Democrats Unhappy With Obama's Centrist Shift

POLITICO:

President Barack Obama is running into resistance from congressional Democrats over several key economic proposals -- blunting the party's ability to send a clear message to middle-class voters that Democrats feel their pain.

Obama has run into friction from fellow Democrats over plans to freeze some federal spending, to use bailout funds for small-business lending and to limit the reach of big banks.

Read the whole story: POLITICO

Comments

[jimibradshaw]

03:57 PM on 03/25/2010

The Big O is a big dissapoint­ment to the left. They are not any more happy with him than you are. Well, not much more so. They wanted a public option, for example, and Obama didn't give it to them. They wanted the Hyde Amendment scrapped. Obama agreed to keep it in force. They wanted the wars ended. The wars have not been ended. They ... See Morewant immigratio­n reform. They haven't gotten it. They wanted the Patriot Act to die. Obama kept it alive. I could go on, but to say Obama is as far left as you can be is extremely misinforme­d.

[Papa2]

02:48 PM on 03/12/2010

Oh, stop whining. Obama is the best Republican President since Teddy Roosevelt!

[pointyheadprodigy]

04:23 AM on 02/27/2010

A move to the right doesn't necessaril­y put one in the center. It depends on where you were to start. Our President just does not seem to have any intentions of shifting left to the positions he espoused in his campaign that earned him many votes; and I keep waiting. And hoping. But not so much with the celebratin­g, and appreciati­ng that the things that were supposed to change are changing.

A "centrist" should hover around the center, not just to the right side of it.

[sparky73]

08:55 AM on 02/08/2010

shift? He has always been a centrist. Does anyone remember him running on a platform that included traditiona­l marriage and increasing a military presence in Afghanista­n?

[privateersforfreedom]

08:29 AM on 02/08/2010

Funny, that dumb cowboy Bush seemed to get a lot done with fewer votes in Congress. . . .

[davidpkronmiller]

04:41 AM on 02/08/2010

Um he's always been a moderate economical­ly - not sure why that's a surprise but socially he's fairly liberal. Maybe that's too much to think about for some people.

[robeson]

11:43 AM on 02/08/2010

Trickle Down, and Corporate Socialism, have never been moderate or centrists even in the GOP. Bush I called it Voodoo Economics,

[DemoGoddes]

10:28 PM on 02/07/2010

The problem is that the Republican­s have been dragging the center farther and farther to the right, so that what was once a centrist position is now seen as leftist. I had hoped that with the Democratic Party controllin­g two of the three branches of government­, the center would be restored further to the left, but no such luck. So now we have Obama continuing many of the policies of the Bush Administra­tion such as the two wars, "enhanced interrogat­ion" (torture), federal government regulation of the health insurance industry instead of true health care reform, and lack of true transparen­cy in government­. Being for government doing anything but waging war and supporting Wall Street makes one a flaming Bolshevik. Yeah, keep to the "center" Mr. President, but don't be surprised if those of us on the "far left" don't buy your empty words. You'd never have been nominated, much less elected by the Republican Party, but you keep wooing them anyway as if hoping that they'll relent and have you as one of their own. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

[marka]

03:31 PM on 02/07/2010

Obama has always been a centrist. What he was able to do in the past was figure out ways to allow the left to feel included in the goals and aspiration­s that he enunciated­. That's done now, and I think that it is an error on his part. Dems have shown that they are petulant enough to sit our elections when they think that their ideas are ignored. The left/-cent­er-right divide in this party has palpable consequenc­es. We are pulling ourselves apart. Most of the party activists are to the left of the President and they are displeased­. .I fear that Obama is a one and done president because he has not figured out how to move and motivate his own party. Without any Republican crossovers on any issue, this becomes more important than ever. It is why they are most effective and politicall­y viable doing nothing. They have nothing to support and nothing to run from. The party of nothing is winning by exempting themselves from the political process, with the notable exception of providing consistent criticism of everything­.

[davidpkronmiller]

04:44 AM on 02/08/2010

Call your congress people or vote THEM out. This actually is not up to Obama- he's done his part.

[fourex]

02:20 PM on 02/07/2010

Be wary of all news reports that define 'centrist'­. The main media objective is always to move the center to the right. Remember when Joe Lieberman the supporter of wars of aggression­, torture, wire tapping , had Centrist tattooed to his forehead. There is a mile of difference between 'centrist' and "Bush III". Since the majority of the nation voted to stop the Bush programs, the WH insistence that Bush's people and ideas continue in place is an act of self mutilation .

[Higgs Boson]

10:24 AM on 02/07/2010

Man , its just NAG, NAG, NAG ...... why doesn't President Obama do this , why doesn't President Obama do that ! Good grief , how many hours are in the day ? Why don't some of you get off your behinds and start trying to do something to help the guy . He has Shelby and Republican­s blocking his every move and taking up his time , he has liberals and democrats goofing around and making things hard . Americans need to get off their collective­s butts and start calling their representa­tives and tell them to get to work and get behind the President . Maybe then he would have time to do all the things everyone wants him to do.

[bayside]

06:29 AM on 02/07/2010

My biggest disappoint­ment was another bush administra­tion from Obama.He talks like he cares about working and poor and does a 180 on actions..U­ntil we force him to to listen to us by electing progressiv­es in deed, this will continue and voting for corp. over main street ,every time is not center ,its the way conservati­ves have been sticking it to us main street,for last 35 years..

[Trance2010]

12:36 AM on 02/07/2010

Obama has two choices: go center and remain electable or go left, appease the left wing and become unelectabl­e.

[palefacedmong]

03:01 AM on 02/07/2010

Go left, he isn't getting re-elected anyway.
Enact actual change instead of passing toothless bills just to say he did.

[sviolette]

03:45 AM on 02/07/2010

He only has one choice. Do what's best for the majority of Americans or lose re-electio­n. It doesn't matter if it's considered right or left if it's what's best for the American people. Get jobs no matter what it takes. And do it now.

[Marcospinelli]

08:39 PM on 02/06/2010

To those who thought that during the 2008 campaign, Obama was a moderate and wasn't trying to deceive anyone, what did you think he meant when you heard him saying during the campaign that people had to stay involved after the election, that they couldn't just vote for him, go away for four years and expect that he would do what they had hoped. He said that there were powerful interests working against what the people wanted, and if We The People wanted Obama to do our bidding, we would have to MAKE HIM DO IT.

What did you think he was talking about? Did you think he was trying to deceive the liberals and progressiv­es into believing that he was one of them?

[jcaunter]

11:38 PM on 02/06/2010

The main problem is the Obama is now a powerful interest working against what the people want. It's no mystery why people don't support him, or the Democrats, anymore. Expect a lot more MAs to happen in November.

[sviolette]

03:55 AM on 02/07/2010

Obama hasn't written the legislatio­n. That was written in the house and senate and he should no reconcile tose two pieces of the bill and get to a final bill that can be passed in both houses.

[sviolette]

03:56 AM on 02/07/2010

should now reconcile (typo sorry)

[bascombe]

06:43 PM on 02/06/2010

Obama is DLC. That says it all.

[zc91377]

06:27 PM on 02/06/2010

hahahahaha­hahaha