Obama plans to turn anti-Wall Street anger on Mitt Romney, Republicans

[cui bono]

How about he actually listens to us and realizes he needs to start fighting for and enacting policies that benefit us instead of the corporations instead of attempting to coopt us just to get reelected. He can start by getting Wall Street out of the WH. Does he not see the hypocrisy? Sheesh.

(edited for typo and to change a "them" into "us". I left the poorly structured sentence that I didn't reread after editing! ;) )

President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy.

The move comes as the Occupy Wall Street protests gain momentum across the country and as polls show deep public distrust of the nation’s major financial institutions.

 The movement, which started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange, is spreading to other cities across the country.

And it sets up what strategists see as a potent line of attack against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, a former investment executive whom Obama aides plan to portray as a wealthy Wall Street sympathizer.

<snip>

But the strategy of channeling anti-Wall Street anger carries risks. Many of Obama’s senior advisers have ties to the financial industry — a point that makes Occupy protesters wary of the president and his party.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-plans-to-turn-anti-wall-street-anger-on-mitt-romney-republicans/2011/10/14/gIQAZfiwkL_story.html

[PSPS]

1. Stuff it, Obama. You're just another head of the same hydra.

[cliffordu]

12. LOL. Yet another nice try (tm)

[Itchinjim]

14. 239...

[roguevalley]

33. agreed. the ows crowds blame him too and he deserves it.

his zillions fundraising wall street are actually visible to the naked eye.

[Skittles]

38. THANK YOU

who does he think he is kidding?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. He sees this as strategy...

We see it as our right to the truth...

And that cuts both ways...

Against both sides of the aisle.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AmBlue]

4. From a man who chooses to consult with Timmy & Larry...

...before he does anything, I'd say that's a pretty ridiculous idea for a strategy.

How about working to deliver what he promised in the first place and holding the criminals on Wall Street accountable?

[Tx4obama]

5. Obama is NOT attempting to co-opt OWS. Reread the whole article.

Obama was fighting Wall St since BEFORE the OWS protests started.

---
Excerpt from the OP article:

SNIP

... And his campaign and the White House have distributed messages blasting GOP candidates and lawmakers for wanting to repeal Wall Street regulations pushed by Obama and opposing the confirmation of a leader for the consumer protection bureau created as part of the overhaul.

“We intend to make it one of the central elements of the campaign next year,” Obama senior adviser David Plouffe said in an interview. “One of the main elements of the contrast will be that the president passed Wall Street reform and our opponent and the other party want to repeal it.”

SNIP

----------------------------

The OP 'commentary' is off base when he/she says Obama is trying to 'co-opt OWS' - Obama has had a dog in this fight BEFORE OWS came along!


p.s Unrec due to misleading OP.





Edited to fix typo.

[cui bono]

6. -1 That's EXACTLY what he's trying to do. Read the article, especially the end.

You think he brought in Geithner to kick his ass in a back room? And that other corporate banking tool, Daley, as his chief of staff? Boy did he show him!

Oh, and I forgot he completely reregulated Wall Street and put a lot of conditions on their bail out. Oh wait...

He spoke out about BofA's $5.00 debit card charge and that's enough for you? That's the only thing in his favor in this article, so perhaps you didn't read it? Here's the last paragraph for you that pretty much sums it up, except for the fact that he already had Timmy in before this:

Obama has tried this line of attack before, railing in 2009 against “fat-cat bankers” who he accused of taking excessive bonuses in the wake of the financial meltdown. But after complaints from Democrats on Wall Street and business leaders, the president has spent much of the past year courting companies — even hiring a new chief of staff, William Daley, from the banking industry.

Unreccing due to misleading OP? Hardly. Anyone who actually does read the article will know that's not true. And I know from your previous nonsensical responses to me elsewhere that it's not true. I unrec your post due to misrepresenting the article. So there.

[sabrina 1]

17. Rec'd. I guess some people don't realize how things are changing

fast. That anyone connected to Wall Street is going to have a very hard time getting elected. Who will be his cabinet? All of them will now be asked these questions 'who are your donors'?

