[Cartertonian]

Progressive - at least by the Yank definition.

I'm entertaining.
And I'm Right!!

OK, as long as you make clear the difference between 'Right' and 'Correct'.

[Meslocusist]

Who on Earth said capitalist? LOL!

Well, presumably you are implying that he is a socialist. I'm making an assumption here, and it is quite possible that this is a strawman argument. If it is, my apologies.

He is obviously not a socialist. How do I know? A socialist would be in the process of nationalizing large portions of the economy right now. If you notice, the stock market is just as it was. The only thing that's really increasing is regulation, which is rather needed. While government spending has increased, effectively nothing has been nationalized.

For the record, I am not particularly an Obama supporter.

[Oddity]

Other: Idiot, kind of like DanDaMan.

[PBVBROOK]

He is a sold-out Chicago politician. He is acting to shore up those who gave him the most during the election...Wall Street. In that regard he is a capitalist.

His answer to universal health care is to require people to purchase insurance. From who? Private companies. Maybe some small government alternative where the insurance companies can dump those they do not want to insure on the public purse. In that regard he is a pro-business conservative.

He is for relatively free trade and amnesty to illegal workers. (Favoring employers over American workers.) Capitalist.

I might admit that he has some progressive ideas but bye and large he is not a whole lot different from GWB on the economy. He has bailed out Wall Street and what has he done in turn to regulate the excesses and downright theft that tanked the economy? Not a damn thing. Capitalist.

[redcarpet]

I think the guy personally hated the US (and probably still does, given his visible lack of pride in the country

Could you elaborate more on this?

[Rancid]

A piece of shit Progressive.

He does not deserve to be lumped in with perfectly respectable Dominicans like Rancid or my grandpa.

I appreciate it house

[Nets]

I voted other, Progressive/Capitalist.

[Alex Jacobson]

Other, populist. Also useful for marketing.

[NoRapture]

Center to far-right...

[Infidelis]

Other: He's the MESSIAH! [/DanDaManandalltheotherrighttards]

[Tuy]

Of the terms listed, "Progressive" is most descriptive of Obama and his policies. "Fascist," "Socialist," and "Communist" are obviously incorrect.

Yet the new deal lengthened the Depression

Doc, either proof that, or stop saying it. Every GDP Graph I've ever seen shows the GDP bottoming out right as FDR got elected, and then shooting up. And it's the same with unemployment. So, either put up, or shut up.

Those who say that the New Deal improved the economy actually have the more difficult case to make. When an economy has been in a slump for long enough and has reached its trough, it will begin to recover. The economy would have probaly rebounded no matter who had been elected in 1932, and there is no evidence that shows a causal link between the New Deal and the improvements in the long term health of the economy (I wish to emphasize "long term" because, even though the New Deal decreased unemployment, these benefits only injected a brief reprieve that was unsustainable).

[Wolfman]

GDP and unemployment both bottomed out the year he took office, and then rose significantly afterward. That tells me and my irrational self that what he worked.

[El Gilroy]

Capitalist.
He might deviate from the majority of US capitalists, but it's still what he's closest to so far. Maybe he'll change, tho. Who knows

[TWalpole]

@Sephardi

He's a third-way Social Democrat. Most people I know still own their own businesses. He favors a third-way approach and Kenysian economics.

Give the guy a chance. He's only been in power for 7 months. It takes time to destroy the spirit of a Capitalist system.

By the way, social democrats are socialists. In america for some reason, politicians are afraid of being identified as socialist.

[TWalpole]

Progressive is just a euphemism for Socialist that american socialists came up with around the turn of the 20th century to differentiate themselves from the more leftist socialists, the communists.

[PBVBROOK]

Progressive is just a euphemism for Socialist that american socialists came up with around the turn of the 20th century to differentiate themselves from the more leftist socialists, the communists.

Nonsense. Nothing of the sort. Stop trying to get your political education from freshman drop-outs like Hannity and Limbaugh.

[TWalpole]

If that is the case why do they say the same things and try to copy policies espoused by the socialist parties (like the SPD) here in Germany?

Stop trying to get your political education from freshman drop-outs like Hannity and Limbaugh.

I don't know what you're talking about.

[PBVBROOK]

I didn't notice you were from Germany and not exposed to our right-wing idiots Limbaugh and Hannity. Apologies.

American progressives are not necessarily socialist. Our form of progressivism looks toward control and regulation of capitalist institutions to a greater degree but not to ownership of these institutions.

You are corrrect that we are similar in goals to the social democratic ideas that the SPD party currently espouses but NOT the socialist working class ideas it originally embraced. Maybe more like the FDP on social issues and the SDP on economic ones.

[DanDaMan]

American progressives are not necessarily socialist. Our form of progressivism looks toward control and regulation of capitalist institutions to a greater degree but not to ownership of these institutions.

PBV is correct.
As you can see, Twa, from what he just wrote and I just quoted... FASCIST is the most correct term!

[TWalpole]

Maybe more like the FDP on social issues

You mean like individual responsibility and limited government? Then by your definition, Obama and the democrats can't possibly be considered Progressives.