Hypothetical Question: Would Obama and the Clintons be as successful if they were actually Liberal?

[JoePhilly]

105. So Putin made Obama supprt the gays?

Or ... as a candidate, Obama recognized the danger of going "all in" ... and held the line at "civil unions", which was as far left he (or anyone else could go and still get elected). Meanwhile, he (a) started changing how the Federal government dealt with gay employees, and (b) increased pressure on a REAL solution to DADT, not the weak, and temporary executive order route. Importantly, many forget that the DADT needed Republicans, and Obama's deal to delay ending the Bush tax cuts initially occurred at the same time. As for throwing the progressives a "bone" ... I have to laugh when any progressive who wanted DADT to end, and wanted it badly, saw it as a critical issue, now diminishes its importance by calling it a "bone" thrown to progressives as if it didn't really matter.

DADT was very important, until Obama did ended it, then it becomes a meaningless "bone". That's a fairly common outcome for DU outrage topics.

You can claim that the economy has not been improving but that is nonsense. When the President took office, the economy was in FREE FALL. Is it now? Not even close. UE was on its way UP to 10.2%. The idea that the only people who have been part of the recovery is the rich is ridiculous. BTW ... under Obama, the tax rate on the rich has increased to a level higher than at any point since prior to Reagan. But hey, obviously Obama should have reversed 30 years of economic wealth transfer in 5 years.

On SS and Medicare. I recall back in Jan 2010 when much of DU was SURE Obama was going to announce cuts to those programs ... not little cuts, major cuts. Didn't happen. And it hasn't come close to happening in any of the 15 or so DU freak outs on this topic. The GOP hates those programs, which means they are ALWAYS on the table. The President continues to DARE the GOP to try and grab that brass ring. He's basically asked them the question ... "Ok, you want cuts ... what will you give me for them." Its a trap. And the GOP knows it. They sniff around the edges, but won't touch it. If Obama wanted to cut those programs the PERFECT time to do it was during the economic collapse in 2009. He could have EASILY said that we needed to make those cuts to help stop the collapse. And Americans would have agreed to it. But that didn't happen. And its not going to happen.

On DU, the same folks who have been angry and vocal about these other topics, have been just as angry, and sure of the failure of the ACA. When the web site was glitchy, they were SURE that was it for the ACA. As for Obama undercutting the "drive for true reform" ... yea, it was going GREAT before the ACA. BS. What the ACA does that so many of you seem to miss is (a) allow states to create their own exchanges in which they can include their own Public Option plans, and (b) thanks to GOP governors, red states are all getting a federal exchange, which down the road, will add its own Public Option. Here again, complaining isn't going to move that ball forward, but the ACA will.