It's this same old 'how can I use this for my benefit' attitude that this movement is about. I have been worried about it and today I see that ActBlue is collecting money using OWS also.

So sad, that he has not even spoken to any of the protesters and is thinking of how he can 'use' their movement in the same old divide and conquer partisan, tired, failed politics. The system has failed everyone except for a very few.

The whole system has to change.

[piratefish08]

21. +1000000

[msongs]

7. kissing republicans for 3 years didnt work. not sure the OWS movement will let him hijack them nt

[cui bono]

8. Agreed. He'd have to change a whole lot for that to have even a possibility.

And even then, it wouldn't. No one would believe promises at this stage, when campaigning has started. He would have to actually make the changes happen and he just doesn't want to.

[cui bono]

9. Dupe.

[Tx4obama]

10. He is NOT going to hijack OWS. Obama is going to campaign on the fact HE passed WS reform

and that the GOP wants to repeal it.

Read what Plouffe said in the article.

And the majority of the article is the writer's opinion/commentary that is NOT backed up with any named sources regarding 'a strategy' other than what Plouffe said.

Obama has been working on Wall St reform long BEFORE OWS began, it can't be said that he is hijacking something that he was doing BEFORE the protests began.

There is absolutely NO evidence in the OP article that he is going to 'use' OWS for anything.

The article, to me, seems just to be something that The Washington Post put out to cause divisiveness!

[MadHound]

19. Weak assed, weak kneed financial reform that does very little to reign in the excesses

Of the financial sector. Please, don't try and sugar coat this, you only make yourself look foolish.

[L0oniX]

32. Yea ...like the trillions in criminal derivatives have just gone poof!

[nc4bo]

18. My mental image is the left hand is extended for "donations"

and a big club dry lasanga noodle is in the other. Lots of blah-blah talk but still taking those $$$ from both sides.

You can't talk out of both sides of your mouth forever and not expect people to call you out on it or take some notice.

We have to get the money out of our political system and be willing to punish the moneychangers who think they can buy influence or there won't ever be any meaningful changes for the 99%.

[L0oniX]

30. "kissing" is putting it mildly.

[kickysnana]

11. Good luck with that n/t

[Raine]

13. Oh that'll work ... NOT

just how dumb does he think people are, geesh. :yoiks:

[Bodhi BloodWave]

15. not sure, but WAPO seems to have gotten many people pegged correctly in believing their spin n/t

[sabrina 1]

16. If that's true, he really doesn't get it at all, does he?

They are on another planet! Maybe he should have spent more time with the people who elected him than with Wall Street insiders and he might understand that this movement will NOT be used for Politicians in either party. It is NOT about people's political careers.

The only way they can get the confidence of the people now is to distance THEMSELVES from Wall Street and he needs to start directing his DOJ to start investigating and prosecuting those who destroyed the World's economies.

The divide between politicians and the people is so wide, I doubt it's ever going to be possible to bridge.

I heard a protester in Europe say today that they have given up on their Government and when asked what they would do about it, he said 'we are considering setting up our own Parliament'. They have the numbers so why not? Trying to fix an old, broken down house whose foundation is rotten is a mistake. Better to start all over again.

[piratefish08]

20. fucking great. nothing will kill this movement faster than the asshats in Washington

getting involved.

[Vinca]

22. The reason average people are taking to the streets is because

the politicians are almost all beholden to the banks and corporations. I remember near the end of 2008 when, in a matter of days, Paulsen and Bush with the votes of a whole lot of politicians rushed mountains of money to Wall Street. Apparently no one ever suggested bailing out the homeowners, credit card holders, etc., who would pay off their bills and, in turn, bail out the banks. The POTUS can certainly try to use this to his favor, but he doesn't necessarily have "clean hands."

[SkyDaddy7]

23. Co-opt us?? How about OWS is two years late...

And should have been on the streets when Obama was the LONE VOICE criticizing Wall Street & getting called a Socialist & getting attacked on all the financial networks for his efforts to help...Where was OWS when the Tea Party was being created to cover for the 1%?

