WAPO: What Left Turn? Obama Is Doing Pretty Much What He Promised

[wyldwolf]

The notion that President Obama has lurched to the left since his inauguration and is governing as an unreconstructed liberal is bunk. Obama's presidential agenda mirrors his campaign platform. He has diverged from it in a few areas -- almost entirely to the right.

Let's review:

On the war in Iraq, Obama has, wisely, stepped back from his brigade-a-month withdrawal plan and stretched his 16-month departure timetable to 19 months. It turns out that the residual force Obama discussed, sketchily, during the campaign will total 50,000 troops.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031002840.html

[ProSense]

1. Here, read this:

Rarely have I been as happy with a column I so thoroughly disagree with as I am with Ruth Marcus' piece today. Her central thesis - that Obama is somehow governing with a "moderate tilt" and not as an "unreconstructed liberal" - is pretty absurd on its face. We're barely two months into the new administration, and already a withdrawal from Iraq has been announced, an $800 billion stimulus package has been passed, S-CHIP has been expanded, stem cell restrictions have been lifted, and Guantanamo has been shut down. Say what you will about that, but it's a pretty solidly liberal policy agenda.

But by God, I hope writers like Marcus use their soapboxes to present it as centrist. They win, obviously; they, as paragons of the centrist DC establishment, are able to link themselves with a very popular president. Obama benefits as well, being able to credibly claim that he's forging a middle ground. But in the end, this sort of framing is good for progressivism. If a president whose first budget includes universal health care, a cap & trade system, and a massive increase in federal education spending qualifies as "moderate", then it's safe to say that the national political center is shifting strongly to the left, which can only be a good thing. Who knows, if this line of argument keeps up we might actually be able to have a robust debate as liberal about what kind of social democracy we want America to be, rather than defending the notion of social democracy itself.

link

[dionysus]

2. Whoops!! that pretty much destroys the OPs argument...

:rofl:
:spray:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. The OPs argument was not that Obama hasn't been "left"

It's that Obama's positions haven't veered off course in either direction from what he campaigned on.

[RollWithIt]

3. I'm personally amused by the shock people have to 50,000 residual troops in Iraq...

The truth is and has always been that while we would have a large "withdrawal" from Iraq I can't imagine a time in my lifetime that we won't have at least 25,000 in Iraq serving as peace keepers. Similar to the force we still have in Korea. I'd be glad to expand on why if anyone is interested in the reasons.

[cooolandrew]

4. Yep, if there is a least one thing President's a man of his word and I can only imainge everything>

he says will come to fruition. Yeah, we could hope for more left leaning but compared to the extreme corportitism we left behind it's a massive relief.

[depakid]

5. And even if that were true- it's good how?

So called "centrist" policies have been proven to be failures on every level.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. Well, it's good because I voted for Obama after listening to what he said.

It's good because I'm getting what I voted for. Aren't you?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. People don't pay any attention during campaigns.

That should've been obvious for the entirety of the Bush administration.

Let's face it - that guy did almost everything he campaigned on. So why did his approval ratings tank? He did what people wanted, yet they were shocked when he actually did it?

Truth is, no one really bothers to listen to anything but what they want to hear. Then they go and blame the politicians when the actions don't meet their fantasies.