dramas that can't be ignored to. stories others refused to notice. faces change the world lights never. come full picture of today's events no my own designs from around the globe. up to. fifty. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm people of a few u.s. presidents elected to

a second term in office leave the white house success or even popular rock obama is a case in point his poll numbers are low his legislative agenda is in deep trouble and washington's friends and foes around the world do not take him seriously is obama already a lame duck president. cross not whether obama is a lame duck i'm joined by my guests in new york chet why he's a democratic political strategist and we also have don de bar he is an anti-war activist and host of a daily radio program right gentlemen cross talk rules in fact that means you can jump in any time you want and i very much encourage it chet if i go to you first in new york congratulations on your victory. race in new york a breath of fresh air a lot of people say but let's go to president obama he's got very low numbers in the polls right now about forty six that's the lowest during his time in office and a lot of people are saying at home and abroad this guy just doesn't cut the mustard

he doesn't have the to get his agenda through and hence he is a lame duck now agree or disagree. well i i really disagree you know i mean any time you have three years ago on any term bad it's really too soon to make that kind of declaration in american politics so barack obama has little bit of distance right now but he has some some great opportunities to implement he said gently ok that was short and sweet don we have a lame duck president in the in the white house right now i don't know if a lame duck is an appropriate term of go back to the issue of an agenda i don't know what the agenda is part of the agenda was to bring in the health care reform that's been done to a degree i mean there are issues with that it's a step forward a baby step forward people acted obama thinking they were going to get a single payer health care system because that's what he promised across the board looking at foreign policy international affairs war and peace issues everything

that he was elected to do is done pretty much the opposite it's like a third term for george bush only on steroids for example in africa he's doing things that bush would never of tried to do invading libya bombing it for eight or nine months all over the rest of the globe the pivot to china everything else of george bush tried to do that you'd have thousands of democrats out in the street in every little town in the united states instead they're lining up behind it but the agenda itself it's unclear exactly what that is ok chad you want to respond to that george bush's third term. well you know we been hearing that poor for a number of years but i don't think over the end it's valid his health care agenda ate up a lot of the clock for the first term and certainly it could have been some adjustment was presented in how we move through congress but he was successful in doing in a way that eisenhower was unable to do it you know kennedy was unable to do it with

johnson and nixon carter all down the line none of these presidents was able to implement health care in any kind of reforming he was able to do would despite the circumstances we're looking at the second term and we still have to get through immigration reform which is a was a big ticket item and i want to say ok much i mean. it's not i mean don if we look at health care if we look at health care it's still it's not any place here is a matter of fact it's far from being in place and one could even make the argument that obama is still running in his first term because his great achievement if you like it or not isn't his first term but it hasn't come to fruition not by a long shot in a second term. that's by its terms first let's correct the history ok kennedy started formulating in johnson asked medicare ok that is a much more extensive health care program perhaps not in terms of the age groups in

terms of demographics but in terms of the depth of coverage and the number of people in the class you know people sixty five and over sixty two and over whatever that were reached that was a remarkable because it came from nothing what has been accomplished or what is yet to be actualized but what's been accomplished on paper under the obama administration is essentially a reorganizing of the private insurance industry nothing more it's insurance regulation or the adjustment of insurance regulations. it's not creating a new healthcare system out of whole cloth it's just requiring a little more give back out of a private health care insurance system that sucks most of the money out of the health care system when obama ran when he promised that i would pay what's going to . ok chad jump in go ahead that's crosstalk go ahead i would think that millions

and millions of the people who are now covered under health coverage getting health coverage. tended to disagree with that but let's look at somebody observations that we've seen of late you know especially the forbes in this there has put obama and number two in the power in the world again who is number one and we look at business and this observation there are a lot of holes in the listing itself and there are some some places there that you know i think are pretty incredible but there are some places we're it is believable janet chen chan i'm glad you brought up this back you brought this up you know why and that's why we're doing this program exactly because of that list and that's what what i was thinking about when thinking about doing this program is a leadership change that when i go back you leadership and this is the the problem that a lot of people see obama has right now he doesn't have the leadership skills so ok

