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Subscribe to RSSPolitical observers have placed so much emphasis on the “liberal” second inaugural address that President Obama delivered yesterday.
David Remnick in the New Yorker called Obama “a liberal emboldened by political victory.”
Scott Andrews / Pool via AP
President Barack Obama waves to crowd after his Inaugural speech at the ceremonial swearing-in on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013.
The Atlantic’s James Fallows added that the speech was “the most sustainedly ‘progressive’ statement Barack Obama has made in his decade on the national stage.”
Politico’s Thrush agreed.
So did we. “More than anything else, [the address] was an unabashed defense of liberalism/progressivism,” we wrote in First Thoughts.
And now the GOP-leaning group Crossroad GPS has pounced on similar commentary with a new web video. “At least his rhetoric is now matching his record,” Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said in an email announcing the video.
But what is being mostly overlooked is how many of the policies and viewpoints Obama articulated in his inaugural address are supported by majorities of Americans.
Chris Cillizza, in for Chuck Todd, talks about President Barack Obama's inaugural address and his forceful argument for progressive values.
Take Obama’s advocacy for gay rights, for example. (“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” Obama said in his speech yesterday). As it turns out, per the Dec. 2012 NBC/WSJ poll, a majority of Americans -- 51% -- favor gay marriage. That’s up from a mere 30% in 2004.
There’s also immigration reform. (“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.”) The Jan. 2013 NBC/WSJ found another majority -- 52% -- supporting giving illegal immigrants the ability to apply for legal status.
And then there's his defense of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. (“These things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”) Polls overwhelmingly find that Americans support these programs.
One issue that Obama discussed yesterday -- stopping climate change -- is a topic that could be a harder political sell, although the NBC/WSJ poll hasn’t tested it in a long time. And it is possible, as the Washington Post's Dan Balz notes, that Obama's second term could be marked by overreach.
But it's also hard to argue that these “liberal” ideas and policies are somehow far outside the political mainstream.
As Politico writes, “The cultural changes that allowed Obama to be the first president to mention gay rights in an inaugural address are already widely accepted by the public or destined to be so soon as a younger, more socially liberal generation comes of age. The president’s promise to address climate change and his peroration on continuing ‘what those pioneers began’ on gender equality, gay rights, voting rights, immigration and gun control likewise illustrated just how much the White House is convinced that the country’s cultural center has moved.”
NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this article.
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The next 25 months may be the most interesting in US political history. [Rumor: for the past 3 weeks Pres. Obama and V-pres. Biden have refused to take calls from GOP representatives and senators.]
It is fairly obvious that the Obama administration will not be able to get very much of their progressive, liberal, socialist, Marxist, communist agenda through the House. Now . . . it appears as if Obama has decided to invert the traditional, or normal, 2nd term format. Instead of pushing and debating and hassling and wrangling for 2 years and then going "lame duck," the Democrats have a different plan.
The Obama Presidential campaign apparatus has morphed into a 501(c)4 non-profit as Organizing for Action.
The White House and Congressional Democrats will spend 22 months setting up the rethuglican fools and force them to highlight their party-wide stupidity on women's issues, debt and deficit, jobs, climate change, etc.
At the same time, high-tech grass roots Democratic Party/Obama political organizations will form and function in congressional districts where vulnerable rightwingnutjobz hold office and in states where moronic senators (such as ol' Kentucky fried fesces McConnell) rule the roost. In November 2014 the Democrats will pick up 2 or 3 more Senate seats and perhaps 35 or 40 House seats. Then Pres. Obama will force his agenda through Congress in the last 2 years of his 2nd term and set up a huge 2016 win for the Democratic Party ticket.
Bada bing, bada boom.
I think your forgetting about us middle center-Independent voters who don't like things swinging too far one way.......Sorry to ruin your forecast of Christmas future......
MRJOHN, quit passing yourself off as a independent. There is no such animal.
Yes there is and I am one of them. I don't vote on Straight Republican or Straight Democrat lines. I even vote for Libertarian or Green party candidates when I think the person is a good choice and things are swinging too far in one direction.
I vote in EVERY election I can.
I am up on the issues and try to watch all the party affiliated cable news shows like CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc...... which all make me laugh in disgust in their one sided views of things.
Yes I am a true Independent voter and proud of it. Believe it or not......
Feisty, I thought you would be off obamarama's payroll by now. He no longer needs your BS comments to garner votes. Time to start looking for a real job and give up the government dole. You libs have done so well for the once great state of California, or better yet, try cleaning up obama's mess in your own state. Perhaps you no longer claim Cook County since moving to the more conservative DuPage County.
