There was something stirring about watching Bernie Sanders engage in his filibuster. Not the bogus filibusters that the GOP has relentlessly deployed over the past two years. No, Sanders offered the real thing. Real rhetoric, real passion, real indignation. Not artifice, not calculation, not capitulation. Instead, it was old school, just like the man himself.
The contrast with President Obama could hardly have been starker. Yesterday Obama, fresh from having attacked his own base, wheeled out Bill Clinton, his former chief detractor, to help make the case for the tax-cut package, which, incidentally, Clinton truthfully labeled a stimulus bill. There was something stimulating as well about watching Clinton, a seasoned pro, return to the political fray. It even looked as though the two men were trading places.
Obama stood by deferentially as Clinton delivered the goods. Eventually, Obama simply disappeared while Clinton continued to hold forth. The uxorious Obama had more important things to do -- attend a Christmas party or Michelle might get mad at him. She must be plenty peeved already at the way he's caved, time and again, to his political adversaries.
If Obama fails to secure passage of the tax-cut package that he seems to regard with a mixture of resignation and desperation, then his presidency will likely be finished. Or he can govern exclusively with the GOP over the next two years. Odds are that it will pass, adding close to another $1 trillion in federal debt. Whether the stimulus will actually stimulate the economy is another question.
The example of the cantankerous Sanders should serve as an object lesson for a White House that is trying to triangulate its way out of electoral disaster. Sometimes it's worth taking a stand. Sanders didn't just do that. In pointing to the gross disparities in wealth in the United States, he did something else. He told the truth.
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p.s. God Bless Bernie Sanders
How far back do we have to go to hear a speech that so thorougly refuted the notion that Republicans are the ones who understand the economy? Sanders' speech was Rooseveltian in its denunciation of the rich and their insatiable hunger for more. He provided a brilliant expose on how Republicans and New Democrats have robbed the middle class of well-paid jobs through manipulation of the tax code and off-shoring. What jobs exactly will Americans have in the future to take care of their families? Our politicians are failing us, and the Democratic Party seems to be holding up the white flag. What party stands up for ordinary Americans?
Just an FYI...for all the criers & screamers about socialism seemingly confusing it with some other -isms, my daughter is pushing 20...her more recently graduated from high-school age group & many of this generation (all the ones that have yet to succumb to being "emo" & /or raised to be helpless) have a hmm..sort of "underground" very large group of democratic socialists that follow Bernie Sanders very closely & seriously admire him. They have a website ...i just can't recall the url atm...I would have to ask my daughter again. She flat out told me that most of the people she knows her age...are beyond tired of this mess we have now & that they know they dont have a chance in this country with the current "way they do things". That they think all the greed & selfishness of the last few gens have "scrooed the pooch" for them so to speak & that most of them have a preference for the more social democracy ideas.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210139/lionSenate.jpg
Teddy must be smiling somewhere
Obama tossed LGBTs and Latinos under the bus....KNOWINGLY killing the repeal of DADT and the Dream Act, by giving away the ONLY bargaining chip to McConnell and McCain who will do NOTHING but stall and run out the Lame Duck session.
This has NOTHING to do with Obama being African American, it has to do with his being a LIAR, and a COWARD.
I get emails from both, and love to read them. Truth to Power...Sanders did us all a great deal of good for his almost filibuster, which a lot of Dems needs to hear.
Sorry I can't let Obama be abused constatntly on FOX, but I think Bernie did us a world of good, and he will help Obama in the long run. Disagreeing with the President, helps the President, folks. He needs to hear more from Sanders and Grayson, to listen to other points of view.
Wish he was my Senator and he caucuses with the Democrats. I would give Vermont my two Senators for one Bernie. LOL
It seems to get more attention when you get in their faces.
Actually I'm not a religious person, but whatever it takes to help Bernie and give him his due, I hereby give it. Finally, someone standing up and saying what Obama should have said the first day he took office.
It seems like no matter which Democratic frontrunner won the Primary the biggest winner was Bill Clinton.
Free trade only works to the benefit of both parties when the trading partners are roughly equitable in wages, labor standards, and environmental standards. Otherwise, each country will just tend to start looking more like each other.
So the more we have free trade with third-world countries, the more we start having the two-tier social structure of ultra-rich and teeming poor, just like they do.