Advice to Obama: Praise a Democratic president next time

[quinnox]

After all, this is the party you are running for to be president. Come on, let's be smart. Maybe next time instead of praising Reagan you can praise a great Democratic president like FDR, hmmm?

Don't go off the cliff in the spirit of "let's get along with the republicans" so far that you lose sight of the good things on the Democratic party side.

I understand you have the idea of bipartisanship as the campaign theme but dammit, some of us just don't like those republican right wingers who have taken this country to disaster.

Throw us a bone once in a while too.

[TwilightGardener]

1. He praised Kennedy's transformational politics at the same time he praised Reagan's--

gather facts before you post.

[papau]

5. the part of "Kennedy's transformational politics" he appears to like are GOP tax cuts

[redqueen]

17. YIKES!

Seriously?

[LostinVA]

19. Yes

[BootinUp]

6. Compare Kennedy rhetoric in '60 to Obama rhetoric

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAGyT-z9SlA

Obama, you are no Jack Kennedy.

[elixir]

27. Excellent post, Jim4Wes. In fact, no one is JFK. Our candidates all look anemic compared to him

Makes me long for those days when speaches were impassioned and dreams were still real.

[sandnsea]

35. He did, but this thread proves

DU is more interested in political propaganda than truth. It's really disgusting. And much worse than 2004 at this point.

[fasttense]

2. I guess he doesn't know any American Democratic Presidents he admires, just repuke pResidents. n/t

[Colobo]

3. He admires JFK.

[sunonmars]

4. I saw something earlier from an Obama poster

and i do have to agree with him, they were correct. People run on soundbites, they wont delve into the detail, the fact is they will hear Obama praises Reagan and thats all they will hear. Thats why anything said needs to be said carefully and thats to all candidates, i'm saying this.

[goodgd_yall]

10. Someone pointed that out to me too

in regard to the discussion over Clinton's "fairy tale" reference. Good advice--I didn't think of it that way.

[goodgd_yall]

7. Better yet

Don't mention Reagan unless its to draw attention to the damage his administration did.

[hedgehog]

8. He didn't praise Reagan, he noted that people voted for Reagan because of what

Reagan represented.

[goodgd_yall]

11. I agree---he didn't "praise."

This is how sh-t gets out of hand here---when words are misinterpreted and others follow in the misinterpretation.

[Usrename]

23. Right, he called Reagan a miserable failure.

Oh, wait, no he didn't.

[goodgd_yall]

30. Black and white

His statement was somewhere in the gray, Mr. Usrename-can't-see-anything-but-extremes.

[Usrename]

32. Somewhere in the gray, your point is well taken.

People like you and Obama ALWAYS select the most gray example they can dream up, one that doesn't represent any perspective, when they are trying to make an illustration.

Keep telling yourself that.

[goodgd_yall]

33. FYI

I don't support Obama---Just trying to be reasonable. It's a pledge I made to myself after the latest craziness that I saw on DU.

[Usrename]

38. You may think you are being reasonable, but I don't.

Making an argument that Obama was not "praising" Reagan is not what a reasonable person would do.

[bettyellen]

36. like the gray of "i'm not pandering to hate speech- just sharing the stage with it"

amazing how many people made excuses for that. Ain;t gray to me, it;s pandering to hateful people.

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Fear of the red menace? Contempt for "the welfare queens"? Anti-intellectualism?

This is better?

If he believes that people voted for Reagan because "of what Reagan represented", then why is he a Democrat?

[goodgd_yall]

31. That makes no sense

Can't you admit that people were in that frame of mind? Obama, I realize, is trying to say something positive about Reagan, but the statement on its own---that Reagan was elected because he represented what people were looking for---is a legitimate statement. Yeah, people were for further punishing the poor, cutting taxes, and "making America great again." Look, Obama is either just doing some more pandering, or he really believes there was something good about the Reagan era. That doesn't NOT make him a Democrat.

[beachmom]

9. He always invokes historic Dem presidents like JFK & FDR.

You guys just don't get what transformational politics are. Or you don't want to get it. So you go after Obama for talking about the Reagan realignment, because you don't want to think about how he may be the guy to lead us to a progressive renaissance. And that the Clintons stand in the way of us achieving that dream.

