tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post5062790699754103449..comments2023-10-28T03:07:12.758-07:00Comments on Mirror On America: President Obama's Weekly Youtube AddressBrian http://www.blogger.com/profile/07872444863142531165noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-27510758851422009072009-03-01T20:35:00.000-08:002009-03-01T20:35:00.000-08:00From the Financial TimesThe budget reveals the lib...From the Financial Times<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e9049900-0692-11de-ab0f-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1" REL="nofollow">The budget reveals the liberal Obama</A><BR/><BR/><BR/>Money quote:<BR/><BR/><I>For the moment, though, this budget reveals Mr Obama with new clarity. He is no Tony Blair, ideologically rootless, as I had previously suspected. He is a conviction politician: a bold progressive liberal. Yet his outreach to Republicans is no sham; his civility, I think, is not a front. He respects people who disagree with him, is capable of liking them, and is always willing to listen – but then stays true to his beliefs. This is a rare and devastating combination.<BR/><BR/>For years in the US, the Democratic left, despite a surfeit of brilliant minds, has neutered itself with its own rage. The fixed expression of progressive liberalism has been anger and contempt – with perplexity at its lack of political success mixed in for comic effect. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Amid an economic crisis, with capitalism under fire and the country looking to government for answers, the liberal left finally has a leader with brains, who shares its convictions, yet is as friendly and as likeable to the politically uncommitted as anyone could wish – so appealing, in fact, that the party almost chose somebody else to lead it.<BR/><BR/>Whether Mr Obama will be good for the country remains to be seen. We can already be sure that he is conservatism’s worst nightmare.</I>rikyrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10982657053583534299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-6913705870058507392009-03-01T18:59:00.000-08:002009-03-01T18:59:00.000-08:00It was Playboy magazine which broke the story abou...It was <A HREF="http://www.playboy.com/blog/2009/02/backstabber.html" REL="nofollow">Playboy magazine which broke the story about Santelli's CNBC rant</A>. They say that the "rant" was a carefully staged event that is part of a sustained PR campaign against Obama to derail his economic reforms. <BR/><BR/><I>What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.</I><BR/><BR/>A commenter at the TPM Cafe lays out why this is a problem:<BR/><BR/><I>If Santelli was using his position as a journalist to further a carefully laid plan by the top .05% to manufacture a fake grassroots movement against the President's policies, it would be a very, very, very serious breach of journalist ethics. If the MSM, and NBC in particular, refuse to acknowledge that they were played because this whole fake tea party thing is so much better a story if they ignore the fake grass, that's a very serious thing too.</I><BR/><BR/>I would like to see a second and third reliable source for this story if there is one to see if it has any legs.redantehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15608670655422465211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-11937195704034791242009-03-01T17:11:00.000-08:002009-03-01T17:11:00.000-08:00Santelli's ' 'sponateneous rant' on CNBC - all fak...Santelli's ' 'sponateneous rant' on CNBC - all fake. All staged. All planned.rikyrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10982657053583534299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-55027901332229075692009-03-01T11:31:00.000-08:002009-03-01T11:31:00.000-08:00What was staged? Please explain.I just woke from m...What was staged? Please explain.<BR/><BR/>I just woke from my coma... and I have to go to the plantation in a few minutes.Brian https://www.blogger.com/profile/07872444863142531165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-42853169935223600072009-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:002009-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00Santelli is a fake. It was all staged.Santelli is a fake. It was all staged.rikyrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10982657053583534299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-32216472768213151002009-03-01T10:46:00.000-08:002009-03-01T10:46:00.000-08:00Obama's budget gives it to U.S. straight<A HREF="http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-vpbud016053537mar01%2C0%2C6930525.story" REL="nofollow">Obama's budget gives it to U.S. straight</A>rikyrahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10982657053583534299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-82940627590345853352009-03-01T08:42:00.000-08:002009-03-01T08:42:00.000-08:00Lib, like you I find it refreshing to see a Presid...Lib, like you I find it refreshing to see a President actually carrying out a POPULIST agenda. For the most part, his address made his intentions perfectly known. This dude is the real deal.<BR/><BR/>But...<BR/><BR/>...I'm still a little concerned with the hyperbole used in the medical costs/bankrupcy discussion. While there is definitely a causal relationship between ridiculously high medical expenses and bankruptcy, personal financial decisions (like <A HREF="http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty/Directory_and_Profiles/personal_bank.pdf" REL="nofollow">consuming above ones means</A>) is also a key contributor. It's pretty likely that many of the same people who list "medical reasons" as the cause of their debt are also not factoring in other negative aspects of their own financial history which could have equally played a role in their plights. Simply put, certain choices with money could have been the start of their financial woes, giving health costs the chance to provide the knockout blow. <BR/><BR/>Instead of using this as another talking point, I think Obama should push harder for allowing U.S. citizens access to foreign medicine. Legalizing drug purchases in Canada, for instance, would globalize the market of medicine, causing American business to rethink how they price their products. Anything short of opening the borders for medicine will continuously allow the U.S. the corner the American market for medicine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-74633346504976215902009-03-01T07:48:00.000-08:002009-03-01T07:48:00.000-08:00Wow! I never thought I'd see the day we actually h...Wow! I never thought I'd see the day we actually have a sitting President who is a Populist and who isn't afraid to show it. Obama's address is light years beyond anything I ever expected from a mainstream Democrat politician in terms of framing the issues and solutions in terms of the interests of the majority of working Americans versus powerful, entrenched interests. And he is not making it ambiguous or shying away from explicitly saying whose side he is on!redantehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15608670655422465211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21083673.post-4675278973042103802009-02-28T23:22:00.000-08:002009-02-28T23:22:00.000-08:00Okay! Change is finally coming.Okay! Change is finally coming.Miriamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06067406973014144499noreply@blogger.com