumbsup:

[SidneyCarton]

15. Excellent Post...

K&R

[Tatiana]

16. I have been studying Obama since 2002. He is a liberal pragmatist.

Where did the Clinton Presidency fail? In delivering Congressional votes. Once the Democratic Congress turned on the Clinton WH, health care reform in the 90s failed.

Most of these rumored appointments (and the confirmed one of Rahm) comprise experienced legislators that know how to move bills through Congress, know what potential pitfalls would be and how to deliver votes. That's the only way any Obama Presidency will be successful. He has to get laws passed. He has to get laws amended.

We are returning to the rightful pre-Bush separation of powers and Obama realizes the Congress will play an important role.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

17. Some would say that in a democracy deceiving the electorate is a greater sin than centrism

I am reluctant to throw in with Sean Hannity in presuming that Obama is a secret leftist who was planning to campaign one way but govern another.

I take him roughly at his word. Always have. He is Hillary Clinton... a slightly more economically populist and temperamentally statist version of Bill, and sharing Hillary's relative disinterest in the individual.

Of course, this discussion is bound to be incoherent because the left-right frame has lost most meaning.

I think Obama is comfortably within the mainstream of the Democratic Party circa 2008. Whether that is right, left or side-ways I don't know.

As a single-issue civil liberties guy I wouldn't want Obama on the Supreme Court, nor would I want Bill or Hillary Clinton there. (I would probably take Biden on SCOTUS over any of those three.)

But I like the guy. I have constrained expectations of how much any president should agree with me so I don't fault him unduly for having the same opinions as 80% of the Democratic Party.

[cali]

18. uh, I'm hardly suggesting he's deceiving the electorate.

His agenda has been clear for months. You can find it on his website. Suggesting that I'm throwing in with Sean Hannity is completely intellectually dishonest.

Objectively, Obama's agenda is a fairly liberal one on issue after issue. He hasn't hidden that at all. He's simply presented himself as a reasonable person willing to work with people across a broad spectrum.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

19. My comments were directed more at people much sillier than you are.

I'm sorry it seemed pointed directly at you. I was using your comments as a springboard and incorporating a welt of genral DU opinion on the topic that it is genius how Obama played a centrist, like he was Lenin in the sealed railway car hurtling toward DC.

There is something distasteful at its core of the whole divining what politicans really think racket. In individual instances it can be positive or negative depending on ones views (Hillary is well left of where people think, Bush in 2000 was well right of where people thought, etc..) but either way it is a necessary evil of our system.

I understand it, but I don't love it.

Everyone runs to the center in a general election. That means they are all, Dem and pug alike, deceiving the public... intentionally presenting and image that is at odds with reality. That's a tautology... the concept of running to the center implies that one is moving in a direction for narrowly electoral purposes.

One of the worst things about Bill Clinton's election was that it made such deception of the populace a core Democratic value, to keep pace with the pugs' established and effective practice. (And whatever someone posts on their web-site isn't who they campaign as. A politicians claimed positions are those a person would reasonably assume from his stump speeches and TV ads. Politicians know what broad image they are presenting. I certainly wouldn't want to defend Bush's humble & compassionate 2000 campaign as candid just because I knew he favored policies way right of his crafted image.)

Obama campaigned as a centrist. He is, so far, showing indications of governing as a centrist. I am sure he is to the left of his crafted image, but that goes for almost all Democrats.

So I guess the question isn't whether Obama is to the left of his image (they all are) but whether he is to the left of the Democratic Party. If he was in the House I think he'd be about in the middle of the Dem caucus. In the Senate he was left of Dem center.

Either way, though, he aint' the Kucinich-lite figure many of his early supporters convinced themselves he was.

I apologize for tarring you with that broad brush since I know that you were never one of the narcissistic "Obama secretly believes whatever I believe" folks.

[gblady]

20. cali, thanks...

I agree with what you are saying...about Obama being more liberal,
and about how he understands that he must get Congress behind his agenda.

If we could focus on what you said in the first paragraph...
and see the VAST difference in the agenda of Obama vs Bush...
and be so very grateful that we have this opportunity to attempt
to undo the many, many wrongs that have been done...

as O said, it won't be easy, it will take time...
and it will take all of us involved and working FOR
our particular issues which we are passionate about.

[JuniperLea]

21. I'm not sure where all the surprise is coming from

Have people just not been paying attention? Are they so bereft of ability to understand nuance? I think Obama wants to be a president to all, I think he is going to try and earn the respect of a lot more people than "just us". That's not to say he isn't going to push the liberal agenda (whatever that is), I think he's going to do it in a persuasive way. We are so accustomed to partisan politicians and I think that's holding a lot of people back from understanding the common courtesy and genuine goodwill we've seen displayed by Obama.

I find it interesting that so many people who voted for him don't really get him.

It's going to be an interesting six months or so.

[Voice for Peace]

22. Agree! thanks!

:fistbump: