# President Obama: Too Conservative Or Too Liberal **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210 "2012-04-08T23:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/1 "2012-04-08T23:08:57Z")
Note that in the poll I use “support” in the sense of “even if I can’t vote, if I could I’d probably vote for him”. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/2 "2012-04-09T02:39:38Z")
Where is the “too fucking liberal, not supporting the commie bastard” option? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/3 "2012-04-09T04:11:07Z")
Too conservative, supporting him for Pres. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/4 "2012-04-09T04:15:21Z")
I vote “too incompetent.” In 2008, I was disgusted with GWB’s handling of the economy and Katrina, and thought to myself “ah, WTH, after all this I can live with a liberal as long as he knows how to do his job.” I was making a faulty assumption on the last bit, though. I rather doubt I’m the only independent-ish voter thinking this way going into this year’s election. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/5 "2012-04-09T04:19:17Z")
He’s conservative, incompetent, and I despise him; but I’m still voting for him because the opposition are fanatics, thugs, plutocrats and lunatics. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/6 "2012-04-09T09:45:39Z")
Barry Goldwater was the last presidential candidate far enough to the right to please me, so my opinion of Obama shouldn’t be any mystery. Comically enough, as I sit here trying to down more coffee and wake up, I may have actually clicked on the wrong choice. (Doubtless some clever plot to fool me, by them clever lib’rals on this board.:p) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/7 "2012-04-09T09:48:34Z")
The best that I can tell, he’s not anything, really. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/8 "2012-04-09T11:23:46Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He’s conservative, incompetent, and I despise him; but I’m still voting for him because the opposition are fanatics, thugs, plutocrats and lunatics. QFT. I’m not pleased with how he’s held to his promises so far but the other option is unfathomably worse. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/9 "2012-04-09T12:46:34Z")
I get the impression sometimes that he is to the right of Richard Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/10 "2012-04-09T13:25:43Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > Where is the “too fucking liberal, not supporting the commie bastard” option? 😉 Umm, semantics and smileys aside, number two? ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/11 "2012-04-09T13:57:28Z")
Too conservative, voting for him anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/12 "2012-04-09T14:17:09Z")
Considering the rift between left/right when he took office it would have been disastrously divisive if he’d appealed more to the left and marginalized the right as belligerently as his predecessor did the left. He was gifted a tightrope and he’s walked it. Furthermore, considering the alternative, what sane person would vote _against_ him? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/13 "2012-04-09T14:31:03Z")
I look at those “Obama 2012” bumper stickers and all I can do is shake my head and think, “Fool me once…” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/14 "2012-04-09T14:55:46Z")
The Obama presidency isn’t that much different than Nixon’s. Obama is no liberal, let alone socialist. Still, given that the opposition party has been hijacked by the batshittiest batshits around, I must give him my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/15 "2012-04-09T15:55:28Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I look at those “Obama 2012” bumper stickers and all I can do is shake my head and think, “Fool me once…” So who’s better? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/16 "2012-04-09T16:21:14Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > He’s conservative, incompetent, and I despise him; but I’m still voting for him because the opposition are fanatics, thugs, plutocrats and lunatics. This, except for the “despise” part. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/17 "2012-04-09T16:29:19Z")
I voted just about right and am certainly supporting him, but I might just as easily have voted too conservative (but I am still voting for him next term). I think he will be a very interesting second term President - doing more things to make a screaming liberal like me happy. It is far easier to push more liberal agendas when you don’t have to worry about re-election. However, getting some of that enacted into law might be a bit of a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/18 "2012-04-09T18:43:41Z")
I didn’t vote for him before (FTR I didn’t vote for McCain either), but he’s performed roughly how I would have expected him to. To some extent, I can’t blame him for breaking some of his promises because I imagine that he intended to follow through, but the political reality just didn’t make them possible. OTOH, there are some he easily could have kept and didn’t follow through on. So even though I disagree with more of his positions than I agree with, I at least can give him credit for what he intended and tried to do. I expect he’ll end up moving more to the left in his second term, depending on how Congress shapes up, since he won’t have to worry about pandering to independents for re-election. But I’m also not sure how much political capital he’ll still have left to get anything done. Still, I can’t support him because, as I said, I just can’t agree with most of what he wants to do. I do think he’d be somewhat less disastrous than Romney, if for no other reason than because he’s the devil I know, and I’m not sure anyone knows Romney since he’s pretty much been nothing but a windsock in the primaries. However, I have long since decided to vote for whom I agree with most and think will do the best job over voting for the lesser of two evils, so I will most likely be voting third party. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/19 "2012-04-09T20:00:11Z")
I’m honestly not that sure about his beliefs. I know his actions have been a bit too conservative for my tastes, but I don’t know how much of that is actually what he believes, or him being pragmatic. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210/20 "2012-04-09T20:09:32Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Considering the rift between left/right when he took office it would have been disastrously divisive if he’d appealed more to the left and marginalized the right as belligerently as his predecessor did the left. He didn’t “walk a tightrope”; he sucked up to the Republicans and betrayed many of those who voted for him, in return for nothing. If he’d “marginalize the Right”, he might have been able to accomplish something before all his political capital was gone. Instead he just handed the Right victory after victory in return for repeated slaps in the face. > [@DMark](#): > > I think he will be a very interesting second term President - doing more things to make a screaming liberal like me happy. It is far easier to push more liberal agendas when you don’t have to worry about re-election. I think it’s more likely that he’ll swerve even farther to the Right, since he won’t need to worry about alienating his base anymore. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-obama-too-conservative-or-too-liberal/618210.md?page=2)