Special Guest: Barack Obama

by Peter B. Collins on April 15, 2011

PBC talks back to the President. In this podcast, you will hear a major portion of Obama’s speech on April 13 at George Washington University, interspersed with critical commentary. Will Durst comments on the budget battle. Your humble host is slightly encouraged that the president offered some important history on the causes of our debt, and that Obama showed some spine by criticizing the GOP Ryan plan and drawing some lines in the proverbial sand. But in his quest for independent voters for 2012, Obama poses as leader of the nonexistent “Centrist Party” as he distances himself from labor, progressives, and the Democrats who gave him the nomination in ’08. As he floats above the fray, he enables the GOP to control the framing and agenda, empowering those who are dedicated to his political destruction. And while he talks about preserving Medicare as we know it and making some cuts in defense spending, he fails to make clear that the Ryan plan is a clone of the same GOP policies that created the mess he is trying to clean up.

At 1:08:30, Durst talks about the budget showdown of April 8, 2011.

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