• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Sanders: Obama's paid Wall Street speech 'distasteful'

Obama could have been paid to speak by Americans for Hugging Puppies and right-wingers would still be mad about it.

The only people upset about this are liberals. lol u!
 
Distasteful maybe. But as distasteful as a snake oil salesman peddling socialism? That beats Obama any day.

If your arguments were worth any salt, you wouldn't need to misrepresent his.
 
The only people upset about this are liberals. lol u!

"Everything Wall Street does is evil no matter what" isn't a liberal belief, it's a stupid belief.
 
God forbid that the first black President should do what every other president before him ever did!

The reason he was elected as the first black president is he convinced so many he was different from the others and not beholden to wall street - "we have to redistribute the wealth"

Does that sound like who turns around and takes gigs from wall street? Or appoints tim geitner? Or dismisses out of hand in front of the entire congress a move to single payer health care, because it would shake up the economy?
 
Obama could have been paid to speak by Americans for Hugging Puppies and right-wingers would still be mad about it.

yeah but no lefties like bernie sanders would be
 
He can be as distasteful as he pleases.

And which part of his speech was distasteful to you? Or is the mere act of being in the same room as Wall Street execs bothersome to you?

That's the part I'm still waiting on: for someone to tell me what actual words I'm supposed to be mad about. Otherwise... why the hell should I care?
 
Is that your opinion or fact? ;)

Fact, most everybody by midlife has a pretty decent clue who and what they are, and I am better than most.

So is Marcus right...have you anything to say about that, or do you need to talk about me some more?
 
Yet his wife's fraud of that college was good stuff...

Yeah, I haven't forgotten about that...this is probably his way of deflecting from his wife's budding criminal enterprise.
 
I have no problem with it although he should be spreading that wealth around.
I do find the irony and almost hypocrisy amazing.

I wonder if he realizes that he is one of those evil 1% that he ranted about for 8 years.
 
Mr Obama is simply cashing in on his eight years of service to Wall Street. I can't imagine why anyone would be surprised by this or think that he is in any way being hypocritical. Quite the contrary. Somewhat unusually for him, he is being honest and consistent.
 
We should be asking the question does a former president still hold any influence?
If yes then being paid a high amount of money for speaking to Wall Street types, does that mean theres potential to pay for politcal influence?
If yes then should we as bottom dewler citizens do something to change it?
If yes then what can be done to change such practices?
Without harming in an unconstitutional illegal way.
Once a solution is found and sounds agreeable, write your senators and congressman and blast them in social media to try enforce the change.
 
God forbid that the first black President should do what every other president before him ever did!

Fair point. Still it would have been very easy for Obama to make a principal decision of not taking any more money from Wall Street. Because he could become very rich just from his book.

That the problem is that behavior like that can lead to that people believe that all politician is the same and that politics doesn't matter. That it can both lead to that people don’t vote and participate in the politician process.

While you also have increasing support for “antiestablishment” far right politicians. Even if those politicians continue the last decades of failed neo liberal policies and like Donald Trump fill their administration with billionaires, bankers and lobbyists.

That you need left wing politicians both in Europe and USA that truly can challenge the neoliberal consensus both in action and policies. Instead of just offer a less brutal and a bit less unfair “neo liberalism light”.
 
I don't have a problem with what Obama did to be honest. Obama has no obligation to appeal to voters or any other particular constituent. He's free to go get his. What Hillary did was despicable because she gave those speeches and then tried to pretend that her cozy relationship with banks wasn't going to affect her policy making. Obama is done with all that: go get that money bro'!

Two terms in the White House means Obama already "has his". This speech is rather a confirmation of that.
 
I don't like it mainly for the optics. I want the democrats to focus on becoming the party of all people again instead of essentially excluding rural voters and those concerned about big money in politics. Personally, I don't care if Obama wants to ride off into the sunset and be openly cozy with wall street, but I worry that it will encourage the current rrlationship between dems and big money.
 
Barack Obama was one of the worst Presidents in US history, but one truly has to admire the man's ability to seek out suckers and benefit personally from them. Be it finding voters to fall for his platitudes, not just once but twice, to finding an audience willing to pay to hear more of his nauseating words. More power to the man - soak the suckers for all you can.
 
We should be asking the question does a former president still hold any influence?
If yes then being paid a high amount of money for speaking to Wall Street types, does that mean theres potential to pay for politcal influence?
If yes then should we as bottom dewler citizens do something to change it?
If yes then what can be done to change such practices?
Without harming in an unconstitutional illegal way.
Once a solution is found and sounds agreeable, write your senators and congressman and blast them in social media to try enforce the change.

Obama isn't in office. His "influence" is limited to expressing his opinion just like any other American, and people listening to him like they have a right to do.

We run into problems when that paid influence is going to people who actually get to vote on things.
 
Wallstreet owes Obama. He took it easy on them and now he gets his payday. It also sends a message to future Presidents that if they take it easy on them they too will have easy money waiting for them. Hell, even a billionaire like Trump probably wouldn't scoff at $400,000 to spend an hour doing something he loves: speaking.

I have to assume by "took it easy on them" you are referring to not putting the WS bankers in jail. They really didn't break any laws by buying loans where the borrower's ability to repay the loan was not checked. And they broke no laws re-selling the mortgages. They literally had permission (and encouragement) from Bush's regulators. And what disputes they knew they were bad was they got stuck with them when the music stopped. Don't get me wrong, some realized it towards the end but they all got burnt. WS is driven by greed. When the regulators encourage them its like telling a crack addict he looks good skinny.

But please don't forget President Obama raised the 1%er's taxes. He also passed Dodd Frank. DF is literally the only thing between us and another Bush Mortgage Bubble. Who fought raising their taxes and who wants to repeal DF?
 
Wallstreet owes Obama. He took it easy on them and now he gets his payday. It also sends a message to future Presidents that if they take it easy on them they too will have easy money waiting for them. Hell, even a billionaire like Trump probably wouldn't scoff at $400,000 to spend an hour doing something he loves: speaking.

I can't even begin to convey in words how not okay I am with this. Obama pissed his legacy all away when he capitulated to House Clinton for beginners, and then to his Wall Street Overlords this recently.

GOOD ****ING JOB AMERICA!!!!
 
Back
Top Bottom