Obama's war on marijuana could cost him the election

[rusty fender]

If Obama heeded the request of many of his supporters to stop the war on marijuana, he would have CO locked up. Instead, he listened to the DEA/Police/private prison industrial complex and may lose because of this. The DEA/Police/private prison industrial complex exists to perpetuate itself. It does not exist to help the American people or the President. I hope that his war on mj doesn't cost him re-election, and if he wins, he has to start listening to the people, not to the industrial complex special interests.


Click on this for story:

[phleshdef]

1. 1. He doesn't have to win Colorado. 2. Romney's stance against marijuana is stronger

3. As much as I favor legalization, this is not a top issue for the vast majority of people

[gateley]

2. Disagree. I don't think many of us agree with the Federal stance on this, but this isn't even on

the radar of the majority of Americans,I don't think. Besides, State by Stafe we're chipping away -- eventually the Feds will fall in line.

[trueblue2007]

56. TRASH CAN.

[gateley]

59. I'm crushed. Your opinion means the world to me.

[2pooped2pop]

3. If Obama comes out for pot legalization

you would hear the loudest moaning, groaning and bitching from the repukes yet. They would make it an issue that will never see the light of day. Anyone can bring it up but him.

[musiclawyer]

25. That's not the poster's point.

POTUS/DOJ continuing the war of weed COULD have cost him the election. It won't but it could have had someone "normal" been the GOP candidate, placing POTUS at high risk in places like OH, MI, PA etc.

The premise is not that POTUS should come out in favor of legal weed, it's rather his failure to shut down hyper aggressive GOP US Attorneys and DEA types-- something that was clearly within his power.

That Holder has not come out against the measures "re-legalizing" weed out West is telling. It speaks volumes. The Feds know that their fight would be in federal court and it would be a bloodbath .......to them..... because of the mountian of scientific evidence proving that cannabis IS medicine, and cannabis and hemp ARE good for the economy, and all kinds of legal shit like booze and prescription drugs are way worse for the human body, addictive personality or not. They are not stupid and won't die on that hill.

My personal take is that the Feds know the jig is up soon, so they are simply busting even state legal growers to seize property and increase their bounty before they can't.

[still_one]

4. Bullshit, that is not the most important issue right now

[lamp_shade]

5. Nah. I don't think so. n/t

[BeyondGeography]

6. He's winning Colorado without being called a National Hempster

I have my criticisms of Obama, but I never assume I know more about how to win an election than he does. The smug certainty you and many others on the legalize side exhibit when it comes to the political caluculation here is laughable.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. It must be the bud! n/t

[BeyondGeography]

38. Hey, this bud's for you

[jcgoldie]

7. uhmmm...

No.

[Jennicut]

8. Romney is even worse on it.

I doubt it is an issue more then .01% of the American population thinks about when voting for a President on election day. I want full legalization of it myself but single issue voters are like Naderites. And that crap died down after 2000. We know better now.

[tbennett76]

9. Ridiculous Predictable Shapiro Concern Trolling

If he needs CO to win, he has lost OH and FL and VA. If he has lost those, he has lost CO irrespective of the pot thing. But he could lose CO, and win OH, FL, and VA. So moving on..

[RomneyLies]

10. Because a Romney/Ryan Regime will be SOOOO Pro-pot

[Twelve String]

11. This will have no bearing on the vote

in Colorado or anywhere. My, we DUer's can find all sorts of reasons to be distraught over this election.

[VirginiaTarheel]

12. Nope. Now move along with your trolling....

[Twelve String]

19. Speaking of trolling...

I just went out the the Free Republic site for the first time ever. Pretty crumby web site.

[Buzz505]

13. He is not losing,

After the election, you will see a new Obama, able to be a president without the repug idiots that he has had to deal with.

[Angry Dragon]

14. ...........

[Logical]

15. No it could not! Thanks for playing!

[byronius]

16. This is an embarassingly misinformed post.

'Obama's War On Marijuana' is a right-wing meme. The 'War' in California is being pushed by a Bush-appointed State Attornney General that Obama left in place, and it is being done specifically to try to turn CA red -- you are spreading Republican talking points.

The DEA raids in CA were done against Obama's and Holder's will -- and they've now been stopped. But the GOP will stop at nothing to try to spread this lie as far as they can, that somehow Obama is hateful of marijuana -- and look! You're helping!

This is a misguided, crappy thing to do. You should stop.

[rusty fender]

52. If you think that the war against medical mj

is being carried out by deadender U.S attorneys, then you are delusional.

Obama's DEA has claimed that mj has no medical benefit whatsoever. This is bullshit propaganda that Obama is full in favor of "catapulting."

[byronius]

53. 'Obama's DEA' -- Really, you just don't get it, do you.

Obama's only possible mistake has been in not litmus-testing the CIA, FBI, and DEA the way Bush did, requiring that they personally serve his whims. No, Obama's trying to return the government to functioning the way it's supposed to. He doesn't conspire with or control civil-service agencies like Bush did, and sometimes it works against him.

