A casual observation of the countless political threads would seem to indicate that just about every doper has an affinity for Barak Obama. Personally I can’t stand the guy - way too left-leaning for my tastes. (I don’t care for McCain, either. I’m voting for Barr. :D) Am I the only doper who feels this way? Why is the dope so left-leaning?
Politically, I don’t tend to agree with him. I wouldn’t say I can’t stand him, but I don’t see why people think he’s so different from any other politician…he seems pretty typical to me, in that regard.
Yes. Yes, you are. :dubious:
What policies exactly do you feel are too left-leaning?
My problem with him is that I think he is too moderate on social issues.
There are a lot of leftists on this board, but there are some pretty outspoken conservatives too, some of them who have openly expressed their distaste for Obama. Since the board became FTP, it seems like there are even more conservatives coming out of the woodwork. I like it. Hopefully this will lead to even more posters feeling free to express and openly discuss their conservative opinions.
We have an elitist mission.
And we’re all Muslims, too.
Most of us are famous celebrities too.
I’m guessing he’s talking about his gun control positions. C_M is a militiaman (not the crazy right-wing Michigan Militia type, just a more than normally committed Second Amendment type. I think his group is more about gun safety and stuff than anything.)
ETA: I don’t particularly care for Obama. He’s much too up-front about his faith. I suppose that’s in some part due to all the nonsense about how he’s a Muslim, so maybe my attitude will change a bit once he’s in office. However, he won my approval as a Presidential candidate when he made that speech after the Jeremiah Wright thing came out - he talked about race and racial politics, and didn’t say anything stupid. I can’t remember the last time a politician did that.
You’re sure you don’t like his policies but you don’t know how his name is spelled?
I think he also gets a lot of unwarranted credit simply for being a competent speaker at a time when we’ve had eight years of Bush. I won’t have to cringe when I watch him speaking to foreign dignitaries.
:smack:
I would like to point out that his speaking ability (and apparent intelligence) should be something that even those who’re opposed to his positions should be applauding. Lets face it, an awful lot of the discussions about Bush, both here and in the media, quickly degenerate into people on both sides bitching about how he sounds like Forrest Gump’s retarded brother. Love him or hate him, you can’t get away with calling Obama an inarticulate dumbfuck.
So, ideally (I may be expecting too much of humanity and the SDMB with this), when the inevitable GD and Pit threads appear about what Obama’s doing (assuming he becomes President, of course), they will be a little more substantive than the bulk of the ones we’ve had about Bush. I would much rather have a President in office, from any party, who is articulate and presents an intelligent argument for his positions, because this forces the debate on such matters to be more intelligent and articulate, if they’re to be taken seriously.
Maybe Obama’s ideas won’t help the country, but the fact that its going to be difficult to lampoon him as a drooling idiot, will help the country. That’s one of the things I like about Alan Keyes, even though I disagree with nearly all of his philosophy. In the interviews I’ve seen of him, he strikes me as someone who has thought about his positions and hasn’t adopted them simply because they’re politically expedient or are good soundbites. I’d rather have that than someone who sounded like they couldn’t pass high school English, no matter what their political affiliation might be.
He is articulate, intelligent ,shows interest and the ability to learn. It would be a welcome change. He is way too moderate for me. We need a real change like Nader might bring.
I’ll settle for a leader that won’t embarrass the nation while meeting with foreign dignitaries.
Let me ask you this: Do you dislike Obama as a person? Why? Do you know him? Has he done something to hurt you personally, or someone you care about?
Or did you simply mean that you dislike his politics? That’s certainly reasonable to me; not everybody is going to agree with his proposals and policies. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean you don’t like the man, just what he stands for.
I think there’s a huge difference.
Strictly politics.
Sometimes I feel I’m the only conservative-libertarian here on the SDMB. Not that I mind.
You gotta get out more, dude!
Then you’re obviously not paying attention. You are definitely in the minority, but you’re not alone by any stretch of the imagination.
I don’t think it’s at all fair to say that Obama is eloquent just in comparison to Bush; I’ve heard speeches from many politicians on the left and right, and he is by far the best. Better than McCain, better than Clinton, better than pretty much everybody.
I like him. I’m just not gonna vote for him.