Occupied Wallstreet doen't help the President

[bigdarryl]

Social Unrest going into a election goes against the party in power.Hopefully the protesting is peaceful and doesn't get on the level of the riots and protesting in the 60's against the Vietnam war or hopefully they are over before the November election next year

[boxman15]

1. OWS isn't about President Obama, of course, but I hope you're right, too.

I'm sure it will remain mostly peaceful. The right-wing media will do its best to do make the protesters seem as violent as possible, of course, but I think they'll be fine.

It's not going to be like the 1960s. Especially since the protesters are mostly pro-Obama or liberal, it could actually benefit the president. They aren't protesting him for the most part. They're protesting the Republican policies that put us in this spot to begin with.

[bigdarryl]

4. Being about the President isn't the point

If the country as a whole is going through social unrest as in past elections like 1968 the Presidential election is impacted and the majority of the time voters voted against who ever the President was at the time of the election.That's from Allan Lichtman book on 13 keys to the WH

[Ken Burch]

12. With the war being a dead loss, we'd have lost in '68 anyway

even if there hadn't BEEN a counter-culture at all. After 1966, LBJ was never going to be popular again.

[boxman15]

26. ^This

1968 had more to do with LBJ's unpopularity than with social unrest, though that certainly didn't help the Democrats in 1968.

1968 and 2012 are apples and oranges, really. The Occupy Wall Street movement is the modern equivalent of the counterculture. They're very different.

[FrenchieCat]

2. The party in power isn't so much the Democrats....

Not when the House is ran by the GOP, and the Senate needs 60 votes to pass anything,
and the President is regarded as the underdog who can't get anything done precisely
because of the other branch and who runs it. The protestors weren't out there prior to the
2010 election.....

If you think the OWS are standing out there in the cold so they can end up with Republicans running every part of government, I've got news for you.

[drdtroit]

3. Doubtful that anyone is thinking along those lines!

They are fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
As long as the psychopaths on wall street and the police keep up their sociopathic behavior this isn't going away!

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Aw shucks, I guess we ought to just go home and be all passive again.

[bigdarryl]

6. You guy's from the responses obviously haven't read Lichtman's book

[Warren Stupidity]

7. We really don't give a shit, but go ahead and lecture us.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. .

:spray: :applause:

[monmouth]

23. + a gazillion. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

8. Well if you say it enough times,

perhaps it will come true...

and then we'll all have Republican feet deep down up our asses.

Then we may not be able to stand anywhere and protest...
but till then.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. You obviously didn't go to grammar school. nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. Don't Blame Darryl. Blame The Public School System That Failed Him.

.

[stevenleser]

31. Lichtman doesnt account for the difference between a protest at a President's policy, and a protest

of the current general conditions.

Think of it this way, President Obama could totally embrace Occupy Wall Street and it's goals. He has no policy initiatives that would prevent him from doing that. President Johnson could not embrace the anti-war movement because it was protesting his policies in Southeast Asia.

That difference is huge.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

34. Lichtman's Whole System Of Predicting Presidential Winners Is Flawed

Tell me the incumbent president's approval rating and who his or her opponent is come election time and I will tell you the winner.

[AtomicKitten]

9. IMO it actually augments his push for his jobs bill. /nt

[Ken Burch]

10. So you're saying they should just give up and pretend

that voting for an administration that's against us more often than it's for us is all that matters?

There won't BE any hope if the occupations end. There won't be any change in this country.

The politicians are meaningless now.

[FrenchieCat]

11. Have you gone out there yet.....and protested?

If so, I'd like to hear your story.

[Ken Burch]

14. I'm in Southeast Alaska, it's hard to get to an occupation from here

I was in the labor protests last winter, and will be doing what I can to help OWS and any local occupation efforts anyone wants to keep going.

I'd be at an occupation tonight if I could be.

It's pointless to think that re-electing Obama, by itself, is worth much of anything. We can assume he'll be a pushover in his second term if he was in his first. No president ever grows a spine after re-election.

