It happens when trying to catch the trash collector and...

...posting at the same time.  I forgot two things.

Biggest blunder since Gary Hart dared the press to follow him around and get the goods on him.  They did; he got caught on a boat with babes.

Obama's comments on how he'd handle bureaucracies and the daily minutia of the presidency sounded like off-the-top-of-his-head rather than well-thought out beforehand, which they probably were.

Because what he said and how he said it, instantly reminded me of Reagan's lazy-faire attitude toward the presidentcy, I  hope he figures out a way to dig himself out of it, because I doubt he meant it to sound that way.

Maybe some more practice sessions in off-the-cuff responding to questions from left field would help.

by Sandy Sand (130 articles, 0 quicklinks, 153 diaries, 1174 comments) on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 9:49:39 AM
 

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, Obama is pro-corporate

You would have to be asleep to have missed that fact. He speaks of allowing the "market" to dictate solutions, just as Bush and Hillary Clinton do. Obama believes in outsourcing and importing replacement visa workers (no matter what he's taken to saying recently). He wants the health insurance lobby to write any heath care reform, just as Clinton did, just as Bush has with Part D, and the energy bill. You people need to wake up to the fact that you are as out of touch as those who voted for Bush, if you don't research the facts and expect talking heads to tell you who to vote for.

 John Edwards is not only the most progressive candidate, he is the only candidate who would beat all of the republican candidates in the general elections. He's the only candidate who cared enough and took the tiime to put together a plan to deal with our problems. He'd also deal with the nightmare that Bush and Bill Clinton imposed upon us and the poor of the world with those lousy trade deals, NAFTA, CAFTA and MFN for China.

by J Perry (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 13 comments) on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 11:35:46 AM
 

My heart tells me Ronald Reagan was a great leader...

...but the evidence tells me it isn't so. 

For anyone that wants to defend Reagan, I'll concede he was a great speaker and unified the nation behind him because he connected to people with a convincingly "heartfelt" message.

The lasting effect of his policies have hurt us today, however. First, he changed the Conservative movement by creating an appearance/reality dynamic that still exists today. He spoke of small government, but the national deficit ballooned under Reagan like no President in history, haunting us decades later. This is a ruse - sweeping fiscal irresponsibility under the carpet while beginning the stove-piping of American wealth from middle class towards the nation's richest few.

Also damaging were the overseas operations that would haunt us years later - funding Osama and Saddam, installing puppet rulers in Pakistan and South America, and numerous other black bag ops which have now been detailed in books such as "Confession of an Economic Hit Man".

Reagan was the frontispiece of a cabal of "raiders" who committed crimes and carried out cover ups as bad as anything the current administration has done. Reagan denied it all in his persuasive, heartfelt best, as if he himself had actually been insulated from all of the gory details, finding out we were propping up extremists and laundering drug money only when the public did. He denied it up until he was put on the witness stand, when he changed his denials to "I don't recall". Later in his memoirs he would say his heart knew he was right but the evidence told him it wasn't so. Incompetent head of a runaway executive office anyone?

Though Reagan was bad for the US, it's clear Obama sees himself stealing votes from Reagan Democrats, one-time Republicans, Conservatives and Independents who have bought into the hype about the Reagan legacy. Purist progressives need to recognize the statements made on the campaign trail are meant to coalesce "types" of voters behind a single candidate - this is what Obama is trying to do. If you expect him (or Edwards) to vocally espouse progressive ideals in a country made up of about 50% red states, he's toast.

Winning the White House has nothing to do with principles, values and policy and everything to do with strategy. Let's change that as soon as a moral, fiscally responsible person takes control of the executive branch...

by Gustav Wynn (47 articles, 32 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 222 comments) on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 8:53:09 PM
 

Barack Obama is 100% Correct.

Barack Obama is 100% Correct.

Who are the defenders of the status quo ? Is that you ?
Reagan did spawn a 'sea change' in American politics.
Obama hopes to spawn a new 'sea change'. Change based on the ideals of unity - not division (and certainly not modeled after Reagan's ideas)
How can anyone look at the state of modern politics and the outlook for our country guided by our current stautus quo - how can this 'sea change' of unified working government not make sense.
Anyone who has paid any attention knows what Obama is speaking of about the Republican Party being guided by 'ideas' for the past 15 years... you don't have to subscribe to those ideas but they are, none the less, ideas. The same could be said of the Democratic party of the late 50's and into the 60's - Kennedy Idealism. Both of these movements ran their course and were watered down by time. That explains the state of the Democratic Party in the 70's and 80's. It also explains the 'washed out' state of the Republican Party today.
--- Why do 'we' resent being talked to as if we had the capacity for knowledge. That is how Barack Obama is speaking to America... as if 'we can' understand. Why would we sell ourselves short and believe that we are past our zenith... that we are a declining people. Come on people... Now is the time to show some strength of character.

Hillary Clinton should do her part in making the Democratic Party a party of ideas again. She can start by voting for Barack Obama in November.

Barack Obama for President of the UNITED States of America.

by PulSamsara (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 10:56:21 PM