Is Obama A Republican?

[mrjarrell]

It would certainly seem so, on the surface. There are so few differences between him and his predecessor. Both support continuing to bankrupt the country, continuing wars and growing the size of government to Brobdingnagian proportions. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

From Reason

Anyone who was hoping the current administration would bring a modest downsizing of the nation’s defense establishment and global military role has to be feeling like Bernard Madoff’s investors. Escalation is underway in Afghanistan, the Army is expanding, and the Pentagon is on the all-you-can-eat diet.
The American political system is set up to persuade citizens that they must choose between starkly different policies. In reality, campaigns are mostly a showy exercise in what Sigmund Freud called the “narcissism of small differences.”
When it comes to defense, history suggests that the two major parties offer a choice on the order of McDonald’s and Burger King. Anyone looking back 50 years from now at objective indicators would have trouble identifying a meaningful difference between the current president and the last one.
For that matter, it’s easy to assume that when President Obama began addressing national security policy, he accidentally picked up John McCain’s platform instead of his own. Critics suspect Obama is a closet Muslim. But maybe his real secret is that he’s a closet Republican.
The administration and its opponents both make much of its plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by this summer and to pull the rest out by 2012. What both prefer to forget is that the previous president agreed to the same timetable. Obama’s policy on the war he once opposed is not similar to Bush’s: It is identical.

Read the rest at the source.

 

[OneBadV8]

I would argue his predecessor was not a republican, but a progressive. GW was anything but conservative. But, I did like that he did what he said, and said what he did.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I would argue his predecessor was not a republican, but a progressive. GW was anything but conservative. But, I did like that he did what Cheney said, and said what he did.

Fixed it for ya!

 

[dross]

I think TARP was ill-advised, but you really can't compare that to the "stimulus bill" and the current budget. Combine that with the proposed tax increases as opposed to tax cuts, and then a host of other policy differencest and there's no comparision at all.

You have to be way, way out on one of the wings to be able to see Obama and Bush as similar.

 

[dross]

Fixed it for ya!

Do you have any evidence to back that up?

 

[shibumiseeker]

Do you have any evidence to back that up?

Not in the slightest!

 

[mrjarrell]

I think TARP was ill-advised, but you really can't compare that to the "stimulus bill" and the current budget. Combine that with the proposed tax increases as opposed to tax cuts, and then a host of other policy differencest and there's no comparision at all.

You have to be way, way out on one of the wings to be able to see Obama and Bush as similar.

Bush would have signed the stimulus in a heartbeat, Dross. And you know it. He signed virtually everything the democratic congress sent him and did it joyfully. H*ll, he was waiting to sign the AWB on the day it was up for renewal (with the support of the NRA, I might add). You don't have to far out on any wing to see the similarities between Bush and Obama. They're practically brother from different mothers.

 

[Fletch]

Bush would have signed the stimulus in a heartbeat, Dross. And you know it.

Amen to that. So would McCain. The ONLY difference would have been the people getting kickbacks out of the trough. Indeed, it seems nowadays the existence of or justification for the trough is no longer seriously questioned; the main point of contention is who gets to eat from it.

 

[OneBadV8]

Amen to that. So would McCain. The ONLY difference would have been the people getting kickbacks out of the trough. Indeed, it seems nowadays the existence of or justification for the trough is no longer seriously questioned; the main point of contention is who gets to eat from it.

Again, more Progressives. There are a lot of RINO's these days (Republican In Name Only)

If you want to add another, Huckabee is a big Governement type of guy. He's for the same type of spending that Bush did and McCain would have.

 

[gmviso]

He is neither Republican nor Democrat. He has established himself as one of the gods (please note, little g). All hail lord Obama! :moon:

 

[Robert Richardson]

No,just a" Liar"

 

[lashicoN]

Bush was ready to renew the Assault Weapon Ban? And the NRA endorsed it?! I'm only 22. I wasn't much into politics in High School. I never cared much for Bush, aside from the fact that he let the ban expire. Does anyone have any news links about this? Not that I don't believe you, but I just never knew that.

 

[langb29]

Amen to that. So would McCain. The ONLY difference would have been the people getting kickbacks out of the trough. Indeed, it seems nowadays the existence of or justification for the trough is no longer seriously questioned; the main point of contention is who gets to eat from it.

Well said, I agree! Only problem is, dems eating at the trough are creating so much bipartisan tension in the house and senate that Obama is losing his battle to create transparency.

