Ralph Nader Blasts The President: Calls Obama “A Frightened Man”

video

by Robert Quigley | 11:40 am, October 14th, 2009

» 7 comments

naderobama The politician who commemorated Barack Obama‘s election by pointedly asking if Obama was going to be an “Uncle Tom for the giant corporations” is at it again.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Tech Ticker, Ralph Nader lashed out at the president on a variety of scores, calling him “a frightened man” and “Bush-Cheney redux” and mocking his Nobel Peace Prize win, saying the Nobel Committee must have been “eating too many sardines.”

These weren’t just offhanded comments: almost all of the five-and-a-half minute interview is devoted to criticizing Obama, on fronts from health care to corporate governance to the war in Afghanistan. It’s a sign of Nader’s fallen star that he gave such a juicy, inflammatory interview to Tech Ticker, of all outlets. And even though it was posted at noon yesterday — in blog time, a full day is an eternity — it’s gotten barely any coverage.

The Huffington Post wrote about Tech Ticker’s Nader interview, but bizarrely omitted all criticism of Obama from the piece, focusing instead on a different segment where he calls out the Federal Reserve. This is not in the same league as titling a column about all of the sporting events Jaycee Dugard missed during her years of captivity “Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years,” but there seems to be a similar principle of making the story sound deliberately boring so no one will look into it.

Here’s the video:

(via Metafilter)

A Frightened Man, barack obama, Jaycee Dugard, Jaycee Dugard Column, Obama Frightened, Ralph Nader, Ralph Nader Barack Obama

m

Nader certainly reflects a lot of sentiment on the left, that Obama hasn’t lived up to his promises and is too moderate. This is, for example, what Rachel Maddow has said all along. I’m beginning to think that is the case. Bill Clinton was the best Republican we’ve had in a long time…if this continues Obama might end up getting that label, too.
Nachi

Ralph, Ralph! Get a grip! You’re beginning to sound too Repug-like. Anger and bitterness. You’re in danger of outliving/outwiting your legacy.

Obama is dealing with Repugs. Pretty hard to walk thru mounds of excrement unless you have a proper scooper in hand.
Ben Linus

Nachi, Olbermann, whoever you are — what are talking about when you say that “Obama is dealing with Republicans.” Democrats Control the House and the Senate!! The mounds of excrement that you are referring to must be Pelosi and Senate MAJORITY Leader Harry Reid, huh?
President Obama told everyone what they wanted to hear during the election, that’s why Hillary Clinton didn’t get elected. Hillary told the truth when it came to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the anti-war left didn’t want to hear anything realistic, they wanted pie-in-the-sky promises, so that’s what Obama gave them.
Nader was right, President Obama is frightened. He just left out the part where President Obama is a two-faced liar on:
Warrentless Wiretapping
Stopping the revolving door for lobbyists (so lobbyists would not run his White House, they way they would run a McCain White House)
Mandating health care coverage (He gave Hillary plenty of hell during the campaign, because that’s what she wanted to do, and he said he was against it.)
He changed his mind about releasing prisoner abuse photos. Boy, the left didn’t like that.
Then there is all the stuff from that ‘SNL’ Obama sketch.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joe-Callan/100000200979966 Joe Callan

Oh, Nachi, Nachi, Nachi…what exactly does it say about Mr. Obama when you’re making excuses for him regarding the few fringers who are constantly assailing him?

Bush, who was pretty much a dumbass, was able to push through ALL of his wasteful and unconstitutional legislation with the narrowest of majority margins (and sometimes even on a MINORITY margin). So why is it that Democrats, what with their superior intellect and compassion for the people, can’t push through any of the promises their party made before the 2008 election season?

Could it be that they’re the kind of cowards that Nader is accusing them of being? (Not to say Nader’s any kind of a leader or a mouthpiece–he should go back to telling me what products are going to kill and maim me. He was actually half-decent at doing that.)
CaptainAmerica

Bill Clinton was the best Republican we’ve had in a long time>>

Too bad people (that believe that) forget to mention that is after the 1994 Republican Revolution. Clinton was a total failure up till then (like Obama). After Republicans took control, Clinton was forced (by political realities and Dick Morris) to go along with alot of the Republican agenda. Welfare reform, balanced budget and other things.

Obama could get his chance after another huge Democrat defeat in 2010. Maybe after that stunning blow, he will stop spending like a drunken sailor and all the other things that he has been screwing up royally.
Jim R

It’s completely unsurprising Obama is as disappointing to the left as Clinton was, given the realities after Buckley, which forced Democrats to adopt Republican-lite policies to compete politically.

Most economists attribute the relative economic success of the nineties to the 1993 Budget Act, accomplished with zero Republican support and widespread right wing predictions of the “the next great depression” if passed; which should render any further economic predictions of outcomes by the right moot if not ridiculous.

Whether Obama’s pandering to the corporate owners of our democracy will allow any vestige of actual progress remains to be seen. What is not in doubt are the failures of full blown Republican sycophancy of the rich and powerful.

Nader gave us Bush II and for that his sullied place in history will always be assured.
Tater Salad

Not only frightened but a pure Socialist.