Barack Obama on Baby Boomers

[Writer]

Back before he became popular: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html

In taking the first steps toward a presidential candidacy last week, Mr. Obama, who was born in 1961 and considers himself a member of the post-boomer generation, said Americans hungered for “a different kind of politics,” one that moved beyond the tired ideological battles of the 1960s.

Then he became popular. Now he's a Boomer.

[Vickers]

1. Technically, he IS a boomer...I think that bubble lasted all the way

up through 1964 or so.

[Faygo Kid]

2. He was an end-time Boomer, but a Boomer nevertheless.

The book, Generations, pegs the Boomers as 1941-1961.

I think that's right. 1964 is way too late.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Then the book Generations is wrong. Baby Boomers are named for the boom in births After WWII.

1946-1964.

[Faygo Kid]

9. Don't care about the name. Those born in 1964 are not Boomers.

Five years old at the time of Woodstock, or the moon landing? Don't remember LBJ? They are not Boomers.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. And I'm a Boomer and don't remember when Truman was President, so? Boomer isn't classified by

experiences, but an actual boom in births in this country. Close to 80 million babies were born during this period.

[chucker47]

12. Obama is NOT a boomer!

Right you are. A boomer is the product of the post WWII 'reunioning' of couples kept apart by the war. I find it humorous that someone born 19 years after the end of the war thinks of himself as a boomer. Hell, he was born after we complete another war in Korea and started one in Vietnam! Obama a boomer! Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!

[Skittles]

15. yes he IS a boomer

from wiki: The United States Census Bureau considers a baby boomer to be someone born during the demographic birth boom between 1946 and 1964. The Census Bureau is not involved in defining cultural generations.


just because he is not the STEREOTYPE of a boomer doesn't mean he is not a boomer

[JHB]

31. The Census Bureau can kiss my 1964-born non-boomer ass

just because he is not the STEREOTYPE of a boomer doesn't mean he is not a boomer

And just because statisticians group people as boomers DOESN'T mean that they are, stereotype or not.

[elocs]

3. I always heard "Baby Boomer" to mean those born from 1946 to 1964.

Easy to remember: 4-6, 6-4.

[MADem]

4. His parents weren't GGs, that's probably why he tried to sneak away from the designation!

He was raised by GGs, though.

He's a boomer, like Bill and Hill and Al and Tipper...!

[LWolf]

5. "tired ideological battles."

Like the civil rights movement.

Here's where he is working to separate himself from the left.

Probably why he never got popular with me.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Yes. Barack Obama hates, hates, hates the civil rights movement.

Your sanguine analysis will surely stand for all time as a testament to :eyes:

[LWolf]

22. My take on Obama doesn't include anything about "hate."

Your post, though, is further evidence of the dumbing down, and the cultural bankruptcy, of the nation.

[Horse with no Name]

30. Obama you have NOT YET BEGUN to fight

any "tired ideological battles".
Let's not pretend you have...ummkay?

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. Kind of like Obama

was for single payer before it served hs interest to be against single payer......

[GoesTo11]

8. Two faced Obama! We elected him.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. +1!

[Deja Q]

13. Like this? (updated) (and -1)

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/08/19/obama-touts-single-payer-system/

And many Democrats, including Obama and former rival Hillary Clinton, have taken a much more moderate approach.

Obama’s health-care plan aims for universal coverage by offering a new government-run marketplace where Americans could buy insurance, mostly from private plans. He would offer subsidies to individuals and to small business owners that offer their workers coverage. His plan also would require that parents get insurance for their kids. And he aims to lower health-care costs to make coverage more affordable. His plan includes one small step toward single payer. His new marketplace would create a new government-run plan, like Medicare, to compete against the private plans.

But Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system. “Given that a lot of people work for insurance companies, a lot of people work for HMOs. You’ve got a whole system of institutions that have been set up,” he said at a roundtable discussion with women Monday morning after a voter asked, “Why not single payer?”

So far, I'm not understanding your claim on his purported two-facedness...


(Edited: Last line for clarification)

[Coyote_Bandit]

18. Ummmm......

Obama was for single payer before he was against single payer. Pretty simple.

IMHO, the present health care "reform" proposals are a clusterfuck destined to leave millions in even worse shape - and still lacking access to health care. Irrespective of whether it works, it will certainly ease some consciences and make a few folks feel good. But if you happen to be one of those millions then you are SOL - and you have all the confirmation you need to know that neither your elected leaders or your fellow citizens give a fuck whether you live or die. This "reform" will not only pas you by it will penalize you in the process.