I like the perspective that this article has taken.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Bush was ready to renew the Assault Weapon Ban? And the NRA endorsed it?! I'm only 22. I wasn't much into politics in High School. I never cared much for Bush, aside from the fact that he let the ban expire. Does anyone have any news links about this? Not that I don't believe you, but I just never knew that.

He came right out and said it. He didn't "let" the ban expire, he didn't have any choice, it was built into the original law. All he could do is enforce it. It was a safe political statement for Bush to make since there was no chance that such a bill would have made it to him to sign anyway. So by doing so he was making an easy concession to the left to boost his points by selling out gun owners who believe that gun ownership is not all about hunting and target shooting.

 

[djl02]

+-1

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

It would certainly seem so, on the surface. There are so few differences between him and his predecessor. Both support continuing to bankrupt the country, continuing wars and growing the size of government to Brobdingnagian proportions. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

From Reason

Read the rest at the source.

[Emphasis mine]

Something to take into account with the highlighted portion above is two-fold in my opinion.

"O" made campaign promises on what he was going to do when he got into the Oval Office. One part to consider is that he had to, at least in the short term, continue what Bush had set into motion even if he, "O", didn't agree with it. The second part is that I think the National Security Council, CIA, NSA and a myriad other agencies "explained" to "O" that he couldn't pull our troops and run the way that "O" said he would like to. A lateral subject to this would be GITMO - he wanted it closed quickly (gave a date and everything) but it couldn't logistically be done.

Once it looked like he was going to be President and started to get the Intel briefings of the POTUS, I saw a change in him. He started to back off in his speeches and then eventually admitted that he was going to miss his self-imposed dates.

I don't agree with everything Bush said/did. I agree that Bush was seen as being more conservative than he actually was (or people hoped he was), but I don't see "O" moving more toward the "R" side of the scale. I just think he had to abide by what was going on IRL, not on the campaign trail.

 

[antsi]

Bush was ready to renew the Assault Weapon Ban? And the NRA endorsed it?! I'm only 22. I wasn't much into politics in High School. I never cared much for Bush, aside from the fact that he let the ban expire. Does anyone have any news links about this? Not that I don't believe you, but I just never knew that.

You're being sold an extremely distorted view of reality here.

Bush was on record saying he would sign AWB renewal "if it ever reached his desk." Which he knew, with a Republican Congress, was extremely unlikely to happen.

The NRA never endorsed this position of Bush's. The NRA did endorse Bush for president over Gore and Kerry. Both of whom are rabid gun-control advocates.

Gore ran for president on a platform of instituting a federal firearms owner licensing scheme. Both Gore and Kerry were actively pushing not just renewal of the '94 AWB, but "improving" it by adding in a whole host of new restrictions.

If you want to say that Bush was weak on gun rights, I'm with you. If you want to say that the NRA took a political position by endorsing the major party candidate who was least bad for gun rights, and they should have endorsed some obscure third party candidate who was really strong on gun rights instead, that's a reasonable position to take. Not very politically astute, I'd argue, but at least it's intellectually honest.

Bush was trying to have it both ways, sitting on the fence by saying he would sign AWB renewal, but specifying a condition he knew wasn't going to happen. He certainly was not out there actively campaigning in favor of AWB renewal. So, yeah, typically spineless politician move, and certainly not the actions of a strong RKBA advocate.

The way this has been stated here - implying that Bush was actively working for AWB, and the NRA was cheering him on - is not intellecutally honest, and borders on propaganda.

 

[mrjarrell]

Hate to disagree with you antsi, but you're seriously mistaken. The NRA supported the renewal legislation for the AWB, because it had a provision in it that would have protected gun companies from being sued. Right up until the GOA had rallied people and legislators were called the NRA was set on letting the legislation go through. Some of us were watching it unfold and know what happened.

 

[czar996]

No,just a" Liar"

I think they all suck. Time to really change government and vote 3rd party.

 

[Joe Williams]

Bush was ready to renew the Assault Weapon Ban? And the NRA endorsed it?! I'm only 22. I wasn't much into politics in High School. I never cared much for Bush, aside from the fact that he let the ban expire. Does anyone have any news links about this? Not that I don't believe you, but I just never knew that.

I would suggest you take what these folks are saying with a grain of salt. Heck, make it a pound. Leftists masquerading as libertarians suffer from as bad a case of Bush Derangement Syndrome as the most hardened Democrat. Bush was no conservative, but not much of what you hear about him from these folks is to be believed without verification.