Let's face it.

[BelgianMadCow]

Out of the primary candidate field, Obama and Biden represent a centrist choice, maybe the most centrist one.
To be clear, I respect and admire both and am overjoyed we have won.

DU is left-of-center. So we will not like everything he does.

BUT, here comes the but: he has said he will listen to people with dissenting opinions, and that he will be honest.
I am totally convinced that wasn't idle talk, and I expect his uniting efforts to undermine the artificial divide of the workers' class created by the so-called wedge issues. That alone will assure a solid base for further progress.

I see Obama as a HUGE step forward, but only the first step.

:toast: to the fight that doesn't stop!

[jonnyblitz]

1. it's amusing to see some of the fanboy/girls just now coming

to this realization, particularly the ones that chose Obama over Hillary because Hillary was a DLCer and they thought they were supporting a progressive. YES WE CAN indeed. at least they got cool t-shirts. :rofl:

[Bippity Boo]

8. I don't have illusions about Obama, but Hillary is a toxic phony

yuck

[BelgianMadCow]

16. No need for that on this thread (about Obama)

thanks!

[TransitJohn]

2. Kucinich! FTW!

Still, I'm happy we got the Whitehouse, and I'm giving Obama the benefit of the doubt...first 100 days will set the stage.

[BelgianMadCow]

3. Yeah - Kucinich is my fav too,

but I can respect all decent people as part of a good (political) debate.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Kucinich Is A Joke.

[Orsino]

12. My first choice, too...

...but I am now happier, I think, to have Obama on his way to the White House instead. Kucinich might have reached for truer progressivism, but Obama seems to be a much better leader, who is so far bringing enough of us along to get a lot of good done.

[IndianaJones]

4. I'm a moderate and I'm loving how it is looking so far. nt.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. Obama Is Far From A Centrist.

He's just not fringe left.

[Orsino]

9. Obama was the real conservative in this election.

But his pragmatism is going to fuel some of the progressive moves that he'll make because he has to. If he is responsive to a majority of Americans' needs, then he may be all the progressive we require.

I'm expecting some disappointment, but also many surprises that may take me a while to appreciate.

[BelgianMadCow]

15. "all the progressive we require"

you captured the point of my OP perfectly, thanks.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I don't think Obama cares much about labels.

I do know Obama sought and received the "Chicago New Party's" endorsement when he ran for IL state senator. I know that in his book "Dreams of My Father" he thought his dad didn't suck up enough to those in power.

So now that he's the president-elect of the vastest empire the world has ever known, who is to predict exactly what the correct labels will be?

I honestly believe Obama intends to reshape government to be as an efficient and positive force in peoples lives as he can make it.

I think he intends to be revolutionary in some ways, and just plain old hard working and well thought out in other ways.

Of course if people can come together around certain issues and galvanize a consensus on a way forward, that will help make it so. And hopefully should that happen, Obama will participate instead of gate-keep. We can only see.

I think the left takes a huge amount of well deserved pride in the Obama victory, as well as understands that it's just the beginning not the end of the work.

The road to Obama kind of leads though Max Baucus. Health care, education, community service/infrastructure/stimulus all go through Max.

For this reason it seems to me that activism in MT is particularly important.

It's interesting that Max Baucus' long time chief of staff/campaign manager Jim Messina was also involved in the Obama campaign. So there is cross communication and cooperation going on there.

This is a pretty good article about Baucus.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_sleeper_of_the_senate

[Javaman]

10. .

:popcorn:

[Romulox]

11. The Democratic Party *used* to be "left of center". Now it's just the new home for Western Repubs.

[cali]

13. I'm convinced you don't get it. sorry.

in order to move liberal or progressive legislation in this country and in the poisonous D.C. atmosphere, it's imperative to govern from the center. And the trick is to move the center left. It takes only a modicum of perception to know that Obama has made this as clear as he can without spelling it out- for obvious reasons that is not something he wants to do.

When it comes to Obama, labels like "centrist" are particularly, well, stupid.

[BelgianMadCow]

14. No problem. I don't think we disagree all that much

in the sense that governing from the center, but being more progressive at heart / receptive to progressive opinion, is probably the right thing to do to unify. And with unifying, I don't mean scrubbing the horrible past - at all - unifying the people, not necessarily the party.

My OP was in no way criticism of Obama, but a plea to understand his position, be realistic in our expectations and to realize there is work ahead.

I am less sure than you Obama will move the center left. With my label (dangerous indeed) I reflected the position of Biden / Obama on the political compass, as once seen on DU. Obviously, the new center already IS to the left of the current. :-)

:hi: