Obama-sly like fox

[babylonsister]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/obama_claims_mantle_of_eisenho.html

Obama invokes specter of Eisenhower
By Greg Sargent


President Obama, unveiling his budget just now, said:

As a start, I called for a freeze on annual domestic spending over the next five years. This freeze would cut the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, bringing this kind of spending -- domestic, discretionary spending -- to its lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.

Let me repeat that. Because of this budget, this share of spending will be at its lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was president.

I think there's more to this rhetorical move than meets the eye. It's about painting today's GOP as extreme, by reminding people that there was a time when Republicans had a far more moderate view of the proper role and scale of government than today's crop of GOPers do. After all, under Eisenhower, the federal government launched construction of what Michael Tomasky recently described as the "largest public works project in the country's history," i.e., the interstate highway system.

What's more, Eisenhower famously said it was folly for anyone to deny that the American public envisions a central and robust role in defending ordinary Americans from the vagaries of the economy, and strongly defended Social Security, unemployment and labor laws:

snip//

In the quest to reclaim and redefine the reasonable middle ground and to paint today's Republican vision as radical and extreme in advance of the budget fight, Obama's invocation of Eisenhower was no accident.

[msongs]

1. wonder if obama ever heard the eisenhower speech about the military/industrial complex? nt

[jaxx]

7. I wonder if people think Eisenhower ever said anything else.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Pessimism never won any battle.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dwight_d_eisenhower.html

[babylonsister]

8. Excellent quotes; thanks! nt

[treestar]

10. Thanks!

That is so true!

[Inuca]

14. Great quotes!

Can you imagine an R party today where most people were thinking like that? Almost like the lion and the lamb... things would actually happen, and I would not need to check my blood pressure (figuratively speaking) when I turn on the TV.

[Lisa0825]

15. Good post! nt

[These Eyes]

18. Bravo!!!!

Thanks for posting these quotes.:applause: :applause: :applause:

[JoePhilly]

21. Another member of the "Anti-knee jerk coalition" ...

Far too much "knee-jerk" on DU, and in politics today.

[Doctor_J]

11. Or brushed up on INCOME TAX RATES while Ike was president

this article is a steaming pile of crap.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. K&R

[dkf]

3. What worries me is that hard fought $400 billion can be eaten by one year of interest expense.

All the proposed cuts seem so small in comparison to the problem.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I hope the spin Greg Sargent has put on this is right...

We shall see...

Recommended.

[GoCubsGo]

13. Me, too.

I was thinking this might more framing of the issues, as well. I really hope is is.

[Smashcut]

5. The Republicans of the Eisenhower era don't exist anymore.

Unless you're talking about Obama himself.

Really, who gives a shit about a rhetorical "win" when people are starving and freezing to death???

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I think Ike was a little to the left of Obama.

Too bad the Dems didn't recruit him for that '52 run, as they tried to do.

[Brickbat]

9. So Obama is proposing these cuts to make a political point?

That's pretty cynical.

[sharp_stick]

12. The Presidential budget

in reality is now and always has been nothing but a political point. He doesn't write the actual budget, just signs or veto's the one that is passed by Congress.

The President uses this opportunity to try to paint opponents into a corner, nothing more and nothing less.

[JoePhilly]

22. +100

The GOP, hell bent on cutting all spending and putting millions out of work will have no where to go. If people think that Obama's proposed cuts are draconian, what will they think when they see what the GOP puts forward.

If you listen to Obama, he keeps talking about how his budget cuts programs that he cares a great deal about. But that he is willing to make some cuts in those areas if some other significant cuts (cuts that the GOP hates) are also made.

The GOP now has to put up, or shut up. They have no real ideas. No way to create jobs or reduce the deficit.

It will be fun watching the GOP chase its tail for the next few weeks.

[dflprincess]

25. Nice that he's willing to cut programs that help the neediest in society

I'm sure they'll appreciate the political point he's making.

If he were really willing to cut programs he cares "a great deal about" he'd stop wasting money in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[handmade34]

16. rec

I'm doing some research before I get wigged out... there is more here than meets the eye

[Vinca]

17. Where can I buy a pair of your rose-colored glasses?

[Armstead]

19. Oh, more three-dimensional chess?

I think his 3d chess may be aimed more at watering down liberal principles than fighting the policies of the GOP.

He talks a great game and wins over the liberal base. Then, citing "reality" he backtracks about ten steps to the right. But he convinces liberals that he's "got this" and he is really setting up the GOP for a "sting" that will mouse trap the conservatives, and get what we really want, despite current appearances.

Silly us, we actually believe he has something up his sleeve against the GOP.....But, strangely, things always seem to end up as what might be called moderate corporate conservative business as usual.. Despite the happy talk, Big Business and the oligarchs getvwhat they want, basically, and we end up with token crumbs.

[gademocrat7]

20. K&R

[bvar22]

23. Oh good...the 10th dimensional Chess rationalization for Conservative Policy.

I wish there was a Democrat today who was a liberal as Eisenhower.

Lets take a look:

"Rachel Maddow: Eisenhower would be Bernie Sanders today!"

"You want to talk about red meat for the base? Listen to some of the language the president used. “Workers have a right to organize into unions and to bargain collectively with their employers. And a strong, free labor movement is an invigorating and necessary part of our industrial society.” Wow.

How about this one? “Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

Listen to the way he goes after the right here. “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things, but their number is negligible and”–and the president says–”their number is negligible and they are stupid.”

That is not what Barack Obama said last night. That is way to the left of any national Democrat at this point. That was all Republican President Dwight David Eisenhower. That was all the stuff he said when he was president."

http://tefillinois.com/2011/01/28/rachel-maddow-eisenhower-would-be-bernie-sanders-today/

Eisenhower believed that the top marginal rate on the very richest Americans should be about 90% !!!!

Now THAT is damned near Socialist by today's standards, and WELL to the Left of anybody in the Democratic party leadership.

And then there is this all time favorite:

”Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
---President Dwight Eisenhower

No.
I don't really believe that Eisenhower was a "Liberal".
He WAS a conservative,
but his presidency DOES show how very FAR to the Right today's Democratic party has lurched.
That is a great reason to discount the Hype, Branding, Spin, and other Kabuki,
and look at the POLICY that emerges.

If Eisenhower ran today, he WOULD be a Fringe lefty.

How far we have fallen.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans."---Paul Wellstone


By their works, you will know them."

[polichick]

24. How far we have fallen indeed! nt

[chill_wind]

26. Great comments and of all his quoted words, my most favorite of all.

eom