Senate The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election has begun

dp4m: Oh, I don't buy the conceit that progressives constitute any "far-left", even in modern America. The descriptive is just a smear employed by the hacks in the corporate media.

The truth is, the majority of Americans, while moderate/conservative on a number of social issues, are progressive on economics. They support universal health care, a sharp increase in the minimum wage, and increased taxation on the wealthy. (And if Obama had exploited this in the honeymoon phase of his presidency, particularly by allowing his Justice Dept. to prosecute the gangsters on Wall Street, he would have found himself as popular as FDR. Evidently, the schmuck was never intending to be a transformative president.)

 

Obama passed a massive recovery act during his initial time in office. That stood in the way of many things, as Republicans believed he had already done too much.

Also, Obama was always going to be a relatively centrist Democratic president. Surely you understood that going in, right?

 

Oh Trump would bring outreach to the world…at the tip of a bomb.

Vietnam and Cuba are both successes for the president pivoting away from previous stances.

 

This is a substantive and well-thought out post.

Thank you.

 

KnightWriter: Yes, I was painfully aware that Obama was very much a New Democrat (one only needed to look at his advisors and financiers in the run-up)--which is why I didn't vote for him. However, there was a brief time in '08-09 when I was curious whether he'd seize a historical opportunity--one that presidents are usually afforded once, if they're lucky--and become a great leader. Sadly, he chose to follow the path of Carter and Clinton, applying band-aids to our gaping wounds. Such a waste.

 

Obama did a lot in his first year in office. He should have done more, but he did do a lot.

Including raising the minimum wage (which used to be $5) and passing the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act. (And if the Lily Ledbetter Act wasn't really equal pay for equal work, then what law are they trying to pass now? One criticism/question I have of that current push in the Democratic Party).

And maybe a majority of Americans want universal healthcare. But they also want themselves to pay lower taxes, or at least not a tax raise... but single-payer basically requires higher taxes on the middle class too.

Also, when Barack Obama did diverge from Hillary Clinton on the issues in 2008, he was to her right (except on Iraq) and one of his own campaign slogans was a direct rejection of John Edwards' campaign theme of income inequality and "two America's". Edwards was the most progressive of the 3 "mainstream" politicians in the 2008 primary. Then Hillary. Then Obama.
(There were also Gravel and Kucinich, but they had as much popularity as Senator Dodd.)

Obama wanted to be a transformative President. But never in the same way that Bernie Sanders is saying he wants to be. He wanted to return to pragmatism (instead of Bush's ideological crusades), and he wanted the Democrats to become the big-tent party, and win the majority of moderates who were more likely to support the GOP before or be almost evenly-split. Obama even campaigned on bringing evangelicals into the Democratic Party back then. It was part of his appeal, he said he could appeal to moderates and the right, while Hillary and Edwards were too hated by them.

And if anyone learned anything from the Obama years, it's that you need a willing Congress to get almost anything substantial done on domestic policy. What has stopped Obama from pursuing more progressive legislation for the last 6-7 years will definitely be there to block Sanders.

But despite all that, like I wrote in another thread a few months ago, Obama did accomplish a lot:

Like I just said above, it's not because of his advisors/financers, it's what he actually campaigned on.

And he did seize on plenty of historical opportunities. And he has been a great leader. Maybe not as far as you'd like, but don't take President Obama's accomplishments for granted. Too many people do. These things weren't inevitable. And they still aren't secure if a GOP President comes in.

 

Also, the Sanders faithful -- i.e. the people who volunteered for his campaign -- are weighing in now...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/u...e-mobilizing-voters-to-defeat-trump.html?_r=1

Also, the "rigged" election is coming up again as Bernie supporters in California are suing the state because the voter registration rules are "confusing"...

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-...rnia-voter-confusion-20160522-snap-story.html

 

"So what?" says Sanders, on if his supporters make the convention "messy"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-democratic-convention-could-messy-230537903--election.html

'Open the doors, let chaos reign' is supposed to actually persuade the Dem establishment into doing it?

Does he really wonder why the same people aren't supporting him?

He would have been so horrible working with Congress if he did become President, even a Democratic-majority Congress.

I understand the need for debate... but the main debate was the primaries. Hillary got millions of more votes. The people have spoken.

 

Yeah all twelve of them.

Michael Briggs, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign, called the draft plan “totally irrelevant.”
“We are focused on winning the Democratic nomination,” Mr. Briggs said in an email. “This document is something that neither the senator nor anyone he works with has seen. We have no idea who wrote it. We could care less about the document.”


Sounds like he still has some Sander's faithful and volunteers at odds.

 

Also, bad grammar by the spokesman. They could care less?

 

It's almost as if I didn't post....

 

Ted Cruz basically releases his first 2020 TV ad...



"To Be Continued"

(it also includes the guy he fired for no reason, lol)

 

God the ego on that ****.

 

Oh that happens all the time. He does care then! He cares!

Ghost, what a bunch of windbaggery from Cruz. He needs to go away.

 

dp4m, I just watched some of a Hillary speech to some union.

She rallied against outsourcing.

What. Why.

 

She is a politician making a speech to a union. She didn't want to get booed.

 

I get that.

It is still unacceptable.

 

Congratulations Ender you have discovered that Hillary is dishonest and will do anything to get some votes.

10 Points to you old man.

This is why I don't like her.

 

The hilarious part of that post is that Ender seemed to expect the Usurper would either A) do the right thing or B) have genuine beliefs to stand up for in the first place.

 

Well, that's normal. I'm against outsourcing willy-nilly too. I'm also for free trade. It's one thing to say "I'd prefer these jobs not go away if they don't have to" and "Those jobs that went away, I'll bring them back!"

 

Stephen Colbert reads the new Dr. Seuss book "Run, Ralph, Run..."

 

Sanders is requesting a recanvassing of the KY vote.

 

Disagree, Cruz should stick around. He's one of the few good senators that the GOP has. I have no regrets from supporting his campaign. That was a great video. Nice tribute

 

to himself