Cornel west on Barack

Explain to me how he happened to get health care passed, which no president--even conservative Nixon--had been able to do. Certain effects--like not getting turned down for pre-existing conditions--were instant.

Pushed through the stimulus despite Rethug opposition.

Cash for clunkers, which WORKED.

He's repealed DADT.

Got Bin Laden.

Got the Somali pirates last year.

Remains to be seen if he starts bringing the troops home, but I'm watching.

All this despite Rethug opposition and takeover of the House.

Here's a list of his accomplishments as of July 2010. Google "Obama accomplishments" and there are many other such lists. People gloss over them because it explodes their claims that BHO is a "do-nothing" president.

You're welcome.

http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/simple_article/4857392

 

nahh...just wanted a change.




This is Goku

ha..me...ha..me..haaaaaaaaa

 

LOL. gotcha

 

What exactly is the new Healthcare legislation passed??
Insurance companies are now required to sell everyone insurance coverage to everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, all of which is subsidized by the government.
Fine and good, but BHO could have negotiated so much more. Remember at the time he had a voting majority in the House AND Senate, meaning the WH could have passed ANYTHING he wanted and have signed it into law.

BHO took single payer( universal public healthcare managed by the government) and the public option(if you don't like your healthcare, you can buy insurance from the U.S. government) off the negotiating table, all to appease the insurance companies and the GOP who weren't voting for healthcare reform anyway. Essentially Obama negotiated down against
HIMSELF.

His administration has yet to prosecute anyone on Wall Street for the collapse of the mortgage derivates market which nearly collapsed the global economy.

He squandered the public momentum for meaningful financial reform and a consumer protection agency for American credit holders. He's still yet to confirm Elizabeth Warren, the ONLY person at this time qualified who can't be bought by the finance industry.

BHO has done a lot, but imagine what this country would look like if a Republican president had veto proof majorities in the House and Senate for 2 years???

Why do you think the Republicans kept trying to stall legislation with continuing 'debates'????

The American people left this President an uzi and a flamethrower on his desk sitting in the Oval Office after his election, and for the most part BHO polished the metal instead of pulling the triggers.

BHO could have done so much more, which is disappointing.

 

so so so much is wrong with this. We all know each democrat in congress will not vote with the WH because they are concerned with the people who put them in office. Quite a few dems belonging to heavily republican districts. They would not have voted on a public option. People who keep saying he could have done more would be the same people who would have gotten nothing passed because they "feel" that they had a majority in congress that will do whatever the WH or dem party wants when in reality it is nothing of that sort.

 

In 2009, BHO could have gotten a public option passed.

The reason the WH didn't push for it was because Obama still wanted bipartisan support, when in fact the healthcare bill that did pass as watered down as it was, still didn't receive any GOP votes in the House or Senate.

BHO went for the 'safe' play, per usual. Check the poll numbers, most Americans favored a public option. The only interest groups against it were the insurance companies.

By requiring every American be able to buy health insurance from HMOs, he simply guaranteed them millions of customers subsidized by the federal government.

 

I am going to continue to point out that all of the dems from congress would not have voted for it. You point out that no republican in congress voted for it. Most of them came from republican districts just like many of the conservative congress democrats. They would not have put their job on the line for it. Polls don't mean a darn thing. They change very easily. It is very easy to change the minds of people with slander (death chambers). That is a huge problem. To make it even worse, the polls weren't highly favorable of the public option. Don't worry we will get the public option. We just have to wait for the baby boomers to kick the bucket. I think the millennial version of republicans are much more liberal.

 

Based on the sentence I highlighted, you and I are just going to have to agree to disagree.

Experience and reality are different than idealism. If you can't equate Obama being like a Jackie Robinson just because this is not the 1940's, you will never understand Obama's true situation.

