Jesus. You know it's bad when even a spineless centrist like Obama is calling them on their shit.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
359 points (95.0% liked)
politics
24759 readers
2836 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
"Stop whining and Vote Blue No Matter Who"
"Great, I'm voting for Mamdani for Mayor"
"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Not like that!"
I don't really remember Obama as spineless lol what is he spineless about?
Look he's a politician they suck but acting like Obama wasn't one of the best presidents we had in like 40 years is silly.
Remember how he ran on hope and change? How he presented himself as a progressive? Then how he failed to close Guantanamo, never even tried to codify abortion rights, didn't bother prosecuting the Bush administration for their war crimes, did a bunch of war crimes himself, and expanded the surveillance state? Because I do.
And like the other commenter said, he completely capitulated to the Republicans when they invented some bullshit about how outgoing presidents aren't supposed to appoint justices or whatever.
Obama personally promised me that he'd close Guantanamo, when I was a kid at one of his campaign rallies. He straight-up lied to me and didn't close Gitmo.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I think what you call spineless I'd consider being a decent politician in an indecent politician sphere
Obama isn't without criticism but calling him a war criminal is a bit of an eye roll in my opinion. It's usually about the drone warfare stuff and it is a drum the Republicans banged his entire presidency claiming he was drone striking everything possible. The truth is drone tech advanced in his presidency that allowed different missions to take place that removed soldiers from harms way, you'd probably make the same choice. It wasn't even his war, say we should've pulled out sure but look how poorly things are going now that we have. The war crimes he's accused of are dogpoop compared to the human rights issue that exists now. I'm sorry, I don't think it is the greatest things anyone has done but I just find the Obama is a war criminal argument so silly. Our entire government is a war criminal, this dude was not a warmonger nor did he do anything to escalate fighting. How you gonna dump it all on him?
Prosecuting Bush. For what? War crimes again? Our government has been doing war crimes forever. Every single person in that federal government should be charged. But Obama isn't going to arrest Bush because nothing would've come of it and again, on what exactly? Every judge, lawyer and politician wouldn't support that or respect whatever exactly the war crime was. So why pursue that? So redditors and Facebook dads have less shit to throw?
I'm not saying Obama is the best. Absolutely do not try to act like I have to be completely black or white about very complex issues. You will not put that on me.
But acting like Obama is the boogie man is literally because Republicans and the like have sold that messaging. Obama is a mid politician, I don't think he relishes in human suffering but he seems okay with a degree of it. But he was easily better than Trump, Biden, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, the Nixon baboons, Kennedy and Eisenhower. Carter is the only one who is a better man by a landslide but still not the best politician because he was also "spineless". People only liked Kennedy because he was a liberal who was assassinated. You wanna talk about war crimes? Look up Nixon/Kennedy era.
So yes. Obama is easily without contest best president of my lifetime and over the last 60 or 70 years.
Be real about this stuff.
load more comments
(18 replies)
And he accepted an award for transparency in a "closed" meeting so attendees wouldn't have to sign in.
Killed two Americans in Pakistan with no due process.
Expanded the wars to six nations.
Then he had the gall to go on 60 Minutes and say that 20 years earlier he would have been considered a republican. Hated that shit.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You seriously don't remember when Obama went the pro-corporate road at the expense of the American people, or even the globe itself? Really?
The Affordable Care Act. The bailout. The housing bubble collapse. The drone strikes. Letting the courts get stacked. The continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... My god, that's like every major issue, isn't it?
Of course he wasn't alone. I'm not blaming him as the only person responsible. But he was responsible, he was a lackluster president at best, and he spent eight years pushing the country towards where it is right now. Millions of us were saying that at the time, and we still are today. If you weren't listening, that's your own fault. If you didn't believe us, that's your own fault.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Bailouts, not ending the wars, gave up his SCOTUS pick without even the slightest hint of a fight.
load more comments
(16 replies)
This is one of those platitudes that is too vague to be of any real value.