Democrats, the party of victims.
WTF!-6649602.........you said:
That's odd. Anyone listening to Fox News (or other right-wing control channels) over the past several days hears a lot about their latest conspiracy theory that President Obama plans to "divide and destroy the GOP".
That surely sounds like (GOPeaParty) victim mentality. Perhaps it is also Fox's tactic to keep your adrenalin (and, their ratings) up. You folks practically live on (and in) fear.
the first thing people do when there is any problem is try to find someone to blame...
nothing ever gets fixed that way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for years, you people have been wasting time blaming others and look how prosperious your country is...NOT !!!!!!!!
the only way your nation will become the GREAT SUPER POWER(your too damn broke to be a super power anymore, in fact if it wasnt for china...you'd be screwed) that it once was...
stop your damn blaming games and DEMAND your govt officials get your country out of this damn mess that they have dumped on all you people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If it wasn't for China, we would still have a manufacturing base, and the tax base that goes with it. If it wasn't for "globalism", there would be less downward pressure on our standard of living.
Global Economy = Global Standard of Living
Our standard of living is not competitive in a global economy and will decline until it is.
There is NOTHING that government can do, or stop doing that will make our standard of living competitive with 50 cents an hour.
Get used to it. It doesn't matter who is president.
you are allowing your country to be destroyed...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
because, you people just let the whiners have their way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cant wait until america goes totally bankrupt, then it will be forced to try harder next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"you people just let the whiners have their way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Said the whiner, with lots of exclamation points!!!!!
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
lolololololololololololololololololol
Well. There sure is a lot of people here that like Obama. In his own way, Obama thanked the gay voters, but never said anything about the Mexicans, or the rest of us in the USA, that voted for him. Now that he is where we wanted him. We expect him to keep trying to get the politicians, that would rather see our country go down the drain, than to help push our country ahead, to be even better than it has been before. Obama has shamed the GOP in the public view, without any success so far. So, time will tell if our votes really do count, to make change, for the betterment of our country.
Extreme left is as extreme left does.
Americans vote their pocketbooks. Democrats said "the economy is improving." Republicans said "it's not." Voters made a judgement and re-elected Obama.
Unless the Republican Party shift their positions to become more attractive to minority voters and bring their economic policies in line with global realities and the rebuilding of an American middle class, they will be able to hold their next National Convention, in 2016, in a telephone booth.
Orrrr the economy could collapse under crushing debt. Then no one will feel special.
tell us Stone how it helps our constitutional republic if our only choices are socialist A or socialist B?
The Americans who elected Obama are dependent on the government for their living. So...they have no choice. The Republicans are not going to reassure the entitled classes that they are willing to spend tax money on their support, so...the Republicans will continue to bleed until the welfare machine runs out of taxpayers.
Then...that will be the last day welfare is a lifestyle. Our state has 87 counties. Obama only carried ONE county. The welfare class carried the whole state on the voting of ONE county. Support for that is wearing paper thin.
lemp - it could, but most are betting it won't. Profits are up; cash is on-hand. There is a very legitimate and natural reluctance to lend too loosely.
Larry - I liked the older photo better...hiding the fact that after all, you are just a populist man of the people. You would have to define each. If Socialst A is the EU and Socialist B is China, we still have A to get to, before B. Population growth, coupled with the normal rules of capitalism co-existing with democracy will make A inevitable. We can avoid B by focusing on rebuilding the middle class at home, instead of focusing on Wal-Marts for China.
Steve the dog man - I'd bet even rural populations begin to feel the need for govdernment assistance as the middle class disappears. The way to avoid government dependence is to have a large and prosperous middle class, which shares the cost of the social programs, through a braoder tax base.
If you have 100 people and give 2 of them all of the money, you can't expect the remaining 98 people to help carry the cost of maintaining a society of 100 people.
tell us Stone how it helps our constitutional republic if our only choices are socialist A or socialist B?
Stone,
You would think cooler heads will prevail before a collapse. However, the fact remains that there simply isn't enough to go around to sustain a progressive ideology. Personally, I think it runs counter to human nature unless of course the goal is mediocrity. In regard to your comment on the top 2%, sure have the top 98% carry the cost that sounds about right. Maybe have a flat tax, no deductions, credits, etc.
Larry - you can have as many choices as you'd like, provided you can get them on the ballot.
lemp - what exactly is "mediocrity?" On the 100...no a flat tax is going to be useless if 98 of the people have NO MONEY. That's the whole point. A capitalist, democratic system today, IMO, depends on a large and prosperous middle class, otherwise, over the long run, it won't even sustain the top 2%. The priority of the moment is not to make the rich richer...it's to restore a prosperous middle class, who align their personal interests with the rich, rather than the poor. If they do the latter, they will just take the wealth of the rich, through their majority vote.
