Alan Colmes and Cal Thomas Spar Over Media's Love For Obama

You make my case for me...

Submitted by classicliberal2 on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 9:26pm.

...when you make your own case rest on a list of mostly minor, mostly uber-oscure issues, while completely ignoring most of what the Obama administration has actually done.

A few comments on your little list:

"Obama -- forced homosexuality into the military. Bush's policy was a continuation of Clinton's 'Don't ask / don't tell.'"

Obama's, on the other hand, was in line with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the public. The CNN/Opinion Research poll from November found that 72% of respondents favored "permitting people who are openly gay or lesbian to serve in the military" (23% opposed). A CBS News poll from December found that 69% favor "allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military"; 53% "strongly" favored it (23% were opposed). In the ABC News/Washington Post poll from December, 77% said homosexuals who "publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military" (21% opposed). That particular poll has asked the same question repeatedly over 18 years, and allowing gays to serve has been a supermajority position since 2001. Obama, far from being some wild-eyed "liberal" on this, is, in fact, a Johnny-come-lately--the public came around on this issue many years ago. Even at that, Obama certainly hasn't shown ANY enthusiasm for terminating the Clinton policy--he chose to appeal the court ruling that did away with it, and his administration is, to this day, still severing gay people from the military. Obama hasn't "forced homosexuality into the military"--it is already there, and always has been. Your characterization just demonstrates your own lack of understanding of the issue.

"Obama -- refuses to support DOMA. Bush's policy was to uphold the law."

It's true that Obama "refuses to support DOMA"; it's also true it has repeatedly been ruled unconstitutional. Obama agrees with this judgment. It's impossible to make this an example of Obama's extreme "liberalism," because, again, the public overwhelmingly supports legal recognition of homosexual unions, and has for years. A CBS News poll from last August found that 70% of respondents support either full marriage rights (40%) or the more watered-down "civil unions" (30%). Only 25% opposed any legal recognition. Support for legal recognition in some form was a majority position that cut across all political lines--73% of Democrats, 73% of independents, and 59% of Republicans supported it. This same poll has been conducted 14 times since 2004--some form of legal recognition has been the majority position of the public from the first to the most recent. Most recently, full marriage rights have garnered majority support from the public, reflected in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, the CNN/Opinion Research poll, and the Gallup poll. Obama isn't just a Johnny-come-lately on this one; he's actually to the right of the public, because he favors only legal civil unions, rather than full marriage rights.

"Obama -- instituted operation Gunrunner, or appointed people that did, to push anti-gun positions. Bush didn't do any such thing."

Obama did NOT institute Project Gunrunner, nor did appoint the people who did, nor is it a program to "push anti-gun positions." It's an effort to check the flow of arms to Mexican drug cartels, and, contrary to your false assertion, was, in fact, established by Bush in 2005, and had carried out over 1,400 prosecutions before Obama was ever even president.

I could continue, but the point--that you lack one--is made.

What the Obama has actually done is exactly what I said he's done--governed as a conservative Republican.

When it came time to tackle health care, for example, the liberals favored a single-payer approach. The Obama didn't even give that idea a glance, and, instead, adopted, as his own, a national version of the plan established in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney, the conservative Republican who was then the governor and is now the front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Romney had adopted, as his plan, one created by congressional Republicans in the 1990s as an alternative to Clinton's health care plan. Republicans had, at various times, advocated that same plan for 15 years before the Obama claimed it as "his." The Obama threw in one bone to the liberals in the public option, and it was favored by the public by a wide margin, and by majorities in both houses of congress, but Obama never pressed for it, and it was later revealed he had cut a back-room deal with the industry before the health care debate had even started--he negotiated it away right up front. It was, in effect, never even on the table, and the administration publicly bashed the liberals who opposed his plan.

(Passing nothing at all would have been FAR better than the Romney welfare bill for the insurance industry that was passed.)

Throughout the Obama administration jobs have been the big concern of the liberals and of the public, but the Obama has done little for them. He pressed for that stimulus bill, early on, but it was too small, poorly directed for a proper stimulus, and larded up with less stimulative tax cuts in a vain and stupid effort to get Republicans on board, when they made it very plain they were going to oppose anything he suggested merely because he suggested it. But while all but three Repubs voted against it, over half of the Republicans caucus in congress then returned home to take credit for all the money it was pouring into their states and districts. As endorsements go, that’s good enough for me. Obama gave lip-service support for the Democratic anti-offshoring bill, designed to remove incentives for American companies offshoring jobs and offer generous incentives for them to move already offshored jobs back to the U.S. It had majority support, but, as usual, Obama didn't do a thing to help it--barely even mentioned it, in fact--and Senate Republicans were allowed to filibuster it to death. At a time of such high unemployment, this should have been a major scandal; instead, it was barely even mentioned by anyone--most of the public was never even told it existed. In Obama's latest "jobs" initiative, he apparently decided unemployment was still too low, and negotiated nearly $39 billion in budget cuts with House Republicans, cuts that will wipe out nearly 400,000 jobs.

Given no less than two opportunities to appoint justices to the Supreme Court--one of the most important things presidents do--he has chosen to move the court--already reactionary to the point of illness--even further to the right. Only days before the BP disaster vividly illustrated the "wisdom" of deep-water oil drilling, he was pushing for further deep-water drilling. Likewise, he pimped for more nuclear plants just before Japan demonstrated the "wisdom" of that. He signed an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the well-off. He has involved the U.S. in yet another stupid and unnecessary war, and has continued Bush’s wars. The "last combat troops" allegedly left Iraq last year, yet 50,000 servicemen are still there, the war continues, and the casualties and expense continue to mount with no clearer aim than the operation ever had. The Obama's alleged drawdown in Afghanistan, which has been the subject of so much hype the last few days, is merely a planned withdrawal of the "surge" forces he, himself, sent there. Obama has refused to prosecute or even significantly investigate the criminal wrongdoing of the previous regime. He has maintained and even defended, against every significant challenge, Bush’s assertions of fascistic powers.

And so on. As I said before, this administration would, only a few years ago, have been regarded, uncontroversially, as conservative Republican. You haven't offered anything resembling a case for your own point of view, but you did inadvertently help demonstrate that mine was correct.

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JasonC

Submitted by well99 on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 10:15am.

I see you decided not to use actual facts.You do know that emergency rooms can't refuse a patient.Just a note:How many of those uninsured were illegals?How many could afford insurance yet didn't purchase it?Maybe they are like Jay Rockefeller son.At 52:44 on the youtube video.That study does not use facts it is speculation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPXTXPRBkQE

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Drop another F Bomb Binky.

Submitted by The Vet on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 9:54pm.

You are a real man. Real men drop F Bombs to show their real manliness.

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