# Grand Unified Obama Theory **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 20, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419 "2010-09-20T15:50:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mozart1220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Mozart1220](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mozart1220)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/21 "2010-09-20T20:22:13Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > > [@Polycarp](#): > > > > IMO, Obama learned a lot from history. I think he’s emulating FDR – knowing when to jump on a bandwagon, when the Undecided will favor or can be led to favor some program, when it’s worthwhile to push something controversial anyway, when “it’s not railroading time yet”, and what is just plain unaceptable now or in the foreeeable future. – and acting accordingly. > > > > Also, consider that typically a non-incumbent will say things, _and mean them_, based on his knowledge as a candidate, then discover that things are not quite so cut and dried as he thought when he is elected and privy to more information. > > FDR actually took stands on things and did the right thing to do. Every single time. > > Imagine Obama making a speech like this one, which FDR made in 1936 : > > For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent. > > For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. > > We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace誼usiness and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. > > They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to **their** own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. > > Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in **their** hate for me and I **welcome** **their** **hatred**. > > I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met **their** match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met **their** master. > [Google Search](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3yV4xb_pL-oJ:history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/us/fdr1936.html+fdr+i+welcome+their+hatred&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk) > Imagine him using rhetoric like “I welcome their hatred” Now that’s a real class war for you. > > My Obama theory – he’s basically a moderate DINO. He could quite easily belong to either party aand he’s spending his presidency doing the bidding of enough powerful interests to secure a very lucrative Clinton-like second life after his presidency, so he too can afford to blow three or four million when _his_ daughters get married. > > It’s a real shae that he isn’t a radical anti-establishment socialist, because that’s what America needs a bit of right now. Or an indepedently wealthy patrician-type guy like FDR who doesn’t have to be a corporate servant because he doesn’t need their money when he leaves office. FDR didn’t have television and the 24 hour news cycle. He didn’t have Fox news on cable and Republican owned AM radio. You do realize that if every household in America had TV in 1932, Roosevelt doesn’t get elected. Americans would not accept a president in a wheelchair, not to mention that back then, we had an attention span longer than that of a five year old. No one expected immediate rusults like we do now. FDR had TIME to fix things. He also had a mistress, and NO ONE cared. Ask Clinton how that worked for him. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/22 "2010-09-20T20:59:50Z")
> [@Mozart1220](#): > > > [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > > > FDR actually took stands on things and did the right thing to do. Every single time. > > > > Imagine Obama making a speech like this one, which FDR made in 1936 : > > > > For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent. > > > > For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. > > > > We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace誼usiness and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. > > > > They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to **their** own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. > > > > Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in **their** hate for me and I **welcome** **their** **hatred**. > > > > I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met **their** match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met **their** master. > > [Google Search](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3yV4xb_pL-oJ:history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/us/fdr1936.html+fdr+i+welcome+their+hatred&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk) > > Imagine him using rhetoric like “I welcome their hatred” Now that’s a real class war for you. > > > > My Obama theory – he’s basically a moderate DINO. He could quite easily belong to either party aand he’s spending his presidency doing the bidding of enough powerful interests to secure a very lucrative Clinton-like second life after his presidency, so he too can afford to blow three or four million when _his_ daughters get married. > > > > It’s a real shae that he isn’t a radical anti-establishment socialist, because that’s what America needs a bit of right now. Or an indepedently wealthy patrician-type guy like FDR who doesn’t have to be a corporate servant because he doesn’t need their money when he leaves office. > > FDR didn’t have television and the 24 hour news cycle. He didn’t have Fox news on cable and Republican owned AM radio. > > You do realize that if every household in America had TV in 1932, Roosevelt doesn’t get elected. Americans would not accept a president in a wheelchair, not to mention that back then, we had an attention span longer than that of a five year old. No one expected immediate rusults like we do now. FDR had TIME to fix things. He also had a mistress, and NO ONE cared. Ask Clinton how that worked for him. FDR had Father Coughlin, a man with a radio audience of 40 million in a country of 120 million (far bigger than Big Pharma’s 20 m daily ratings in a 300 million country) and the Liberty Leagues, a 1930s equivalent of the teatards. Whether he would have been elected or was in a wheelchair or had a mistress or whatever is irrelevant, he actually did the right thing on the issues that mattered. Obama hasn’t. Again and again he’s bent over for the corporations and the banks instead of taking them on. There’s nothing stopping Barak Hussein Obama from temporarily nationalising the banks, wiping out their bondholders and shareholders, making them declare their bad debt and putting them through the FDIC process when its clear that they’re bankrupt instead of using taxpayer money to keep them afloat. There’s nothing stopping him pushing for a public insurance option like he campaigned for in 2008 and not just adopting the policy the healthcare corporations want. He may not get it but at least the public would know which side he was on if he called the insurance industry and the pols they’ve bought and paid for out. Instead he’s bought and paid for too. There’s nothing stopping him pulling the troops out of Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/23 "2010-09-20T21:48:19Z")
