Barack Obama’s first budget is a revelation. (The Financial Times)

[kpete]

The budget reveals the liberal Obama

The US president’s outreach to Republicans is no sham; his civility is not a front. He respects people who disagree with him, is capable of liking them and is always willing to listen – but then stays true to his beliefs. This is a rare and devastating combination, writes Clive Crook

Barack Obama’s first budget is a revelation. The US president’s plans will not come to pass in the form he suggests. Congress writes the laws and will make a hash of it. Still, this first full statement of intentions speaks volumes, and leaves me in a paradoxical position. On one hand, I admire much of what the budget says. On the other, I feel I owe Republicans an apology.

As you recall, in the debate over the fiscal stimulus, Republicans accused the president of presenting a measure they could not support, disguising this with an empty show of co-operation. Bipartisanship, they said, is more than inviting your opponents round for coffee and a chat. I did not buy it: I accused them, in effect, of brainless rejectionism and a refusal to compromise, and congratulated the president for trying to come to terms with the other side.

This budget says the Republicans had Mr Obama right all along. The draft 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.

To be sure, there is much in this vision to admire. For a start, who expects a politician to keep his promises? With the economy crumbling and public borrowing through the roof, Mr Obama had every excuse to slither away from healthcare reform.

more at:
http://www.ft.com/comment/columnists/clivecrook

[Pirate Smile]

1. Last sentence: "We can already be sure that he is conservatism’s worst nightmare."

"Whether Mr Obama will be good for the country remains to be seen. We can already be sure that he is conservatism’s worst nightmare."

[malaise]

3. He won they lost

It's his agenda now. Fugg Conservatives

[AllieB]

4. IMO, The fact that he is 'conservatism's worst nightmare'

automatically makes him good for the country. The brand of 'conservatism' we see nowadays is really fascism taken to an oligarcic extreme and not true conservatism. Viva Obama!

[MrModerate]

2. Interesting observations, and refreshingly free of the hysteria . . .

that afflicts right-of-center commentators in the States.

He nails it with his description of Obama as one who listens, but stays true to his beliefs. Obama doesn't have to define compromise as giving up essential parts of his programs to meet in the middle with an opposition whose beliefs have been proven to be bankrupt. For the current environment, Republican ideas are both inadequate and just wrongheaded, and to expect them to make up 50% of the governing compacts entered into is to perform an unnatural act on the word "bipartisan."

And frankly, Republican ideas are spoiling fast, as last week's CPAC freak show abundantly demonstrated.

To have a greater voice in policy, Republicans are going to have to move toward the center -- or they will find themselves even further out on the fringes. At least Obama's administration will treat them with dignity and maturity, which can't be said of the last administration.

[Peace Patriot]

6. And they will have to be genuinely elected, and therefore subject to the will of the people.

"To have a greater voice in policy, Republicans are going to have to move toward the center -- or they will find themselves even further out on the fringes."

Where do these clueless fringe nutjob politicians come from? I think they come from stolen elections, for the most part. So they have never had to listen; they just spout their nonsense. They have never had to appeal to the mainstream, because their power is guaranteed by Diebold & brethren. They are corrupt, pampered, self-important windbags who never earned public office, by genuinely serving the public as leaders who listen, who seek the common good, and who elicit good, creative ideas that will benefit everyone. They impose their pre-written, Grover Norquist-devised agenda. The agenda does not come from the people, nor do they. They are hand-picked as tools of remote, fascist billionaires, whose 'TRADE SECRET' code voting machines can easily--EASILY!--rig the outcome.

Think about it. That's how they act. And, guess what? Our voting system is egegriously insecure, non-transparent and run by rightwing Bushwhack corporations. It's a wonder we could get Obama elected--a subject that bears some discussion, which I won't do here. I'm just saying: You can pretty much judge the legitimacy of an office holder's election by how much of a rightwing asshole he or she is.

[rosesaylavee]

5. Clive. You ignorant moron, we can't afford healthcare to stay the same.