President Obama Acknowledges Wall Street Protests As A Sign

[ClarkUSA]

Concerns over Wall Street practices and economic inequality that have led to sit-ins and rallies in New York and elsewhere reverberated up to the White House on Thursday, with President Barack Obama saying the protesters are expressing the frustrations of the American public....Obama said he understood the public's concerns about how the nation's financial system works and said Americans see Wall Street as an example of the financial industry not always following the rules.

"It expresses the frustrations that the American people feel that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street," the president said. "And yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place."

<snip>

Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the protesters, but some Republican presidential candidates have rebuked them. Herman Cain called the activists "un-American" Wednesday at a book signing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest," the former pizza-company executive said. "That's not the way America was built."

On Tuesday, CBS reported that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called the protest "class warfare" at an appearance at a Florida retirement community.

http://tinyurl.com/obamaacknowledges99percent

[Arctic Dave]

1. Did he "feel their pain"? nt

[kestrel91316]

2. It's about time.

[ClarkUSA]

3. This story is from October 6. I knew he said this originally, but after reading sneering attacks...

... that accused President Obama of "straddling the middle", I decided to bring attention to this fact.

[ClassWarrior]

4. So what has he done in the past 10 days...

...other than sign noxious trade agreements?

NGU.

[ClarkUSA]

7. He's ignored the "Never Good Enough" peanut gallery.

[ClassWarrior]

8. I always want my country and my President to be the best they can be. Don't you?

NGU.

[rsmith6621]

5. You Are Part Of Our Frustration Mr President....

......We are not exactly thrilled with your performance either...you should take the high road and send back campaign donations from CORPORATE AMERICA that you have thus received and only accept from private citizens.

Time for you to take the HIGH ROAD.

[ClarkUSA]

10. Unlike all other presidential candidates, he doesn't take donations from PACs or federal lobbyists.

Jim Messina, the campaign manager, announced in an e-mail to the president’s supporters that 606,207 people donated to BarackObama.com, including more than 250,000 who had never contributed to the president before... the Obama campaign, Mr. Messina said, was using its early fund-raising to set up campaign offices and build a ground infrastructure... “That support translates directly to what we can do on the ground,” Mr. Messina said. “In the past three months we’ve grown our organizing staff by 50 percent, and opened up three new field offices every week.”...Mr. Obama and his aides have said they plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his re-election campaign in anticipation of a flood of corporate money into groups that are raising money on behalf of his Republican opponents.

“We’re up against a Republican Party and special interest-funded groups that will spend hundreds of millions of dollars spreading any message that they believe will defeat the president and roll back our efforts to build a fairer economy that rewards hard work and responsibility, not large corporations,” Mr. Messina said in the email Thursday morning... The campaign is hoping to surpass the million-donor mark in the coming days, and on Thursday pressed for additional donations.

“Getting to a million grassroots donors isn’t just a huge accomplishment this early in the campaign,” Mr. Messina wrote. “It’s our answer to our opponents, the press, and anyone who wants to know whether the president’s supporters have his back.”.... The Obama campaign said on Thursday that of about 766,000 donations the campaign received during the third quarter, about 98 percent came in increments of $250 or less.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x796168

That's a higher than any road ever taken by any modern major presidential candidate, past and present.

[midnight]

6. That's hilarious-not!

First off: "President Barack Obama saying the protesters are expressing the frustrations of the American public."

I would say it is more like the protesters are expressing their frustrations of their elected officials allowing people to go without food,housing, healthcare, education, while they live better than ever....


Secondly:"Obama said he understood the publics concerns about how the nation's financial system works and said Americans see Wall Street as an example of the financial industry not always following the rules."

They make the rules... The banksters do what ever they want.... They foreclose on people fraudulently.. One,OWS, man in law school said he was not moving and would be arrested because his parents that gave him so much had their home taken away from them... After the tax payers gave the banks money to pay for any bad mortgages and get the economy on it's feet... What did they do with that money-The bankers got bigger than ever bonuses...

[indepat]

9. Many of us feel that a lot of these irresponsible and abusive practices were

pure de fraud and fraud is criminal any way you slice and dice it. But considering the ultimate damages associated with such fraud probably won't exceed a few or so tens of trillions of dollars, why the hell bother to prosecute and just let bygones be bygones so resources can be marshalled to crack down on medical marijuana instead. :patriot:

[WhiteTara]

11. Says the man who is supported by Koch money.

Oh my. Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican.

[JTFrog]

12. WTF are you babbling about?

[WhiteTara]

16. Herman Cain. n/t

[JTFrog]

19. I see.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[ClarkUSA]

13. Prove it. The Koch Brothers have pledged to spend nearly $100M to beat Pres. Obama & Dems in 2012.

My proof via Media Matters: http://mediamattersaction.org/message/onepagers/201110030001

[WhiteTara]

17. Uhh. The Kocks are main life line of Herman Cain.

Sorry for the ambiguous comment. President Obama is my candidate in 2012.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

14. so how are yer tea party friends doing currently?

Obama is as much a republican as you are a member of the tea party(please tell me your not in the tea party, I'd hate for my line to backfire so spectacularly)

[WhiteTara]

18. Sorry. That comment was directed at Herman Cain.

And no I'm not in the tea party. I am a yellow dog democrat and my candidate in 2012 is President Obama.

[LatteLibertine]

15. How about getting rid of folks like Geithner, for a start...

[Tarheel_Dem]

20. And replace him with who?

:shrug:

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. And yet, it won't be enough for the ODSers until he goes out there himself and joins the protests.

The saddest part is that his presence would hurt the cause. The media would assault the president--and they would have during the Wisconsin debacle--and accuse him of playing politics.

Face it. It doesn't matter what he does: if he goes out there and makes a speech, many DUers would STILL be enraged that "he said the wrong thing," or he didn't say this or say that.


*banging head against the wall at how the standards continue to be raised for this president*

[ClarkUSA]

22. It's a shell game they play called "Perpetual Outrage".