John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony/Jet magazine, Reginal Lewis, the first black man to build a billion dollar business, Earl Graves, the founder of Black Enterprise Magazine, Earl Graves Jr., the son of Earl Graves who now run Black Enterprise magazine, etc., etc. Black men who have walked the walk then and walk the walk now will tell you, as a Black man in this country, they've been able to make millions. As a white man, they would have made billions.

J C Watts, at one time the most highest ranking black man in the republican party, Micheal Steele, at one time the chairman of the republican party, they both went in the with the idea they could do the same things a white man could and both learned different.

Obama is being very smart, just because he is the POTUS, he can't go in there with this bad ass attitude and think he is going to get things done. Thank God he DIDN'T go into office with the same attitude as J C Watts or Micheal Steele, he would have ended up looking like a true puppet.

Rush Limbaugh, a damn radio announcer, made Micheal Steele look like a true bitch. Rush had Micheal kissing his ass, had Micheal bowing to his will because he wasn't running the republican party the way Rush thought it should be run. A damn radio announcer who has no political office background.

Obama understands things that J C Watts or Micheal Steele didn't. You and I are just going to have to agree to disagree.

 

The fact that President Obama actually passed a health-care legislation bill, a feat in which people like Clinton, Nixon, and Carter couldn't accomplish in their time in office, shows some progress. Yes, it's a watered down legislation from what we all wanted. But it's a stepping stone in the right direction.

It requires both the House and Senate for approval. And the issue is not so much of Republicans vs. Democrats as much as conservative Democrats not willing to go along with more progressive causes like the Public Option or Single-Payers option. Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Kent Conrad would be some of the culprits. In the Senate, they only had 58 Democrats at the time and 2 Independents who are liberal leaning, so that wasn't much a strong majority although it was needed to be filibuster proof. If all of them were liberal leaning, there would be a public option. But no, that's not the case.

So, it wasn't that he WANTED bipartisan support as much as he NEEDED the 60 votes. And guess what? Those 60 votes were done by all 58 Democrats and 2 Independents in the Senate and it was those Blue Dogs and Lieberman who prevented the measures of getting it passed the way we all would desire.

The process of getting things passed, especially confirmation of people like Elizabeth Warren are incredibly difficult given that this is still a center-right country and will continue to identify itself as such, despite incremental transitioning in thought. There's a lot more to the voting process than mere political affiliation.

 

I think once he gets re-elected, he'll have more freedom. He won't have to be as cautious.

 

Agreed.

 

I think when people say Obama could not accomplish this or that, what they forget that he needs the institutions that works within the framework of a democratic government, the institutions that were developed to check the excesses of the executive, or any other arms of government to have a virile , robust, and an all inclusive democracy.

An all inclusive democracy means everyones opinion, or shade of opinion has to be accommodated. There is the competing claim of tyranny of the majority and the rights of minority. The enlightened feature of democracy acknowledges the accommodation of interest groups. Not that the Cornel West are not good on the long run, they are, they represent an interest/pressure group that needs to be accommodated within the political space so that the section of the population they advocate for can be represented or accommodated in policy making.

So far, and to the extent that I understand American politics, the issue that I disagree with has more to do with his choice of words and how he has decided to caricature Obama in not so polite terms. Equally, times change, and also rules of engagement also have to evolve. If there is anything that those that fought for civil rights have discovered, it is that strategies do change.

I remember Andrew Young, and his allegiance to the Clintons, and how his association could not make him see the bigger picture. Obama is a beneficiary of the civil rights era, all he has done really is stand on the shoulders of giants to see further into the future. I guess that is why it is important to always the cede the space of generation after one, something that its not so intuitive since older folks always think they are right, and the young is wrong in their manner of approach to issue, but many times, this can be a wrong headed way of thinking.

This is because the young embody the bridge into the future. They inherit the past, they condition it for the present, and evolve it for the future so they can hand over to another generation in a fashion that the language is better understood. I think this would always be an area of disagreement between generations whether in the black community of elsewhere. Sometimes strategies just have to change, and it seems this is the hard part that is lost on Cornel West. His reality has since moved on, the age has evolved. The era of wearing afro is long gone, it is the era of skin cut now, whether it obtains in hair fashion, or politics. The language has to go with times.

