Well, they are limp as well as lame. It’s hard to fine enough vertebrae in the entire Democratic caucus to make a single spine.
]]>PJ, I ignore campaigns. I assume they are all a tissue of lies. I researched what Clinton did in Arkansas, not what he said on the campaign trail, the same with Carter. They were both centerists, and both made deals to keep things moving. I wasn’t surprised by what they did because it was totally in line with what they had done before.
That’s the same way I approached Obama, and why he was off my short list early on. Everything he actually voted on was definitely right of center, and he avoided voting on a number of important issues in Illinois to avoid leaving a record.
I don’t accept “road to Damascus” moments from politicians and don’t believe anything used in a political ad.
I wasn’t thrilled by Bill Clinton, but he didn’t change after he won the Presidency, he acted just like he had in Arkansas. I have always assumed that the entire health care episode was Hillary, not Bill.
Oh, Jimmy added a few sticks to the mix, like the windfall profits tax, but he was looking for gradual change over a significant time frame. He wasn’t one for immediate radical action. He was and is a very cautious man not given to sudden action.
]]>Carter was a disappointment. His plain talk about oil dependence was encouraging, but when his vaunted Energy Plan turned out to consist almost entirely of various tax breaks, it was pretty clear he wouldn’t rise much above business as usual… more for the “already have”s. The course we were on was apparent even before Reagan was elected.
As for Obama, yes he is even worse than Bill Clinton, but as with Clinton, much of that was visible even during the primaries. Although I had some small hope that Obama might rise to the office, I mostly lost interest after Edwards ditched. Perhaps Clinton started out as one of those “do well by doing good types” where Obama may have never been anything but “do well”. Regardless, both of them had been bought before they were ever nominated.
I agree with you that Obama seems very disinterested. That’s why I’m puzzled that so many are so intent on figuring out his secret master plan for his 2012 re-election. It isn’t clear to me that he even gives a damn. After all, he’s already “gotten over”. He and all his family are set for life, no matter what happens to the rest of us.
]]>PJ, Bill Clinton was a governor in a state, Arkansas, where compromise was the only way anything got done. He made no effort to hide what he believed or how he would govern. He triangulated in Arkansas and triangulated in Washington. Obama has been hiding his real intentions since he entered politics.
Jimmy Carter, another Southern governor, had to do the same thing, and being a centrist was the only way to be successful in Southern politics at the time.
Politics had already become totally polarized by the time that Obama began his political career, so the “bi-partisanship” was not even a possibility, and everyone knows it. It has all been a show, and at this point Obama doesn’t seem to be any more interested in being President than the Shrubbery was. They wanted the job, they just didn’t want to do anything after they got it.
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