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The corporate media are reporting that President Obama's polling numbers are starting to soften, and they are spinning it as people thinking Obama is too far to the left. Pollsters are citing government spending by the Obama administration as part of it. Let's think about it.
Our troops are still in Iraq. Nothing much has been done on queer issues. The Obama administration has pretty much ignored passing the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama supports involving insurance companies and HMOs in "healthcare reform" instead of single payer healthcare. Even the biggest area of government spending is going towards the banksters and the brokesters instead of the middle class and the poor. Obama's and the congressional Democrats' efforts on Global Warming have been weak at best.
Who should be angry?
My suspicion is that President Obama is losing support from the left, not the center. But, the corporate media want to pretend that Obama's center right policies are the farthest left that can even be considered by significant numbers of Americans. Corporate interests have led to censorship of real news that makes their news outlets sillier by the day.
Psycho Woman Throws Knives At Children
13 years ago
I would say you are spot on with that analysis, they are in the business of manufacturing -right wing- consent.
The right wingers are on the warpath. They are saying if the health care plan doesn't pass, it will be Obama's Waterloo. I don't think the plan is perfect, but it is a beginning. Since, I am liberal, I agree that Obama is too centrist for me. I do understand, though, that a certain amount of compromise has to take place. Remember how we felt about how inflexible & far right the Bush administration was? Well, people got totally pissed at the GOP and that is why we have a Democratic president. If Obama pushes too far to the left, there will be a backlash and our next president may be a Bush clone. I'd rather have a centrist who is intelligent and basically liberal than have Sarah Palin as president, wouldn't you? Just because I have a vagina, doesn't mean I'll support just any woman who runs for office. At the least I want an intelligent one, and I'd also prefer one who isn't expecting & preparing for 'End Days.'
Your reasoning for the softening poll numbers might be correct, but, then again, it might not be true. You might be correct because in declaring Obama as "center right" you perfectly reflect the complete ignorance of much progressive thought in this country. Maybe you were one of the many who believed John Edwards was the true progressive, since he gave some moving speeches on poverty. LOL. He was as concerned with poverty as with his dying wife. Do you really believe Obama would have been able to get elected once, much less hopefully twice, professing to all the tenets of the left (and caving to them all in the process)? Every progressive who voted on Election Day should have known Obama has consistently been pragmatic as a law student, scholar, and politician (progressives are supposed to be so smart after all and read an article or two). Do you really think we get from an insurance and special interest dominated health care industry to single payer without a stop in between? What I find most startling about your comments, and many other voices on the left (those that might explain those poll numbers), is that you seem have forgotten the entire Bush presidency. If you want to find a "center right" Democrat, look to Ben Nelson and Max Baucus, but it's not our president. The sooner you and others realize that very simple idea, the quicker our country will be able to enact progressive change--which is, after all, progressive, and not instantaneous!
If Obama is too far to the left, where does that leave the rest of us?
C Woods: Sarah Palin is never going to be president for the simple reason that the GOP simply will not nominate a woman. (If McCain had a serious chance of winning, Palin wouldn't have gotten the VP nod.) As for fear of backlash, if one lets fear of backlash stop one, then nothing good can ever happen. The appropriate response to the inevitability of backlashes is to prepare for a fightback.
Anonymous: You are so off base it isn't even funny.
1) I never supported John Edwards.
2) Barack Obama's policies, taken in totality, poll somewhat to the right of the American peoples' views. Therefore, he is a center right politician, regardless of the corporate media's spin.
3) Single payer is more popular with the American people (60% support vs. even split) than Obama's plan. Single payer is cheaper than the current system while Obama's plan is more expensive. Single payer is much more practical.
4) How could I forget the Bush regime when Obama supports the most heinous of Bush policies most of the times?
5) If you look at policy, not rhetoric, you will see that Max Baucus, Barack Obama, and Ben Nelson agree with each other at least 90% of the time.
I figured out that Obama wasn't that great before the general election and voted for McKinney. It's taken most liberals and progressives a little longer to see that Obama is pretty much like Bush, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. You can't expect liberals and progressives to be fooled by Obama's record or rhetorical ploys like yours indefinitely.
If Obama and the Democrats want strong liberal and progressive support in 2010 and 2012, word games just aren't going to cut it.
I was working on something similar to post, but I think you say it better. Do you mind if I point people your way?
Regards,
Tengrain
Tengrain: Please do!
1st, 'grain sent me (not personally, i'm just a lowly "scissorhead").
2nd, brilliant assessment and i completely agree.
and
3rd, i wish CANDIDATE obama was the president.