I'm genuinely curious-- is there anyone here buying into the "radical" narrative?


SPLAIN YO'SELVES.

4/21/2010 10:12:58 PM

He's not radical.

Awesome like a possum maybe.

But not radical.

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 10:24 PM. Reason : ]

4/21/2010 10:23:49 PM

obama under the radical sign would make a helluva t shirt

4/21/2010 10:34:56 PM

i think the dwindling numbers of the Tea Party marches are a reflection of how obama has failed to live up to his radical label he was given by the Beck's of the world

[Edited on April 21, 2010 at 11:17 PM. Reason : .]

4/21/2010 11:17:05 PM

^^ It would quickly be spun into a root of all evil joke. Actually, this sounds like an easy way to make $10,000.

4/21/2010 11:26:54 PM

radical doesn't really fit, he hasn't really done anything that surprises me.

and i don't mean that in a positive way.

4/21/2010 11:38:13 PM

He's certainly a radical, but has tempered his personal beliefs with pragmatic realism.

So, in the end, eh... a typical liberal president. Probably end up in the same boat as Jimmy Carter and our nation will move on, with the benefit of being able to have checked off the "black president" bit.

4/21/2010 11:54:38 PM

But if he wasn't a radical than why would Hannity refer to him as such no less than 100 times each night. Oh, that's right. It's one of the buzz words on the cover of his book.......

4/22/2010 12:04:55 AM

^^no it's ok. you don't have to support your claim of him being a radical at all.

4/22/2010 12:13:41 AM

^yeah, solinari is starting to sound like a broken record
jimmy carter, jimmy carter, ....
perhaps you should read the papers once in a while, homeboy has turned the economy around, passed healthcare reform, bout to pass financial reform, appoint 2 supreme court justices
if he retired now he'd still be more successful than the Bush family combined

4/22/2010 12:33:49 AM

when's the last time I invoked carter???

4/22/2010 12:46:48 AM

I'm not a huge fan of the President, but I shudder to think that my country could possibly elect GWB more times than Barack Obama.

4/22/2010 12:53:07 AM

april 3rd, 10th, march 8, 14th, 32nd etc

wtf, you really think i'm gonna look this stuff up, we're all just making claims without backing it up, get with the program

4/22/2010 12:53:32 AM

i'm gonna call it now, obama will be a 3 term president

4/22/2010 12:54:30 AM

Here's a neat article explaining the contortions the Heritage Foundation is going through to deny the fact that Obamacare was more or less their plan, circa 1993.

http://www.slate.com/id/2251317/

4/22/2010 10:04:21 AM

suh-nap

4/22/2010 10:34:15 AM

Quote :

"a typical liberal president. Probably end up in the same boat as Jimmy Carter "

except with another massive unfunded entitlement. Hopefully we can undo it.

4/22/2010 10:51:46 AM

So, who's gonna defend the radical claim? There's been no defense of it in here yet.

4/22/2010 10:57:01 AM

he's a left winged nutjob that refuses to meet in the middle.

yeh, he's radical.

4/22/2010 10:57:31 AM

As far as American presidents go, Obama is a radical. Just like W. Bush.

4/22/2010 11:00:49 AM

^^ that's a caricature, not a defense.

by your definition, Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck are radicals for being a right-wing nutjobs that won't meet in the middle.

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 11:01 AM. Reason : ^ moo]

4/22/2010 11:01:29 AM

^^^sarcasm?

All he's done is meet in the middle. I dont think action wise he's left wing at all. The healthcare bill was a huge compramise and nothing near the single payer public option the left wing wanted. He's approved of offshore drilling which is an extremely right legislation. Belief wise he may be slightly left but according to what hes done hes smack in the middle.

Anyone who says differently is just being unreasonable. He won the election and republicans expect him to be a republican president or else he's a "radical leftwing nutjob". You're the radicals.

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 11:05 AM. Reason : i]

4/22/2010 11:01:45 AM

Not really a radical, he's just doing whatever he thinks is politically viable, while also acting as a shill for the TBTFs. Just another establishment politician.

4/22/2010 11:02:47 AM

Passing a legislation after debating it for a year and removing the centerpiece of what liberals wanted is not meeting conservatives in the middle?

i think the only radicals are the people who continue to call him one.

4/22/2010 12:05:55 PM

Quote :

"Passing a legislation after debating it for a year and removing the centerpiece of what liberals wanted is not meeting conservatives in the middle? "

Is that really why you believe it was dropped? Come on.

4/22/2010 12:18:32 PM

your inability to acknowledge obama's centrist actions have shown your detachment with reality and made you irrelevant, and the dwindling numbers are your marches are further proof that more and more people can no longer support the level of fear and anger that your 'radical' claims hope to induce

either get on board and be left behind

4/22/2010 1:20:28 PM

you can mask your ignorance with insults, but in the end they had to barter to get the votes for the bill as is(barely), there is no fucking way it would have passed with a public option. That is the truth of the matter.

4/22/2010 1:27:24 PM

it was dropped only because public opinion was so obviously and outwardly against it. not because he met anyone 'in the middle.'

btw...i have a bridge for sale. interested?

