The Real News Network: Is Obama a Conservative or a Progressive Realist?
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2008
1:00 PM
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CONTACT: The Real News Network
Alina Smirnova and Nina Aghdasi, 416-916-5202
smcommunications@therealnews.com |
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Is Obama a Conservative or a Progressive Realist?
Alterman and Escobar debate if Obama is a conservative politican or a progressive who knows how to win
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June 30 - Journalist and author Eric Alterman debates with The Real News analyst Pepe Escobar about whether Obama is a conservative politician, or a progressive playing smart politics.
While Escobar believes that Barack Obama's policies are in actuality conservative and that he himself is a very conservative politician, Alterman insists that Obama is a progressive politician who knows how to win. His claim is that success in politics rests on speaking from "the band of acceptable opinion". He stresses that, "Politics is about compromise. If you don't want to compromise, you don't want to do what's necessary to get power, do something else."
Alterman says Obama's speech at AIPAC is an example of such a compromise, and that Obama said as much as he felt was acceptable. He did not go onto discussing any foreign issues as not to evoke any negative responses.
Escobar points out that Obama "didn't even dare to discuss any foreign policy issues" at AIPAC. Alterman counters that Obama will continue with his progressive message, but approach with caution, comparing broaching topics at the wrong time to, "eating bad food at someone's house and telling them, your food stinks."
Hear the whole thing on The Real News Network
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