Will Kucinich challenge Obama?

[Psychic Octopus]

Hopefully

Obama is the most liberal President since FDR.

lol

Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Truman were more liberal then Obama?

[Psychic Octopus]

Hopefully

Obama is the most liberal President since FDR.

lol

Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Truman were more liberal then Obama?

I mean really, Obama has been in office for all of what 10 months and people are already calling him the next coming of full on principle liberalism? I mean really, does anyone remember the first two years of Clinton? I mean really remember it? HillaryCare and Assault Weapons Ban ring a bell? Believe me if it weren't for the Republican Revolution the 8 years of Clinton would've had a different tune.

I wasn't alive then. My point is that Obama, percieved by reports, is liberal. I'm not saying that the man is the new representation of liberalism or the "Hard left", but he certainly is a liberal.


As for Clinton, he was definitely left-leaning, but only when the Democrats controlled Congress. He increasingly moved to the center afterwards shaped his presidency to be defined as moderate. I have no qualms in saying that he wasn't so much as a centrist, just pragmatic.

[Psychic Octopus]

Hopefully

Obama is the most liberal President since FDR.

lol

Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Truman were more liberal then Obama?

I mean really, Obama has been in office for all of what 10 months and people are already calling him the next coming of full on principle liberalism? I mean really, does anyone remember the first two years of Clinton? I mean really remember it? HillaryCare and Assault Weapons Ban ring a bell? Believe me if it weren't for the Republican Revolution the 8 years of Clinton would've had a different tune.

I wasn't alive then. My point is that Obama, percieved by reports, is liberal. I'm not saying that the man is the new representation of liberalism or the "Hard left", but he certainly is a liberal.


As for Clinton, he was definitely left-leaning, but only when the Democrats controlled Congress. He increasingly moved to the center afterwards shaped his presidency to be defined as moderate. I have no qualms in saying that he wasn't so much as a centrist, just pragmatic.

Obama, as hard as it for some people to swallow, is also a pragmatist. Of course he won't go to the centre because at the worst the Democrats lose the House and Senate in 2012 (they have way too many seats in the Senate to lose it by 2010). Sure he may have come across as an ideaologue while campaigning and such but I think that is due to him being from blue state Illinois and not from somewhere like say Arkansas. If Obama had the same Congress as Clinton did it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he would act the same way.

I never doubted that Obama was a pragmatist. We agree on everything so far that we see here.

[Psychic Octopus]

Kennedy was basically a moderate, who ran to Nixon's right on many issues, especially foreign policy. In office, he proved relatively ineffective in getting his domestic agenda through, and the New Frontier was relatively limited in its scope. Its major points were (1) broad-based tax cuts, (2) health coverage for the poor and the elderly (Medicare/Medicaid), and (3) increased federal aid to education. None of those are considered more liberal than today, and remember that JFK never pushed for universal health care - just coverage for the old and the sick.


That's actually a pretty fair assessment, actually. JFK was more glitz and gkamour -- then substance. In terms of competence and political skills, Lyndon Johnson was a far superior president to the man he called a "feckless puppy dog".

Doesn't mean I don't just worship Kennedy, though. Got his picture on my school binder.