BARACK OBAMA IS A LIBERAL
Now, once you've understood this basic tenet, relax Please and stop it with the Obama / Reagan Hating because honestly, you really Do Not Understand!
Barack Obama Will Be OUR Reagan
From a self avowed conservative Andrew Sullivan in May 2007:
I fear he could do to conservatism what Reagan did to liberalism.
That is the point No One is Getting in This whole fluff up. Obama isn't praising Reagan, he's setting his sights to be OUR Reagan. And there is alot of good to come from that. Follow me below for 6 Steps to Believe that Obama can be our Reagan and why that's a Good God Damned Thing.
Step 1: Bush has set the table for Real Change in this country.
Bush and his acolytes have poisoned the brand of conservatism for the foreseeable future. When you take a few steps back and look closely, you realize that Bush has managed both to betray conservatism and stigmatize it all at once.
Step 2: Realize that Obama is Not a c-conservative, but is infact a Liberal
From the content and structure of Obama's pitch to the base, it's also clear to me that whatever illusions I had about his small-c conservatism, he's a big government liberal with - for a liberal - the most attractive persona and best-developed arguments since JFK.
Step 3: Realize the Appeal Obama has and his goal to Create a Working Majority
The analogy that worries Republicans the most is a more recent one. Could Obama be a potential liberal version of Ronald Reagan? Could he do for the Democrats what Reagan did for the Republicans a quarter century ago?
It’s increasingly possible. Reagan was the cutting edge of the last realignment in American politics.
He didn’t aim for a mere plurality, as Bill Clinton did. Nor did he try for a polarising 51% strategy, as George W Bush has done. He ran as a national candidate, in search of a national mandate, a proud Republican who nonetheless wanted Democrats to vote for him.
Step 4: Understand how Obama broadens the party and appeals to more than just you and me and other Red Meat Liberals
He is particularly attractive to those on the American right who feel betrayed by the Bush administration’s version of conservatism... These voters nonevangelical, fiscally and militarily prudent, socially tolerant do not feel at home in the angry, Southern, antiimmigrant Republican party of the past few years. Almost a quarter of those voting in the Democratic caucus last Thursday night were Republicans or independents. In both categories, Obama beat Clinton by more than two to one. Reagan won a national victory on the strength of “Reagan Democrats”. Obama could win with “Obama Republicans”. That’s remarkable in itself. When you realise he’s also a liberal urban black man whose middle name is Hussein, it’s gob-smacking. Put these disaffected Republicans together with a spectrum of minorities and a black vote potentially greater than at any time in history, and you begin to see what Obama offers his own party.
Step 5: Republicans really fear him already for the power that his appeal can give the Progressive Liberal Movement... it won't be a dirty thing to be Liberal anymore. Doesn't anyone understand the power of this conversion process and how it can transform America for Decades to Come?
Republicans in Washington view Obama's "post-partisan" political appeal with a mixture of skepticism and fear. They are skeptical, they say, because the first-term senator's thin record has shown virtually no sign of bipartisanship. They are fearful because his appeal just might work.
"It's clear he is a phenomenon," said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a conservative scrapper who revels in Washington's partisan warfare. "He will use style and grace to achieve liberal goals, which is absolutely politically brilliant but intellectually dishonest."
"Any new president is going to have a honeymoon period, and with his communication skills and the foundation that he appears to be wanting to lay -- 'Look, I'm above partisanship; I want to be everybody's president' -- I'm concerned he could push through some policy things that I fundamentally disagree with," said Rep. Jim McCrery (La.), the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Step 6: Understand that his fellow members of Congress already realize that this is happening. Just above, you have McCrery admitting in the Washington Post that he's concerned with what Obama can get accomplished.
There are reasons he's getting these Endorsements. Look at his appeal to Red State Democrats. Look at who is Endorsing him and why:
Among a barrage of prominent statewide elected officials to back Obama publicly this month is Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Tim Johnson of South Dakota.
What all three politicians have in common is that they are Democrats who have cracked the code in getting elected in states where Republicans historically have triumphed at the presidential level. George W. Bush won these states both times.
The string of recent Obama endorsements seems to be more than a coincidence.
During extensive interviews in recent weeks in Republican-leaning states, Politico found widespread belief among current and former Democratic statewide officials that Obama is the more electable candidate with their electorates. These politicians also frequently registered a fear that Clinton’s personality and past history make her too polarizing to win independent and Republican-leaning voters.
“I happen to believe that Obama is the most electable, both in Virginia and elsewhere,” said Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, an early Obama backer. “I really think to win you gotta get independent votes….Independent voters like people who they don’t believe are defined by political orthodoxy.”
“One-third of our voters will be independent voters,” Napolitano said. “Whoever wins independents will win the state. That’s not to say she doesn’t or can’t. But he does better.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the support his candidate is gaining in traditionally Republican states shows, “Obama is the candidate best suited to not just win next November, but to win with a new governing majority.”
Please trust us, Obama supporters, when we say Obama is Liberal. He's our Secret Weapon, our Reagan. The analogy is apt. Look at his record:
In fact, Obama's voting record is the most liberal of any candidate, according to a National Journal analysis. Obama's score of 84.3% in the Journal's ratings formula tops even that of Representative Dennis Kucinich, who was considered the most liberal Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.
And just today, Sen Patrick Leahay confirmed this.
"We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world – and actually reintroduce America to ourselves," Leahy said in the conference call, saying Obama carried the "hope" to end the war in Iraq and to bring "healthcare for all."
He also compared the decision to support Obama to supporting John F. Kennedy for president.
So again, back to Reagan. When Obama spoke of Reagan and said this:
"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not."
I would argue that he is correct. Save the Righteous Outrage over how he characterizes Reagan for another day, and just for today, consider whose supporting him, why their supporting him, and what the possibility of a Democratic "Reagan" would mean. And by that I define it as so:
1- Creating a Landslide Majority
2- Reshapping and Defining American Political Landscape for nearly 30 years afterwards
3- Shifting the entire Government and electorate towards his vision of how things should be
You can argue that Reagan infact did that. And as Obama is the only candidate running with a real chance at doing the same, this is as good a reason as any to seriously consider getting on the Obama Bandwagon.
PS: I would like to leave you with one last quote to really ponder before you leave this diary.
After college, Obama moved to Chicago for a low-paying job as a community organizer. He worked with poor families on the South Side to get improvements in public housing, particularly the removal of asbestos.
"Nobody else running for president has jumped off the career track for three or four years to help people," said Jerry Kellman, who first hired Obama as a community organizer.
Obama left that job to get a law degree. Afterward, he returned to Chicago and ran Project VOTE. The organization recruited hundreds of registrars to sign up new voters, particularly within the city's black population. Registration jumped nearly 15 points between the 1992 primary and the general election.
The registration wave was credited with making Carol Moseley Braun the first black female senator and helping Bill Clinton carry Illinois in his first presidential race. It also got insiders talking about Obama as a political candidate.