Sunday Show Panelists Claim That Obama Has Never ‘Opposed His Liberals’
Sunday Show Panelists Claim That Obama Has Never ‘Opposed His Liberals’
Yesterday, panelists on both ABC’s This Week and Fox News Sunday uniformly asserted that President Obama never does anything to upset “his liberals.” (Amusingly, ABC and Fox both forgot to include an actual liberal on their panels.) ThinkProgress has compiled a brief montage of their claims. Watch it:
Such claims that Obama never defies progressives may accurately reflect the views of right-wing activists and Beltway pundits, but they have no basis in reality:
- Stimulus: Progressive economists — including at least one Nobel Prize winner — warned that the President’s stimulus package was too small to lift the sinking economy. Similarly, progressives consistently warned the President not to replace highly-stimulative spending with ineffectual tax cuts. Nevertheless, the President rejected progressive pleas for a more substantial package and brokered a deal with made tax cuts almost one-third of the stimulus. Obama allowed much of its final form to be dictated by a handful of Senate Republicans.
- Bank Nationalization: Many progressives unsuccessfully urged Obama to nationalize the failing banks, rather than risk making future bailout payments to an industry whose recklessness nearly destroyed the nation’s economy.
- Cap and Trade: Many of President Obama’s campaign promises for a robust cap-and-trade system have been watered down by a coalition of so-called “Brown Dog” Democrats loyal to Big Coal.
- Single-Payer: The House Progressive Caucus prefers a single-payer system to the almost-exclusively private insurance-driven system proposed by the President.
- Judicial Nominations: President Bush stacked the federal courts with young right-wing ideologues — one of whom even compared Social Security to “cannibalism.” President Obama’s nominees, however, have been older and far more moderate than President Bush’s, and at least one has been actively opposed by disability rights advocates.
- Executive Power: President Obama embraced several Bush-era assertions of power, including signing statements and aggressive use of the state secrets doctrine to avoid disclosing information in court.
- Torture: President Obama initially opposed a commission to investigate Bush-era torture policies. His Administration also opposes prosecuting Bush Administration officials guilty of torture.
- GLBT Rights: Despite campaign promises to repeal bigoted laws like DOMA and Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, President Obama is “moving slowly” in carrying out this promise. This, despite the fact that Obama has the power to unilaterally suspend DADT.
None of this means that Obama is a bad president. To the contrary, his economic policies are beginning to pull the nation away from the brink of an economic collapse caused by decades of right-wing policy, and his health care plan will protect millions of Americans from the insurance industry’s tactics.
If anything, the Obama Administration teaches that even an effective President must constantly be pressured to keep his promises. Although Obama has yet to make a big push on GLBT rights, pressure from gay rights groups convinced him to grant benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees and to pledge to overturn DADT by the end of his first term. Similarly, under pressure from progressives, President Obama tacitly endorsed a torture commission and agreed that Attorney General Holder should have discretion to confront past abuses. And the President backed off plans to nominate a CIA Director opposed by many progressives because of concerns about his views on torture.
Simply put, these Sunday show pundits have an axe to grind against “liberals.” But the reality of the Obama Administration’s actions thus far is one that defies such simple-minded criticisms.
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All these idiot pundits need to do is read this blog regularly.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pmAnd invest in lots of head bandages…
On the other hand, George Bush never listened to the majority of Americans when he was in office. He did, however, listen to the fringe group of his party who are now showing up at town hall meetings to stand in support of the health insurance industry!
August 10th, 2009 at 4:57 pmWell, I feel like I’ve been wasting my time posting my criticisms of the President and members of his administration. I guess I was completely blind to the “fact” that he’s never said no to us, never let us down, has stood by each and every one of his campaign promises, and trounced the GNOP opposition with his tough stance.
And I never knew any of that, based on everything I’ve read in, and heard from, the librul media, and out of the mouth of the President himself.
PEACE
August 10th, 2009 at 4:57 pmSuch claims that Obama never defies progressives may accurately reflect the views of right-wing activists and Beltway pundits, but they have no basis in reality
I thought that was the TV Guide description of these shows: “accurately reflects the views of right-wing activists and Beltway pundits with no basis in reality”.
At least, it would if TV Guide were honest about the programming.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pmAnd what these dumbasses truly miss is that we aren’t ‘Obama’s liberals, like Bush’s toadies.
