Obama completes his sellout

Can we say now that he's both worse and, at least relative to the times, more conservative (forget "neoliberal") than Jimmy Carter?

President Obama's recent confab with liberal bloggers (Kos has moved more leftward, I guess), underscores this in exquisite, excruciating detail.

Here's the telling quotes from Obama, with commentary.

1. On FDR, the Depression, and the Great Recession:

This notion that somehow I could have gone and made the case around the country for a far bigger stimulus because of the magnitude of the crisis, well, we understood the magnitude of the crisis. We didn’t actually, I think, do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did, which was basically wait for six months until the thing had gotten so bad that it became an easier sell politically because we thought that was irresponsible. We had to act quickly.

How many ways is this wrong? One, FDR didn't wait six months, as I **KNOW** Obama has heard of the 100 Days Congress. I wish one of FDR's grandkids, if available, would kick Obama in the intellectual nuts. Two, everybody knew the depth of the problem in 1933; no selling was needed and even a fair chunk of Republicans voted along.

In turn, you never threatened to use reconciliation to pass whatever stimulus you could if most Republicans were going to resist and the New England "moderates" were going to dither. Read on ...

Meanwhile, on the stimulus size and vote:

I mean, if folks think that we could have gotten Ben Nelson, Arlen Specter and Susan Collins to vote for additional stimulus beyond the $700 billion that we got, then I would just suggest you weren’t in the meetings.

You didn't mention in your blogger interview that your administration mistakenly set a sub-$1 trillion size for the stimulus because you DIDN'T "understand the magnitude of the crisis." And, you took longer than FDR did for passing more limited help.

If I'm going to compare you to past Democratic presidents, you're now also at risk of being more whiny than Clinton.

2. Mistruths on mortgages:

But the truth of the matter is, is that this is a incredibly powerful tool. You’ve got a Consumer Finance Protection Agency that that can save consumers billions of dollars -- is already saving folks billions of dollars just by having it passed. Already you’re starting to see negotiations in terms of how mortgage folks operate, in terms of how credit card companies operate.

WHERE are we seeing changes in mortgages, especially when you're on record opposing a national foreclosure? As for credit card changes, the money made from the "old system" is being repackaged. Money like that is fungible; you could have at least made it more difficult to move.

Obama earlier said:

I don’t think I’m happy with millions of foreclosures or millions of houses being underwater. This is -- this was both a powerful symptom as well as a cause of the economic crisis that we’re in. So we’ve got to do as much as we can to stabilize the housing market.

Stabilize on whose terms? A national foreclosure moratorium would bring back to the table the issue of Banksters' pay, the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and more.

3. "Poor Obama" vs. the LGBT community:

I don’t begrudge the LGBT community pushing, but the flip side of it is that this notion somehow that this administration has been a source of disappointment to the LGBT community, as opposed to a stalwart ally of the LGBT community, I think is wrong.

Sure. Sure it is. See "Bill Clinton" and "whiny" above.

4. Obama the neolib refuses to rule out retirement age changes, in response to a question to that end:

We are awaiting a report from the deficit commission, or deficit reduction commission, so I have been adamant about not prejudging their work until we get it. ... But I’ve said in the past, I’ll say here now, it doesn’t strike me that a steep hike in the retirement age is in fact the best way to fix Social Security.

Note the weasel word of "steep."

5. Obama sings the 12th verse of Kumbaya:

I don’t go into the next two years assuming that there’s just going to be gridlock. We’re going to keep on working to make sure that we can get as much done as possible because folks are hurting out there. What they’re looking for is help on jobs, help on keeping their homes, help on sending their kids to college. And if I can find ways for us to work with Republicans to advance those issues, then that’s going to be my priority.

Note that bipartisanship is a **priority.**