I am just republishing a discussion I had with GeeBee in a diary about dealing with "Obama Fatigue," which was primarily about an article by David Sirota laying out the case that Obama is a very powerful President who uses his power to meet Wall Street's ends. Below the squiggly is my case for why that is a ridiculous accusation.
I am writing on my iPhone, as I was when I wrote the comments below, so I won't be linking to Sirota's story or the other diary or anything else. Just copying and pasting this was hard enough.
I think the idea he is a wall street shill is (4+ / 0-)
foolish and contrary to the evidence. Though I agree that Obama is not the orthodox liberal some progressives hoped he would be.
`You needn't go on making remarks like that, ... they're not sensible, and they put me out.'
by seanwright on Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 04:15:45 PM EDT
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* [new] What evidence might that be? (0+ / 0-)
I think the idea he is a wall street shill is foolish and contrary to the evidence.
You have my attention, please go on--starting with this evidence stuff.
by GeeBee on Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 05:42:25 PM EDT
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* [new] Well, for instance, when he finished at Columbia (1+ / 0-)
he had an opportunity to work in the financial industry, but quickly decided that he would rather spend several years as a community organizer for extremely low pay. Later, after graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law where he served as president of the law review, instead of heading straight to wall street to collect big fat checks, he went back to Chicago and fought hard to become a democratic state senator, a job he worked hard at for several years. Just the fact that he decided to become a democratic politician tells you a lot. If he was only interested in accumulating power and looking out for wall street, don't you think he could have done that more easily as a republican. The fucking republicans would have slit their throats to have a spokesman like him: young, good looking, "articulate " and black. He could have gone the Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Michael Steele, Allen Keys, Allen West route and done quite well for himself, thank you very much. Hell, it probably would have been EASIER for him to become President as a Republican. But he chose the Democratic Party. Why? Because he believes in Democratic values. Because he truly believes that we are our brothers keeper, that everyone deserves the same shot at success, that a strong safety net is important. And if that's not good enough, as President he has absolutely infuriated wall street by pushing through financial reform and ramping up enforcement. And he spent a ton of political capital on the affordable care act, which overwhelmingly benefits the poor and vulnerable. So, yes, I think it's foolish to call him a shill for wall street and I'd go one if my thumb weren't tired from writing on my iPhone. Thanks for "listening."
`You needn't go on making remarks like that, ... they're not sensible, and they put me out.'
by seanwright on Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 06:12:17 PM EDT
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* [new] I appreciate your response and it looks like you (0+ / 0-)
put sometime into it. However, to me it seems much of it is more like opinion than evidence.
by GeeBee on Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 06:24:16 PM EDT
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* [new] Just a quick heads up, I think I'm (0+ / 0-)
going to republish this subthread as a diary, if I can manage it on my iPhone. You are correct; that was a lot of work and I hate to let it go to waste in an old thread. ;-)
`You needn't go on making remarks like that, ... they're not sensible, and they put me out.'
by seanwright on Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 06:32:12 PM EDT
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4:12 PM PT: Wish I could add a new choice to my poll: "Totally unreadable, delete this sh!t and if you have something to say, write a real diary when you're on a real computer!"