the presidency of the united states is very powerful and no one has any doubts about that but it's he powerful enough to use the office to get what he wants that's a very simple question and a lot of people say he's not up to the task. but he is our show and he is enough to get things done in this this is where this is where this is where we are we have to examine this whole scenario. the president is pretty much on to see the republicans since the first term and. the congress but he has an opportunity now. what is about to happen in the b. twenty four to choose to make a reversal so we look at for the force of this it's a snapshot of right now it's a snapshot of where the perception is of obama and perception is that i don't think it's so much a weakening of obama when you look at the entire transcript of what is happening as

he does in the ascension. pretty much defining himself on the world stage at critical marks and i think i think a lot of people in the world would agree with you on that but don but don a kind of allays my question here is barack obama a strong leader because gun control immigration. minimum wage i mean i get mono i mean i can go on and on and i'm not particularly a critic of the president but i look to what he ran on when he promised and come up short big time. listen this some essential facts to the american political system that have to be considered even to frame this discussion because the assumption underlying the questions and underlying you know the way we're looking at it is that obama has a particular agenda that's being frustrated by the republicans and so consequently the reason that the things that people expected from him are not being actualized

is because of being obstructed as opposed to identify and specifically what interests he represents who put him there who is beholden to what what his real agenda is now when you're trying to figure out what someone's religion is you take a look at what they've actually done for us let's remember that for the first two years of president obama's term and for the two years prior it is taking office both houses of the congress were democratic now you had obama eclipsing clinton hillary clinton in the primaries over the issue of war the democratic. you know the prime voters that went out and voted in the primaries the people that swing the constituency in that party or against the war the american public has been polling since two thousand and four as being against the wars in iraq and i think two thousand and six or two thousand and seven in afghanistan which still continues the democratic congress had every opportunity in two thousand and nine two thousand and

ten i'm sorry two thousand and seven two thousand and eight two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten to defund those wars which which was done with the vietnam war that's actually what ended it and since the first two years president obama was in office he was like wise could have done it instead he did exactly the opposite we're at war in more places now that we were one ok. let me go down pat let me go to chant down that obama is a war president just like george w. bush. worse so it doesn't make any sense i mean we haven't had any episodes of shopping or we don't have you know you can let you know about libya and let's not forget about libya is a little ad becomes a little bit a little bit hard not a bit hard to fathom and when you look at the numbers when you look at the numbers compared to iran's it is you know pretty astounding to be in the room to be a balance here so are you this is not to seem to let me just correct you on

something let me get you some forgot if you want to get it is very easy to put it that way ok dogs no no no no go ahead replied dunn go ahead let me let me give you some facts ok my friend former representative sensi a macand he spent a couple of weeks in libya while the bombing campaign was going on and she was sending me reports which i was forwarding out to my audience and so you know it's a different news agencies while she was there on one particular day and while we were in touch she was with representatives of the african union who were there to monitor what was going on now this is only in tripoli this particular. one of like a levin cities that are the major population centers in libya on that date from eleven thirty in the morning until eleven thirty in the evening twelve hours they counted eighty three explosions from bombs each one the size the equivalent of what happened at the world trade center in this city population of about two million about the population of manhattan now that campaign went on from march until

october and hit every city in libya with a population total at the time of six million people what he did to libya made what shocking all it did to baghdad pale in terms of tonnage in terms of duration and in terms of the extent of the destruction of the infrastructure so don't say that it wasn't that that was some minor issue that was engaging or so that's the first thing i did say to them the numbers that i can tell you to stay i'm going to let you read a line you don't like the reason why our new hampshire rank and after our short break we'll continue our discussion about obama's state party.

technology innovation all the developments from around. the future coverage. but you got a lot of sneering and negative press for your engagements here in russia especially for your public appearances with today even though they weren't explicitly political you were just supporting sports the scenes that some people who zoom has become very adept at is controlling the media for example right here c.n.n. do i think c.n.n. is you know completely telling it like it is no i think it's a have an agenda i think through gender is is bought and paid for.

