Should Obama fulfill his campaign promise and walk with the union protesters?

[lame54]

Should Obama fulfill his campaign promise and walk with the union protesters?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA9KC8SMu3o

"And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I'll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner."
Barack Obama - 2007

[liberal N proud]

1. Going to Wisconsin will allow the right wing media to change the debate

It would become about him and no longer about the peoples cause.

[FreakinDJ]

2. Not True

We all know only too well the DNC is opposed to any type of Worker Solidarity ever since they began sucking up to their Corporate interest

[MadBadger]

4. It will be about the president meddling in a state issue

[FreakinDJ]

6. Not True - It will become an issue of RIGHTs

rather then the Right Wing lies being spewed about Unions

[MadBadger]

18. Are you familiar with our media?

[liberal N proud]

5. You can't give the media machine anything to use

They would use it and everyone including Obama knows this.

[FreakinDJ]

12. Oh - by all means "Lets keep our Powder Dry for another day

No wonder the Carpenters broke off from the AFL-CIO

[leveymg]

14. They don't need anything. They make sh-t up. If for once the Dem pols did what was right rather

than play the game by the other side's rules . . . we might win more elections.

[snappyturtle]

19. OTOH, if the President doesn't show the right wing media will use it

against the unions that even a Democratic President doesn't really support them....even after his campaign promise of the comfortable shoes thingie. At least if the President showed he would secure his strong voting & funding block...the unions. imho

[MadBadger]

22. Except they are already using his statement as a way to push that the President is meddling

[snappyturtle]

23. The President can't win this with his conservative critics no matter what he does. But I think

he could strengthen his Democratic supporters. It's a tough call.

[TahitiNut]

20. God knows that running scared of the "right wing media" is a winning strategy.

:eyes:

[Major Hogwash]

21. There is no other kind of media in the US, so you don't really need that qualifier.

I haven't seen you around lately, so it's good to see your nickname on the board once again.

[socialist_n_TN]

29. Yes. This is the truth about the situation...........

I voted no. Keep it about the PEOPLE vs the corporations and their stooges and not the political parties.

Now some other Dems, if they have cred in labor matters, could show up.

[Uben]

3. No

The security risks and costs would make it unreasonable

[lame54]

7. didn't he know that when he made the promise?

[backscatter712]

8. Correct, and it'd create a counterproductive media circus.

It'd be all about Obama, not about the workers, the howler-monkeys would pounce, and the end result would be a pure clusterfuck.

But Obama did do well in deploying OFA volunteers to help organize and rally people.

[Demeter]

9. I Hope Nobody Is Holding Breath Over This

It's one thing to be a true blue Democrat, and another to be blue in the face...

[vi5]

10. No, but I should be clear...

I don't at all think Obama is fully on the side of the unions or that he backs them and their actions. That statement he made ostensibly in support of them was pathetic at best.

But I think even a president who was pro-labor and supported the unions should probably stay out of it for the reasons most people are listing.

[Starry Messenger]

11. No.

Then the situation will be all about him and the party. It was a nice-sounding statement, but really--we're talking about the whole circus with Secret Service, etc. I'd rather he work on the other things he promised labor like card-check and getting rid of NCLB.

[Bandit]

13. I wouldn't count on Obama fulfilling any promises he made

He talks the talk but most definitely does not walk the walk..

[Segami]

25. That is his MO to date. Integrity is the backbone of leadership. Anyone tells you anything different

is spinning you like a top. People will respect leaders even they fall but show stand up character and fess up to their errors. Obama's behavior should NOT be a SHOCK to any of us considering the likes of the grifter-corporate slime ball advisors he's surrounded himself with.

[ksilvas]

15. I'm sorry, whose this Obama?

Does he have something to do with politics and labor. sarcasm off

[Little Star]

16. I voted no because there was not a choice for other....

He should use his bully pulpit.

