You think he’s a stealth-conservative who carefully mapped out being all social activist in order to subvert his Republican cohorts and steal representation away from the naiive?
There’s your plotline–write that one up. Oh wait…George Lucas already did!
No; I think he’s just plain conservative, not stealthy at all and has only been marginally restrained by the need to not convince his base that he’s no better than the Republicans. He’s no liberal, or even a moderate.
I disagree 100%. I think he honestly expected to compromise with Republicans and he did his part, but received nothing in return. If he gets a second term, which he most likely will, I would not be the least bit surprised if he is much more liberal leaning.
And even as is he now, he is still way better than the Republicans. To say he is no better is insane.
I’ve heard Europeans refer to “Obama Syndrome”–a person gets into a position of leadership expecting to accomplish transformational change, thinking that they can reason with the opposition, only to be blindsided by a lot of obstructionism and resistance. I think that Obama way overestimated the degree to which he could get Republicans to support his agenda, and wasted a lot of time and effort watering down his policies in a futile attempt to woo them. This probably made his administration more conservative than he would have preferred, on social issues.
On security / foreign policy issues, I think that he is truly conservative, and I have been appalled at what he has done with Homeland Security and the like.
But seriously, what on Earth can you do? Support the party that wants to eliminate social services and cut taxes for millionaires?
As far as I can tell, Obama (in actions if not in belief) is somewhere between center-right and center-center, and the Republicans fall variously between right-right and batguano.
I think he has spent his whole first term keeping up appearances. If he gets reelected we will see more of the real BHO agenda.
In all seriousness, what was Obama’s agenda? What did he run on that he has had to water down? Not Obamacare… he didn’t run on a more complete governement takeover of healthcare. Maybe Guantanamo but I think that is more him lying to the left realizing all along that the only responsible thing to do was to keep it open.
:rolleyes: There’s nothing “responsible” about keeping it open. It exists because of cowardice, sadism and the Republican determination that Obama not be allowed to accomplish anything whatsoever.
Not just Guantanamo. Extending the Patriot Act, for example.
On social issues Obama is more moderate or liberal, but on national security he seems conservative to me. Just MHO.
I actually think he’s liberal enough, he just gets road blocked by the conservative establishment and isn’t able to accomplish what needs to be done. If the President had no opposition playing games with these things, I think we’d see substantial positive change in this country under him.
I’m not only voting for him again, but I’m working actively for his campaign again, too. Hell,I’m sitting at my desk at work wearing my Obama 2012 sweatshirt as we speak.
FWIW: I’m relatively moderate, so perhaps that’s why Obama strikes the right balance for me.
Is it a…hoodie? :eek:
Last week I watched David Mitchell from the Cato institute on PBS newshour talking about the Ryan budget. One of his objections to Obama is one I hear from liberals: that he is too much like Bush:
So this guy from the Cato institute says Obama is too much like Bush. Was Bush too liberal?
Psh, never! It’s one of the “Runway to Win” designer made, off the shoulder, jaunty little cute sweaters of course. I mean, hell, I’m not looking to get shot!
I don’t despise him. However, I don’t think that he was experienced enough to become president. If the Republicans had given me a viable choice, it’s entirely possible that I would have held my nose and voted for a Republican for president. However, they didn’t back then, and it looks like they won’t this time around, either, so Obama will almost certainly get my vote. He’s not my ideal choice for President, but of the people who are likely to be running, he’ll probably be the one I vote for.