It's like telling someone to be confident. "Just figure out what you need to do and do that thing!"
Yeah - the centrists and neoliberals will take this to mean “do more centrist and neoliberal things”; progressives will take this to mean “do more progressive things”; the DNC will take this to mean “give more money to centrist and neoliberal consultants and ignore what people are actually saying”. Not helpful in any sense.
So, in an unironic, but still very sarcastic and disappointed sense: thanks Obama 😒
Seriously, maybe tell the Democratic leadership to pull their head out of their ass and listen to people - as you did back in 07-08, which carried you to victory. And then gasp follow through on what they say, up to and including taking a page out of the GOP playbook - just do things that are helpful to normal people and say “fuck you, make me” when centrists and republicans try to stop you. We now have an imperial presidency, after all, so why not try to use it to do some good when (or if 😓) non-fascists get into power again.
This is exactly it. Unless we get really specific, this shit is more of the same middling platitudes, and different audiences will only hear what they want to hear. Seriously disappointing, and not at all helpful.
Ex-politicians like Obama (but not just him) need to shut the hell up unless they have PRACTICAL ideas that we can use. Someone like Obama should understand that his words have gravitas (love your username btw, fellow Banks fan I presume?), but his rhetoric goes straight in the garbage unless it’s backed by actionable ideas.
load more comments
(1 replies)
This motherfucker is half the reason we’re in the position we’re in. How many whistleblowers and journalists did he prosecute?
We see you
Dubba's third and fourth term.
It's kinda ironic, I don't know whether this reflects how the guy actually thought about his presidency, but when he was in office there was a lot of chatter about the kind of "legacy" his administration would have. I'm fairly certain now that he's gonna be one of those overlooked presidents, seen as a caretaker-administration to all the shit started by GW Bush and a preamble to a lot of what Trump has ran wild with.
Maybe the history books also mention he passed a healthcare bill inspired by the Heritage Foundation and insurance lobbyists.
load more comments
(1 replies)
"You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,”
So he called out Cuomo by name? No? Who's the coward really? He's out there telling Dems/lefties to get shot in the face by "riot gear" his and his VPs admins put in the hands of police, and he can't even grow enough of a spine to tell Dems to honor their own primaries. What a disgrace. Apparently the protesters and activists are the ones he thinks need to toughen up, because he clearly doesn't think any specific politicians need to.
I noticed that, and that it's a private fundraiser. Ok. When will the DNC actually stop shutting out the voices of the ones who miss needed working hours to vote for your candidate--or not.
Honestly, I don't care too much about this kind of private fundraising. Do I wish we had a system that was different, yes, but he's not actually running for anything. He's getting money for the party in general. If people wanna pay X to have dinner with Obama, I'm pretty indifferent about it. It's like a rent party for people who have no community, no solidarity, and no sense. I wish they would donate directly to candidates that need the support because I don't trust the DNC to make any decisions, but they probably would not be donating to the people I want anyway.
I think town halls are important though and if a candidate only has time for fundraising and not to listen to their constituents then that's a problem. Unfortunately these kind of fundraising events are the way a lot of Dems get funding since they don't actually inspire people with their platform.
I guess I'm remembering leaked tapes from HRC's private banker fundraiser.
load more comments
(2 replies)
He's pleading with people to fund the DNC, when DNC-backed candidates are often the most useless losers on the ticket.
As Democrats debate who should lead the party, Obama encouraged them to channel their energy into the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, saying the off-year elections could be “a big jumpstart for where we need to go.”
“Stop looking for the quick fix. Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates,” Obama said, calling out the New Jersey and Virginia elections, according to the excerpts of his remarks.
RTFA
I did read the article. I even quoted it. That absolutely does not address the fact that pouring money into races (which he said needs to be done in the article) is useless if the candidates don't actually help people. The NJ race features a 53 year old who's been an office holder since 2018. She's part of the "New Democrat" caucus who are pro business centrists.