[elixir]

28. We get it, we just don't want it. BO shld be able to relay his message w/out RR.

[stray cat]

12. Obama said Reagan changed things - he didn't say for the better

His point seemed to be that some presidents change the direction of the country past their presidency suggesting Obama wanted to bring long term change that lasts ie progressive change that isn't transient.

[bettyellen]

14. he is not honest enough to say he changed things for the worse. It's pandering- again.

most Obama supporters admit this is another reach around.

[sandnsea]

15. If they're saying that they miss the point

He wants to put the country on a new trajectory because he disagrees with the one Reagan put us on. Clinton didn't. People who want massive change need to vote for someone besides Hillary.

[bettyellen]

18. wher did he say that Regan was on the wrong path?

should i reread this thing, or is that just what you imagine he meant?

[sandnsea]

26. Why would he want to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY

if he agreed with the path Reagan had set us on? It's kind of common sense really.

But he said it specifically in his book, for those who don't cherry pick and distort. He didn't agree with Reagan on many issues, but Reagan most certainly rallied the country to his vision of America.

[bettyellen]

34. kinda like how i should just know he disapproves of gay bigots? is that in the book too?

and how SS is broken and need to be fixed. is that in there??

[sandnsea]

37. Or you could read his own words

"I have clearly stated my belief that gays and lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens. I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country.

I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views and will continue to fight for these rights as President of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division."

and look at his record.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/lgbt.pdf

[bettyellen]

39. if he shares a stage with the man, it's a problem. this is taling out two sides of the mouth

when he stops pandering to theses conservative assholes, I'll stop pointing it out.

of course if you feel the ends justify any means, your milage will vary. :shrug:

[sandnsea]

41. Except he didn't

and he isn't the one saying Reagan Democrats in the south won't vote for a black man or a woman either.

[bettyellen]

42. he went on stage afterward and left the bigotry unadressed- it's tacit approval

they got what they wanted out of it, were quoted saying so.
he invokes the name of Regan and the Repubs as being the party of ideas - never once examining what's wrong with that picture.

no wonder you'd like to change the subect to the south. but we ain;t talking about the south, we're talking about Obama pandering to bigots and RWers.

[sandnsea]

43. He wasn't there

So you don't even know what you're talking about. You've just latched on to talking points to smear Obama. When you don't know what else to say, divert to McClurkin. Pathetic.

Reagan Repulicans were the party of ideas, vouchers, privatizing social security, 401k's, hmo's, - they just weren't the party of GOOD ideas which is why Obama says we need to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY.

[bettyellen]

44. I forgot Obama appered only on tape @ OBAMA EVENT WITH BIGOTS...i said he did it to appease bigotl

and he did it to appease christian bigots. he got what he wanted out of it, some NC votes.
caring about the GBLT community might be pathetic to you, but it sticks in the craw of many.
and here we are again, witnessing more pandering. I am so embarrassed he thinks he need to reach out to even more bigots.
this will bite him in the ass big time, glorifying the GOP years. What an idiot.


he better hope the kids come out and vote- but that'd be a first , huh?

[winter999]

13. At least he's trying to reach across the aisle.

This puts him on higher moral ground, IMO. I much rather have a "can-do" consensus builder than a divider any day.

[bettyellen]

21. a master of empty rhetoric like Reagan appeals to you?

the republicans are going to compromise how, exactly?

[arthritisR_US]

16. Sounds to me like he's positioning himself for the general election. n/t

[William769]

20. How about praise a fucking human being!

[ProSense]

25. Like the war criminal Bush:

(AP) Asked to say one nice thing about President Bush, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton went one better: She named two things.

"He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York," Clinton said Tuesday night during a talk at the National Archives about her life in politics.

Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said that despite their "many disagreements about many, many issues," she has always had a good personal relationship with the president.

"He's been very willing to talk. He's been affable. He's been good company," said Clinton, D-N.Y.

link

[TwilightGardener]

40. LOL!

:thumbsup:

[AtomicKitten]

24. Thank you for your concern.

But you don't really need to try to regulate what Obama says because Clinton has demonstrated her willingness to riff off alleged comments from him that do not actually exist.

[zulchzulu]

29. Advice to OP: Do your homework before you diss Obama

As others have noted, Obama has cited FDR, JFK, Carter and other presidents in speeches. This cheap shot garbage from the Hillbot Brigade is pointlessly a non-issue.