Tuesday, January 22, 2008

My Gut was Right

A very liberal 50-something co-worker of mine, who was totally on the Obama bandwagon, told me today that he lost her vote with his Reagan comment {believe it or not she brought it up to me}. She lived in Michigan during the eighties and saw first hand what he did to unions.

If 30 years from now a youngish politician thinks it would be wise to commend W. for changing this country, that politician would loose my vote in a primary too.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

not that i vote in this country, but obama also lost another supporter (me) when he declined the idea of universal health care in this country ... in my eyes that (universal heath care) should be a must in any rich country like this one.
"we have limited resources" ... not acceptable to me.
did i get it wrong?

Lauren said...

Obama argues that people should not be forced to buy into a gov't or private heath care plan. Both Edwards and Hillary's say that people must have some insurance and that the gov't will offer one at a reasonable price. Most left leaning economists say this is smart because a disproportional percent of people who choose not to buy a health care policy will be healthy thus increasing the price and decreasing the affordability.

I forgave Obama for that mistake because I campaign policies rarely actually remain the same once politicians get elected.

Lauren said...

I forgot to say that yes you did kind of get it wrong - Obama claims that under his plan anyone who wants health insurance will be able to get it. It is a public/private mix. {I think Hillary's and Edward's are also public/private mix}

Obama does not argue that we can't provide heath care because of limited resources - he very much makes the argument that people have the right to health care.

Anonymous said...

Obama 2012!

Amy said...

I think every candidate has or could say something that rubs us the wrong way...so then, if we say they loose our vote over one comment, then they all loose....( I think it is important to hear them out, let them explain what they meant...which I did with Obama..and am still voting for him. I think what is important is looking at the whole person, and asking, are they sincere, honest, intelligent, a skilled leader ??

I also agree with you on the political strategies change once the candidate is in the whitehouse...very true...

Lauren said...

Great comment Amy!!!

Anonymous said...

no lauren.
public/private mix funding for universal health care is a characteristic of many (if not all) universal health care systems in the world. that's not the point. how you make it work is one thing but first you need to _implement_it_ asap. that's why i think obama is wrong in that capital issue. it is very different to say that anyone can _buy_ in to it or say everybody _has_ it. very different. remember, the US is the _only_ wealthy country that does not provide universal health care. the uk started by the end of the 40ties.
no amy.
there are things that are unacceptable (not only to me). i can't overlook some things like universal health care. i would not accept death penalty either. yes, candidates can and should loose votes for something as huge as that. it is not acceptable to justify that they will not behave as they said in their campaign. one should expect accountability for important issues. lots of people are intelligent, skilled, sincere ... but that doesn't make a president.

how to stimulate the economy, how to handle homeland security, foreign diplomacy ... those, ok, are 'political strategies' and i would allow some flexibility.

central issues can't be called loosely 'political strategies' and we should not overlook at them. ending the war in iraq, implementing universal health care, decreasing poverty in the country, abolish dead penalty ... those are _not_ 'political strategies'. they are musts that i expect the president to _die_ for (ok, i might have exaggerated on that one ~8-) ).

Sam Rickless said...

You can tell your co-worker that Obama did not praise Reagan's ideas. He pointed out, quite rightly, that Reagan's ideas appealed to voters of both major parties. Remember the term "Reagan Democrats"? The business about the Republican Party having been the "party of ideas" is a big red herring, one of many that Hillary is throwing out there just to see if it will stick. Right now, very little is sticking to Obama, and it's freaking her out. As it should.