To be fair, he never claimed he was going to pull the troops out of Afghanistan. That’s just something that a lot of his supporters would _like_ him to do. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/24 "2010-09-21T00:36:29Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > There’s nothing stopping him pushing for a public insurance option like he campaigned for in 2008 and not just adopting the policy the healthcare corporations want. He may not get it but at least the public would know which side he was on if he called the insurance industry and the pols they’ve bought and paid for out. Instead he’s bought and paid for too. I think he did right. Getting any kind of universal insurance through was a herculean feat, which previous dems had failed to achieve. It’s true that it’s going to be expensive this way, but it was the only way they were going to get anything through. And in the long term, healthcare in america might slowly shift towards UHC. Indeed I’ve already seen opinion pieces on right wing sites that imply (but cannot bring themselves to say) that “obamacare” does not go far enough. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/25 "2010-09-21T00:45:04Z")
> [@Mozart1220](#): > > Yeah, don’t you wish we had a 'popular" president like Reagan again? Actually, I think that is the very key to Obama’s falling popularity. He’s a great speaker, but he doesn’t communicate. Reagan was out all the time giving speeches and communicating everything to the media and the public, even if there was little substance behind a lot of it. Obama is far too aloof and uncommunicative. If he were to show more energy and make more of an effort to communicate what he is trying to do, whether or not he succeeded or failed, he would be more popular. Then I think the other key thing is that he has focused on several high level things (DADT, Healthcare, etc) that are of value, but do little to keep the country moving day to day. He’s been far too quiet on the subject of the economy, putting me in the mind of the “It’s the Economy, Stupid”, which Bill Clinton’s people used against Bush Sr. Up to that point, I had voted for Reagan twice and Bush Sr, but I agreed with the sentiment and voted for Clinton. Right now, I’m kinda in the same boat, and although I voted for Obama, he’s not ‘getting’ the clues about the real things he needs to do here, and he’s failing because of it. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/26 "2010-09-21T00:56:08Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > > [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > > > There’s nothing stopping him pushing for a public insurance option like he campaigned for in 2008 and not just adopting the policy the healthcare corporations want. He may not get it but at least the public would know which side he was on if he called the insurance industry and the pols they’ve bought and paid for out. Instead he’s bought and paid for too. > > I think he did right. Getting any kind of universal insurance through was a herculean feat, which previous dems had failed to achieve. It’s true that it’s going to be expensive this way, but it was the only way they were going to get anything through. > And in the long term, healthcare in america might slowly shift towards UHC. Indeed I’ve already seen opinion pieces on right wing sites that imply (but cannot bring themselves to say) that “obamacare” does not go far enough. The healthcare bill is a piece of shit. It was actually written by an executive from Wellpoint who was working on the staff of the Senator heading the committee responsible for writing the bill and who will doubtless go back to a highly-paid job at Wellpoint or one of the other HMOs. It’s actually a much watered-down version of the 1990s GOP healthcare plan produced in response to Hillarycare, so not even as good as the GOP were proposing in the 1990s. And when it passed healthcare corporations’ stock all jumped in value. And so far about 2000 people with pre-existing conditions have been accepted by the insurance companies. It’s better to just face facts that the thing is a piece of crap because having to defend it on an ongoing basis, as the passage of time reveals just what a piece of crap it is and healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, is going to get more and more soul-destroying. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/27 "2010-09-21T01:11:54Z")
Obama was a black man who was put in position of cleaning a rich white mans mess. The sad truth was he was burdened with severe problems ,not of his making. He had an ambitious agenda and accomplished many of them. it is true that they were watered down by the Repub collective. If you really believe every single Repub actually hated everything Obama proposed, you would have to be retarded. They felt the financial and political power of the Republican party and bent like saps into a wind. It diminished any attempts to create some grudging respect for them. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/28 "2010-09-21T01:25:54Z")