4/22/2010 1:27:30 PM

he had the votes in the senate and house at the beginning, he didn't need 1 yr of debate to pass the bill he wanted, he made an effort to make it bipartisan,
he not only negotiated the public option away which originally passed in the house, he also incorporated many other republican ideas
but the biggest problem during these negotiations was the republicans themselves, they didnt want comprimise they wanted only to scrap the whole bill altogether
how do you come to the middle when there is no middle, they forced obama to make an all or nothing decision and he made the right call

as far as other instances where he has shown he is no left wing radical let alone liberal
increasing troops in Afghanistan
off shore oil drilling
lowering taxes
cut stimulus bill in 1/2


but in your world he's karl marx

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 1:59 PM. Reason : .]

4/22/2010 1:58:44 PM

^I'm sorry, but he hasn't done shit about offshore drilling. He stopped denying leases that were already being allowed under the previous administration.

4/22/2010 2:00:30 PM

ok lafta, just going to play a little numbers game with you.

How many republican votes did this last bill get? And how many do you think a bill containing a public option would have gotten? Yet, he dumped the public option to get republican votes?

Might want to rethink your arguement.

4/22/2010 2:03:18 PM

Quote :

"he had the votes in the senate and house at the beginning, he didn't need 1 yr of debate to pass the bill he wanted, he made an effort to make it bipartisan, he not only negotiated the public option away which originally passed in the house, he also incorporated many other republican ideas but the biggest problem during these negotiations was the republicans themselves, they didnt want comprimise they wanted only to scrap the whole bill altogether how do you come to the middle when there is no middle, they forced obama to make an all or nothing decision and he made the right call "

So your argument was that Obama could have passed the very bill he wanted, and they only reason he didn't pass it was out of the goodness of his heart and a desire to meet the republicans in the middle. Yet somehow, the republicans also "forced" Obama to make an all or nothing decision? If he had the votes, the republicans couldn't force a damn thing. If he didn't have the votes, then it's back to a question of why didn't he have the votes.

4/22/2010 2:09:10 PM

Quote :

" as far as other instances where he has shown he is no left wing radical let alone liberal increasing troops in Afghanistan off shore oil drilling lowering taxes cut stimulus bill in 1/2 "

agree on Afghanistan. I have been pleasantly surprised and happy with his military strategy.

the others = not so much, but I would say (with the exception of taxes, which are going to blow your mind once they are fully implemented) he does monitor the public vibe and turns the dial a few clicks accordingly. because the public at large is generally center to right of center, he has to do that to prevent the shitstorm..not because he wants to prove himself a great compromiser.

4/22/2010 2:12:29 PM

Would a true radical ever make such compromises, regardless of motive?

4/22/2010 3:59:07 PM

Quote :

"How many republican votes did this last bill get? And how many do you think a bill containing a public option would have gotten? Yet, he dumped the public option to get republican votes? "

I thought they dropped the public option to appease Joseph Lieberman.

4/22/2010 4:26:53 PM

a true radical would milk every ounce of power they had.

4/22/2010 4:41:22 PM

A true radical should be more than marginally distinguishable from his opponents.

4/22/2010 4:59:16 PM

radicalism is relative.

to many of you, W was "radical."

to those of us adamantly against the expansion of government and the nanny state, he certainly could appear to be "radical."

[Edited on April 22, 2010 at 5:28 PM. Reason : ,]

4/22/2010 5:27:25 PM

Quote :

"to those of us adamantly against the expansion of government and the nanny state, he certainly could appear to be "radical.""

you were still talking about W, right?

4/22/2010 5:50:19 PM

Quote :

"radicalism is relative."

I disagree, most people would claim that the current "center" of politics is not relative, thus radical would just be a measurement away from that.

4/22/2010 5:51:21 PM

Liberals and progressives freaked out every time Dubya's admin did something right-leaning. Now the opposite is true with the Obama admin. The thing that sucks is that any of the more intelligent discourse about policy is being drowned in a sea of soundbites about "taking back our country from the Muslim."

4/22/2010 5:56:54 PM

^I agree. I dont think the Becks, Hannity, Olbermans of the world help either.

4/22/2010 6:50:39 PM

Quote :

"because the public at large is generally center to right of center"

how can "the public" be anything other than center?

4/22/2010 9:39:52 PM

well this is something that depends on how you look at it. America ihistorically conservative nation so the american "center" is really a decent bit to the right. so you could call conservatives centrists and liberals "RADICAL NUTJOB EXTREMISTS"

4/22/2010 10:07:53 PM

to the right of what?

4/22/2010 11:09:46 PM

Quote :

"it was dropped only because public opinion was so obviously and outwardly against it. not because he met anyone 'in the middle.' "

Where is your source for saying the public was "obviously and outwardly against it"? Every poll I've seen shows the opposite.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123782/In-U.S.-39-Say-View-Healthcare-Depends-Details.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2010/feb/23/healthcare-congress-public-option-still-popular
http://www.newsweek.com/media/84/1001_ftop_v2.pdf

4/23/2010 10:45:31 AM

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have a chance encounter with other hikers while walking along a trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Spending time in Asheville? Must be a radical.

4/25/2010 12:42:18 AM

^ Did they visit the Biltmore? Cuz if someone took pictures there, they'd be in violation of copyright laws.

4/25/2010 12:44:35 AM

Quote :

"how can "the public" be anything other than center?"

I would imagine the same way that the mean and median of a given set can be different.

4/25/2010 7:42:34 AM

So if the public is right of center, and the public is evenly split between conservatives and liberals, then the conservatives are radical and the liberals are centrist.

4/25/2010 10:56:13 AM