I repeat: you are serving the Teabillies embedded in these agencies, who are pumping out propaganda and carrying out stunts to try to discredit Obama, and divorce him from his younger, leftier base. It's an obvious tactic, a Rovian-inspired misinformation campaign, and you've fallen dead into their trap.

Great job. If you actually think Obama is a marijuana-hater, intent on ridding the world of this pestilential menace, then you, my friend, are the delusional one.

Get some critical thinking in, willya?

[Rowdyboy]

17. I've smoked pot since 1972 and I've never really given a damn what any president thought

about it. I'm voting for gay rights and civil rights and fair taxation and an adult foreign policy. Not pot.

Damn, now I need to do a bowl....and its all your fault.

[patrice]

18. Those were NEVER his votes in the first place. This is what I saw here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=201843

[NYC Liberal]

21. Nonsense. It will have zero effect on the election.

[PsychProfessor]

22. Right because Romney is going to be so awesome on legalizing pot... nt

[SoapBox]

24. Bingo!!!!!!

you said it.

[AtomicKitten]

23. ooga booga

[sadbear]

26. Fans of travel-writer extraordinaire Rick Steves are abandoning him over MJ.

Rick tries to stay out of politics as much as possible, but he is a proponent of legalization. He's somewhat vocal about it and I've seen a lot of his fans say some very nasty things about him because of it. I, too, wish President Obama would support legalization, but there are indeed bigger fish to fry. (And I'll add my two cents: it personally think it will take a white republican, not a black Democrat, to finally get MJ legalized.)

[Swede Atlanta]

27. If these stupid voters vote for Robme over MaryJane they are.....

worse than a box of rocks. The President's policies on MJ are much more liberal than Robme.

[patrice]

28. Obama is an attorney, a CONSTITUTIONAL attorney, he is doing what attorneys do in order to

push the legal issues forward, just as he did with ending DADT, just like he is approaching the Dream Act, and also Indefinite Detention made legal by the 2002 AUMF.

He's NOT a king and he knows that. He knows, therefore, that this (and all other issues) NEED somekind of legal evolution. If you have ever known attorneys up close and personal, you'd know that legal development comes from LEGAL ACTIONS FOLLOWED by LEGAL RESPONSES FROM BOTH (ALL) SIDES.

What this does is that it calls for the the best legal minds amongst the opposition to strategize and act against the best that the administration and/or each of the states have to offer. The effect of having the best go against the best is that the legal issues are refined until resulting legislation can be written in a manner that makes it more likely that the federal or the states' departments of justice end up being required to expend less and less resources on the issue as it progresses toward whatever state of legal legislative equilibrium that is evoked out of the relevant national and state legal dialogues.

IT'S A LEGAL ISSUE AND ***THIS*** IS HOW LEGAL PROCESSES WORK.

[treestar]

43. +1

Well said. I hate the magic wand attitude towards the Presidency. I see it on many issues.

[patrice]

46. My 2nd husband was a liberal Libertarian corporate attorney, who was so Libertarian that he

refused to be called Libertarian, btw.

I used to hear synopses of this stuff every time we watched the "news" together.

He also worked for a national corporation, so he really knew the contexts for what is going on.

[budkin]

29. Nope.

[auburngrad82]

30. You're assuming that most Dems are one topic voters

That's the wrong party. GOP supporters tend to be one subject voters, i.e. abortion, or taxes, or (for the libertarians among them) pot legalization.

Most Dems look at the bigger picture. That's why I think Gary Johnson as a third party candidate won't hurt Obama but can do some serious damage to Rmoney. I'm interested to see how many votes Johnson ends up costing Rmoney on Tuesday.

[RegieRocker]

31. Unlike some (most)

I understand what you're saying. It hasn't help his (Hope and Change) mantra that is for sure.

[patrice]

33. Bullshit. People help their own issues or they destroy them. F.A.C.T.

[patrice]

36. All of the for real CANNABIS activists in that movement abandoned it to the Paulites. nt

[patrice]

32. There are some people around here who're still QUITE hurt by what Libertarian cannabis activists did

to some of the MOST disadvantaged people I have ever seen who showed up to try to be part of our Occupy.

There is someone who I tried to help; had him and one of his friends in my home for about a week's worth of the coldest weather we have here, who ended up used for a Libertarian "business" and then abandoned on a street corner, when all of that turned into a problem with the law.

Fucking Libertarians are the WORST manipulaters and users of other persons there are.

[UCmeNdc]

34. No that makes no sense. Mitt Romney is definitely not pro pot.

So why would anyone that is pro pot want to vote for Mitt? If anything Mitt would be more anti pot than President Obama.

[rusty fender]

48. They wouldn't, but they might vote for Johnson

That's the problem.

[Lex]

35. NO.

Just no.

[stevenleser]

37. This is what's called, "Trying too hard to make a point that is not there"

its what happens when you try to twist facts to fit theories instead of the reverse.

[byronius]

54. Bam. Thank you.

I hate this kind of muddle-headedness, especially when it comes from well-meaning progressives.

