Tweet has been reading DU and some arguments made by some of us

[nadinbrzezinski]

that this center right cabinet is meant to give the incoming president leeway to go left... just like FDR

Or he is AWARE of the same history some of us are aware off

[FrenchieCat]

1. He reads DU......

and has been for some time.

He's probably also a member.

I'd be suspicious of any member who has tweety bird as his avatar. LOL!

[Cleita]

Do you think he'd be that obvious?

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Hmm perhaps I should go change it

:-)

[City Lights]

Tweety's been TS'd:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=212678

Maybe he's back with a different user name. ;-)

[Jack Rabbit]

20. We may call him Tweety

but he may have another name for himself.

I doubt that's our man. Or canary.

[KoKo]

44. Nah....He reads "Open Left." He had Chris Bowers on for a segment tonight and Chris was

really good. Tweety thought he'd trash Bowers as a Lefty who hates Obama. But Bowers managed to put the cause of us Progressives out there with great grace without trashing Obama. Tweety even said at the end..."I agree with you" to Bowers. (I'm not sure that is a good thing...but then we hear Tweets is thinking of running as a Dem against Specter in PA...and maybe he's trying to brush up on "Lefty" Talking Points.) :D

[alsame]

2. Wait until he starts campaigning - he'll be here all the time! n/t

[lamp_shade]

3. Funny. He just said "can we please change the name of the Homeland Security Dept.

to something that makes more sense? Yup, he must read DU. It has been a topic of discussion here a few times in the last weeks.

[KoKo]

45. He's definitely boning up on Lefty Dem Talking Points for his 2010 run in PA

and I agree with him about "Department of Homeland Security"...sounds like "Heil Hitler" to me. But, Tweety just loved and sucked up to all that crap when it flowed out of Chimpy's "Codpiece" that Chrissy had a hard on about for years.

[Cleita]

4. Tweets does know his history fairly well.

He doesn't pull stuff out of his ass like most of his colleagues. His problem has been kissing two much RW ass the past decade. If you read stuff he wrote 10 or 15 years ago he comes across like a real far left Democrat who fact checks his work. I don't know what they did to him in Washington to make him into the big asshole he's become.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I know he does, just that it is funny

how many folks round these parts have a problem when we call Obama a centrist, and a "safe choice' and actually understand the method to this madness.

But perhaps if he (and a few others in the media) repeat what some of us have tried to 'splain, some folks may open a book or two

:-)

How are you by the way?

[Cleita]

14. I'm okay.

Thanks for asking.

[polichick]

6. Hey, he's stealing our material! :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Hey if he wants I'll gladly take the job as research assistant

:-)

[polichick]

16. You should email him and suggest it. lol

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I know, perhaps suggest DU on the whole

:-)

[daninthemoon]

8. i hope you are right. about Obama i mean. don't care about tweety.

i hope Obama to pull a hard progressive left and sets this country on a better path. he has the mandate, let's hope he can use it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. That's one reason to appoint these folks

if he appointed oh I don't know... Kucinich, to to Health and Human Services, and he went NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, oh the hew and cry

Appoint a center right person, make sure the policy is followed... well it is the pragmatic thing to do

This is Poli Sci and US History 101

Why I do expect a lurch to the left... how deep, depends on how bad the economic crisis gets

[ecstatic]

10. Of course. It's too much of a coincidence that his talking points

always mirror the very same points posted on DU. He should split his salary with this site.

[cali]

11. uh, I doubt he needs DU to figure that out

he only worked for Tip O'Neil.

[Submariner]

13. Keep your eye on this RW creep

"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits."

(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 5/1/03)

[mitchum]

18. Thank you for that voice of sanity in the Tweety lovefest

He is just a craven opportunist

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Not saying he isn't but he is also THINKING of running for office

so that RW lovefest has gone away

And he is RIGHT on the points he made, historically so

[blm]

28. Yep - and he's practicing for when he claims he only decided to run for office now because

he was 'inspired' by Obama. The fact is that most insiders know Tweety planned long ago to run for office as soon as his contract was up in 2009. His shtick is meant for general public consumption and to get Penn Dems now loyal to President Obama to work their asses off for HIS senate race in 2010.

[YOY]

15. I have a confession to make: I am really Tom Wopat

(No I'm not.)

[Junkdrawer]

19. Or he's getting the same talking points...n/t

[AmyCamus]

22. The hole in your logic is:

That there were left-leaning options for FDR to choose.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. There are left leaning choices today

but for similar reasons they will not make the cut.

It is structural, truly

[AmyCamus]

24. And were ignored by Obama as he ran to the right of center.

No true liberals. No fresh young voices. No bold change.
Same shit, different President.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. READ the history of the '32 election and cabinet appointments

same shit, different president indeed... that was the feeling

And FDR had far more of a mandate than Obama does

Not saying history will repeat exactly, but why I am willing to give them a little time before making any judgements

I do get it, WHY we might be having this pattern... and it has all to do with history

Given that Obama reportedly is readying up on the early days of the FDR administration (as well as Lincoln) well the patterns and echoes from history are very similar.

