I must confess, I find this to quite laughter provoking….:
Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”
Moderates now find themselves betwixt and between. On the left, there is a president who appears to be, as Crook says, “a conviction politician, a bold progressive liberal.” On the right, there are the Rush Limbaugh brigades. The only thing more scary than Obama’s experiment is the thought that it might fail and the political power will swing over to a Republican Party that is currently unfit to wield it.
via Op-Ed Columnist, David Brooks – A Moderate Manifesto – NYTimes.com.
The smart mouthed punk part of me says, “Well then David… Why the fuck did you meet with that Communist shill for dinner then?!?!?”
However, I do try and conduct myself with a bit more decorum. (Well, I think so anyhow! 😉 :P)
The painful fact is that the Moderate Conservatives like Brooks and some Libertarians voted for the guy, because they were drawn into his slick style and smooth delivery of a speech. I can cheerfully say, that I was not one of those people. I knew what Obama was about from day one. He was a Liberal. Any journalist or blogger who was not trying to swoon or slobber all over themselves about Obama could see this.
The facts are this; Obama tried to work with Conservatives, and tried the bipartisanship approach and it did not work. So, President Obama is going to further his agenda and quite frankly does not care what the Republican Party nor the Republicans and Conservatives who are in or out of power in D.C. think about it.
Is this wrong, evil, immoral, or fattening? Not necessarily. Obama won the election. The Republican Party lost. Happens like that, when your past leader of eight years abandons his campaign promises and so forth.
The facts are that the Moderates got played, and played hard. Now they’re crying, “We were deceived!” Way I see it, that deception is a two way process. Takes actions on your part. Obama did not come by with a wand and go “Pwaaaang!” and put the Moderates under a spell and force them to vote for him. It took them to look at him and his record, and then they listened to his speeches, and decided to ignore his political record and voted for him. I have zero pity for them, at all.
There’s ton of reaction to this on both sides of the political asle, and here it is: The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Donklephant, The Strata-Sphere, NO QUARTER, Right Wing News, The Other McCain, Grasping Reality …, Cold Fury, Crooked Timber, Commentary, NewsBusters.org, The Moderate Voice, Matthew Yglesias, HotAir, Balloon Juice