[DHelix]

39. One issue at a time - Would you seriously vote Republican or sit it out simply because...

One issue at a time - Would you seriously vote Republican or sit it out simply because one of the issues important to you wasn't being met? That kind of thinking will completely divide the left and allow the Right Wingers to constantly push their agendas forward.

If you want to see progress on this issue within the Democratic party then you need to hope and help them secure enough victories in a row that most of the other major issues of inequality are better dealt with so that they can turn to issues like this next. This kind of thinking worries me about the Center Left in America.

In Canada, the only reason why they have a Conservative government in power is because the 3 leftist parties have split all the votes. The Conservative party candidate has something like 35% of the vote and the other 65% of Canada split their votes between the 3 leftist parties. So, now the majority of Canadians aren't having ANY of their needs met and the Right Wingers are running all over them. That same kind of thing will happen in America if all of the groups that lean left start becoming impatient and focusing solely on the issue that matters to them most and splintering off. I realize that's not ideal for a lot of people who are very passionate about one particular issue but you have to realize that on almost every issue that you are passionate about on the left the Republicans are going to be worse. We want the Right Wingers divided via the Tea Party, not the Center Left. Stay patient. Your concerns will see progress but there are other battles to fight first.

[rusty fender]

49. I never said that I would vote based on

this issue alone, however, there are alot of people in CO who might for Johnson because of it.

[ncav53]

40. Umm no. He'd be painted as a "black man trying to drug up America."

If he does try to legalize it, he's obviously waiting to do it in the 2nd term. Anyways recent polls say he's leading between 2-4 points in CO.

[patrice]

41. Some of you all just want a king or daddy to come along & fix things & you just end up getting

***************USED****************** by *A*N*Y*O*N*E* who is willing to bend you over and do what they want.

[liberalmuse]

42. I don't agree.

I know of some liberals who are voting straight Dem, but are not supporting R74 here in Washington. Many Obama supporters aren't exactly gungho about legalizing Marijuana. And there are a lot of Republicans and Libertarians who support legalization.

That being said, I was disconcerted to find out that R74 has better odds of passing than 502 here in Washington, and Obama supports one, but not the other.

[DHelix]

44. A divided center left is EXACTLY what every Right Winger in America wants - Solidarity is needed

One issue at a time - Would you seriously vote Republican or sit it out simply because one of the issues important to you wasn't being met? That kind of thinking will completely divide the left and allow the Right Wingers to constantly push their agendas forward.

If you want to see progress on this issue within the Democratic party then you need to hope and help them secure enough victories in a row that most of the other major issues of inequality are better dealt with so that they can turn to issues like this next. This kind of thinking worries me about the Center Left in America.

In Canada, the only reason why they have a Conservative government in power is because the 3 leftist parties have split all the votes. The Conservative party candidate has something like 35% of the vote and the other 65% of Canada split their votes between the 3 leftist parties. So, now the majority of Canadians aren't having ANY of their needs met and the Right Wingers are running all over them. That same kind of thing will happen in America if all of the groups that lean left start becoming impatient and focusing solely on the issue that matters to them most and splintering off. I realize that's not ideal for a lot of people who are very passionate about one particular issue but you have to realize that on almost every issue that you are passionate about on the left the Republicans are going to be worse. We want the Right Wingers divided via the Tea Party, not the Center Left. Stay patient. Your concerns will see progress but there are other battles to fight first.

[rusty fender]

50. I wouldn't

I was pointing out an unfortunate consequence of Obama's war on mj and that is that it could cost him crucial votes in CO.

[TeamPooka]

45. Thank you for your concern

[patrice]

47. Libertarians are so busy cutting the ground out from under themselves that any "promises" they

make to the uninformed and/or naive are PURE BULLSHIT.

That bullshit becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy amongst a cohort of people who absolutely refuse to regulate themselves in any way shape or form. The result is that they can't function WITH anyone, because everything turns into fascism, a struggle for power in which the probabilities, especially on this particular issue, the legalization of cannabis, of being betrayed or double-crossed are at least 50:50 at all times. This fact is in the very nature of Libertarians themselves and I know that from long standing associations that, in our family, go into the second generation, who will have NOTHING to do with Libertarians from past sad experiences.

[BigDemVoter]

51. BULLSHIT

I support marijuana legalization 100%, but it won't make a lick of difference for Obama, as it's not a central issue for more than a tiny, insignificant sliver of the population. And a Romney win would be even WORSE for Mary Jane supporters.

[JoeyT]

55. I not only support legalizing marijuana,

I support legalizing all drugs, and even I think you're wrong.

As bad as the Obama admin is on this issue, there are other issues that are far more pressing right now: Gay rights and abortion, to name two.

There isn't a single candidate for president that won't ramp up the drug war. I don't care what Stein or Johnson say, they'll sell that issue down the river to buy support for other things they want.

[polichick]

57. I really do hate his marijuana policies - archaic and stupid.

[HuckleB]

58. Single issue voters are so cool.

[whistler162]

60. Walter Shapiro may need to cut

back on his intake of marijuana!