Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Obama the Republican

Steven L. Taylor
21

Bruce Bartlett has a column at the American Conservative (Obama Is a Republican) which is getting a lot of attention today (and rightfully so, in fact).  His points about the deficit, in particular, ought to be paid attention to.

I will say, however, that I find all the attention to his thesis a bit amusing, insofar as I remember a blog post with a similar title from over three years ago:  Obama: Moderate 90s Republican?  (In fairness, the basic thesis was not unique to that post either).

(Also the PoliBlog post noted in that link from 2011 has been re-created here).

, ,

21 responses to “Obama the Republican”

  1. James Pearce Avatar
    James Pearce

    I don’t expect any conservatives to recognize the truth of Obama’s fundamental conservatism for at least a couple of decades—perhaps only after a real progressive presidency.

    I used to tell my right wing uncle, an avowed Bush lover, that Obama is the best Republican president since Reagan. I was only joking.

    …or was I?

  2. Just 'nutha' ig'rant cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha’ ig’rant cracker

    Interesting article. The comment thread–the more important part of this sort of article to me–were, well,,,colorful, yeah, that’ll do it. The main thing that I would note is that the commentariat at TAC is better spoken and more intelligent sounding than say, Jenos or Eric Florak, but that’s not a very high bar to jump.

  3. James Pearce Avatar
    James Pearce

    @Just ‘nutha’ ig’rant cracker:

    The main thing that I would note is that the commentariat at TAC is better spoken and more intelligent sounding

    Nailed it.

    This dude sounds like that bearded guy from the Matrix:

    Further you are contextualizing definitions and by doing so you are floating what on the surface appears relevant but hardly accurate particularly on the social discussion.

    Woulda been better minus a phrase or two and a couple commas.

    Your contextual depth in making the links to Republican traditions are pretty tenuous.

    And all your base are belong to us.

    (True story: I did not know, until a few days ago, that TAC was co-founded by Pat Buchanan. I thought that was….interesting.)

  4. Moosebreath Avatar
    Moosebreath

    Yep, it nailed it. Obama’s policies fit into the Eisenhower range. I especially liked the paragraph in the article:

    “I think Cornell West nailed it when he recently charged that Obama has never been a real progressive in the first place. “He posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit,” West said. “We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency.””

    I’d say Obama never even posed as a progressive. He was the most conservative of the 3 main candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination (and Edwards the most liberal).

  5. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    His points about the deficit, in particular, ought to be paid attention to.

    Republicans are terrible on the deficit, but year after year in the Obama administration, the deficit goes down. I’d say that shows Obama isn’t a Republican at all.

  6. michael reynolds Avatar
    michael reynolds

    Been saying this for six years now. Mr. Obama was never a leftie, he’s a moderate, middle-of-the-road guy. That didn’t matter to Republicans, but it never seemed to quite penetrate to a lot of Democrats. I hear Dems sounding disappointed that Obama hasn’t been a dove. The man ran openly on droning the crap out of Pakistan, he was never a dove.

  7. Just 'nutha' ig'rant cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha’ ig’rant cracker

    @James Pearce: Yeah, Pat Buchanan as the founder is, well…ironic come to mind.

  8. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    Interesting side bar on Pat Buchanan: During the late 80’s I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa and got most of my news via short wave radio. If conditions were right I could get broadcasts from the US. For the most part these were religious broadcasts but occasionally I would get these incredibly paranoid racist christianist broadcasts. I’m talking the kind of stuff that Timothy McVeigh was spewing. And at least twice I caught Pat Buchanan on one of these shows. As I remember he was fairly careful about what he said himself but there he was on the line (or in the studio) for many minutes as some crazy religious nut job talked about mud people and race mixing and jew conspiracies and whatnot. Ol’ Pat never said boo to disagree.

    I read the TAC fairly often and have often wondered shy a slime ball crazy racist like Buchanan got so much column space. Now I know.

  9. gVOR08 Avatar
    gVOR08

    @James Pearce: I took cracker’s suggestion and read some of the comments at TAC.

    more intelligent sounding

    indeed. The usual conservative nonsense in erudite clothing. (Strikes me as appropriate for TAC, except for Bartlett.) The guy you quote kept that up for 1600 words. In a blog comment. Lordy.

  10. stonetools Avatar
    stonetools

    The fact is that Obama is a centrist Democrat who would have loved to work with moderate Republicans to craft pragmatic legislative solutions. This is the theme of his book ” The Audacity of Hope.”
    The Republicans decided that this was not the way to legislative success and decided on all-in opposition and to paint Obama as a Kenyan Muslim extremist who was ruining the country with Marxist policies. It was nonsense, of course, but the Obama and the media let the Republicans get away with that and were slow to counteract the relentless right wing propoganda campaign. The failure to respond to Republican propoganda, coupled with what turned out to be an inadequate economic stimulus, set the stage for the massive conservative backlash in 2010.

  11. C. Clavin Avatar
    C. Clavin

    I’ve been typing that Obama is more Conservative than Reagan, on this very forum, for years.
    Nice to be vindicated, I suppose.

  12. stonetools Avatar
    stonetools

    I wonder if Doug or any other conservative commenter is ever going to admit that the ACA is not some socialistic takeover of the health care market , but

    virtually textbook Republican health policy, with a pedigree from the Heritage Foundation and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, among others

    My guess is , sadly, never. We love our delusions and never want to admit we are wrong on the Internet.

  13. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    I realize that it is not Obama’s nature to be confrontational – a trait that is consonant with being a political moderate, a centrist – but there are times when I whish he would have told Republicans, at certain key junctures, to ‘eff-off.

  14. C. Clavin Avatar
    C. Clavin

    @stonetools:
    buhwahahahahahahahahahahhaha

  15. anjin-san Avatar
    anjin-san

    Is Obama the REAL CONSERVATIVE that Florak has been seeking all these years?

  16. C. Clavin Avatar
    C. Clavin

    @anjin-san:
    Haven’t you noticed that Obama is black?
    Obama could do every single thing friggin’ that Florack wants and needs…and still he’d be black…so Florack wouldn’t believe it possible.

  17. Nikki Avatar
    Nikki

    Obama’s blackness is the ONLY thing that makes Republicans hate him. If he were white, they would call him the Reagan Re-Incarnate and liberals/progressives/Democrats would loathe him even more than they do now.

    Dude just can’t win for trying.

  18. bandit Avatar
    bandit

    @Nikki: Good job racist asshole

  19. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    @bandit:

    @Nikki: Good job racist asshole

    If I might …
    Where is she wrong concerning Republicans?

    Obama’s blackness is the ONLY thing that makes Republicans hate him.

    Is it that Republicans hate him for MORE than just being black?

  20. Kari Q Avatar
    Kari Q

    @Nikki:

    No, they also hate him for the D after his name.

  21. Eric Florack Avatar
    Eric Florack

    Republican doesn’t equal conservative, Steve.
    Indeed, all you’ve done is confirm what I’ve been saying all along about what’s wrong with the GOP,.

Trending