Discussion

• waltc :

  Don't forget about Obama! Here's his chance to actually take a real pro-labor stand, he could threaten to filibuster if the creepy and cadervous Reid tries to push it through, he could castigate Pelosi and Reid for conspiring against the working class in favor of K Street on TV.

  This would blow Hillary out of the water once and for all.

  And what a ideal situation for a young senator to make a mark and show that he's a real force for change and not a self-serving bag of hot air.

  Posted on March 13, 2008 10:27 AM

• Preston_P :

  Walt, I think we all know that Obama is just as cowardly and calculating to take a REAL progressive stand as Hillary Clinton. I mean, he's ashamed of folks calling him "the most LIBERAL senator in congress," even when he's quite moderate (some will say more moderate than Hillary Clinton).

  I live here in Illinois and people continue to tell me that he's a strong progressive, but so far, I haven't seen any signs of this progressivism. I see nothing but a New Democrat that runs as a center-right politician, afraid that the Republicans will paint him as a big-government, populist/liberal. Sirota made a point a few months ago that Obama can't run as a populist because he'll be marginalized in the media as some "black radical." I agree with this, they're doing that now even when Obama's a tepid, pro-Globalization, free market-loving moderate. But I do feel if he took more bold steps towards becoming a populist, promoting race neutral goals that can help working-class people in urban communities and Appalachia, he would win the election in a landslide. But like that other sellout, Harold Ford, Jr., he feels the only way Democrats can win elections is by running as Clintonistas, which is a flawed strategy. Democrats will learn the hard way that the public like politicians who stand on firm principles and aren't cowed into submitting to Republicans and their definitions on how to govern.

  It's pitiful that the Democrats feel the only way to win is to out-conservative Republicans. If they thoroughly examine Clinton's elections they will see it wasn't his Third Way politics that won him two-terms.

  Posted on March 13, 2008 4:50 PM