Open Left

"Obama is bad" - compared to whom? (4.00 / 2)

    It is refreshing to see anyone on the Left being hard on Obama, in comparison to some clear standard. It does take integrity to criticize one's own leaders in public.
   But if you take that too far, you become unrealisitc.
   So, here are some comparisons I would propose:

OBAMA COMPARED TO W - Obama gets an easy A+, basically just for showing up. Bush had the arrogant lawlessness of Nixon, and the "let them eat cake" economic views of Hoover.

OBAMA COMPARED TO MCCAIN - (Same as above.)

OBAMA COMPARED TO CLINTON - I am not sure. At the time, I trusted Clinton on NAFTA, but now I have second thoughts. Clinton tried for health care reform in year one, and then never tried again. If Obama makes ANY progress on health care reform, he will be the best president in the last 30 years on health care. However, Clinton balanced the budget and paid down debt every year, like clockwork. So I will leave this unscored. If Obama gives us health care reform but higher debt, I will score Obama as about a "C".

OBAMA COMPARED TO NADER, KUCINICH, OR FDR - Each of those three men had an equal chance of being elected in 2008... and FDR has been dead for several decades. So can I really even score this one?

   On the topic of FDR, he ran as a pragmatic moderate, and compared to others (such as Huey Long), FDR WAS only a moderate.
   We need to accept the fact that Obama is a moderate. IF we can generate enormous grassroots pressure for policies we favor (such as HR 676), then Obama may not veto those policies. So Obama may not be a real progressive... but the mere fact that he will not fight us tooth and nail means that he is the best occupant of the White House for the past 8 years... and perhaps for the past 30. So I think the Obama glass is "half full".

1 Corinthians 13:1 (KJV) - "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."/ GOP = Greedy Old Privatizers or Greedy Old Privateers?

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by: Christian_Dem_NY @ Mon May 04, 2009 at 01:05:43 AM CDT

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