Saturday, October 20, 2012

FDR v. Obama, or, Balls v. 'bipartisanship'


I would love for Obama to be more like FDR.  But this pretty much says it all, says why Obama is not up to the historical challenges set before him:

Like Obama, Roosevelt was assailed by Republicans during his first re-election. But old black-and-white film clips show a man who relished taking on his opponents, those he described as "the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering".

"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today," [FDR] said to cheers in 1936.

"They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred."

The rich and powerful may have hated him, but the masses loved him FDR. He won his first re-election in a landslide [46 out of the then 48 states].

If I haven't made it clear enough, here is former U.S. ambassador William Vanden Heuvel on FDR:

"When you have a political force opposing you, whose object is to destroy you, then you have to fight hard. Roosevelt fought hard and was elected four times as president."

They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred.  Jesus, imagine if Obama acknowledged that truism today!  He'd be branded as some kind of Angry Black Extremist, for sure.  But nobody could say it wasn't the truth!  That's Obama's idiotic dilemma: he can't admit, or can't bring himself to admit, that millions of Americans hate his guts because of who he is and what he stands for.  There is nothing,absolutely nothing, he can do to win them over or even calm their hysterical hatred of him. By contrast, FDR didn't have a problem admitting it.  FDR knew a coalition of the Evils and Stupids were out to murder him, politically.  He just had optimism and faith that they were in the minority.  His confidence and optimism bulldozed over them.  God, how we need an FDR today!


By Kristen Saloomey
October 20, 2012 | Al Jazeera

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