He's calling for more of the same. He's not asking for "hope" or "change". I mentioned NY because that is an example of what the future of the party should actually look like.
Hope and change was always a lie to just get into office and then hand it all to businesses. I mean fuck the ACA insurance mandate was basically holding citizens hostage and forcing them to pay healthcare insurance providers whether the insurance actually left them with enough money leftover to use their "access" to healthcare or not.
Fuck all the navel gazing about how it would bring insurance costs down. A public option would have done more.
I was definitely using them mockingly here, but I think he actually did want universal healthcare. Congress fucked us over bad. The ACA is unfortunately a huge step up from what a lot of people had. Plenty still fall through the cracks, but the ACA was largely an improvement for people, especially after the federal penalty was removed so people were no longer fined.
He absolutely did want universal healthcare. Bill Clinton did too. They both tried. They were both shut down.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Mr. Obama, you caved on all of the major issues. You were a great candidate, an amazing speech giver, and a mediocre president. And that's OK -- we would be happy with mediocre today -- but you don't get to tell us what's good for the party when you are the perfect example of its biggest problem.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Bring back the Bull Moose party. We need FIGHTING progressives. I’ll do it if no one else will
Post the website when you're done.
Yeah, that'll get the neoliberals fired up. Jesus Christ.
coming from the guy who helped to pay the way into trumpism... yeah they should "toughen up" but it should've come already in his tenure.
Literally the guy who said "we need to look forward, not backward" when it came to prosecuting the Bush admin for fucking war crimes of all things and then expanded, codified, and legalized the mass surveillance and the drone wars... Which are now all being used against US citizens.
Cuz the man who gave up Universal Healthcare to give us fucking Romneycare while having total control of the govt really knows how to play hardball.
I don't like Obama much - his drone strikes and war-hawkish policy nor bailing out the banks when he had them over a barrel, but i'm tired of this bullshit narrative.
House control: yes, no question.
Senate control: barely.
Obama would not have even been able to pass his bank ~~robbery~~ 'stimulus' without three Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for it in early 2009. Yes, very much a man with 'total control' of the government..
Obama had just 4 months with senate control, and that whole time it was on a knife edge. 60 (of 100) votes are needed to bring legislation to the floor to even be voted on without filibuster. So for 'total control' a party needs 60 seats/votes in the senate. The dems had 57 in Jan 2009 at the start of Obama's congress, with 2 independents (Bernie and Joe Liebermann) who caucused with them, taking them to 59. Republicans had 41.
That 59 included Ted Kennedy whom had a seizure during an Inauguration lunch of Obama's (he was privately dying of brain cancer) and he never returned to vote in the senate - dropping the number to 58. Also, Al Franken was not seated until july due to a very close election in his seat and multiple recounts - until then the number was 57.
Long story short by September 24th they finally had 60 seats.. But democrats are not a monolith. Just as there are Manchins and Sinemas and other 'Democrats' in recent memory that are barely left of Ted Cruz, there were several of similar ilk back then like Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson - and their independent caucus member Joe Lieberman, mentioned earlier - who all fought against much of Obama's legislation, for example with respect to Obamacare they quashed any chance of a public option and single payer.
So did he have control: technically, briefly. Could Obama just run through any legislation he wanted during that time? Absolutely fucking not.
load more comments
(2 replies)
That is rich coming from him.
Obama, just like the Republican Party is no more under Trump, the Democratic party is no more under Pelosi and Schumer.
There is no true two party anymore. There’s simply the fascists and the enablers.
I don't think we need to hear from the Signature Strike, Surveilance State, and gross expansion of executive power guy right now
I'm sure Chuck Schumer will have a strongly worded letter for this. Wait what am I thinking, Obama is on their side, they'll completely destroy him for this.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Is the Hope and Change guy back again?
Haven’t seen him since Jan 21, 2009
view more: next ›