Stone,
Mediocrity = state of being mediocre. mediocre < exceptional. I agree on a strong middle class but not an engineered class. Maybe I didn't understand your comment. Cheers.
Larry of course thinks that "the rebuilding of an American middle class" is socialism
lemp - you need to move to Lake Woebegone, where all the women are strong, all of the men good looking, and all the children are above average.
jock - of course...I forgot. The mere mention of "class" inspires warfare, doesn't it? Which does Larry actually prefer? A classless society or a society of classes, wherein all classes are ignored?
Stone,
I don't know. I think I would stick out like a turd in a punch bowl a lake Woebegone.
awww shucks! I think it's sweet that the U.S. wants to be Canada when it grows up
What do people think will happen when the Government can't borrow at low rates and the debt is not sustainable and the Government defaults on its debt? At that point people living off the government will not get their free money, taxes will go up and poverty will sky rocket. It's coming and unavoidable if spending cuts are not enacted now. Watch Greece and California they are examples of where we are headed.
I noticed you left out these polls - 70 percent of Americans approve of voter id laws, 64 percent of Americans support the Arizona immigration laws, 68 percent of Americans are against obamacare . If we are to have laws enacted by polls of "mainstream america" then the progressives need to get busy with approving voter id, dropping their lawsuit against Arizona and repealing obamacare .
Enforcing laws by popularity polls is not democracy it is moboracy. You have forgotten that the entire concept of our country is to protect the minority from oppression by the majority.
Much like everything else about Obama the National Anthem yesterday was faked.
Not outside the mainstream?
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed, California the most liberal state in the nation, voted DOWN homosexual marriage, TWICE.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed, the nation does NOT want this Failure in Chief, nor Congress to be taking away their gun rights because of the actions of crazies and criminals.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed, the nation is SICK of paying tens of billions of THEIR tax dollars for failed "green" energy companies that do nothing except put money into the pockets of Democrats bundlers, supporters and even White House staff members.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed, Obama did not get a "mandate", he got LESS THAN 51% of the vote and should realize that HALF of this nation does not agree with his payoffs, bribes, and corruption.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed MORE State governments than ever before are now governed by Republican administrations. Republicans administrations that are allowing JOB CREATION, and are lowering unemployment (which Obama took credit for in the recent election while IGNORING the high unemployment in Demcorat run states) Republican run States that are calling for LOWER TAXES in their States, while Democrat ruined...oops I mean run States like New York and California are calling for HIGHER TAXES.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed 57% of Mexican Americans in this nation are on some form of WELFARE, meaning their votes for Democrats were bought with taxpayer dollars. Taxpayer dollars that no matter how much Obama and Democrats want newer and higher taxes on the MIDDLE CLASS, cannot sustain the costs of their "social justice" agendas. Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't notice, over 70% of black Americans are on some form of WELFARE, meaning their votes for Democrats were bought, not even counting the out and out majority of RACIST votes by many black Americans simply because the candidate was black.
Just in case the MORONS at MSDNC hadn't noticed, the country cares about JOBS, the ECONOMY, high taxes, more regulations, and how they are going to get by in this nation. They DON'T care about homosexual marraige, "climate change", and all the other left wing, tree hugging, STUPIDITY of the left. They don't care about the opinions of or the hate mongering from people like Feisty Redhead, who seems to be on the payroll of MSDNC anyway seeing as nearly EVERY MSDNC left wing supporting article or attack on the right is led of with her hate filled IDIOCY.
Just in case the MORONS as MSDNC hadn't noticed this President has the LOWEST approval rating of any re-elected President in the history of this nation. But when you can BUY elections and run a campaign based on race, hate, and fear, you'll "win", right?
obama is and always will be a slimy scum bag as a result of the campaign he waged to get re-elected.....resentment, envy, jealousy, class warfare, racism, and division.....he is quite the democrat icon is he not?......
Cheryl I disagree with you on every point, but specifically, where do you get that CA is the most liberal state? It's an enormous state and it's not all San Francisco. They had Arnold Shwarzenegger as their super-conservative governor for how long? I'm not from CA, so I have no stake in it, just wanted to point out an error.
Arnold was by no means super conservative.
Aw the RWNJs are still gasping for breath. Calm down. Slow up. Things will get better. Kick and Keep the retards in the TP and the GOP out of office.
