-
Website
http://www.americablog.com/ -
Original page
http://www.americablog.com/2009/07/house-progressive-caucus-warns-obama.html -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
All Comments
As head of the DCCC he went out of his way to fund the furthest right Democrats that he could find. He takes credit for the 06 wins, but in fact his track record is really less than average. It was the true progressives that made 06 the landslide it was, in spite of Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm Emanuel is part of the right side of the Democratic party. He is GOP-lite. He is a corporatist first and foremost.
And for anyone who thought that they were going to get any different, remember the left to right skew of the candidates in the Democratic primary.
from left to right (progressive to corporatist)...
Dennis Kucinich
John Edwards
Chris Dodd
Bill Richardson
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
Joe Biden
Now look at that list and consider those that were tapped by Obama...
Yep, the two to the RIGHT of him are part of his executive branch. He also "reached out" to the one just to the left.
John Edwards got 4.5 delegates. More than Biden. More than Richardson. More than Dodd. And what has he been offered? Bubkus.
The 06 campaign was built on a strategy from Progressive Dr. Dean. And just what has Dr. Dean been offered? Nada.
As I staid on myleftnutmeg during the primary campaign. These are NOT progressive Democrats. They are corporatist's and GOP-lite. They are interested in helping corporate America because that who pays their bills (that's who lobbies them and raises money for their elections).
If progressives want to change the tone, then we have to come up with a funding machine that supports OUR candidates. We have to primary the corporate shills. We have to hammer home the message that GOP-lite is NOT a Democrat and isn't looking out for the interests of the people. We have to build our bench and make sure that the Democratic party represents people, not corporate interests, first.
What surprises me is that ANYONE expected Obama to be other than what he is.
Let me tell you a story about insurance, I lost a job in 2004 that I had for 8 years, and I was taking care of my chronically ill mother. She died in 2005, I became ill, severely with staph infection the day of her funeral and almost died myself, I had NO insurance, my cobra cost too much and I couldn't get a job, almost 68,000 dollars and a week later I was back home, and wanting to end it all because I would never see the light of day again financially.
I did apply for financial aid and it was written off, but I was lucky. I sat home wanting to end it all because I was going to lose everything I had. They need to be in that position just ONCE, just ONCE to see what it feels like. Notwithstanding the grief and loss I was experiencing to become suddenly ill, with life threatening illness is a shock, and without insurance, its like you're free falling through space, no net. So they need to start putting themselves in our shoes, and if they don't give us a public option, hold THEM ACCOUNTABLE!!
Lamont was being advised by some of Hil Clinton's people and I believe that they told him to "back off" after the primary and that "Joe will do the right thing.". Lamont was set up. The day after the primary he should have been out there attacking Lieberman. Attacking him every day. Attacking his lies. Making him the "loser". But he took the advice of Clintonians who "liked Joe" and so he got his ass handed to him when the CT Repubs all voted for the GOP-Lite they knew rather than the GOP candidate (thank you Karl Rove and the machine).
You want to go after someone for giving us Lieberman, my guess is that the people to go after were the ones who advised Lamont to "let Joe do the right thing" rather than running a full scale attack on him after the primary. And my guess is that those trails all lead back to Clintonians.
[Note: I was the person who created timetogojoe.com before anyone even thought of primary'ing Joe. Criminal Robert Novak even lambasted me on CNN... I was so proud. :-) ]
Talk about the shame of a nation.
Health care is going to be Obama's "Katrina" moment. It took people several years to turn on the Republicans for Iraq, realizing that they were incompetent buffoons and outright theives throwing billions down a shithole.
I've read, though, that a huge turning point against the Republican party was Katrina. (Even though obviously the Dems were just as bad in not handling it.) Our racism/classism was splashed across every front page in the world.
Obama backs away from public option = political capital in freefall. Too many Americans are riding this one, watching it unfold. 70% of Americans - that is huge. That is more than just progressives. Every person in Congress should be fighting FOR single payer given the overwhelming support for it across the country.
If you want public option, you fight for single-payer. That way when you are negotiating, you get what you want. Then progressives like myself, would support you as well because I want single payer.
You get what you want, I think I have the chance of getting what I want, and the insurance companies get to stay in practice.
YOU DO NOT BEGIN NEGOTIATING WITH WHAT YOU WANT! EVER!
They wanted even MORE since Obama started there. We didn't get enough $$ in infrastructure, we got too much in tax cuts, and still no repug support.
You don't start the negotiation at the place you want to end up. stupid, stupid, stupid....
Gibbs is over-stepping his position if he is giving advice, especially homophobic advice to Obama to not attend to our equal rights. He is the mouth-piece of the White House and he should only say what the WH wants him to say. No one hired him for his council.
There had better be a single payer public option or it isn't worth having. I think the scenario is in general that Obama is pretty liberal, he has the two policy wonks of Rahm, and Gibbs whispering in his ears, to be more middle of the road or he will lose his popularity, can't be TOO liberal...
As far as him attending a fundamentalist church, well I am not sure how that would affect his view point, but why would he campaign so hard for the gay vote, for change you can beleive in. I tend to think that Rahm needs to go, and so does Gibbs, he needs to be free of these conservative dems.
My man Obama has had to "clarify" their stupidity in one news cycle.
If MoveOn and the Progressive Caucus' push back works, they've given us a blueprint. If it doesn't work, we know we have to do something different from -- or something in addition to -- their pushback.
Seems to me like Rahm is getting too big for his britches and needs to be taken down a peg or two.
YOU are the POTUS, Barack. Act like it.
I don't think they get how hard the progressive community can fight, and that we are very united on many issues...
kick the douchebag out.
and I was being polite.