Geez.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pmI think Obama is doing a pretty good job so far which pisses off the right wing, which brings me back to: Obama is doing a pretty good job so far! And yes, I don’t agree with continuing some of George Bush’s crap, but I don’t think he’s actually commanding the torture of anyone either.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pmWhat is the definition of a ‘Liberal’ to these people? I’m confused.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pmToo bad we can’t make electricity out of reichwing bullshit. Heh. There seems to be an infinite supply.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pmRep. Inglis is on HardBall right now. He’s getting a lot of flack for telling people not to listen to Glenn Beck. Just listen to these people, they are nuts.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pmSo when we elected Barack Obama last year it broke the minds of the wingnuts and all they know to do is lie about everything and obstruct justice and business. What a worthless bunch of idiots. They have nothing but criticism with not alternative to offer on any subject. It is okay to criticize with an alternative view but to just object and say no is stupid and will never win them any elections. They have nothing to offer but a failed philosophy that was rejected last November.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pmSuch claims that Obama never defies progressives may accurately reflect the views of right-wing activists and Beltway pundits, but they have no basis in reality
When was the last time a claim spouted by right-wing “pundits” (aka blowhards) had a basis in reality?
They are so wrong so much on so many topics and so often, I have to wonder how they manage to go through life without having any contact whatsoever with objective reality…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pmLeftside Annie says:
Too bad we can’t make electricity out of reichwing bullshit. Heh. There seems to be an infinite supply.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stick a neocon in your car’s battery casing and drive for 300 miles!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pmI think that we should just accept the fact that the Right Wing has left the building and we should treat them like we do any mentally disturbed individual.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:13 pmLeftside Annie and RUCerious, I call dibs on Bill Kristol!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pmraynman, you mean straightjackets and padded rooms?
August 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pmOr Botany Bay, Jane… we do people to help colonize Mars when we finally restart the space program…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:17 pmOther than the homebound who watches these shows? Kill your tv…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:17 pmraynman says:
I think that we should just accept the fact that the Right Wing has left the building and we should treat them like we do any mentally disturbed individual.
We, as a society, should treat mentally disturbed individuals with compassion and sympathy. We should help them get treatment to make their lives better.
The Right Wing, due to willful stupidity, deserve none of these. They should be treated with scorn and contempt.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:18 pmI think I might have a crush on the girl downstairs…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:19 pmJane, I do believe Ben Gleck would last a couple of oil changes…In an electric car!@
August 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pmRUCerious says:
Leftside Annie says:
Too bad we can’t make electricity out of reichwing bullshit. Heh. There seems to be an infinite supply.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stick a neocon in your car’s battery casing and drive for 300 miles!
LOL >>>
so true
“if there brains were fuel they would not have enough fuel to power a piss ants motorcycle to do a figure eight in a cheerio”
August 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pmRUCerious says: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stick a neocon in your car’s battery casing and drive for 300 miles
Do you just throw away the neocons after the 300 miles or are they rechargeable? If they aren’t rechargeable, I worry about the toxic waste.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pmI love how the wingers (Beck) are saying we libs are fascists. Well, if that is true then that means the right wingers are Communists! Excellent!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pmRUCerious says:
Jane, I do believe Ben Gleck would last a couple of oil changes…In an electric car!@
But wouldn’t there be more toxic waste coming from the car with Beck as a power source than by just using gasoline?
August 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pmNuts, PatrioticLiberalChristian beat me to it :p
August 10th, 2009 at 5:23 pmI don’t know, raynman, I don’t want to give a whole planet to the crazies!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Who knew it would only take six months to undo eight years of criminal incompetence. Wall Street and Health Care have been totally reformed, and all the troops are home. That special war crimes prosecuter is so busy indicting people. Finally, Dick Cheney is behind bars and the US is safe.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:39 pmRepublican for Progress says:
Hey I’m a progressive who has joined the Republicans
Get a hold of Sarah Palin, and instruct her on the finer points of research and debate. Then have a discussion with her on the fine points of American History, World Geography and History of Religion.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:43 pmWe’ll talk later.
P.D. says:
What is the definition of a ‘Liberal’ to these people? I’m confused.
