Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:00 AM

Logical (8,482 posts)

Obama was SMART not to bring gun control into this election!

The NRA (all right wing nuts I agree) had very little to attack the president on.

And if Obama would have made gun control an issue in this election it would have cost us votes and excited a set of GOP voters and still not change gun deaths in this country!

Smart move by Obama!

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14 replies	Author	Time	Post
Obama was SMART not to bring gun control into this election! (Original post)	Logical	Nov 2012	OP
Notice he worked climate change into his victory speech	BlueStreak	Nov 2012	#1
although	MrYikes	Nov 2012	#2
alternatively	Enrique	Nov 2012	#3
Obama could not shy away from repro rights; there	Eleanors38	Nov 2012	#8
Abortion and gay rights are litmus tests for the party faithful	hack89	Nov 2012	#9
I could find no firearm policy on ANY of my Democratic candidates this year.	Atypical Liberal	Nov 2012	#4
Unfortunately, you're right. Add climate change too.	Bradical79	Nov 2012	#5
He openly advocated renewing the assault weapons ban	frazzled	Nov 2012	#6
Well, how many ads did you hear attacking that?	Logical	Nov 2012	#7
Why would Rmoney put out attack ads when his own position on the	Simo 1939_1940	Nov 2012	#10
Shit, the NRA does not give a damn. They attack Obama no matter what.	Logical	Nov 2012	#11
In this particular case, the NRA would have been right, given that	Simo 1939_1940	Nov 2012	#13
Only because someone who might have been a Brady plant forced his hand	derby378	Nov 2012	#12
You Must Have Missed the Debates and Party Platform	fightthegoodfightnow	Nov 2012	#14

Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:05 AM

BlueStreak (4,165 posts)

1. Notice he worked climate change into his victory speech

It was never discussed once -- not one word -- during the campaign. Shame on those debate moderators for not bringing it up. If not for Hurricane Sandy, nothing would happen. But now, IMHO, there is a good chance that it will at least be discussed openly. I don't expect the reddest states to ever get it. But as we saw, Florida, NC, and VA are definitely winnable -- and really essential to both parties. These are all states that should get it because they experience this first hand. And of course NY and NJ are in the game now.

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Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:07 AM

MrYikes (681 posts)

2. although

in a speech sometime in the summer he did mention that he would push for an assault weapons ban, which made me clutch my sks a little tighter.

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Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:07 AM

Enrique (22,853 posts)

3. alternatively

you could call it politically calculating.

And if he were to bring it up despite the risks, you could call it "courageous", not "dumb". Arguably that was the case with abortion and gay marriage, both of which dems normally shy away from but which Obama embraced.

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Response to Enrique (Reply #3)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:33 AM

Eleanors38 (3,812 posts)

8. Obama could not shy away from repro rights; there

Last edited Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:36 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

Is too much to lose in the Demo "base."

He had nothing to gain (and some to lose) by dragging out gun bans.

Obama was also smart to support gay marriage, I did not expect such a full-throated move. And it worked.

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Response to Enrique (Reply #3)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 11:45 AM

hack89 (21,523 posts)

9. Abortion and gay rights are litmus tests for the party faithful

he had no choice but to address them.

That is not the case with gun control.

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Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:10 AM

Atypical Liberal (5,412 posts)

4. I could find no firearm policy on ANY of my Democratic candidates this year.

Unlike the 2010 election, where most of my Democratic candidates had NRA rankings, and all of them except one had high marks, this year only one of my Democratic candidates was even listed by the NRA, and that candidate refused to answer the NRA-PVF survey, resulting in a "?" grade.

I researched all of my Democratic candidates through Google and their web sites, and none of them mentioned firearms at all.

Sadly, no Democratic candidates won their elections here. Our one Democratic incumbent lost her seat. I don't think we have any Democrats in office now in Alabama.

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Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:16 AM

Bradical79 (447 posts)

5. Unfortunately, you're right. Add climate change too.

Voters just can't handle rational intelligent conversation about those issues during a presidential election year, especially with the political ad onslaught Citizen's United has created. The NRA just has too much power and is so effective in energizing their particular group of nut cases.

And as depressing as it is, the Republicans have been extremely effective in mystifying climate science over the years, especially during the Bush admin. These are two areas that the Democratic party has really failed to gain ground on.

Add climate change to the list of things that were avoided for practical reasons, though it's a bit depressing to think that its such a controversial and decisive issue.

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Response to Logical (Original post)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:17 AM

frazzled (9,215 posts)

6. He openly advocated renewing the assault weapons ban

Or did you forget that? On October 16, at the debate:

President Obama tonight said he’s interested in seeing an assault weapons ban reintroduced, breaking his silence on the legislation, which has persisted in spite of at least five mass shootings during his term.
At the end of a long answer to the question, “What has your administration done or planned to do to limit the availability of assault weapons?” Obama said this:
“My belief is that, (A), we have to enforce the laws we’ve already got, make sure that we’re keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. We’ve done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we’ve got more to do when it comes to enforcement.
“But I also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don’t belong on our streets. And so what I’m trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there’s an awful lot of violence and they’re not using AK-47s. They’re using cheap hand guns.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/obama-calls-for-renewal-of-assault-weapons-ban/

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Response to frazzled (Reply #6)

Wed Nov 7, 2012, 10:29 AM

Logical (8,482 posts)