In Obama's New Message, Some Foes See Old Liberalism (Even beats socialist senator Bernie Sanders)

Washington Post ^ | 3/26/08 | Alec MacGillis

[Libloather]

In Obama's New Message, Some Foes See Old Liberalism
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 26, 2008; Page A01

**SNIP**

Despite being rated the most liberal senator in 2007 by the National Journal, Obama has sought to confound easy categorization.

**SNIP**

His strategists recognize that Democratic voters and the superdelegates who may end up deciding the hotly contested nomination are concerned about the electability of a candidate tagged with the "liberal" label that has fatally wounded nominees such as John F. Kerry, Michael S. Dukakis and Walter F. Mondale.

**SNIP**

"The frustration that the Clinton campaign has felt . . . comes very much from trying to attack him from the left and right along the traditional spectrum," said Robert Reich,

**SNIP**

Like Clinton, he favors expanding the government's role in delivering health care, and would pay for that by ending President Bush's tax cuts for the rich. He would go a step further than Clinton by lifting the limit on income taxed for Social Security, now $100,000, to set that program on firm footing.

He strongly supports abortion rights and spoke out against a Supreme Court ruling last year that upheld a ban on the procedure that some call "partial-birth" abortion. He favors allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses (after some hesitation, Clinton came out against that). He is outspoken on civil rights, and he has opposed Bush's judicial picks, staying out of a bipartisan effort to approve some nominees. While he supports the death penalty for the most "heinous" crimes, as a Senate candidate in 2004 he expressed support for strict gun control, decriminalizing marijuana and ending federal mandatory minimum prison sentences, issues he now rarely raises on the trail.

[Libloather]

That's because the big finding the Journal is trumpeting this time around is that the Senate's most liberal member in 2007 was Sen. Barack Obama. That puts him ahead of, for example, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. Oh, and it also puts him ahead of an actual socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. And then there's the man at No. 3, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, hardly known as a raging lefty. Biden comes in ahead of both Feingold and Sanders as well. (Sen. John Kerry was ranked as the most liberal in 2003, another distinction that seems dubious and became a campaign issue.)

http://mostliberalsenator.blogspot.com/

[Enchante]

Obama is a socialist who cannot be honest about his political views and affiliations if he hopes to be elected POTUS, so he spews all this vaporous stuff about unity and change...... of course he has never showed the slightest tendency toward helping the cause of “unity” on any actual political issue of legislation!

His record is that of an unadulterated leftist, and his campaign rhetoric is just that, rhetoric, without any substance.

[HerrBlucher]

I can hear his campaign song now:

Pay those reparations white boy
Pay those reparations now
Pay those reparations white boy
Lay out that money and pay those reparations till you die
Till you die.....till you die

[MtnClimber]

Obama’s real message is like an excrement sandwich covered with light choclate frosting.

[Libloather]

...so he spews all this vaporous stuff about unity and change......

Barry Obama, Carnival Barker
March 28, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Yesterday on CNBC, Maria Bartiromo interviewed Barack Obama. It was scary, economically. Bartiromo says, "How do you plan to change the tax code when it comes to capital gains? How high will that 15% cap gains rate go?"

OBAMA: I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15%. Uh, and if it -- if it -- you know, when I talk to people like Warren Buffett or others and I ask them, "You know, how much of a difference is it going to be if it's 20 or 25%?" they say, "Look, if it's within that range, then it's not going to distort, uh, I think economic decision making."

RUSH: Oh, my God. I'm sorry. Good God Almighty, is right. We are going to get hosed. The markets are going to get hosed. The economy is going to get hosed! Capital gains is not income! It's simply what people invest in, and if there is a return on it, the 15% cap gains rate is the equivalent of not punishing achievement from people who took a risk. He's gotta ask Warren Buffett. No, he doesn't know. He's a liberal Democrat. He doesn't care here what the effect is going to be. Raising the rate to be "fair" and pander to the vast majority of people... Bartiromo is shocked as we are by this, but of course, she's a journalist. She can't really exhibit it. But she can't believe her ears here. Listen to this exchange.

BARTIROMO: Let's hypothetically say that the cap gains tax goes from 15% to 25%. You're impacting a lot of people. A hundred million Americans own stocks today so it's not just the rich.

OBAMA: No, no, no, absolutely, and -- and -- and that's why I think that it may be, for example, that you could structure something in which, uh, people of certain incomes were exempted from, uh, this increase and it would stay at 15. The broader principle that I'm interested in is just making sure that we've got a tax code that is fair for all Americans.

RUSH: Folks, this is economic illiteracy. "A tax code that's fair for all Americans"? You're going to exempt some people from paying the cap gains tax? The people he's going to exempt don't pay it now. The people that he's going to exempt do not have investments. They don't yet have the money to have investments and so he's going to... It's about "fairness." It's making sure that everybody's taxed... It's making sure "the rich" are taxed. This is just... One more. Bartiromo says, "Why raise taxes at all in an economic slow down? Isn't that going to put further strain on people?"

OBAMA: Well, look, the -- there's no doubt that anything I do that is going to be premised on the what the economic situation is when I take office. The thing you can be assured of is that I'm not going to be making these decisions based on ideology.

RUSH: Bull.

OBAMA: I'm not a dogmatist.

RUSH: Bull!

OBAMA: I know that some -- yuh, uh, my opponents to the right would like to paint me as this woolly-eyed, you know, uhhh, liberal or --

RUSH: You are!

OBAMA: -- wild-eyed. (nervous laugh)

BARTIROMO: You're not a liberal?

OBAMA: Uh, the, uh, but -- but -- My attitude is -- is that I -- I believe in the market.

RUSH: You don't!

OBAMA: I believe in entrepreneurship.

RUSH: You don't!

OBAMA: I believe in opportunity.

RUSH: You don't!

OBAMA: I believe in capitalism.

RUSH: You don't.

OBAMA: And I want to do what works, but what I want to make sure of is it works for all America, and not just a small sliver of America.

RUSH: That last comment just cancels out everything he said before it! That's socialism! "Make sure it works for all," and who of course going to do that? Why, our benevolent government and president, Barack Obama! Because we hate all the other instruments and elements and businesses in the free market. We've been conditioned to that. This is scary.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032808/content/01125120.guest.html.guest.html

[ronnie raygun]

Let’s see, some see old liberalism? I guess he is the new liberalism? new or old IT’S THE SAME OLD CRAP IN A NEW PACKAGE. If he cared so much for the disenfranchised and the poor he would have been more generous with his donations, One percent? He and his wife are millionaires just like his fiend the rev wright and they are all taking us for fools. His buddie the Rev wright bought a million dollar home in a gated community, why not in the impoverished nieghborhoods of his congregation? Don’t want to live amongst your own people? You talk the sh## but you would rather live with whitey? He is a clone of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton making a living off of his own poeple. On the TV show the view all the media lefties were fawning over this HYPOCRITE and not one of them ask the hard questions needed. All we got was gee your very handsome, I heard you are related to Brad Pitt. SICKENING, JUST SICKENING! STUPID MEDIA FOR THE STUPID!

[Caipirabob]

I can hear his campaign song now: Pay those reparations white boy

I can see it now: Charlie Crist is going to be Obama's running mate.

Florida Legislature makes formal apology for slavery - Senate passed the same resolution with Gov. Charlie Crist looking on

Nob nibblers, all of them...