**Dick Dastardly** , I could respond about the points you’ve raised there but it’s been done on numerous threads already. What I find interesting from the POV of this thread is that obama is being criticized for getting compromise legislation through. Imagine if he’d have taken the only other option: sticking with a much more encompassing plan. It would have been shot down as communist and people would be saying he was out of touch with the public and (because of the failure) that he holds no real power. IOW equal or more criticism than he’s getting now. It’s the same with everything he does. I honestly believe had he come down on the other side of the mosque issue, you’d have pubs berating him for ignoring the first amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/29 "2010-09-21T01:41:36Z")
As a WAG I’d say a good deal of the liberal and progressive displeasure comes from a variety of areas 1. The way Obama seems like he constanty gets duped and dominated by the minority GOP. A senator will pretend to cooperate, water down a bill, then vote against it anyway. When Obama came into office many on the left were saying ‘you can’t cooperate with the contemporary GOP they are too radical. Just push through partisan legislation but make it good’. It felt like Obama was naive enough to believe the GOP would negotiate in good faith while the left was telling him that no, they would not. 2. Whatever reforms he does pass, it feels like they never actually take on the plutocracy. The health reform had to be watered down to remove whatever displeased powerful industries (no public option, no reimportations, no price controls, no medicare negotiations). 3. With gay rights he seems to have ignored the issue for over a year and it seems like it was ignored just because it wasn’t important. Same with meaningful labor reform. All in all I think Obama is more of a long range planner. Our health care system is the biggest issue wrt public debt in this country over the next century, and Obama spent the entire first year trying to reform it. The current recession will come and go, but meaningful health reform will be paying dividends in the 2050s. I think Obama knew that and that was why he was pushing health reform so hard. But since he is an intellectual I think Obama has trouble selling his policy ideas to a public that really don’t understand policy wonkery or long term economics. You hear tons of people talking about the debt, but how many know anything about it? How much goes to what programs, how much we collect in taxes, which services they want to cut, etc? It probably sounds like a brainwashed Obama-bot, but I think Obama is more cerebral and into long range planning while the public really don’t get into that so he has trouble showing how his policies actually help people. We are mostly into platitudes and emotional appeals. A discussion of health care economics over the next 75 years doesn’t have the appeal of screaming ‘taxes are too high’ to an audience that has no idea how much the gov collects or spends in taxes, or what those taxes go for (how many tea partiers don’t realize medicare is socialized gov funded medicine or that the elderly are the nation’s biggest welfare recipients). Health reforms benefits generally won’t kick in until 2014. Even then they will be subtle. But many of us are stuck in dead end jobs or unemployed, so it really doesn’t matter. The sad part is if/when the GOP takes over the house in 2010 and the economy gets better people may assume the GOP was responsible for that. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/30 "2010-09-21T02:16:58Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Obama was a black man who was put in position of cleaning a rich white mans mess. The sad truth was he was burdened with severe problems ,not of his making. What the fuck does either man’s race have to do with it? Obama’s race may have been an issue in getting him elected. But the way you lay things out here it appears you see the entire world through race-colored glasses. Come to think of it, as I recall some other posts of your in past threads, I should not be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Mozart1220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Mozart1220](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mozart1220)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/31 "2010-09-21T02:55:40Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > > [@Mozart1220](#): > > > > Yeah, don’t you wish we had a 'popular" president like Reagan again? > > Actually, I think that is the very key to Obama’s falling popularity. > > He’s a great speaker, but he doesn’t communicate. > > Reagan was out all the time giving speeches and communicating everything to the media and the public, even if there was little substance behind a lot of it. Obama is far too aloof and uncommunicative. If he were to show more energy and make more of an effort to communicate what he is trying to do, whether or not he succeeded or failed, he would be more popular. > > Then I think the other key thing is that he has focused on several high level things (DADT, Healthcare, etc) that are of value, but do little to keep the country moving day to day. He’s been far too quiet on the subject of the economy, putting me in the mind of the “It’s the Economy, Stupid”, which Bill Clinton’s people used against Bush Sr. Up to that point, I had voted for Reagan twice and Bush Sr, but I agreed with the sentiment and voted for Clinton. Right now, I’m kinda in the same boat, and although I voted for Obama, he’s not ‘getting’ the clues about the real things he needs to do here, and he’s failing because of it. His popularity is failing for two reasons: A: The Republican propaganda blitz. B A population obsessed with instant gratification. Like any president could solve all the world’s problems in a year, or two, or three… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/32 "2010-09-21T03:06:11Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Its the kind of mistake an intelligent man makes, to overestimate the prevalence of reason. Obama is right and his agenda is intelligent, and would produce great benefit for our country. Because he is intelligent, he tends to think the other guy is intelligent as well, and would be swayed by reason and a sincere effort to bi-partisan governance. He thinks, or more likely, thought, he was being opposed for actual reasons, and, having the better case, more evidence and sounder reasoning, they will see things his way. Being an intelligent man, he cannot fathom the depths of irrational hatred he is confronted with. I still don’t get it. I don’t doubt that it’s true irrationality cannot be combatted with intelligence, but what I’m not seeing is **evidence that Barack Obama doesn’t know this.