Too bad, so sad.

[Robert Mahnke]

I am both a fan and a critic of his too. And I suspect he would say the
same, and would acknowledge that he made some mistakes. I think there were
certainly times when he would have been happy to preside over more radical
reform, but we elect a President, not a Philosopher King. For example, I
suspect he would personally have favored a larger stimulus bill, and a
leftier ACA, but in both cases he was constrained by the need to win over
the marginal Senator. On the other hand, you can criticize him for not
doing more to reframe things, to push that last necessary Senator. And he
built an organization (O4A) that had the potential to impel much more
social change, and then once it got him elected he lost interest in it and
it devolved into spammy requests for donations.

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 10:29 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> There are some good things. He put the brakes on torture.  I don’t think
> much of the Affordable Care Act but it was an improvement for a lot of
> people. It just seems obvious that we are living in times when larger
> changes are needed. In his first presidential campaign he sounded like
> someone who knew that. When he hired his cabinet I felt betrayed. When he
> murdered Alaki’s son he joined the ranks of the war criminals. I like him
> as a person and often as a speaker, but regard him as a failure as a leader
> for the needs of his time.
>
> > On Dec 18, 2017, at 1:17 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Maybe it's not all black and white, and Obama did some good things and
> also some bad things. Like, he wasn't perfect, but he could have done worse.
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 10:10 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> > Obama never cast a vote against the war authorization. He said he "would
> have" voted against it , which is rather different ( this was why I voted
> for him in 2008). He did however vote aginst a war fundng bill that had no
> timetable for troop withdrawal. Apparently “mental mistakes” were made by
> Kohut as well as Tracy. I stand by  my core arguments.
> >   Generalized statements like “you have never been clear on what a
> President did and could not do” are your own noxious opinions. I already
> cut you out of my facebook page because of such insults. Try using some
> journalistic facts since you say you are so fond of them.
> > > On Dec 18, 2017, at 12:43 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Sorry, but more of your mental mistakes in clear visibility.
> > >
> > > Obama voted against that war and he, alone could not stop the
> funding...
> > > therefore he as you do always stand condemned with a generalized group
> you despise...
> > > You have never been clear on what a President did and could not do.
> > >
> > > mark
> > >
> > > On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 12:38 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> wrote:
> > > Sorry, but this is an oversimplification. The majority of Democrats
> supported the authorization to war sought by the mass killer  and torturer
> W. They , including Obama , did not use the power of the purse to deny
> funding for this war even when it far supassed W’s phony estimate for the
> cost to the taxpayers.
> > >   When Obama inherited the wars he increased spending in Afghanistan,
> increased drone attacks killing thousands of civilians, allowed the
> corruption in Iraq to continue, started a war in Libya and armed and
> financed the Salafists in Syria. That is what decent journalism shows.
> > >  The militarization of the US is bi partisan.
> > > > On Dec 18, 2017, at 11:44 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>> • Third: Preznit Dubya and his criminal administration constructed
> this entire wasteful, Satanic enterprise upon a foundation of propaganda,
> forgery, and outright lies. There is no valid ethical, moral or legal
> justification for it, no matter how "easy" the task might eventually turn
> out to seem… relatively speaking.
> > >
> > > -
> > > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> > >
> >
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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