Obama says LOL to healthcare reform

[MrFun]

He may not be able to carry out all his promises (I knew this during the campaign) but I don't think you can go so far as calling him a fake.

[-Jrabbit]

Bipartisanship is a joke, for both parties. This is politics, and the players always have, and always will, act in the spirit of enlightened self-interest.

Why anyone is surprised at appointments like Daschle and Emanuel mystifies me. I'm concerned at the number of Clinton admin people on the transition team, but plan to judge this administration by its actions. The first 100 days after the inauguration will be very informative. All the blather going on now about the transition is just gum-flapping.

I'm not optimistic that many substantive policy changes will occur, but I'm a realist: I never believed they would.

Getting those who are in power out of office -- that's all the change I wanted. And realistically, it's probably all we'll get. Same tune, different backbeat.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by MrFun
He may not be able to carry out all his promises (I knew this during the campaign) but I don't think you can go so far as calling him a fake.

So if not even trying to carry out your campaign promises or lying about them (what do you think "cheap campaign bull****" means) doesn't rise to the level of 'fake', what does?

[MrFun]

I'm going to wait until after the first 100 days before I'm able to see to what extent Obama will succeed or fail in carrying out some of his promises, Imran.

Not that two wrongs make a right, but can you name politicians of either political party, Imran, who have NOT lied about promises in their campaigns? Including ones you have supported? Please do not tell me McCain would have been honest with his promises - you're not that much of a blind party tool.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think you'll find that Sloww believes all politicians are fakes.

[MrFun]

Probably. Do you feel the same way? I was asking you, after all.

[SlowwHand]

I think that any politician that makes promises, especially on domestic issues, it either a liar or severely misinformed on what they can personally achieve.

[MrFun]

So we had a choice between McCain the liar, or Obama the liar.

[SlowwHand]

If that's how want to look at it.

[MrFun]

Well based on your comment, that's really the only way to look at it.

McCain made outlandish promises like gettting rid of pork spending and so on.

[SlowwHand]

That's not really the same. A president can do more towards that end, than socializing medicine, for instance.
Most domestic issues are addressed by congress.
On foreign policy, the president has more influence.

[MrFun]

Is pork spending connected with foreign affairs or domestic affairs? Or both?

[SlowwHand]

Both.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by David Floyd
Change, my ass. Obama's gonna realize real quick that he can't keep a lot of his campaign promises. The situation in the Middle East is a ****ing mess, and we have legitimate national security concerns there. If he thinks he's going to be able to actually withdraw troops from the region, then he's either going to be mistaken once he starts getting intelligence briefings, or else be regarded as a foreign policy ****head a la Jimmy Carter.

I don't recall Obama ever saying we'd withdraw troops from the whole of the ME. Source?

As for healthcare reform, yeah, right. ****, he's already pretty much gone back on one campaign promise, by saying that he won't, in fact, immediately roll back Bush's "tax cuts for the wealthy".

He's said, given the financial situation, he'll let them expire on their own in 2010. That's not much of a broken promise.

Then, look at some of his major appointees - Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emmanuel, and now Daschle. Bipartisan my ass. Yeah, he's keeping Gates, but Gates is pretty much universally respected. Same for Bill Richardson.

Ok, so in order to be bipartisan, he would have to pick a Republican who isn't respected? Weird idea...

We'll see, gentlemen. I expect a rapid exit for Obama, possibly even courtesy of Sarah Palin, in 2012.

I expect your powers of prediction are pretty dismal.

[David Floyd]

I don't recall Obama ever saying we'd withdraw troops from the whole of the ME. Source?

Iraq. Not the entire ME. My point was, he's going to find that impossible.

He's said, given the financial situation, he'll let them expire on their own in 2010. That's not much of a broken promise.

Yeah, it's much more of a realization that raising taxes on the rich isn't actually a cure-all solution. If it was, he'd be pushing for immediate roll backs.

Ok, so in order to be bipartisan, he would have to pick a Republican who isn't respected? Weird idea...

No, but in order to live up to his promise of change, he'd have to pick people who were not actually Washington insiders. Admittedly, Richardson and Gates aren't, but the other three I mentioned certainly are, and also happen to be far-leftists.