Obama Acted Like a Conservative

[KeithE]

On another topic,

Actually, I liked the guy {Obama}. I always appreciate a speaker even if he's a flaming lib dem.

I do think Wiliam’s viewpoint of Obama being a “flaming lib dem” shows a media-created, politically-biased reaction w/o studying Obama’s actual actions.

For all of us, please read Obama the Conservative. I found it factual and interesting.

Read as much of this as you can stomach. It compares Bush Jr. actions to what Obama said and what Obama did. For the most part Obama’s actions (what he did, not what he said) were just as conservative (often more so - like on immigration) than Bush’s actions. You will find that on most (but not all issues discussed - about 30 of them), Obama suddenly and w/o comment became more “conservative” when he finally took action. We need to re-think our biases, based on the facts not what Fox News, MSNBC, CNN or the pundits present. It takes some work to get behind the media presentations, but we all need to do just that.

I did not vote for Obama either time, but by his second election, I knew he was a phony, and I never trusted all his rhetoric in the 2012 campaign and especially in his second inauguration speech (in truth I had a brief hope that his second term would release his progressive side, but that was soon dashed).

I do give him credit for the economic recovery.

[Haruo]

Skim milk masquerades as cream (applies to chocolate milk masquerading as Hershey's syrup). It's true that at least on immigration Obama is viewed as not a whole lot better than Trump in fact (as opposed to in rhetoric) by those for whom immigration reform and immigrant rights are a higher priority than Affirmative Action. Ellin Jimmerson springs to mind. I'll read the article and see what it offers on other issues.

[Haruo]

I didn't check all the footnotes, but if they are factual and supportive of the points drawn from them, then the case is pretty well closed that in action Obama was as conservative as any recent Republican.

This paragraph was particularly poignant in view of West Virginia's staunch pro-Trump stance in large part over coal:

The administration invested $1 billion of federal stimulus money into a new coal project, in a deal with a consortium of around 20 coal industry corporations. [US News.com] In an interview with ABC news, the environmental lawyer Rober F. Kennedy, Jr. called Obama and other politicians favoring clean coal technology “indentured servants” of the industry. “Clean coal is a dirty lie,” he said. Obama received $242,000 in campaign contributions from the coal industry. [ABC News.com]

[William Thornton]

Flaming lib...perfectly acceptable subjective label. Sotomayer and Kagan. If the comparison is with B2, tweedledee and tweedledum.

[Haruo]

Flaming lib...perfectly acceptable subjective label. Sotomayer and Kagan. If the comparison is with B2, tweedledee and tweedledum.

So you see Bush Jr. as a flaming lib?

[William Thornton]

Flaming lib...perfectly acceptable subjective label. Sotomayer and Kagan. If the comparison is with B2, tweedledee and tweedledum.

So you see Bush Jr. as a flaming lib?

...in a Lewis Carroll sort of way.

[Haruo]