 

I couldn't agree more, naija, well said.

 

-I saw a clip where Chris Matthews the biggest Obama tap dancer says "Obama is not about relationship, he is not cozy, he makes deals and he moves on" lol, talk about Freudian slip. He was responding why Dr. West should not expect a phone call or a ticket from BO.

-Prof. Mellissa-Harris Perry slamming Dr. West, lol, she is pissed because he didn't support her tenure to Princeton and she had to leave for less prestige school, i.e. Tulane… sounds personal to me.

-Al Sharpton the self appointed blk leader is the only one that’s kind of making sense, even tho he is prolly doing it to protect his own interest. Sharpton siding with Obama, lol, I am sure he is got some investment he is protecting. Sharpton said prof. West should not have aired his personal issues (i.e. that Obama used him to stomp for over 65 times and could not even provide him with inauguration ticket after he won and West was forced to watch the whole thing from a hotel), lol.

-Tho, I agree with some of Dr. West's criticism of BO's administration, West himself is working for the very same oligarchs and plutocrats that he is criticizing. At one time he was working for the same Larry Summers that West is suggesting a wealthy smooth Jewish brother with Wall Street contacts that knows how to get things done, lol. Prof. West also very much enjoys the opportunity that is provided to him by Ivy league environment, writing tons of books and giving hundreds of public speeches (gaining five figures per book signing event in the process). He is also generating side income with his dear brother Tavis Smiley, who is also a strong Obama critic, lol. I don’t see Prof West shaping young black minds in inner city community college, lol. Politics it's all a fucken game.

 

until he resigned because Larry Summers wanted to silence his progressive views.

 

Lol, I saw folks urging Dr. West to run for white house. I am sure he is not going to run but if he did, the powerful folks who are running this country will make sure he is not going to even reach the 1st primary. Cornel West might come across as a hot air factory but at least among Dr. West's own narcissistic rambling and grandiosity there is serious truth that gets farted out in to the public domain, and the powers be don’t want the public to know the truth and don’t want any change that affects their investments, so they usually groom & appoint some hack politician and an opportunistic pundit stooge to sit in the center while they manipulate the system from behind.

 

Cornel's ego couldn't take the second-guessing and nit-picking and scrutiny of a political run. You know, the kind of shit BHO takes EVERYDAY and makes it look easy.

It's way easier to sit on the sidelines at your Harvard office and throw grenades. The light-skin intellectual, French-scarfed Ivy League professor questioning somebody else's blackness that's a laugh.

I usually check somebody out before I talk shit about them but I'm not even motivated to check West's work now. We have a black president, he is irrelevant.

 

Ahhhh, the days of hearing Rev. Sharpton speak and memories of the Million Man March. Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond and Farrakhan are just fuzzy recollections.

 

I agree Dr. West should not have questioned Obama's "blackness" in public, whether it is true or not. I feel Dr.West's heart might be in the right place (wants to help blks or poor whites) but airing personal conflict and attacking BO's formation in public was a little to extreme. Dr. West himself did not exactly come out of hood........I might be wrong here, but his mother was either white or a well off light skin woman (school principal??).

BTW Dr. West left Harvard after his big fight with Larry Summers (who was Harvard's prez at that time). He is in Princeton now. Part of Dr. West's anger is fueled by his dislike of Larry summers (a highly educated rich jew) who was Obama's advisor.

 

cornel is mad that he didnt get invited at some swing dig obama thru. (rumor has it). also his heart is where is wallet lies and keeping himself in the public's mind (another palin type).

cornel is lost without the Tavis smiley's state of the black union ( stage show that started out with substance but then turned into a poetry session among black intellects to show who can say the most wittiest comments while pushing their latest books or business or political ventures).