When I was in high school I began an interest in politics. In 1964 I visited the local campaign headquarters for both Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. The Goldwater office was closest to my house and so I went there first. There was only one man in the office, no phones ringing, few posters up and a small stack of bumper stickers and pins on a table. I talked to the gentleman about his candidate and he told me some profound things I won't foret. He said, although he prefered Goldwater he thought the Senator would lose and big time. I asked why and he told me that the American political mood is like the pendulum of a clock that swings left and right. At that time in history it was swinging left but he, said it will swing right again. He was right we found the pendulum pegging the right during Reagan years and especially during Duby's two terms. Now it is beginning to slowly move back to the left. This keeps things in balance. President Obama's liberalism will help push the pendulum left but his successor, likely as liberal or more so, will continue the trend until the mood changes and the pendulum moves back to the right. Ideally it should barely move one side or the other of center but in the past decades we have seen some major swings. Nothing new, swings in the political mood have always been a part of the tapestry that makes up America's political history.
I think you've got it...although you could make an argument for a general leftward historical tendency...otherwise we'd be part of the British Commonwealth, right?
Swing right, swing left....but progress demands, and history shows that the average leans to the left, or else we'd still be riding horse and buggies.
"Liberal -- but also not outside the mainstream" If they were alive today, Mao, Lenin, and Stalin would wholeheartedly agree!
Keep giving the President journalistic lewinskis... Bow down to the government and worship it...
Quo vadis, USA?
obama is an ass totally outside the mainstream..........
mcpaddy, apparently not. Romney said he was going to put the country back to works. 51% said no you are not and voted for Obama.
yeah man who wants to work when obama gives you free government cheese???
Is this the same government cheese that the government buys from you mcpaddywack in order to keep the prices up so you can stay in business?
This is the same lecture MSNBC gave in 2008. Then Americans handed the Democrats a huge defeat to pull it back to the middle.When the Republicans went to far to the right the same thing happened.Americans won't tolerate a move to far either way.
What happened to common sense in this country? We cannot keep running up the national debit with no way to pay for it. I define myself as an Independent votor. I cannot see where either side is doing anything to deal with the debt and job creation. Our President could not care less about such things and I am truly becoming concerning with exactly what his agenda might be. Our House and Senate doesn't care, they are too busy trying not to give in to the other party and not offend anyone so they can get re-elected. In the meantime, Rome burns and all of them them play their fiddle. Just watch and see, this will end in disaster if things do not change.
Probably...do you have an exact date on that?
Barack no longer must face the electorate so he can show his true colors. They are far to the left of the country as a whole, but right in the mainstream of NBC's editors.
It's all about color with you guys, isn't it?
Liberal IS mainstream. But the "mainstream" media hides that fact with its tactics of false balance and false equivalence.
How often do we hear in the media that "both sides" need to compromise, when in reality there is only one side that refuses to compromise?
despite the recent re-election of the ass obama, liberals are still a distinct minority in our nation....but when they unite to vote with the deadbeats and freeloaders salivating for more and more free government cheese, the libs mistakenly think they are the majority.......
obama is not mainstream.....at best he is an aberration........for sure he is an ass....
Don't you have anything to do besides hurl insults like a 12-year-old?
He's not insulting him....you'd really be pissed if we started insulting him!
yeah man i am not insulting the ass obama...........i am being polite!!!!
Does anyone know the country that lends us the most money after China? It's Japan and they lend us almost as much as China does. Do you know what their debt to GDP ratio is? 200%. and they are loaning us money.
We are taking money at a negative interest rate. It actually pays us to borrow money. Now, this crap about unable to pay off th edebt is a lie. It's all on a computer screen. Japan is twice as bad off as we are and they are loaning us money. We need to put people to work and we need to build infrustructure. What better time to kill two birds with one stone when we are paid 1 cent to borrow 100 cents.
Now think of a way to explain that to the Tea Party.
P.S. Studies have shown that even though foreign investors in the U.S. pay a 1% to 3% "penalty in return on investment, they continue to invest in the U.S. because of the "safe haven" factor - i.e. over 200 years of relatively stable government, under law, that upholds property rights, the sanctity of contract, and has NEVER defaulted on its debt and - in bad times or good - has upheld the good faith and credit of the United States.
Feisty, considering that you are criticizing "crusty hate fuelled bigots", you yourself are a bigot. Your extreme idiocy is not suprising, but the fact remains that you are an idiot. Instead of gloating and criticizing others, you should start acting a bit more inclusive and mature, and then maybe people would take you seriously. Until then, you're just another garden variety low intelligence fool.
I'm not saying I disagree, but perhaps it would be more effective if you weren't doing the same thing.
Job 1 -- If we are truly moving to a more liberal country the good days are behind us. You should be so proud!