Anyone with a functioning brain!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:45 pmTomorrow’s Beck Headliner:
Obama boys with machetes hack through town hall patriots trying to get their message to an unlistening government stooge.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:51 pmIt must kill the Republi-Con-Artists that their agenda has been rejected by the majority of American in spite of about 30 years of a Conservative stranglehold on the media establishment…
I say, just desserts…
:|
August 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pmDon’t these idiot Republicans realize that Obama isn’t that liberal? Don’t they remember when they praised his staff and cabinet picks, from a neocon chief of staff to a Dubya-appointed SecDef, to a Goldman Sachs/Federal Reserve toadie for SecTreas, to Joe Biden for VP, etc?
At best, Obama is a rehash of Clinton, a “centrist.”
August 10th, 2009 at 5:53 pm.
Hey!
I can get a panel of friends together, talk about whatever we like…
… Doesn’t mean we’re correct or experts, does it?
You betcha! NOT!
Say, I get a gaggle together to discuss minorities…
… Do you think a panel of white old men know a poot?
You betcha! NOT!
I can get a panel of women together to discuss enlarged prostrates…
… Think these women would be experts?
You betcha! NOT!
Maybe I can get a bunch of uptight, 6 digit income folks together…
… I’m sure they’re experts on the perils of poverty?
You betcha! NOT!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:55 pmPresident Obama never does anything to upset “his liberals.”
Yeah, right…well, here are some things I am upset about…
#1. Harboring the WAR CRIMINALS Bush and Cheney
#2. Continuing the warrantless wire tapping
#3. Continuing the use of Signing statements
#4. Trying to get along with Republiscum, he should just kick them to the curb
#5. Not even trying for single payer healthcare
Are those good enough for you conservative a-holes?
August 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pmLife is too short to waste one’s time on what the media thinks? Having lived in DC and worked for the Congress, these clowns are so afraid of each other and they have their own turfdom to protect, basically, they don’t like each other but ironicaly, they cannot live without each other….ergo, the group speak and the group think. Villager’s is a good name for them…they go to each other’s book parties and White House Correspondence before/after parties but they basically are a bunch of very overpaid, insecure fools who will crush one another if it means a byline or facetime on TV.
I have nothing but contempt for them…..in addition, they all kowtow to their corporate masters.
That said, I am bullshit with whomever put the 5 Gulfstreams in the appropriations bill and had I been asked for advice,
I would have said let’s get the country back to work vis-a-vis jobs, jobs, jobs. The health care bills should have been left to staff on the house and senate sides, and the White House should have sent up a bill. There wouldn’t have been all this screaming and nonsense going on. Think about it…you get people back to work first, and health care while difficult would have been a lot easier.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:58 pmVERY good point!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:59 pmTo these right-wing nuts, I’m sure “Obama’s liberals” are Bill Ayers, Hugo Chavez and Jeremiah Wright. The way neocons talk about Obama “palling around with terrorists” and so on, you’d think he would give them Cabinet appointments.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:00 pmJust because they’re talking heads, it doesn’t mean they have any brains.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:02 pmBuckie: I agree with you….I would also add, I am not too thrilled that he hired Geithner or Larry Summers. I also think Rahm would have been far more effective if he had stayed up on the hill…but…in a leadership position because Steny Hoyer is as close to a moderate republican as you are going to get.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:03 pmYou have to love political shows. If not for them, we would not get to feel good about ourselves when we see idiots make idiotic statements.
Watch Tom Coburn say that the U.S. does not do anything well.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2480
August 10th, 2009 at 6:07 pmHe’s a Repuliconartist…what do you expect? He makes sure the government doesn’t have what it needs to run efficiently and effectively so he can then denigrate it and reinforce a main plank in the Republicon mythological ideology…
:|
August 10th, 2009 at 6:15 pmThis nation succeeds in spite of people like Sen. Coburn, not because of them!
He doesn’t support our troops but carries the NRA’s water with soft conceal-carry laws. Tom, it’s those other guys with guns you wanna support, sheesh!
August 10th, 2009 at 6:21 pmHere’s Obama in a nutshell.
Championing the Status Quo
Obama: Canadian health care system works for Canada, wouldn’t work for US
Obama’s job is the same as Dubya’s job, protect, preserve, and prolong the status quo.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:21 pmReally. People should carry their sidearm on their hip, in plain sight.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:23 pmJust about everything that comes out of the MSM mouth is a word from their sponsors. These corporations will go down hard, and hopefully they’ll take the brunt of their fall.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:26 pmI think you all are missing the point. A basic tenet of Fascism/Nazism is to have an “other/enemy” to make the focus of all your hate. That’s all this is, plain and simple.