[FrenchieCat]

17. I think if he has a majority, and us to push him,

we're more likely than less. But yes, he needs to throw caution to the wind
at some point....and I think he's getting that message loud and clear.

I'll be going out to SF to occupy from there on my birthday Friday. :)

[Ken Burch]

19. I'm glad to hear it...

Happy birthday, then.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Thanks.

[jenmito]

15. Trumka was there yesterday endorsing Obama's jobs bill, saying they gotta get behind it. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

18. They are protesting Wall Street banksters and the status quo

Obama is the status quo, just ask his bankster chief of staff Bill Daley and Wall Street protector Timmy Geithner. The Obama Administration probably wants to muzzle this as fast as they can.

That's my hunch. The protesters probably scare them.

[FrenchieCat]

21. That's why it is a leaderless protest.....

That way, folks can say what they want about it,
but it doesn't have to be so.

[mkultra]

22. nobody thinks that

except people searching for reasons to blame him. it has nothing to do with Obama.

[Skittles]

30. LOLOL

:rofl:

[JVS]

24. He's done a poor job of meeting these peoples' needs, so he deserves it.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Obama to the Banksters when the crisis hit:

"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks." Think that over a bit, and then ask why the people are treating him as a bystander at best.

[Skittles]

29. BINGO!!!!!!!!

:thumbsup:

[Life Long Dem]

27. What Obama said in 2009.

"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," Mr. Obama said in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program on Sunday.

"They're still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see," he said. "You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in -- in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we've got 10% unemployment."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126073152465089651.html

This coincides so closely with what is happening right now with OWS.

[Supersedeas]

28. Newt Gingrich takes this position too.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/05/8173225-gingrich-wall-street-demonstrators-have-good-reasons-to-be-unhappy

“If you're a 22 or 23 year old kid, and you're sitting out there with no job you're looking at these things and you're saying ‘let me get this straight.’ How much did Goldman Sachs get? How much did the Paris bank get? How much did the bank of Libya get? And I'm supposed to pay off my student loan?”

“Look at Bernanke, who has dealt with hundreds of billions of dollars in secret,” Gingrich said. "I think they have a lot of good reasons to be unhappy and I think we ought to indicate that their unhappiness should be aimed at the government. Because its the government's that's failed them."

[Life Long Dem]

32. It's the banks that caused this.

And Newt is here to save the day if he is elected. :rofl:

[DCBob]

35. I think this is exactly the kind of thing President Obama meant when he said push me.

If there is a major movement for serious reform this will force the President and Congress do something. That's how an entrenched corrupt system gets changed.

[Number23]

37. Excellent, excellent points.

This is what he meant by "push me." Not "sit on the sidelines screaming and wailing and criticizing every move I make while giving away your hard-earned time and money to grifters who will only use it to fill their own coffers."

I don't know what will happen as a result of OWS, but whatever does, it will be 100 times more important and valuable than anything that has ever or will ever spew forth from FDL and some other places.

[Number23]

36. I disagree. I don't think it hurts him in the least

Particularly as it seems that they are echoing many of his more populist messages. There is a reason that Wall Street absolutely hates this president as has been posted and written about time after time.

Some folks on both sides have tried to make this about Obama. DU has had several posts lately asking why Obama hasn't endorsed the OWS or why the protestors aren't targeting him. I think it's obvious that many don't see him as the issue. They recognize this issue is much bigger and older than this president. These people are not stupid. The timing of this protest bolsters the comments made from the president and the Democrats that rich people need to pay higher taxes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/05/MNQK1LDT9F.DTL

I actually think this whole thing could potentially help the president a great deal.

[newblewtoo]

38. It is hard to

say whether it was the Chicago Convention, Tet, or, George Wallace that gave us Richard Nixon in 1968.

It was that close:

Nixon (31,783,783 - 43.4%)

Humphrey (31,271,839 - 42.7%)

Wallace (9,901,118 - 13.5%)

[quaker bill]

39. It is not intended to