[leftofthedial]

25. so now "leeway" is the excuse?

hmm.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Nah history. Remember he was FAR FROM MY CHIEF OR FIRST CANDIDATE

he was next to last

But as I said above... I will reserve my judgement until at least the man is sworn in and actually has some time act

Before FDR was SWORN IN, given his personnel choices and HISTORY, you'd never guess on the New Deal

[leftofthedial]

29. we'll see.

these are strange times indeed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. exactly, we'll see, and I hope some of this comes to be

it will also depend on how deep the economic crisis gets... how radical they will need to get

[leftofthedial]

31. so far, economically it's just the same old supply-side, status quo ideologues--

a little "nicer" seeming and far more competent, but Obama's team represent the same philosophy--and the same institutions--that got us into this mess.

Don't even get me started on his "national security" picks...

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Same happened with the early FDR Cabinet

they were all SAFE and Wall Street Peeps...

What it gives them, if indeed this is the pattern... is the kind of leeway they would not have if they appointed lefties, or rather well known lefties.

I am HOPING that Volker, who was trained in Keynseian Economics, will remember them, for example.

[leftofthedial]

33. I just don't see someone like Summers or Geithner

suddenly dutifully executing an agenda of change, when their entire lives and careers have been in service of the institutions that require radical change or even elimination. Sometimes history repeats itself. Sometimes it doesn't.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Some of the folks in FDRs cabinet were free traders too

read on his secretary of the treasure for example.

And history RARELY, if ever, repeats itself fully

Why I don't expect 100% new deal, but a new type of lefty policies

I do expect some things to change though. such as National Single Payer health care not because they like us... but because it truly makes us less competitive.

So for practical reasons that will happen... how soon is a good question... but it will. The compromise that Obama wants to follow... is weak at multiple levels

[Selatius]

41. I favor single-payer health insurance, but I don't see it in the current stack of cards.

Likely, the US will move to some hodge-podge, messy system that basically ensures everyone access to affordable health care. Would it be a very sleek, easy to understand single-payer health insurance system? Probably not, but that's what I see given the current environment.

If the US economy is at the point of screaming, the calculus changes, the point is defining where the "screaming" begins where the calculus radically changes to allow such a reform to pass. If we're talking about 20+ percent unemployment and massive collapse in consumer spending, yeah, it will pass under the auspices of a steady leader, but 20% unemployment is an extreme example where I'm sure the calculus changes. It's harder to say if the tipping line is at 10% unemployment or 15% unemployment and so forth.

[leftofthedial]

42. the way they calculate "unemployment" now,

if we reach 20% unemployment, the country will be dead anyway.

As for health care, you can bet the insurance companies (financial services/banks--they're all the same anyway) will be protected in whatever system this crew comes up with.

[Selatius]

46. If you use the U-6 measure of unemployment, it stands just under 12%.

But if you examined unemployment according to the methodology in place under president Carter, you come out with a number just under 16%, which is what the blue line represents according to shadowstats.

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. We may be close to the tipping pont re health care

also, unlike ten years ago, some industry leaders are now pushing for it

Will it happen SOON? Would be best, but it will happen

Now here is something from history that worries me to no end

Let's assume for a second that all these center right folks continue to govern from the center right

That means that there is truly no difference between the parties. How long, in the current environment, where the people realize this and truly revolt?

And yes, even the uninformed, and very provincial and controlled American People will reach that point.

Also I will add the People WANT single payer health care, every survey has shown this over the last decade or longer.. so sooner or later politicos will do what they always do... follow

[Selatius]

47. I've heard of some people inside mumbling the current healthcare system will collapse in about...

5 to 15 years, perhaps sooner. The simple fact is at the current rate of inflation for health insurance premiums and deductibles, even people making 50,000/year and just above will start being priced "out of the market." They will join the ranks of those who make only 30,000 and below who have difficulty affording good health insurance, not the "tombstone" bare-bones health insurance. The median household income in 2006 was only 26,036, for instance.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. Yep, you heard right from those insiders

my brother is a doc... working at the Cleveland Clinic... he is a top doc in his field, I am proud of bro

Still, back to the point... he said ten years in the beginning of the year when dad broke hip and we had the joy to see how the system works, especially when you pay the whole thing...

I looked him in the eye and said, boy you are optimistic.

Then again, I am on the sunnier side of life, and far more pessimistic... I give it five to seven years.

My reason... it is showing the exact same stresses as PRIVATE, for profit healthcare showed in oh Mexico when I still worked in EMS. That is now that I think about it fifteen years ago. Yes, the system is still there, and if YOU CAN AFFORD IT, it is really good. But

Now the public system down there collapsed for other reasons a while ago... (can you say lack of funding?, which is one reason places like the Cleveland Clinic are having a heck of a time doing basic research, look at NIH funding)

[Mike 03]

35. Nadin, I don't want that person or that network.

The only contribution I can make to this conversation is that having listened for a few weeks now to economists, analysts and investment experts, they love the cabinet Obama is assembling, and these are hard core fiscal conservatives, including former SEC and state Federal Reserve chairpersons.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. I know and they also loved the one FDR put together

why the echoes of history are so damn strong

[Lilith Velkor]

36. That explains a lot. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

37. tweet!

:hi: Tweety!

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Hey there kid!!!!

Doing well?

[RavensChick]

40. Great one, Swamp Rat!

That sums it up in a nutshell. I surprised Tweety can read anything outside his RW crap.

[DainBramaged]

48. If we could just have Tweety saying asshole.................

:hi: