Accompanying a news brief on the BBC website about Prime Minster Julia Gillard of Australia’s first trip to the US to meet with the President is an “analysis” inset from JournoList groupie Katie Connolly. She discusses the recent history of personal relationships (it seems like the Beeboids are much happier with this union of two leaders than when Bush was in charge, but never mind) between Australia and US leaders, and says this:
Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama – both cerebral centrists with a deep interest in world affairs – were said to have a strong personal rapport.
A centrist? This is a blatant, biased lie. Nobody honest can say that the President is or ever was a centrist. A reminder of Candidate Obamessiah:
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” (at 4:41 in)
These are not the words of a centrist. The same Candidate also told ACORN that the group would shape His agenda, This is not the behavior of a centrist.
A centrist candidate would not join in the SEIU chant and celebrate union power. That’s from the Left. The President’s very close ties to SEIU and union powerbrokers is not the behavior of a centrist. Unless we’re supposed to believe now that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are centrist?
Back when He was a State Senator in Illinois, He complained openly that the Supreme Court didn’t advocate wealth redistribution:
“Maybe I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor. But, I’m not optimistic about bringing major redistributive change through the courts. The institution just isn’t structured that way.”
These are not the words of a centrist.
Anita Dunn, a top campaign adviser and White House Communications Director Anita Dunn stated openly that her favorite political philosophers were Mao Tse-Tung and Mother Theresa. A centrist would never have such a far-Left ideologue in His inner circle.
As President, He hasn’t governed as a centrist. Far from it, in fact. Nationalized health care – “ObamaCare” – is not a centrist idea: it’s a Socialist concept. It may be mainstream in Britain and Europe, but it’s an idea of the Left.
His “cap-and-trade” policy of favoring corporations who engage in approved behavior is known as “corporatism”, which is a fixture of Socialist governing. The way the President has attacked Republicans for the past two years is not the behavior of a centrist.
I could go on and on, but suffice to say that Katie Connolly has no credibility as an honest newsbroker. Don’t trust her, and don’t trust the BBC on US issues.
oh well, hopefully, when the Democrats lose the next election, Obama and Clinton will be all but a bad memory, the US does not need people like this running their country, it’s always mystified me how he got voted in anyway
It’s cos he is black.
I think there’s more to it than that. He is naturally gifted, but without the MSM working as the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party I very much doubt this crypto-Communist would have been elected.
Everyone agrees that Obama had the most liberal (leftie) voting record of any Senator. Pretty extreme, certainly not “centrist”.
Everyone knows except the BBC, that is.
Oh no, the BBC know it, they just dont want anyone else to know it. There is an election on the way!
According to the National Journal who have done annual comparisons of Senate voting relative to other members since 1981 (disclaimer: other comparisons exist, your mileage may vary etc etc), Obama was the most liberal member of the 2007 Senate. He voted to the left of his caucus 95.5% of the time.
But from a Britsh perspectve Obama is centrist. In the UK the idea of “Obamacare” The NHS is embraced across the political spectrum. All that looney scare mongering death panel nonsense would cut no ice here.
Obama was a Stopper. That puts him in the far left. The fact he cannot escape the fact Guantanamo is indispensable and so are Military Tribunals show how fake the politics of his kind are and how treacherous they were in propagandising for the enemy against the means needed to defeat it.
“But from a Britsh perspectve Obama is centrist”
Not good enough. When journalists refer to ‘centrists’ or ‘moderates’ they mean relative to that country’s political spectrum, not ours. If a BBC report was to refer for example to ‘moderate clerics’ in Iran it would be implicitly understood by the audience that these clerics were ‘moderate’ by Iranian standards, not British ones. We might in fact consider them extremists by our own standards.
So for Connelly to describe Obama as ‘centrist’ is frankly laughable. She is attempting to mislead the British audience into thinking that Obama is in the centre ground of US politics, when in fact in US political terms, he virtually qualifies as far-left.
When journalists refer to ‘centrists’ or ‘moderates’ they mean relative to that country’s political spectrum, not ours.
Fair point. Anyone who pays attention to US affairs knows that he is to the left of the democrats and that that is perceived by some in the states as being close to communism or even in some media circles over there Nazism. So yes I suppose leftist rather than centrist would be a fair description.
dmaf, would you say that Socialism is a centrist position just because Ed Miliband and Ed Balls proudly state that they are Socialists?
No I wouldn’t say Socialism is centrist position. Milliband and Balls are centre-left not centrists. Blair was as close to a centrist in the UK as labour has produced.
A national health service such as that in the UK which allows private provision alongside it and for private capital to provide services which remain free at the point of delivery is a centrist policy. State only provision with such as in Cuba is far left. Free market “only get cured if you can afford it” is far right. So far as I can see current US healthcare provision is neither far left or right, neither is “Obamacare”in my view.
I agree that one would not call communism a centrist position just because most venezuelans tilt left. Similarly I wouldn’t consider Obama a communist just because a vocal minority of those who oppose him say so.
