Obama: Occupy Wall Street ‘Not That Different’ From Tea Party Protests

ABC News ^ | 10/18/2011 | Devin Dwyer

[Qbert]

President Obama, who has become a target of the Occupy Wall Street protests sweeping the country, today embraced the economic frustration voiced on the streets and said in an exclusive interview with ABC News that his vision for the U.S. economic system is best suited to resolve protesters’ concerns.

“I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests,” Obama told ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper in the interview to air this evening on ABC News “Nightline” from Jamestown, N.C.

“In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party.  Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them,” he said.

Obama said the most important thing he can do as president is express solidarity with the protesters and redouble his commitment to achieving what he described as a more egalitarian society. “The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded,” Obama said. “And that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and their companies and their workers that those folks aren’t rewarded.”

Obama alluded to his American Jobs Act, which would be funded in part by raising taxes on wealthier Americans and some corporations in order to make them pay “their fair share.”

[JIM O]

Is it me or is that Tea Party guy a spitting image of Michael Moore?

[Terry Mross]

If they’re “not that different” where is the condemnation you spewed for the Tea Party, obama?

And he says his “plan” covers what OWS wants. Surprise, surprise.

[sergeantdave]

You’re wrong.

[ridesthemiles]

Sure, Barry...And the dog thinks that what he finds in the cat litter box is just Tootsie Rolls.....

[I still care]

You don’t think the left is going to start pushing riots and playing the race card for the election?

[justa-hairyape]

...They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them,” he said...

Actually, the people that those institutions have killed, no longer have any feelings. That would be the hundreds of Mexicans and dozens of Americans shot and killed by guns illegally walked by these institutions.

[sergeantdave]

“You don’t think the left is going to start pushing riots and playing the race card for the election?”

No, they won’t.

I’m sorry, but today’s leftists are not 1930’s leftists. Today’s leftists are fat stupid slobs looking for a free lunch.

If you think American leftists are about to riot vs sitting on a couch, drinking 2 liter bottles of Coke, watching TV and eating Jumbo bags of chips, you’re mistaken.

Cheers, FRiend

[I still care]

Aha. I see your logic, but I’m not talking about trust fund kids. I think RACE riots. You know, very angry out of work black Democrats who are going to be told by the left that the reason their entitlements are being cut just as food is skyrocketing (and it’s coming) is not because of Obama and the Dems overspending, but because of greedy Wall Street Republicans. Sharpton is already threatening.

Obama and his ilk have already shown they have no shame wrecking poor peoples lives and then turning and pointing fingers straight at hardworking taxpayers. And these people fall for it every time.

Obama is turning out to be one of the most divisive presidents in history, and he hasn’t gotten going yet. He’s going to pull every race card in the deck out. This next election is going to make us all sick to our stomachs, when we see the level to which the MSM will stoop to save their socialist agenda.