March 16, 2016
OUR REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT:
The liberal war over the Obama legacy has already begun : Review of "Buyer's Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down" by Bill Press and "Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?" by Thomas Frank (Carlos Lozada March 11, 2016, Washington Post)Bill Press, a liberal radio and television host, has authored "Buyer's Remorse," a distillation of the Obama years that comes down to "yes, but." Yes, Obama got the stimulus bill through Congress, but it was too small. Yes, he passed the Affordable Care Act, but he punted on the public option. Yes, he signed the Dodd-Frank Act, but he left Wall Street's power largely intact. Yes, Obama ended torture as a tool of U.S. national security, but he didn't prosecute any high-ranking officials responsible for it. Yes, he made history as the first black president, but he spoke out only reluctantly on racial injustice. Yes, he ended the war in Iraq, but he's getting sucked into a new conflict there. Yes, he raised crazy money for Democratic candidates, but the House and the Senate went Republican on his watch. "The transformative new era of leadership Obama promised never happened," Press laments. "His presidency looms as a huge opportunity wasted."
There's that amusing moment in history where everyone realizes Nixon was our most liberal president or Clinton one of our most conservative or W Third Way rather than far Right. The UR moment will come pretty quickly once he's out of office.
Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2016 3:34 AM