Self-proclaimed Socialists like Red Ed and Redder Ed cannot reasonably be called “centre-left”. They are of the Left and proud of it. I’m not saying here that the President is a Communist, although I will say that His past is full of asscociations with Communists and Marxists. His own voting record, His own words, His own policies are exclusively of the Left. Calling the President a “centrist” is patently false.
You’ll have to explain how socialized health care is not a policy of the Left.
Because it is embraced by a broad range of political parties covering the left and right in the vast majority of economically developed capitalist nations. Sure it originated from the left but is accepted across a broad political spectrum. Democracy at work.
Not much point splitting hairs over the Eds. we are not going to agree But I’m not sure that lending Milliband the tabloid Red ED epithet lends a great deal of weight to your argument.
I did not mean to imply you think Obama is a communist. But plenty of others do. We also will not agree about BHO being a centrist, but in my view the rather tepid moves towards universal healthcare, continued support for capital punishment, education reforms which continue the trend started by the previous administration make him pretty much a man of the centre in global terms. Not however in the USA I agree but America is different in so many ways, usually for the better I would say.
dmaf,
Because it is embraced by a broad range of political parties covering the left and right in the vast majority of economically developed capitalist nations. Sure it originated from the left but is accepted across a broad political spectrum. Democracy at work.
Again, that just means it’s mainstream, not a reason it’s not a Leftist position on the political spectrum. I’m maintaining a separation here.
As for the Eds, you can’t possibly be serious you don’t agree that they’re Socialists and fully Left when they both proudly proclaim themselves to be as such, as I’ve proven in my link above.
No David I don’t think they not socialists. I said they were centre left, they accept all the precepts of liberal democracy, abandoned the old clause 4 mantras of the old labour hard left. They favour private sector intervention and profit making from universal services and deregulation of markets. To me that’s Centre Left. Quite possible to be a socialist of the centre left, we had 13 years of it.
Ok as far as healthcare is concerned, yes you are right it is mainstream which means it is not uniquely a position of the left, it is a shared philosophy that crosses boundaries, though it has its origins in the UK at least from the left. What is outside of the mainstream, and I’m not attributing this viewpoint to you, is the shrieking about death panels etc that we hear from some sections of the US media and certain figures.
Okay, I see what you mean about splitting hairs over the Eds. But you might be hearing more and more people voicing concerns over health care rationing over here.
Agreed I probably will. But I’m not sure that rationing is avoidable. you either ration on the basis of an admittedly flawed social provision model. Or you ration on the basis of people’s ability to cough up the cash. Now I have to go Barcelona V Arsenal in the champions league is calling! Keep in touch. Back in 3 hours. Mark
The German Health system (based on insurance) often looks at the NHS as of the ‘Left’ as it offers no choice and is ‘top down rationed’ as opposed to patient lead with free choice of hospitals and medical professionals.
During discussions about reforms and affordability (a universal problem), the NHS was compared with the dismantled system in the DDR. And that was Communist.
Their little “blind spot” on race aside, I understood the Nazis were “National Socialists”, not on “the Right” but on the Left. Their repositioning on the political spectrum by liberal historians is a self-serving whitewash. Hitler and Stalin are indistinguishable.
London,
Spot on !
Nonsense, dmaf, there is a different between “mainstream” and left and right sides of the political spectrum. After all, one wouldn’t say that Communism is a centrist position, simply because China is run by the Communist Party, nor would one say that Hugo Chavez is a centrist just because most Venezuelans lean towards Socialism.
It’s nothing to do with the specific political trends of a specific country. Socialism is not a centrist position, nor is socialized health care. Mainstream in many places, perhaps, but not centrist.
with a deep interest in world affairs?
There is nothing in his record or his writing to suggest that Obama had any interest in world affairs until his new job forced him to.
deegee ,
Agree. One of the many problems with Obama, apart from his far Leftism, is his deep ignorance of world affairs.
Grant, I don’t see it necessarily as ignorance, but more of a lack of interest (before He was elected). His entire adult life has been based on local issues, domestic agendas. The only thought He’s ever given to foreign policy other than which Socialist or Marxist governments to approve of was His vocal opposition to the war in Iraq. And that was simply because He’s an isolationist at heart, and it was Republicans doing it, not because He’s a pacifist.
He simply doesn’t care so much about foreign policy or the realities of international diplomacy. Why else would He have based so much political capital on blowing kisses and bowing to dictators?
David P,
I dare say you may well be right.
Obama seems to me an isolationist on a personal and political level.
I can see a rationale in the US giving up on the rest of the world. They don’t get many thanks for intervening. But, in my view of realpolitik, the US has to engage, not least in their own interests, and Obama fails here.
As a Brit looking at my increasingly pathetic and crumbling country, I , maybe naively, look to the US and find Obama failing. But I guess “leadership” is not his strong point. He is a mere follower and fellow-traveller.
Isolationism is a very old idea in the US, probably associated with the Left as much as with the Right, I think. But we’re talking about someone who seriously has little interest outside of domestic policy, and was elected at least in part because He portrayed Himself as being against US military action anywhere except, grudgingly, Afghanistan. His position wasn’t thought any further than “I’m not George Bush”, and didn’t need to be to please His worshipers.
His ideas on diplomacy, such as they are, seemed laughably naive and misuiged to nearly everyone except Justin Webb and a few others. None of it worked – not the video Valentine to Iran and the Muslim World, not with Russia, not with China, and certainly not in Latin America (e.g., Venezueal and Honduras), just to name a few.
Now we’re seeing everyone look to the US for leadership – moral and military – and getting a very confused, weak message. On one level, I find it very amusing that the world still thinks of the US in that way, which is a slap in the face of the Beeboids and Leftoids who constantly told us that the US was in decline and no longer worthy of such consideration, and how that’s a good thing. He was supposed to restore us to our moral standing and all that, right? Yeah, well, not when the going gets tough. And still the Beeboids daren’t criticize, and project their disappointment onto the Tories instead.
“Unless we’re supposed to believe now that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are centrist?”
In Beebland, that’s exactly what they are.
The Beeboids may think their political beliefs are mainstream, and even correct, but not centrist.
Although in this instance I will defer to Jeff Randall’s quote in the sidebar.
And let’s not forget the little Mao adornments to the Obama Christmas tree. 40-60 million people were slaughtered in the name of Communism in Mao’s China. Communism hates Christianity with an ideological passion, so where better to show this than on a Christmas tree! When one takes into account ALL of Obama’s deeds and rhetoric it is clear that he in not just a committed Communist but also a hater of European civilisation and the race that built it.
Dear Christian friend :- Where in the bible did Jesus claim to be god? Where in the bible did Jesus ask to be worshipped? Where did Jesus say I am God Manifested in flesh? Where did Jesus mention the original sin? Where did Jesus say I am the God the Son? Where did Jesus say that I am God the Word? Where did Jesus say I am the Second God in Trinity ?
Hmmm interesting but off topic me thinks unless you have a very well hidden point about Obi-one and his leftward spiral then could you can explain to a non religious heretic like me ?
Try John 1:1
Meanwhile at 9am this morning we had a half-hour interview between John Humphrys and the “victim” Valerie Plame – Mrs Joe Wilson. This was an entirely one-sided interview. allowing her to bleat on about Bush, Cheney, the NeoCons etc and to push the new film.
A film of nil interest to Brits. Just as Plame is of nil interest to most Brits.
What was disgraceful – but predictable – was that Humphrys did not put a single question to Plame challenging her version of events, challenging the lies her husband had told, challenging her claim to have been a covert operartive at that time, or even mentioning that it was a Democrat at the State Department who had outed her to Robert Novak.
Nope. Just another run at Bush and Iraq.
Must be an election brewing. The Beeboids are getting the message out early.
As we know, Islam Not BBC (INBBC) is close to Al JAZEERA TV in several ways:
1.) interchange of staff, notably in London, where Al Jazeera English has its studios;
2.) technical agreements, inc. apparently, INBBC getting early viewing rights to any Al Jazeera Bin Laden tapes;
3.) political affinity on Islam;
4.) similar preference for U.S. Democrats over Republicans.
And now there’s this:
“Video: Hillary Clinton: Al Jazeera Is ‘Real News'”
http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/video-hillary-clinton-al-jazeera-is-real-news/
Glenn Beck, ‘FOX NEWS’ calls it:
“Beck Calls Sec. Clinton’s Promoting Al Jazeera ‘Insanity’”
{Excerpt:
GLENN BECK: –
“First they came for ‘Fox News’, and I said nothing…”}
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/beck-calls-sec-clintons-promoting-al-jazeera-insanity/
Supplementary – which applies to Islam Not BBC (INBBC):
Glenn Beck Show, ‘FOX NEWS’ –
Why do Elites love Al Jazeera?”
( 3 min video)
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4573417/why-do-elites-love-al-jazeera
(
Mao, “a philosopher”. Love it !
How someone can worship a man whose political philosophy led him to murder millions of his own people is beyond me. Yet this is the kind of person with whom The Obamessiah finds common cause, but still pretended that He identified most closely with Kevin Rudd. Nick Bryant believed Him, and makes sure to remind you of it now.
And since when was Mother Theresa a political philosopher? It’s a joke.
David P,
By their friends you shall know them !
Many years ago I had a few pints with that Pol Pot guy down the local pub. Very intelligent and good sense of humour. Writes poetry as well…………..
I agree Obama is one of the most ‘liberal'(in the newer American sense.) of US presidents and was one of the most ‘liberal’ of senators. However I’m not really sure that designations like left, right and centre mean much. Someone mentioned fascism and that is the obvious example of how this sort of spectrum fails. They are called far-right but have all sorts of positions that have been variously called right, left and centre.
Here’s an intereting aside to ponder.
You have accused a BBC journalist of telling a lie. A strong claim. I cannot beleive the Beeboids do not monitor this site.
If they knew that it was not a lie they would reach for the lawyers. That they do not suggest that they know they are lying and sending false propaganda rather than factual reporting.
Alternatively, a lurking defender of the indefensible eagerly forwarded this to Connolly and she laughed, dismissing this site as a right-wing extremist backwater.
I think the only Beeboid who occasionally checks his blogfeed is David Gregory. Any others who become aware of something here are alerted by defenders of the indefensible who read this site hoping to score points, always looking to fight the good fight.