Of course the thoughtleaders, the neocons proper, are savvy enough to know the best way to hide this fact is to call everyone else fascists and nazis.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:27 pmObama has never opposed his liberals
And the problem with that is…..???
August 10th, 2009 at 6:45 pmObama has never opposed his liberals?
Try again. Obama is in danger of losing his liberals because we still have war criminals running around loose, we have signing statements still in use, we have an administration talking about retaining the right to lock people up without trial, we have Wall Street back playing their games with no real regulation, we have a President talking health care reform who can’t say public option.
The President doesn’t have to be concerned about the 20% whack of the Republican party. He has to be concerned about the 80% who are expecting more than Bush Lite and more of the same.
August 10th, 2009 at 6:57 pmHmm, President Obama has escalated his imperial war on the Afghani people; he is still murdering Pakistanis with drones and missile strikes (could you imagine the outrage if Pakistan were launching drone and missile strikes at small towns in rural Idaho?); he is still occupying Iraq; he still wants to deny the Writ of Habeus Corpus (sic) to detainees…
August 10th, 2009 at 7:01 pmHoodathunktick @49
Very well said! As long as the barbaric war criminals continue to enjoy their blood-soaked fortunes and their impunity, President Obama owns their crimes!
August 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pmYou all did such a fine job I don’t need to say much except, stop the f****** wars Mr. President and stop pandering to the reich winged nut job’s, their vote is not the vote’s that put you in the white house. ours was…One more thing ya might want to work on putting some real progressives in positions of power other wise you very likely could end up a one termer..
I will now return to running down the hall screaming and kicking….Blessings
August 10th, 2009 at 8:15 pmLies, lies and damnable lies. That is the sum of conservative ideology in the US. When will it ever end?
August 10th, 2009 at 8:25 pmThe battle against fascism really never ends. We have ostensibly removed them from power, but the battle is far from over.
As long as they are not imprisoned when they commit their hate crimes and treason, the battle must continue. We have not yet begun to fight.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:01 pmIf all the major media wasn’t owned by defense contractors, maybe we’d get some truth. But nobody in congress ever mentions that.
Instead we get deals, and more deals to try to get 1-3 Rupug votes on whatever. If we had a real leader in the Senate who actually whipped the 58-60 votes at his disposal, we might see some change. Too many Democrats get too much money from the cleptocracy.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:21 pmNow that you mention it, questioneverything, I noticed something is ravaging my basil, and was thinking that an F-22 might be the answer.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:34 pmI always wondered about that phrase, “the lesser of two evils,” with regards to American political parties. Now I know it’s true. Democrats (Clinton, Obama, etc) don’t mean to really help the people. They’re there to further the interests of the big businesses that already control this country. Electing a democrat is only marginally better than electing a republican. Both are corrupt, outdated political systems that need to be replaced by the numerous third parties, but I realize that neither will go away any time soon, so long as ignorant Americans can’t see anything beyond their current 2D lenses of Choice A. and Choice B.
It’s a bit more complicated than that, people.
Obama ran on the platform of being a progressive, but also a moderate. He’s basically no better than the conservatives in my eyes. He’s taken teensy tiny baby steps in the right direction here and there, but for the most part, we basically have another Jimmy Carter. He might mean well, but he’s doomed. Americans in general are too stupid to select a MORE liberal candidate, because mainstream media has poisoned their views, and convinced them that Obama is as liberal as they come. No, sorry, not the case. In fact, he’s too conservative. That’s why his policies aren’t working.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:05 am‘Lesser of two evils’ is not how I would describe our political system, Mr. Burns.
I prefer the description ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’, since the Republicans beat the crap out of the electorate whenever they seize power, and the Democrats lay off and toss a few crumbs.
Either way, as the electorate, I’m sick and tired of being the SUSPECT in this kabuki play.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:30 amP.D. says:
What is the definition of a ‘Liberal’ to these people? I’m confused.
Anyone who opposes them…case point…wingnuts called Chuck Hagel liberal when he started to speak out against the Iraq War…
August 11th, 2009 at 2:03 amSo the party of say anything but do nothing is bemoaning the fact he President isn’t at loggerheads with his own party. These clowns wonder why they are becoming more irrelevant by the second?
August 11th, 2009 at 9:10 amhttp://www.seslichatli.com/?tag=on-sevisme-teknikleri
August 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pm