Is Obama what a feminist looks like?

[boston bean]

It wasn't too long ago that Ms. Magazine hailed Obama as a feminist. Remember how he was the best thing since sliced bread for women's rights?




I also remember when he told Planned Parenthood that the "first bill he would sign as President of the United States was FOCA."

And how the "culture wars were so nineties".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84KH5GTVD8

Don't anyone dare tell me that he didn't promise women this! Don't anyone here dare tell me that the issue is too divisive and he can't waste political capital on it. Don't anyone here dare tell me that Obama is a feminist. Don't anyone here dare tell me that it is worth it to chip away a women's right to the autonomy over her own body for a sick health insurance reform bill!

These compromises are undoing the little progress we have managed to achieve over the last thirty years!

[vi5]

1. I won't tell you any of that.....

I am 100% in agreement.

[boston bean]

3. You know last minute conscience rule is still under review by the faith based initiatives

group in the WH.

With a pen he could have done that. Bush made a signing statement and Obama refuses to undo it.

It's still under advisement, WTF!

[bluestateguy]

2. The first bill he signed as president was the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act

The Congress has to pass bills for him to sign them, and he has never said that he would NOT sign the FOCA.

If you know where the votes can be found to pass that bill in Congress, please do tell. Judging by the passage of the Stupak amendment, it should be very evident to all that there are not even close to enough votes to pass a federal law that would effectively brush aside state abortion regulations.

[boston bean]

5. He signed the LLB Act, not the fair pay act! Which was on the table too. that

too was a compromise.

At this point women have to know somehow they are being paid less and then can sue, and the women have to prove it's because they are a woman.

I would have applauded the fair pay act, but instead we got the right to sue if we can find out we are being paid less for the same job a man does and then prove to a male judge (more than likely) that the difference is because we are women.

Don't expect to see too many suits that succeed.

[boston bean]

6. Also, he changed his tune about FOCA mighty quick once he became president

Is Obama shying away from the Freedom of Choice Act?

When CNN correspondent Ed Henry asked the president about his current thinking on FOCA at last night’s White House press conference, Obama used very different language than he did during the campaign.

In 2008, as we noted in our Ask FactCheck item on FOCA, Obama told a Planned Parenthood audience: "The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Now that’s the first thing I’d do."

Last night, Obama specifically altered that statement. "Now, the Freedom of Choice Act is not my highest legislative priority," he said. "I believe that women should have the right to choose, but I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on," such as reducing unwanted pregnancies.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/obama-on-foca-20/

More common ground, so much so he's given away the acreage!

[katandmoon]

15. He's a fucking coward as well as liar.

[niyad]

16. "tamp down some of the anger" hey, obama, how about telling those murderous anti-choicers to calm

down, to stop harassing and threatening women. how DARE you imply that the level of anger is equal, or that the tactics are equal.

this pissed me off the first time I heard it months ago, along with a woman needing to make the decision to have an abortion "prayerfully"

[Yuugal]

4. You will take it and like it!

- Benedict Obama

[boston bean]

14. That is what I am told! nt

[ThomCat]

7. I remember when that cover came out

a lot of us were bitter that Obama cheerleaders were apparently in charge at Ms Magazine. Obama was never a Feminist and this was pretty obvious.

They should have shown some healthy skepticism.

Obama doesn't care for women's rights any more than he cares for the rights of LGBT people. He may be slightly more wary of a political backlash from women because women are a much larger political force than LGBT people, but that isn't stopping him from decimating choice and women's access to health care. :(

Every demographic group is expendable to him except the upper income demographic. :grr:

He will waste all of us for even the most minor of perceived political gains, and then he will throw away those perceived political gains because any conservative said "boo" and demanded it of him.

[RainDog]

8. I knew he was more conservative than me, but I would never have imagined

that he would throw women under the right-wing steamroller.

when he appointed Alexis Kelly (and that the position even exists is wrong) I was stunned.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/president-obama-appoints-antiabortion-pro-obama-catholic-to-senior-health-position-causing-controversy.html

[boston bean]

9. That was a kicker too! almost forgot about that one! thanks! nt

[ThomCat]

10. Yes, when one of his first acts was to keep and fill that

faith based initiatives office, and hire someone who was anti-gay and anti-choice to fill it, we all should have known right then exactly what his priorities were.

:grr:

[RainDog]

11. Honestly, this is becoming my worst nightmare

I was so happy to be able to vote for the first "African-American" president of the United States. To participate in that historic moment, having lived through desegregation.

I don't understand how Obama can ignore the commonalities between civil rights then and now, or the right to autonomy over one's own body, rather than allowing religious beliefs to undermine medical and scientific fact.

I WANT to be able to support Obama. But the way he is governing is just making that impossible.

[ThomCat]

12. Yes, I agree.

He has done a few things I agree with. But in the grand scheme of things they are a small amount of what he has done. The bulk of his presidency so far has been moving rightward, giving our government and our treasury to corporations, breaking promises, becoming a warmonger, and promoting violations of almost everything we believe in. :grr:

Even the few things he has done that move in the right direction have been timid and delayed. He really doesn't seem to have any political spine, or skill, just a good Public Relations team and a hoard of loyal followers willing to believe the public relations.

[RainDog]

13. looks like the third neo-con term

whether it is or not.

[Quantess]

17. A real disappointment.

[Kitty Herder]

18. Kick

[TicketyBoo]

19. He has

two daughters of his own and a wife he obviously respects and adores.

I would say that, yes, he is a feminist, mainly on that account.

I can't understand why people seem to think that this man should be able to snap his fingers and have everything they want done accomplished.

We elected a President, not a genie. Some people evidently expected both.

[hfojvt]

20. I lost count

is there anything that I CAN dare tell you?

Clearly you are not even happy with the Lilly Ledbetter law any more than Thomcat is happy with the Matthew Shepard Act. I guess we would have gotten both of those with President McCain or a third term for Bush. We'd also have gotten Sonia Sotomayor or maybe a female version of John Roberts which would be just as good, like Harriet Meier.

We'd also have gotten this many women in McCain's cabinet
Secretary of State - Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Labor - Hilda Solis
Health and Human Services - Kathleen Sebelius
Homeland Security - Janet Napolitano
EPA - Lisa Jackson
UN Ambassador - Susan Rice
Council of Economic Advisors - Christina Romer

Well I guess that is close to Bush with Elaine Chao, Gale Norton, and Christine Todd Whitman. It's not like 7 is more than 3 by that much.