Obama was dead wrong in his AP speech yesterday. I am furious.

[madfloridian]

Why is he criticizing Democrats for supporting the safety net for seniors? Why is he supporting merit pay for teachers? Children are not "things" that teachers can manipulate for pay. This upsets me.

Sounds like he is spouting privatizing of Social Security and Medicare.

I do NOT like this one bit.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3768066.html

In addition to criticizing Republicans, Obama chided members of his own party.

He said Democrats "all too often are defending a social safety net that was constructed in the 1930s and '40s. My argument to Democrats has been that we need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values."

He is dead wrong on that...we need to be very careful how we achieve those goals. Sounds like he supports achieving the goal in any way we can...it is called privatizing. Our seniors are suffering enough right now from that devastating Medicare D bill. They don't need to hear a Democrat spouting Republican rhetoric.

Obama prodded Democrats on education. "I do not believe that being against No Child Left Behind is an education policy," he said. "We should take a look at pay for performance," an idea not generally popular with teacher unions.

"I'm a big union guy and I have a sister who is a public school teacher," he said. "I think it is absolutely necessary for us to engage teachers, saying, 'We are willing to pay you more, but we have a right to expect a better outcome.'"

Well, Obama, may I say that there are other factors involved that teachers have no control over. Can you say parents? Can you say children's temperaments? Can you say lack of ability on the part of students who are required to take tests they can't read because they have learning problems? Can you say poverty?....I could go on.

Sorry, but that sounds very corporate friendly to me. I don't like that at all.

I am afraid that what I thought would happen is happening. The DLC is setting policy, not listening to the people. I am pretty sure the "tough and smart" from the national security plan the other day is right from the Third Way site. I thought so when I saw the logo at Raw Story, but I can not find the cached version of the old Third Way site. But if you compare the new site and their program....they set the agenda.

So are we back to square one? Are all of them going to go along now with getting to the "goals" just any old way.

They have been controlling the agenda too long. I am upset with Obama over that.