"There's No Difference Between Obama and Bush"

[berni_mccoy]

Next time you hear "There's No Difference Between Obama and Bush", please feel free to follow-up with these exceptions:

"There's No Difference Between Obama and Bush"...Except:

1. Bush inherited a booming economy with controlled government spending and turned it into the worst economy since the Great Depression and largest government spending and debt in history. Obama has inherited Bush's disaster and must rebuild.

2. Bush established his government on secrecy and back room meetings, shutting out FOIA requests and the right of the American people to know what their country is doing. Obama has restored FOIA and transparency in government, giving a seat to everyone who has a stake a place at the table.

3. Bush tore down standard international agreements on the treatment of prisoners and fundamental rights of prosecution. Obama has restored habeas corpus, shut down Gitmo and ended torture of prisoners as it was ordered by the Bush administration.

4. Bush appointed cronies, donors and lobbyists for high-ranking positions in the administration; Obama has closed the revolving door between positions in the administration and lobbying firms. He also has used professional competency as a qualification for positions.

5. Bush practiced political warfare from the White House, demonizing the left as traitors and terrorist sympathizers. Obama is abolishing the politics of division.

6. Bush pandered to religious extremists and used religious ideology to script policy, even policy heavily dependent upon scientific analysis and method; Obama is restoring the integrity of science and its application to government policy to actually do what is morally correct.

7. Bush undermined the U.S. Constitution by trying to modify law with signing statements. Obama has abolished that practice and has ordered a review of every single signing statement made by Bush.

8. Bush and Obama could not be any more different.

Please feel free to add your own.

Anyone who subscribes to the right-wing meme that Bush and President Obama are the same is truly a fucked-up fuck-up.

[Captain Hilts]

1. People are lazy and believe this crap. As when Frank Rich said Gore and Bush were the same. nt

[CJCRANE]

2. Repub apologists say:

a) Obama is the same as Bush.
b) Obama is a Marxist.

Therefore if
(a) is true then Obama is a Republican
and if
(b) is true then Republicans are Marxists

Therefore whoever says Obama is the same as Bush...is a Republican...and a Marxist.

:shrug:

[Political Heretic]

3. Number 8. is wrong, but the rest are good.

Of course Bush and Obama are not the "same." That's not even ignorant - that's just purely dishonest.

However, this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5216170&mesg_id=5216170

Is also 100% true and very lame. It indicates that #8 on your list is false. There are plenty of ways in which Bush and Obama could be much more different than they already are.

You could add to the things in that link their similar positions in the broader war on terror (while pointing out differences on the specifics of Iraq) and increasing troops in Afghanistan.

[CJCRANE]

5. IMO the difference with their approach

on the "war on terror" is that for Bush it was a gimmick, he never seriously intended to go after al-Qaeda or reduce terrorism.

The Democrats, on the other hand, take it seriously (as they did when Clinton was in office).

[Political Heretic]

8. I won't disagree with you on that interpretation - however I disagree fully with ...

..then entire "war on terra" as the best or appropriate response to international terrorism.

[berni_mccoy]

6. That doesn't make any sense. The first 7 points already prove they are completely different

Are two people that different going to aggree on at least 1 or 2 issues? Probably. Tax cuts are good economic stimulus. They agree. But Obama would give those cuts to the working class while Bush would give it to the wealthy.

And I don't trust a brand new organization like Propublica to be an authority on how Bush and Obama are alike. You are correct. That is indeed lame. But what they have is neither accurate nor true.

[Political Heretic]

7. It doesn't prove they are "completely" different. It proves that they have differences between them

The "brand new" organization Propublica can be reviewed on Sourcewatch.org, and it is clean. It links to AP and Newsweek as sources for its comparison information - every story there is easily founded first published in the mainstream media. In many cases, if you follow the hyperlinked text, it takes you to documents released directly from the administration itself.

The positions of the Obama administration, even those identical to the previous administration, are in dispute by no one - they administration itself makes the statements.

What they have is BOTH accurate AND true, and EASILY proven.

[berni_mccoy]

9. Those comparisons are inaccurate because they remove the context of execution

As I stated, they can both agree it's important to secure the nation. How they go about doing that is completely different.

[Political Heretic]

10. They don't remove the context at all. In fact its described in exhaustive detail.

These are court cases where the two administrations positions are exactly the same, and for most of us (apparently not you, I guess) that's a bad thing.

[berni_mccoy]

11. Look, if you want to Equate Obama with Bush, that's your choice.

But don't expect to be taken seriously.

[Political Heretic]

12. No where, at any point, have I "equated" Obama with Bush.

Equating means "equal."

That's not the case.

However there are areas where this administration is continuing on the positions of the Bush administration, and particularly in the area of these human rights court cases, that is not a good thing.

So why is it so hard to just say that?

There have been plenty of very good things that represent total, complete departures from the previous administration. The tripling of the federal education budget, the order to begin closing Gitmo, end of the global gab rule, massive progressive social spending packages, and so and and so on.

But in these particular areas, not only is Obama wrong, but he's carrying the same line as Bush did.

What's so difficult about just acknowledging that along with all the good things?

[T Wolf]

4. Of course they are not the same. And despite the reich-wingers trying to defend Georgie

by saying that Obama is following Bush's policies (Banks, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, some DoJ cases, etc.), most people are not buying that crap.

But there is some validity and justification to the disappointment that liberals are expressing when we criticize Obama on some of those issues. And some of us are also disappointed that he (Obama) is not pushing some issues in the direction we would like to see, e.g., his nominees for some cabinet posts (Interior, Education, Treasury, etc.), equal rights, military spending, pro-corporate policies, etc.

And don't forget the big one - holding the Bushistas accountable for their criminal actions and outright theft of trillions of dollars.

No, they are not the same. He is mainstream corporate (as we knew during the campaign) and is governing as such. But please don't blow smoke up our ass and insist that we cease any criticism of the new POTUS. Some of us want drastic, severe change in the way this country is governed, not just less-Bushlike than Bush.

[steven johnson]

13. I Think Obama's Kept a Lot More of His Promises

Halfway to 100 days, how's he doing?

Politifact, a watchdog project of the St. Petersburg Times, checks up on President Obama and concludes he has "made progress on a wide range of campaign promises."

Reporter Bill Adair says Obama has kept 17 promises, compromised on seven, broken two and stalled on two others. He also rated 38 promises "in the works." Many of them are in Obama's budget, which must be approved by Congress.


Fifty days in, Politifact says 17 promises kept and two broken

Compare that to the broken promises of George Bush:

The Broken Promises of George W. Bush

[Political Heretic]

14. I agree with you, and Iove the tool on that site. :)

Nice to see someone else using it.