I guess this thread is for my fellow Democrats out there. But certainly you Republicans (and Labours, and Progressive-Conservatives, ETC.) can join the discussion too. I know Barack Obama wants to be reelected. And I know he is on his “honeymoon” with Congress and the country. But is he governing too much from the center? The thing I find most interesting is he choice of appointees. He tried to post a conservative Republican to one of his positions (I forget exactly which) and I think his first judicial appointee is just a moderate (he was supposed to appoint liberals to the bench, wasn’t he?).
Anyways, it is early on in the process. So if any of you think this will change eventually, feel free to add that too. Also, I should add I think it is good when a president governs from the middle. It makes him a consensus builder I think. But I think Obama may be governing a little too much from the center, if you want my opinion.
I agree. I like Obama I voted for him, but I wish he would govern more from the center. A few things he is trying to implement really make me sick to my stomach. I’m not a fan of his hurting charitable tax deductions or the GIVE Act. Too much direct involvement of the government at the expense of the private sector’s ability to self-organize.
I’m happy in the middle and very, very glad he seems to be halting our lurch to the right.
I’m interested to see how long and how hard he tries to work with the Republicans. They seem to be just knee jerking a bunch of “no’s” and I hope they settle down, get over their losses, and start working for us soon. I expect we will see that…after a while.
He said he wanted a cabinet of rivals and I believe he was sincere, but they don’t seem to be able to provide that at this time. That’s unfortunate for the country when we have so many large issues to confront and doesn’t make me think of them fondly at all.
He is relying on the same group of people who caused the messes he has to fix, with the repair. I do not like it. Geithner is part of the problem. He also needs a nose job.
The question is… can all the people that caused this mess be replaced quickly, and know how to build it back up again? Probably not, so you deal with the pricks who caused this mess, and once stable again, boot them on their ass.
I often worry that he might be. For instance, Geithner has said more than once in reference to nationalizing the banks, “We are the United States of America–we’re not Sweden.” I feel like they’re rejecting that option outright as left-wing crazy talk, even though a lot of people feel like it’s the only real solution.
It’s one thing to govern as a centrist. It’s another thing to reject possible solutions and informed opinions in the interest of remaining a centrist.
(Then again, if you were going to nationalize the banks, you’d want to strongly deny that you would ever do such a thing right up until you’ve already done it, so it’s hard to be sure about anything on the subject.)
To me, this thread looks like a strawman to make Obama look good by complaining that he’s a centrist when in actuality he is the most left leaning President in history. He’s waging class warfare in public with his control over executive salaries for all financial institutions and now he’s removed GM’s CEO. He’s solidly to the left on issues of union demands, health care, abortion, environmental issues, and taxes.
I don’t see anything that remotely resembles centrism.
That’s because your own position is so far to the right, anything further to the left of Obama is out of sight over the horizon. There’s a lot further left he could go.
I agree he could go further but that doesn’t change the idea that he is currently the most left leaning of any President. And my position would be Libertarian.