Obama News Conference: "president could have been at least as populist as Franklin Roosevelt"

[Better Believe It]

Obama Rips Republican Critics But Eschews Populism
By John Nichols
The Nation
March 24, 2009

America may be in a pitchforks-and-torches mood.

But Barack Obama is not going there.

"I'm as angry as anybody about those bonuses," he said of the diversion of federal bailout dollars into the accounts of AIG's high rollers. But the president cautioned against populism. "We can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who tries to make a profit," declared Obama.

Of course, critics of the AIG bonuses aren't demonizing every investor or entrepreneur. They're demonizing the raiders of the federal bailout. And they're right to do so.

The president could have been at least as populist as Franklin Roosevelt, who during his first one hundred days ripped into the bankers and speculators of the Great Depression era, suggesting that, "Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish."

What Obama still does not recognize is what Roosevelt knew: Sometimes, populism is called for.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/420928/angry_obama_rips_republican_critics_but_eschews_populism?rel=hp_picks

[GarbagemanLB]

1. I'd say the last thing America needs is another person fanning the flames of this 'outrage'.

[Thrill]

2. Obama knows Populism is fine. But this isn't Roosevelt's time. You have to balance

Populist rage with the reality of trying to get things back on track as fast as possible

[Peacetrain]

3. yes

[sandnsea]

4. Well he already did that, on Leno

and a few other places. Tonight was official and about policy, not populism.

[HopeOverFear]

5. Obama doesn't believe in governing from anger

sorry.

[Median Democrat]

6. Big Difference - FDR Arrived 3-4 Years After Stock Market Crash

If FDR went populist only a few months after things went to shit, the populace was liable to riot and burn shit down. After three years, people were struggling to cope.

[WCGreen]

14. That is exactly the point I was going to make...

[Jennicut]

15. Exactly. We all forget that little fact. FDR could rip into them

without inciting panic and outright bedlam as the anger had turned into desperation.

[Captain Hilts]

18. But he had a conservative - Lew Douglas - as his first budgetary adviser...

who left after about six months.

So, it took FDR about six months to figure out that approach wasn't going to work.

[babylonsister]

7. He can do it his way. It's a different world where communication

is immediate and works.

[Better Believe It]

8. Or he can do it Wall Streets way. And if he does we're fu*ked!

Wall Street didn't prevent or take us out the last depression.

Have they reformed and changed their ways from greed to loving the "common" people?

If so, the moneybags must all be supporting the Employee Free Choice Act!

[babylonsister]

The SKY ISN'T FALLING! nt

[tularetom]

9. It may not be the time for it but damn it would feel good

to tar feather and barbecue a few rich fat soft pink republicans.

[Better Believe It]

10. I really hate most rich people. Can ya tell?

[Captain Hilts]

11. FDR made compromises on populism all the time.

ER: Too often.
FDR: Politics is like sausage...
ER: ...you don't want to know what goes into it. I know...
FDR: I think this Obama is a capital fellow!
ER: Me too - Go 'Bam!
FDR: Indeed! Party on, Eleanor!
ER: Party on, Franklin!

[babylonsister]

12. You are funny!

You're an R fan, no doubt!

[Captain Hilts]

13. The other prez libraries don't have the easy links...

but I think the Rs are kinda funny anyway.

The Nixon website has a great photoseries of Nixon meeting Elvis, but that's all. Pat Nixon is just pitiful, and not funny.

[empyreanisles]

16. You have an odd fixation on Elanor Roosevelt :)

[Captain Hilts]

17. In some ways - yes! It sure has helped me understand the shit Michelle is catching.

Everything old is new again, and that's not a good thing usually!

The FDR Library has over 1000 photographs of the Rs that are easily linked.

Besides, I like writing dialogue where they use vulgar language. It just looks funny.

Reading about the Depression and how it was handled in the US, Canada and Britain has been really useful in my dissertation on economic reform in post-Soviet Russia. They regularly draw the analogy and not long ago, Putin quoted FDR in a speech, so it's something that Russians consciously address.

Keep up the Good Fight!