Michelle Obama Documentary on Netflix

Would that be the same organizations they bailed some years earlier ? Cronyism springs to mind or we can pretend there's nothing to see here and move along .

 

No it doesn’t.

Obama was the most powerful man in the world and did it in a potentially disastrous economical time in history. He was also one of the most respected Presidents of the last 50 years so obviously he’s going to be popular for these kind of things. The same as Blair is/was.

People want to hear what he has to say, and big business can afford him. It’s like any other business, if you are in demand then you charge more.

Paul Gascoigne for instance will charge more for a Q and A than David Perkins.

It’s life.

 

We'd be even more knackered if big business only ever heard from Republicans too

 

And who funds Barack Obama and the democratic party ? Big business because they can afford it just like the republicans . That's all the Dems are , republican lite . Barack openly admitted it .....



Nice to see him being honest for a change .

 

Thats the US system though, that’s how it works.

I don’t know what you’re arguing against. It seems you should be arguing against the system, rather than the person who wanted to change America to a more left wing version of itself, that would potentially change it to a method that would be less reliant on capitalism and a light version of progressive socialist policies, like Healthcare for all as an example.

 

The Dems can't reform . Like I say in 2008 they had the presidency , house and more importantly a filibuster proof senate . They could have sorted healthcare as you have described but what did they come up with ? Obamacare which in short is romneycare or a corporate right wing healthcare plan .
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/23/mitt-romney-admits-romneycare-had-to-precede-obamacare.html

They could have done a public option but when some of your biggest donors are big pharma that was never going to happen . The republicans are a horrible party but I'm afraid to say so are the Dems who's only offering is to " beat trump " . They have no policies past what their corporate donors demand .

 

You’re ignoring the fact that the US electorate are incredibly right wing and selfish.

Obamacare, as he wanted it to be, would have been a voting disaster because lots of Americans don’t agree with welfare and definitely don’t agree with contributing to a fairer healthcare system like we have here.

Big Pharma is so powerful in the US that they have indoctrinated society in such a way that an NHS style
System (which obama actually wanted) was only ever going to be a pipe dream.

You saw it as soon as Trump came to power and got rid of it on the notion that no one should help anyone less fortunate to have health care (why should you foot the bill for anyone else) and you saw these people literally voting against their own interests and shouting make America great again.

Even if Bernie Sanders would have ever got the presidency, he would have found it impossible to implement any real change because the lobbyists and powerful would have stymied any move away from the norm, which is money, more power to corporations and social division. The US is a failing state and it’s only going to get worse.

 

The Obama's. 8 years in office and not a single hint of Sex scandals, Infidelity, Corruption or Nepotism. A very intelligent man as is his Wife. I have lived through many US Presidents from Harry S Trumman to Trump and never felt as safe as I did in Obama's Presidency. Jimmy Carter was a good man too. Kennedy was a War monger who took us within minutes of a Nuclear holocaust. If he hadn't been assasinated no one would remember him for anything good.

Obama is everything the Vietnam War Draft dodger Trump isn't. He is a man of Honour who had respect all around the World.

 

I’ll check that out mate, ta

 

I agree with some of your statement but you have to understand Obama was incredibly popular during his rise to power and you have to take note of what he was saying back then that gave him his popularity .



In 2003 ....



In 2008 ....

See how his position changed ? By 2012 when Obamacare was implemented by then he was a 100% corporate tool . It's this behaviour that led to the downfall of the Dems in 2016 and led to the victory of trump .

 

I don't agree with you mate, but eloquent response. Obama was elected on a mandate for change. Yes we can. His election was historic enough in itself , and the crisis sprang the occupy movement for the 99%. Yes it was at the start of his term , but that also meant he had time to change things before worrying about re-election. Trump's presidency has shown the executive power that a president can yield ( God help us) , but ultimately Obama did nothing major to change the status quo of inequality and the power of banks. It was socialism to prop up the banking sector.

The results of this were evidenced in people's disillusionment with the political system after his terms in office. Trump should never have been able to win - there aren't enough WASP voters.

 

And I agree with what everyone has said about Obama in that I really like the guy. He's cool, intelligent, dignified, funny. A wonderful charismatic guy. Just I view his legacy as failed.

 

Look at Trump and he has torn up environmental treaties, left the WHO, signed executive legislation throughout his presidency. It's been a disaster, but shows the power of that position.

Under Obama the surveillance state grew exponentially, Guantanamo Bay remained in operation, the system that perpetuates economic inequality survived and in many cases even prospered from the 2008 financial crisis

 

Some really good points. I think it's difficult to apply the platform he ran on to the situation he inherited. The world had changed between his victory and entering the Whitehouse and it was crisis mode. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you in what should have happened, but I find it hard to lay that blame at his door.

Obama's legacy is complex. From Wall Street to drone bombs. But I think you overstate the power of the president, as evidenced by Obama's frustrations on Guantanamo and actually how little Trump has been able to achieve in reality.

I don't think Trump is a product of Obama. I think he's a product of the failings of capitalism and the collapse of confidence in Western democracies, that has led to Trump, Brexit et al. And Obama was never going to be the man to bring in a new global economic system. Is any American for that matter given how it underpins the whole (flawed) notion of the American dream?

IMHO Obama and Yes We Can has to be viewed through something more fundamental and societal. Rosa sat so Martin could walk so Barack could fly. And in spite of him being everything you could want in a charismatic and inspirational leader the US, as currently evidenced, is still on a painfully slow journey.

Where I absolutely think we agree is that the fundamental cultural and societal change needed is as rooted in economic equality as racial inequality. Unfortunately Bernie Sanders couldn't get through even the democratic voters so we are some way away yet.

 

So are we saying the US electorate has a choice of a right wing party that looks to the centre politically or a very right wing party that looks to the right politically?

 

Is it the one called Becoming, mate. Just located it . Will watch later.

 

Basically yes. That's why there is no way you will ever get gun control. Too many powerful lobby groups to keep the status quo and present the American dream and the idea that the state opposes this.

 

And there’s me thinking it was Labour that caused the global financial crisis.