[socialist_n_TN]

30. I agree here too..............

I would LOVE to see all the national Dems come out with a generic statement STRONGLY supporting collective bargaining rights, WITHOUT getting specifically into the Wisconsin situation.

[Iggo]

17. No. And here's why...

ETC, ETC, ETC...

[lame54]

24. .

[deacon]

26. No.

[jeff47]

27. No, he isn't needed

The WI party and the unions are doing extremely well with this issue. Bringing in Obama isn't going to help.

It would put Obama in the center of the story instead of Walker. It is best if Walker and the other extreme Republican governors remain front-and-center in this story - they are doing a fantastic job of blasting away at their feet.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

[Erose999]

28. Should he: Yes / Will he?: Not likely. nt

[Hutzpa]

31. I think he should

it will give him an enormous boost with the middle class.

[Lyric]

32. Yes. It'll cost him, but yes. He got elected because people believed his words

and trusted him to be "different" than all the lying, self-serving rats we've endured before. It was all about CHANGE. In a nation that has completely replaced a sense of honor, sacrifice, and public duty with expediency and "pragmatism", we NEED to see a leader doing something honorable, even when it's going to cost him. We need that national example. Our society needs to see that concepts like "keeping your word" and "standing up for what's right and accepting the sacrifices involved" are more than just temporary platitudes to fool people during election campaigns.

Our nation is ethically diseased. We feel no sense of duty to each other. Too many of us think that our own best-interests should always be served first, even if it means breaking promises or compromising our values. We allow our politicians to always put themselves first and to squirm out of doing the right thing, buying into their rationalizations that "If I do the right thing NOW, I won't be in power anymore so I can do the right thing LATER." This can sometimes (rarely!) be a legitimate reason, but we let them get away with it EVERY time, and we shouldn't. These are the men and women who set the example for the next generation. If you want to talk about "the long view", THAT should be considered just as carefully as anything else.

Integrity is more than just an outdated moral relic--and until we finally see our leaders displaying some personal integrity (especially when it's NOT easy), how can we ever expect average, everyday people to do the same? We're a nation full of people who are turning against each other because we've been trained to think primarily of ourselves, and only of others when it's "easy". Well the time is coming when it's NEVER going to be "easy"--should we just give up and accept the right-wing creed that only suckers put the interests of others before their own? That only losers value honesty and personal integrity? That only idiots sacrifice in order to do the right thing?

He made the promise. If the public workers of Wisconsin lose their collective bargaining rights, he needs to keep his word. There's a lot more at stake here than just the next election. Will there be fallout? Yes, probably--at least at first. But he'll have one hell of a moral high-road to speak from. He'll be able to beat them back with the ONE claim that he CAN make, but they CAN'T--that he's a man of his word, and that he keeps his promises, even when it's going to hurt. Believe it or not, people really DO admire that. And decades and decades later, we still speak in awe of past Presidents who've had the courage to risk their careers in order to do what's right--Lincoln, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson. And I truly believe that they'll reward him for it in the end.

And then maybe it'll give other politicians cause to think twice before making promises that they have NO intention of keeping. If they know they'll be held to Obama's standard, they might decide to at least tone down the lies, so that WE have a better idea of exactly who it is that we're electing.

[phantom power]

33. It would be appropriate to stand up for the constitutionality of collective negotiation.

He's a busy man, and I don't think he has to literally make a trip to Madison and walk a picket line. I think Walker's attack on bargaining rights is just flat-out unconstitutional, and I don't see any reason the President couldn't announce that, if he happens to believe it.

[lame54]

34. .

[Bluebear]

35. LOL that could happen

[Imagevision]

36. I'm still waiting for that "change I can believe in" fool me once shame on me...

[upi402]

37. LOL

:rofl: yes, but seriously.

[Jmaxfie1]

38. At this minute no, but that could and probably will change in the future.

Right now I think it would distract from what the protest is about, Governor vs. Working People. At this time it would turn into Governor vs. President. Mine's not a defiant No, if things change, he might need to go.