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In reply to the discussion: Obama says he'd be seen as moderate Republican in 1980s [View all]ProSense
(116,464 posts)12. President Obama
AMA: One issue that Cuban-Americans are worried about is, they believe that you favor a socialist model for our country. Cubans and Venezuelans especially because of what they have gone through. What do you think of that?
PBO: I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans or Venezuelans, Americans who believe that. The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican. I mean, what I believe in is a tax system that is fair. I don't think government can solve every problem. I think that we should make sure that we're helping young people go to school. We should make sure that our government is building good roads and bridges and hospitals and airports so that we have a good infrastructure. I do believe that it makes sense that everyone in America, as rich as this country is, shouldn't go bankrupt because someone gets sick, so the things I believe in are essentially the same things your viewers believe in.
PBO: I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans or Venezuelans, Americans who believe that. The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican. I mean, what I believe in is a tax system that is fair. I don't think government can solve every problem. I think that we should make sure that we're helping young people go to school. We should make sure that our government is building good roads and bridges and hospitals and airports so that we have a good infrastructure. I do believe that it makes sense that everyone in America, as rich as this country is, shouldn't go bankrupt because someone gets sick, so the things I believe in are essentially the same things your viewers believe in.
...is a shrewd politician. He is redefining the right.
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grahamhgreen
Dec 2012
#7
Pro-gay marriage, repealing DADT, equal pay for women, pro-choice all the way...
phleshdef
Dec 2012
#59
Which has fuck all to do with civil liberties. You are attempting to argue like a Republican now...
phleshdef
Dec 2012
#99
Yes, and the problem is we voted for a progressive Democrat! Government is the people, and
grahamhgreen
Dec 2012
#5
I recall when all those Rockefeller Republicans came out for gay marriage & legalized pot
Bucky
Dec 2012
#10
Come on, now ProSense. You know that they won't read the entire passage for context.
Liberal_Stalwart71
Dec 2012
#25
Don't blame Obama that a moderate GOPer in the 80s might be considered a leftwing liberal today
andym
Dec 2012
#22
And yet. I didn't vote for any of them because, as moderate as they were, Dems were better.
Luminous Animal
Dec 2012
#39
"I don't think government can solve every problem". So if it's very wealthy people that you
jtuck004
Dec 2012
#36
So when a kid leaves school on Friday, and EVERYONE around them knows they won't have
jtuck004
Dec 2012
#48
Yeah, the hatred for anyone perceived as being to the left of Obama is palpable
Fumesucker
Dec 2012
#61
No it's not it's a BAD thing. The country needs more than an 1980s Republican to face down
byeya
Dec 2012
#105
What we have gotten 'til now is not even moderate. It is right-wing.
woo me with science
Dec 2012
#50
uh, if he would have said like an eisenhower republican, I might have been more impressed
newspeak
Dec 2012
#68
So, wouldn't that position him as generally against the Social Safety Net?
NorthCarolina
Dec 2012
#70
Where's the action behind the campaign promise that he'd walk the picket lines with strikers
byeya
Dec 2012
#106
I was blocked from the Barack Obama Group for posting this article there.
UnrepentantLiberal
Dec 2012
#109
Obama is closer to the policies of Reagan than the current Republicans
Joe the Progressive
Dec 2012
#114