Obama has said from day one...Yes "WE" Can...NOT...Yes "I" Can.

I wish Obama had come out & said "What took so long?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcvSjKCU_Zo

[nc4bo]

24. Didn't POTUS have a mandate? What the hell more did he need

to prove America had his back? What did he do with that mandate?

[SkyDaddy7]

26. A lot! Just imagin what "he" could have done had...

we taken to the streets when the 1% was creating the Tea Party as distraction & a way to make it look like there was this massive revolt against changing what broke this country! We could have looked like one big unified force but instead we just sat & watched the Tea Party take over the country!

Yes "WE" Can...NOT...Yes "He" Can.

[markpkessinger]

37. If he had fulfilled, or even seriously tried to fulfill, his mandate...

OWS wouldn't have been necessary.

[SkyDaddy7]

39. What was that mandate again? nt.

[cui bono]

27. Yes and no. I think OWS should have been out there earlier, but perhaps even before Obama

was elected.

During Obama's campaign he really got people thinking if he got elected things were going to "change". So he got elected, millions were in the street for his inauguration and then expected that he was going to go ahead and do the things he talked about while campaigning. So, unfortunately, people did get complacent since they thought they got their guy in and he was going to do what he said he was going to do.

At the same time, instead of taking to the bully pulpit and continuing to rally the people and keep all that momentum going and using his mandate from the people, Obama appointed Wall Street types and same old, same old types to his cabinet, invited the corporations into back rooms to make back door deals on health care "reform". Not only did he do that, he denied doing it until he could deny it no longer. Then he allowed the GOP to get and keep their death panels lies out there and then he just dropped support of the public option, which was already a compromise. And then when we spoke up about it he told the left to STFU. And then when it came to "negotiating" with the GOP, well, let's face it, he completely sucked at it. Perhaps he wanted to suck at it, perhaps it was all a farce and he had no intention of fighting for the people all along, but the truth is he did not fight at all. He met them halfway, sometimes more, before the "negotiations" ever started.

So we thought we had elected someone who really wanted to "change" Washington but he quickly showed us that was not the case. OWS is happening now because everyone sees that both parties are the problem and that Obama is never going to change anything and that the people must do it themselves somehow. OWS is happening now because all politicians are bought to some degree and all you have to do is look at where their money comes from. Obama got a lot of money from small donations directly from the people, unfortunately he got a lot more from big donations directly from corporations.

And that is why OWS didn't start 2 years ago. And now that it is Occupy the World, Obama wants to coopt it and use it to his own advantage. Just as he coopted our hope last time around.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice... um... er... we won't get fooled again!

[hatrack]

28. Geithner, Summers, Rubin, Daley, Emmanuel

Because nothing says "lone voice attacking Wall Street" than a staff/Cabinet lineup like that.

[newspeak]

31. oh please, appointing summers, geithner, rahm

he was serious about WS malfeasance?

[Odin2005]

25. Take your establishment BS and stuff it, Mr. President.

[L0oniX]

29. Hey Obama ...STFU ....OWS doesn't want or need you!

The Dem party needs to become progressive for a change and Obama is just a pretender.

[Itchinjim]

34. 240...

[woo me with science]

35. Boy, that's not what I heard in his speech today.

I didn't hear anything about being upset at "Wall Street sympathizer/s." I heard we're all supposed to empathize with each other and have a sloppy group hug.

[cui bono]

36. I can't stomach listening to him any more.

And that makes me very sad. Very sad indeed.

[AngkorWot]

40. Man, I love the anti-Obama types.

They want to support OWS, but they don't want Obama, as the holder of the most powerful office in the country, to support them.

[Blue_In_AK]

41. He has very little room to criticize,

given his own ties to the financial sector. Until he fires people like Geithner and Summers and stops taking bundled money from Goldman Sachs, et al., any supportive words coming out of his mouth are empty phrases.

[Blue_In_AK]

42. Delete - dupe