He ain't a saint: A citizen's guide to Barack Obama

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Forum Name General Discussion: Primaries
Topic subject He ain't a saint: A citizen's guide to Barack Obama
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4518807#4518807
4518807, He ain't a saint: A citizen's guide to Barack Obama
Posted by Caro on Sun Feb-10-08 10:22 AM

Why do Peggy Noonan, George Will and David Brooks favor Obama? (David Seaton’s News Links)
Because they are terrified of Hillary Clinton, that's why… It is this simple: in recent decades the Clintons are the only Democrats that win elections against Republicans... They don't want to ever face them again, no more complicated than that. As soon as Barack Obama is declared the official candidate of the Democratic party the voters will be treated to something similar to the old TV show, "This is your Life"...

And below are some of the things they’ll bring out about him. Now, to those who will surely say that I shouldn’t do the right’s work for them, I say you must have been living under a rock for the last 18 years. The information below is already in the belly of the beast, waiting for the right moment to regurgitate all over the “transformation”. And to those who say I shouldn’t “bash” Obama, I say, it’s not bashing if it’s true. How can Democratic primary voters possibly make an informed decision about which candidate to vote for, when they know almost nothing about one of the two who remain?

We Illinois progressives sent Obama to the U.S. Senate, where he promptly joined the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. He’s not a progressive. But he’s a master at pretending to be one. "Obama is a company man.”

His economic advisers are very conservative, from the University of Chicago-Milton Friedman school of economics. My favorite economist, Paul Krugman, caught Obama using right-wing talking points on what to do about Social Security and about his health care plan.

His voting record is pro-business and pro-war. He glorifies American imperialism. He flip-flopped on the Palestinians and Israel, and now is AIPAC-approved.

He has shown repeatedly what good friends he is with anti-gay African American preachers.

He misuses history, according to a prominent historian.

He, uh, stretches the truth. Example:

Trying to sound authentically African-American during a speech memorializing the forty-second anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights March at the Pettis Bridge in Selma, Obama claimed that his black (Kenyan) father and white (Kansan) mother married and conceived the future Barockstar because of the great Civil Rights struggles fought in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama… (Obama 2007)

Wow. Too bad Barack Obama Jr. was born in 1961, two years before the famous campaign to desegregate Birmingham, three years before the Civil Rights Act, and four years before the famous Selma march!


His chief political adviser is a Daley machine strategist.

And then there’s his Tony Rezko problem.

When are we Americans going to stop getting fooled and fooled and fooled again?

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

[kikiek]

1. The one we have now is there because he would be fun to have a beer with. Well not till after did

they all find out he is an alcoholic and on a dry drunk and driving the most influential and powerful country in the world. Obama's appeal is more of the same as far as I'm concerned. Nothing to see there, so they all see what they want to. Damn shame that the best and the brightest might be kept out because of a signature line.

[katty]

3. Obama is an extremely effective manipulator of public

sentiment, much like bush 'was' - the golden boy title, etc...unlike bush he is very smart and thus much better at the game.

[kikiek]

4. Funny you'd mention that. I was just thinking today about how desperate many people

are these days. They're losing their jobs and homes, and they want to believe in someone. All you have to do is say you care and they will follow. Manipulation at its best.

[katty]

5. yes, people are desperate and at their most vulnerable to

be swayed and courted after 7 yrs of the bush regime--it's easy to understand why. Americans are so vulnerable, so utterly beat up and tend to rush to a 'feel good' leader. I just can't afford to vote for that (not that MY vote will count!).

[katty]

2. he's centrist with a progressive spin

[kikiek]

6. Geez where have I heard that before..only with a conservative spin.

Feels like we've been down this road before.