And some people are xenophilic.
His color is black(ish) but he’s just a much white as he is black.
It doesn’t work that way in the US. If you look black* and self-identify as black, you’re black. He satisfies both.
- In the US, looking black means you have obvious ancestry in sub-Sahara Africa.
No it doesn’t, it just presumes people can notice when someone has different traits than themself and those around them. Really, it’s a pretty basic instinct among pretty much all animals and humans are no exception.
That being said, I didn’t mean to start a hijack, so if anyone wants to continue this discussion, please start a new thread.
Obama is a somewhat left of centre by American standards, by European standards he’s still left, of the same variety as say Tony Blair or Gordon Brown. Europeans still consider most American political issues to be an “issue” except for UHC (which both the European Right and Left support).
Regardless of how “corporatist” American politics have gotten, America though is the most socially liberal it has been in its history.
If only! 
In Obama’s case, of course, it means he is not an African-American in the usual sense of the phrase, that is, not a descendant of American slaves and not raised by or among such. (Nothing to do with his color, which is darker than many AAs so defined.) But, he did marry into that family.
When I am in Europe (UK, France, Italy most recently), I find that the most prominent reason that people think I am a right winger is that I don’t hate the US and all its policies. It seems like one of the guiding principles of the left in Europe is at least suspicion if not outright hatred of America. They seem to be quite puzzled that I can be a proud liberal, and a patriotic American at the same time.
For Canadians, the idea that I am not (literally) burning cars and bombing government buildings because we do not have UHC in the US seems to indicate that I must be a right wing nut.
So I have rather given up on paying any attention to European or (to a lesser extent) Canadian views of internal US politics.
Except that Blair and Brown represented a substantial rightward movement in the Labour party, to the extent that it created problems with the Conservatives at times as Labour encroached on many of the same policy positions*. The Democrats are where the Republicans used to be on many economic issues (although still more socially liberal), while the Republicans are headed off into the far right distance.
Obama wobbles around the center in general IMHO, depending on the topic, but I can’t think of any issue he’s far to the left on.
*In the UK, by the way, the Conservatives were hemmed in on the right by fringe (but politically viable) parties such as UKIP and the BNP who poached their more rightwing positions on Euroscepticism and immigration. This limited their ability to shift further right as the Republicans have.
did they not pass the HC bill on Reconciliation? i.e. 50 votes
Bill Clinton tried real health care reform, Obama passed the Republicans sloppy seconds that was the counter offer to Clinton’s plan in the early 90’s, that’s what passes for earth-shattering “liberalism” today
tell that to the President!
:dubious: I am certain he has been told, thank you.
I kind of doubt that the mainstream view here is that Americans should literally burn cars and destroy government buildings in order to get UHC. Most of us probably think you should work towards it legislatively, and find your system intolerable, but I dare say that’s slightly different.
Got a bit carried away with the “literally” but it is exactly my insistence that there isn’t really enough popular support for “Canadian style” (I think they mean OHP-style really) health insurance that is greeted with sheer disbelief. They seem to feel that there must be some kind of giant brainwashing scheme south of the border.
But then USA-bashing seems to be only slightly less popular than hockey up there. You guys are all very polite and all, except for the little matter that not ever American travels to Canada for the sole purpose of being told how awful his country is.
They’re right.
The polls showed a majority of the population was in favor of some kind of single payer/public option plan. The Democrats were sufficiently right wing that many of them defied their constituents in order to pass the corporate giveaway we got instead. Probably not coincidentally, many lost the next election - but they protected us from the Terrible Evil of health care at least. The Democrats are so right wing that many are willing to sacrifice their careers rather than throw the left or even the middle a bone.
Some of the vitriol that is aimed his way seems so over board , that I have to believe his color is the reason. We have not grown out of racist past . So Obama is different from other presidents. His politics should be really quite acceptable to the Repubs. But they hate him.
His politics are hardly different from Clinton’s. The Pubs hated Clinton. It was quite astonishing to watch, at the time. It strained belief. But that’s nothing next to how they hate Obama.