Here is another quote from the man whose expertise is supply-side economics. He served as a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official under George H. W. Bush.
"I don’t expect any conservatives to recognize the truth of Obama’s fundamental conservatism for at least a couple of decades—perhaps only after a real progressive presidency. In any case, today they are too invested in painting him as the devil incarnate in order to frighten grassroots Republicans into voting to keep Obama from confiscating all their guns, throwing them into FEMA re-education camps, and other nonsense that is believed by many Republicans. But just as they eventually came to appreciate Bill Clinton’s core conservatism, Republicans will someday see that Obama was no less conservative."
Can we give him back?
So Conservative values inclde attacking the Constitution at every level. Got it. No sale.
This guy is senile.
Stopped right there.
Obama hasn't governed as much as he has allowed others to steer the ship. As long as he gets to chill with a round of golf or two it's all good.
He is disinterested in actually doing the job of governing and signs off on whatever his people put on his desk. Unfortunately for us, his people tend to think the U.S. should be like every other progressive shithole in the world.
To say that his administrations policies are "moderately conservative" is delusional.
Always can tell a straw argument by what’s left out— he biggest issue in the election was arguably the coming amnesty for illegals and all of the Alinskyist shenanigans going on with that. The stimulus was known and admitted to by Democrats as being primarily a pay off to public sector unions.
I think he has lost his mind.
Obama’s economic tax policy was to raise taxes, especially on the rich and businesses. What is conservative about that?
Obama’s fiscal monetary policy was to spend like two super-carriers of drunken sailors. He had the fed printing money so fast they couldn’t cut down trees fast enough to make the paper for the money. What is conservative about that?
Obama’s national policy was to nationalize healthcare, get the government to buy stock, essentially controlling interest, in GM. What is conservative about that?
Obama’s Social policy is as liberal as any president who has been elected. He won’t even enforce the law regarding border security. What is conservative about that?
Obama’s military/foreign policy is to apologize, reduce America’s influence in the world and appear much less powerful. What is conservative about that?
Bartlett has lost his mind. I can not think of a single position Obama has taken that is “conservative”.
This does NOT prove Obama is a conservative.
All it proves is that Nixon was a liberal. But I already knew that.
If this writer things Obola is a conservative, how would he define a liberal progressive?
this whole website (The American Conservative) is a croc.
Vastly more likely people (like me) lie to exit pollsters to poison the very idea of polling. Just tell me what you believe and what you intend to do and I'll decide to vote for or against you. Don't try to figure what lies would be best to tell me like I'm a tipsy barfly at closing time.
In got it, the idea is to dump the Kenyan communist off on conservatives.
NO SALE here. In fact someone should remove this garbage from FR.
Just wanted to find out how Obama’s brand of conservatism bodes for their party on the federal level. This is from the NY Times today. Cohn says we win the presidency and both houses next term;
“By picking up at least a dozen House seats in the elections last Tuesday, the Republicans cemented a nearly unassailable majority that could last for a generation, or as long as today’s political divides between North and South, urban and rural, young and old, and white and nonwhite endure.
Democrats might well reclaim the Senate and hold the presidency in 2016. But any Democratic hopes of enacting progressive policies on issues like climate change and inequality will face the reality of a House dominated by conservative Republicans. The odds that the Republicans will hold the Senate and seize the presidency are better than the odds that Democrats will win the House, giving the Republicans a better chance than Democrats of enacting their agenda.
After all of the remaining races are resolved, the G.O.P. will finish with about 249 seats. The Democrats would need to flip 32 seats to reclaim the chamber, but just 10 Republicans hail from districts with a Democratic Cook partisan voting index, a statistic to measure how far a congressional district leans toward the Republican or Democratic Party, compared with the national average. Because so many Republicans represent conservative districts, the G.O.P. might even retain the House in a “wave” election, like the ones that swept Democrats to power in 2006 and brought Republicans back to power in 2010.”
Bruce Bartlett is a moron on this.
How he came to this idiocy is beyond me.
Obama is what he always was and it was all there for everyone to see, he is a Committed Marxist pure and simple.
Some people like to claim to be conservative, or at least not liberal, but always vote Democrat. They aren’t conservative, whatever they say. I have a liberal brother who claims not to be “that liberal”. I asked him if he ever voted for a Republican for president. He said John McCain. Not in 2008, but in the 2000 .primary against Bush. Of course he voted for Gore in the general. So in 2008 I said, “So I guess you’re voting for your guy McCain this time?”. Of course I already had seen his Obama bumper sticker.
Bill Clinton’s “core conservatism” began when Republicans took over Congress. That was also when the economy and Clinton’s approval ratings turned around.
Richard Nixon was not a conservative. He was a big government liberal. Republicans have sense done everything they can to blame Nixon’s big government obsession on Kennedy and Johnson, but he was worse than Kennedy, and at least as bad as Johnson.
Conservatism is more than tax breaks. It is a respect for and adherence to the Constitution and limited government. It is also respect for the values and principles that provide the foundation for good government and greatness. Obama loses on all counts. A good conservative gets out of the way to let free enterprise run the economy. It isn’t the practice of using government to solve every economic, and social problem.
If Obama is a “Republican”, then we desperately need a new party.
As a comment at that site said, if this is all true then the only reason people oppose him is race.
Bruce Bartlett is calling us all racist, in effect