This is gonna get me yelled at. but... Warren does not have the 'exposure' to run for President....

[PatrickforO]

35. A thoughtful post

My own belief is that Obama is very much a populist - personally. He clearly has the intellect to understand the corporate cancer that has all but made our society into an oligarchy.

But, as the first black president, he has been very careful to be middle of the road, and I believe he understands quite well the unspoken rule the oligarchs have imposed on American presidents. Get too far left, advocate the people a bit too much, attempt to put policies in place that help the people at the expense of corporate profits, start taking away tax loopholes - well all that isn't tolerated. Not at all. Consider Jack, Martin and Bobby. It just isn't tolerated.

He did give us a clue, though, when he told us that we are the change we've been looking for. It is only through social unrest that the pendulum can be swung back toward economic and social justice, and then resistance from the oligarchs is strong and unrelenting.

Obama has sadly towed the corporate line with his drone attack policies, and in allowing the NSA to become the bloated overreaching monster it is. However, because of this, and because the profits from keeping the nation on a war footing have kept flowing, Obama is allowed to 'thunder' about the middle class, student debt and raising the minimum wage from the bully pulpit. Will those things do some good? Sure. But GE, Wells Fargo, Paccar, Mattel and dozens of other major corporations still aren't paying any US income tax and the loophole encouraging stratospheric executive 'performance' bonuses is still in place.

There's still plenty of our tax money for war and 'national security' but very little for our benefit. Free college? Universal healthcare? A guaranteed living wage instead of a minimum wage? Those won't happen without lots of suffering on the part of people who have the courage to demand them. No one politician has the power to put them in place.