Joan Walsh, Salon: That's what it means to be a Democrat

[highplainsdem]

http://www.salon.com/news/budget_showdown/?story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2011/04/13/what_a_democrat_sounds_like

That's what it means to be a Democrat
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2011 16:14 ET
By Joan Walsh


I'm glad I waited for President Obama's heralded budget speech Wednesday before criticizing it (such a novel idea) – there was much to praise in it and little to challenge. The best news: Obama laid out the kind of sweeping "story" of American democracy, and the bold vision of how we grow together, that I thought was too much to ask for even yesterday. He even talked about the scariest fact of American inequality – the dangerous hold the top 1 percent of Americans has on wealth, income and (he didn't say this) politics. He pushed back on the cruel GOP deficit plan, made his toughest case yet for tax hikes on the richest, and stayed away from the worst ideas floated by his own deficit commission. The devil will be in the deficit-cutting details, and frankly, there weren't a whole lot of them in the speech. But the president came out fighting with firmness, and with a rhetoric of social justice and equality, that I haven't seen enough of these last two years.

-snipping lots of paragraphs that are mostly quotes from the speech-

That's the president I voted for.

-snipping more paragraphs including a quote where Obama said he's "eager to hear other ideas from all ends of the political spectrum"-

I know, I know, he thinks it makes him sound reasonable to independents; I worry he sounds weak to Republicans. If Obama thinks the plan he laid out is as far to the left as Ryan's plan is to the right, and that the answer is to meet in the glorious middle, we're all in trouble.

But for today, I'll take him at his word. After the speech, pundits called it the opening salvo of the Obama 2012 re-election campaign, as though there was something wrong with that. If these are the founding principles of the president's 2012 campaign, Democrats and the country will be better off than we've been in a while.

Please read the complete column at the link.

[polichick]

1. I've thought about this too:

"If Obama thinks the plan he laid out is as far to the left as Ryan's plan is to the right, and that the answer is to meet in the glorious middle, we're all in trouble."

Let's hope he doesn't think that.

[tularetom]

2. I didn't hear the speech but I knew the President nailed it

Because mealy mouthed "centrist" Ron Owens on KGO from San Fran had an hour long hissy fit over it. Called it "class warfare".

[spanone]

3. k&r...

[Zenlitened]

4. K&R. Walsh makes some very good points. - n/t

[malaise]

5. Joan has been fighting for ages

You go girl!!

Salon was THE website for progressives when few others existed.
As I wrote yesterday if Obama is good enough for Joan Walsh, he's good enough for me.
I will always hate his foreign policy but the same will be true for every other president as well.

[pinto]

6. Kick

:kick:

[Marr]

7. "pundits called it the opening salvo of the Obama 2012 re-election campaign, as though there was

something wrong with that".

There is something wrong with that, if it's just campaign bullshit. And Obama has already proven that he's perfectly willing to act like a traditional Democrat during a campaign, then flip the switch to DLC Republibot once sworn in.

I see no reason to give Obama's words any weight whatsoever until his actions have earned back some trust. Just tossing it all aside because he offered a few more flowery words is the act of a sucker.

[highplainsdem]

8. kick