Ralph Nader: Obama Needs to Stand With Progressives; ‘He’s Got to Learn How to Fight’

Nader is right on the money. President Obama needs to know how to fight the evil people of Washington to get change.

Obama needs to fight the people to get this pushed through. It's not just republicans. He's got to fight democrats too. Odd now that the president believes the people are simply a force to be overcome. Government that doesn't fear the people is tyrannical. We keep getting promises of more taxes, more government take over of businesses, and expanding the encumbrance of the bourgeois to feed the insatiable appetite of the ruling party overlords who seem to never have felt that at anytime that the answer wasn't more government and more taxes. Even JFK wasn't popular when he lowered taxes. The advance of Marxism is this administration priority. It is precisely why it had a militant communist founder of STORM as an adviser and many other radical lefists as czars. It's no coincidence. It's no coincidence that the White House is making the NEA the propaganda arm of the administration with tax dollars. Obama tries to say that a forced mandate is not a tax. That of course is plainly stupid, but in most states of the United States, extortion is more widely defined to include the obtaining of money or property of another by inducing his consent through wrongful use of fear, force, or authority of office. Got it? So, Obama is right. It's not a mandate, it's extortion as most of what goes on that's called "tax".

Spare me Nader's advice. What office has he been elected to? Obama is playing this right on the money. I'm a registered Democrat, and Obama simply cannot govern from the far left. That would be impossible. Even with majorities in Congress, you can never win every vote on every issue with your own party. That's impossible. Obama had millions of independents and swing voters voting for him. He goes too far left, he's cooked pure and simple. And, whatever else comes up on the agenda that progressives don't want or advocate for, Obama is going to need those centrist Democrats and even Republicans (like Afghanistan). I would argue that Obama is finding governing tougher with his own party than if Republicans gained a majority. Call me crazy, but the country is center-left, center-right swinging back and forth from issue to issue. The liberalism that Kennedy espoused is over pure and simple. Even Ted Kennedy realized to get anything done, he was going to have to reach across the aisle. In healthcare, Repubs are simply saying no, but trust me, on something else, Obama can and will get votes from across the aisle. Where Nader is right is that Obama sooner or later is going to have to get tough with his own party on healthcare and definitely on the Afghan war. If he doesn't want to become the next Jimmy Carter, he'll have to govern from center-left, center-right. He has no o other choice.

I AGREE Ralph, let's hope Obama learns how to lose, just like you.

Get lost Ralph.

Mr. Nader needs to learn how to win public office rather than advising Obama how to not lose. Nader is clearly a radical environmentalist since he advocates the ending of nuclear power generation.

Whatever happened to democracy and representative government. We have a president that tells the congress what HE wants. I thought the idea was that congress represents the people.

We find ourselves having to work our congress in attempt to get it to listen to us instead of doing the president's bidding.

It seems that roughly half the country thinks9?) it wants socialism (beginning with socialized medicine) and half that still believes in democracy. The control lies with the independent voters (that's me) and the swing vote. Let's make our voices heard!

I'm sure Obama is getting all the help he needs from Georgie Soros and his storm troopers at MoveOn, OrganizeAmerica, and, of course, his beloved ACORN.

Obama has the worst job in the world: cleaning up the mess that Bush & Cheney made.

obama needs to figure out that there is a hidden army of democracy loving americans mobilizing against him and if he doesnt act like a president instead of a king, he will fall hard and fast.

When reporters start following the stimulus money, they will find the hidden corruption. This president will fall soon in some of the largest scandals ever seen in a United States presidency.

Ralph is right. Democrats lost their soul when they sold out to Bill Clinton and became Corporate Republicans.

Now we have Obama leaving no corporation behind and nationalizing every industry that hasn't already been outsourced in the country.

Nader has been right on since day one, and the further the party goes away from it's principles the worse things get for the American people.

There hasn't been a two party system in this country for almost 50 years, and Nader has been right on the mark pointing out the greed of the Corporate Republicans and the hypocrisy of the Corporate Democrats.

Democrats come home. Work for the people and not for corporate special interest that live to feed off of them.

Good for you Ralph, you may be the only true Democrat left. And THAT is a shame...

Obama has to shed his trying to be all things to all parties image. It's just contributing to the wimp factor that's now beginning to haunt him.

Maybe Nader should get back to his original fight, remember "Unsafe At Any Speed" when he strove to bring down the Corvair?

What if Nader applied that rationale and effort to these wimpy little cars that are being manufactured today. Any of the clunkers, even the Corvair could squash any of these little mpg crackerboxes!

Good grief, get rid of the rose colored glasses. The Corvair was a piece of junk! It was unsafe and unreliable. And why is Nader, who spent his whole life fighting fatcat Republican crooks and reactionaries, telling our President to lie, cheat and steal like a Republican?
Don't lie down with dogs, then wake up with fleas.

I support Obama and I feel Nader is right. He has to get tough and say to people...I make the decisions here. His problem is he is too nice and thinks just because he is doing the right thing that people will agree and go along. Washington is a selfish place and each one is out for themselves. What they don't realize if his objective do not get through...they wont be re-elected either so they better get on board and support their president...come on blue dogs....get with the program.. You cried for years that you were not in power ..well now you are so get with the program...the program is get behind your president or it will be a long time before you get her again.

Obama is doing the best he can given the horrendous mess left to him by Bush/Cheney. Everyone knows that, but many of you don't want to admit it. You keep complaining that Obama is doing a "lousy" job. What do you expect? He's been in office 8 months! Bush/Cheney had 8 years to destroy this country. It's going to take a while to rebuild it, wouldn't you say??

"Covair" man rides again! PO should give him a job @ GM. "Unsafe at any speed" the new battle cry for the Democrats

Nader is the only one with a real plan to fix our country. Its timie to move away from the two party system that is controlled by big business.

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Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5167