** On the surface it might be irritating that simpletons like Glenn Beck get so much attention, but why should the President care? The real problems that he faces aren’t obstacles of public opinion, they’re obstacles of real political opposition and the cruel equations of the real world. All things considered, he’s gotten quite far in 22 months, in my humble opinion. When he’s re-elected by a mile in 2012, I wonder if people will still be doubting him. How many two-term Presidents had their shining moments in Year 2? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/33 "2010-09-21T05:47:13Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > IMO, Obama learned a lot from history. I think he’s emulating FDR – knowing when to jump on a bandwagon, when the Undecided will favor or can be led to favor some program, when it’s worthwhile to push something controversial anyway, when “it’s not railroading time yet”, and what is just plain unaceptable now or in the foreeeable future. – and acting accordingly. > > Also, consider that typically a non-incumbent will say things, _and mean them_, based on his knowledge as a candidate, then discover that things are not quite so cut and dried as he thought when he is elected and privy to more information. [http://www.sinfest.net/archive\_page.php?comicID=2994](http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2994) ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/34 "2010-09-21T17:24:45Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > > [@gonzomax](#): > > > > Obama was a black man who was put in position of cleaning a rich white mans mess. The sad truth was he was burdened with severe problems ,not of his making. > > What the fuck does either man’s race have to do with it? Obama’s race may have been an issue in getting him elected. But the way you lay things out here it appears you see the entire world through race-colored glasses. > > Come to think of it, as I recall some other posts of your in past threads, I should not be surprised. It is a joke bunky about how black people have been maids and workers for the rich white people since our country was founded. The analogy works because the blacks have been cleaning up after whites for generations. Being a hard as righty like you, I should know you are devoid of humor. It is a right wing characteristic. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/35 "2010-09-21T17:28:51Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Being a hard as righty like you, I should know you are devoid of humor. It is a right wing characteristic. Please refrain from personal comments in this forum. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/36 "2010-09-21T17:31:38Z")
I believe it was Dave Chappelle who i first heard use the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/37 "2010-09-21T17:55:02Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Its the kind of mistake an intelligent man makes, to overestimate the prevalence of reason. Obama is right and his agenda is intelligent, and would produce great benefit for our country. Because he is intelligent, he tends to think the other guy is intelligent as well, and would be swayed by reason and a sincere effort to bi-partisan governance. He thinks, or more likely, thought, he was being opposed for actual reasons, and, having the better case, more evidence and sounder reasoning, they will see things his way. Being an intelligent man, he cannot fathom the depths of irrational hatred he is confronted with. Yeah, if he was black, he would understand irrational hatred. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/38 "2010-09-21T18:11:33Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > **Dick Dastardly** , I could respond about the points you’ve raised there but it’s been done on numerous threads already. > > What I find interesting from the POV of this thread is that obama is being criticized for getting compromise legislation through. > Imagine if he’d have taken the only other option: sticking with a much more encompassing plan. It would have been shot down as communist and people would be saying he was out of touch with the public and (because of the failure) that he holds no real power. > IOW equal or more criticism than he’s getting now. > > It’s the same with everything he does. I honestly believe had he come down on the other side of the mosque issue, you’d have pubs berating him for ignoring the first amendment. Obama needed to stand up against the people in his own party who’d already been bought off by the healthcare corporations and go to the public and explain what was needed (at the very least a public option.) That’s what FDR would have done. In the 1930s the Liberty leagues, the 1930s version of the teahadists, were actually blue dog Democrats funded by the big businesses of the era, Du Pont etc. FDR fought them all and won by taking his message direct to the public. Obama didn’t even beging to stand up for what was right and as a result we got a bill that is absolute garbage, which looks like what Americans might get with universal coverage but actually is a continuation of the status quo. All it will do in the long run is make the idea of universal coverage a hard sell to Americans with experience of Obamacare. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/39 "2010-09-21T18:47:19Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > …I still don’t get it… Our views are not actually in conflict. Obama understands intellectual contradiction, and prizes his ability to clarify issues. Hence, he understands the intellectual foundations of his opposition, such as they are. People who prize intellect tend to underestimate the power of visceral, mindless opposition. They are confident in their ability to frame the argument and marshall the evidence. All well and good, but you cannot reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into in the first place. I applauded his efforts to reach across, I thought them sincere and motivated by all the right urges. I would have been delighted if it had worked, and so would the monkeys that would have flown out of my butt. Sadly, no. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419/40 "2010-09-21T18:53:31Z")
Did anyone catch Bill Maher’s take on it last Friday? He says Obama is doing everything half-assed. He’d be better off if he wasn’t half-white, as somewhere inside of him is a white man, holding him back. Laughed pretty hard at that one! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grand-unified-obama-theory/554419.md?page=3)