We'd like to pretend that we can't afford single payer but the reality is that we lack the humanity and the initiative to demand it and our elected officials lack both the same humanity and the political will and leadership to enact it.

[scheming daemons]

24. Disingenuous, Rovian parsing of facts

He was for it in 2003.


He was against it in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.



Do you hold any positions now that are different from the positions you held 6 years ago? Or is your brain so static that new information doesn't alter your perceptions?



Saying he was "for it before he was against it" is true in the technical sense, but extremely misleading. Your goal is to make people believe Obama lied to get elected and then changed his views.

He did not. In both his senate race and presidential race, he made it perfectly clear that he was not for single-payer.




Here's one for you Kucinichians to chew on:

Dennis Kuchinich was against a legal right to abortion before he was for it.

(why is THAT evolution in thought ok for you?)

[Coyote_Bandit]

26. I guess you didn't see this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

Sure as hell appears to be an appearance seeking votes.

Simple fact is that it would not have served Obama's political aspirations to be for single payer. He is a corporatist with corporate loyalties. You might find this list of financial contributions to his campaign instructive as to his loyalties:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectorallc.php?cycle=2008

Obama has repeatedly demonstrated those loyalties during his tenure in office. Bank bailouts for example. Health care "reform" that will significantly benefit the insurance industry. Or maybe the absence of stimulus monies directed toward small business - or the direct creation of jobs. Job creation after all was dependent upon some kind of voodoo economic trickle down effect.

Political position often brings personal power and prosperity. It isn't much of a stretch for me to conclude that Obama values his personal interest and that of corporate citizens over the needs and interests of flesh and blood citizens. So what? All that tells me is that he isn't any different the vast majority of the other jerks we have elected to public office.

Dennis Kucinich's position on abortion is irrelevant to the Obama flip flop on single payer. But you knew that.

You seem to enjoy jumping to conclusions. You assume I am a Kucinich supporter. You assume that I am pro-abortion. Guess what? It is possible to be liberal without doting on Dennis Kucinich. It's also possible that the issue of abortion just isn't at the top of my list of priorities. But you knew that. Or should have.

[scheming daemons]

23. Obama was for single-payer in 2003. In 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 he wasn't.

Sad for you that you apparently were only listening to him in 2003 and ignored the six years since in which he was against it.


Still... you want to feel like you were "duped" into voting for Obama, so facts won't matter to you in your emotional tizzy.

[Coyote_Bandit]

27. Didn't you already say that?

Seems redunant to me.

Emotional tizzy? Really? Ummmmmm.......no.......

FWIW, I do not feel duped into voting for Obama. I voted for him in the general election because he was the best of two bad choices. Perhaps when 2012 rolls around I should have the discipline to vote my conscience rather than supporting the best of two bad choices. That seems to be the course of action you are suggesting.

[scheming daemons]

25. Kind of like when Dennis Kucinich was pro-life before he was pro-choice?

....did that hit too close to home?

[Coyote_Bandit]

28. More redundancy

Really. I read your comments the first time. You don't have to repeat yourself over and over and over again. No need to spam the board just because you didn't like what I said.

Maybe you should just add me to your ignore list.

[EFerrari]

14. The "tired ideological battles of the 60s" were very profitable

for many people in our country -- like black people, poor people, women and children.

I'll take those"tired" battles over soft repression and neglect and abuse any day. :)

[walldude]

29. Beat me to it. Amazing that civil rights and illegal wars

are "tired ideological battles".

[rvablue]

17. Great DU debate is over. He's Gen X. Sorry boomers!

[malletgirl02]

20. Actually he's neither

He's Generation Jones.

[rug]

19. He would have voted for Humphrey, if that's your point.

[dflprincess]

21. Humphrey was way more liberal than Obama

He might not have liked Hubert's politics.

[Odin2005]

32. Boomer = born between 1943 and 1960. Obama is Generation X

The sociological generation doesn't perfectly match the demographic Boom, 1961-1981 are the Gen-X birth years.

Sorry Boomers, get your paws off the President. You guys like to claim everything as your own good work, as if you were the crown of creation and a gift from God, it's Fing annoying.

[Mari333]

33. first time i am older then a POTUS. nt