right on the scene. in the first street. and i think you're. on a reformist twitter i am an instrument. to be in the know. on my. people i want to. take up something that is quite simply. was no way over. clearly they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. and sold to the u.s. or turned over to the u.s. for. the soul that could be buried

a lot i. was saved with great over. they wanted to turn me into a terrorist so it was they wanted me to admit that i was a member of al qaeda or taliban but i fought with them. not about time i didn't even know what al qaeda is nevertheless. there are people. who start a fight. something's going to be done that's going to be done by me never short of money but it's going to impact me and be prosecuted but it's going to impact. the one time a trap. on our team. welcome

back to crossfire for all things considered i'm peter lavelle to mind you we're discussing barack obama's presidency and whether he's a lame duck. ok chad let's go back to you in new york things are getting flaring up in wheeling to the end of the first hour of the program so please respond to don go ahead. well you know i have a problem when the source of information is. to me just a nonstarter but when we talk about is the effort to talk about the topic that we're here for whether or not whether or not he is a lame duck president and we're looking at three years to continue this presidency and there are a lot of opportunities and i think there are some opportunities. especially with the shutdown of the government by the republicans and. whole piece with

take cruz being the gift that keeps on giving the american public right now you see . it probably his. approval rating which is in the forty's but when we look at the shut down. in ninety six with bill clinton his approval rating has dropped to forty two but he was able to read another thing to consider is that the republican party itself has only an approval rating of twenty two percent and when you look at a congress on its own most of the american people have poll rabbit see all the members of congress replace and congressional approval is at ten percent so ten percent compared to the forty two percent ok i don't think he's ok chad back in those are all fair numbers those are going to twenty. fair numbers however if i go to the opportunity i say that it's not a no but i would say here that what you're saying is true about all those numbers i

agree with you but don how does that help barack obama finish his term in office as a success when you go to done had done what let me let me go back to john first go ahead i think that the numbers are relevant and i think the invoking of bill clinton is very useful in light there particularly for people that are outside of the united states that are watching this there's two aspects to american politics this is what they call retail politic. acts which is almost like watching a football game a soccer game or something where you have people on either side that are very emotionally involved but it's really much ado about nothing the real political aspects you know the real material aspects of politics of course is policy what what policy decisions are made you know you can study the mechanisms of that but what actually comes out what's the output what the implications are for both this society and what the united states for everyone else on the planet more or less

bill clinton after his numbers went up for whatever value that had turned around and brought in the hundred ninety six telecom act nafta ended welfare as we knew it you know basically does help to began the decimation the real decimation of the safety net in this country began the real consolidation of the media in this country began the real shipping overseas of american jobs in this country and so great his numbers were up he was the best republican president we ever had was his numbers were and obama's numbers are about as relevant in the same way what policies are is he actually trying to implement that we can look at the window when he had both houses of congress where and we get in i have these are this ok chad point you had to have some point don at some point down we're going to we're going to let me speak but this is we're number zero. the homeowner to country is

throw the bums out and particularly the republicans and you twenty four see here's an opportunity need to reset this whole political paradigm with brewing of the congress as opposed to being so red and making the situation that policy can actually start to move so with this sort of situation and day american public can see congress with approval with an approval rating of less in temp. i mean i could go out of here right now and i could pull you know more people who believe that elvis is still alive and they can take bad and move bad bad more more democrats go into the two congressional setting but this is with the knowledge of what happened with their last opportunity in two thousand and nine as far as moving agenda so we have to set the stage that we get past this callista truths do we get past this deadlock and start moving some policy and start getting

some. chat let's have to be splitted then let's take it by accident so badly damaged that they have no other choice it's let's stay with policy what diane you know i'm going to go to dano died waiting for the war i've really been waiting for immigration reform well i think a lot of latinos are too and it's probably not going to happen don i mean the perception from the outside looking in is that barack obama is just a figurehead for corporate america he's more interested in their interests. it's hard to hard to dispute that based on policy let's look at immigration reform he has deported more people than all prior presidents combined and he's only partway through his second term ok so what kind of policy is likely to come out i mean this is charade that goes on that this is a compromise american politics i know is the world are in to people outside of the

united states you don't have ideological differences between the parties there is wage issue. you know matters that you know i have audio article to do that is what about are those are serious are you serious you don't have audio magic observer is about. twenty one have read up about now you can't be here confidence in seriously listen. listen and the rest of the world the range of ideological do. differences goes from basically libertarianism to socialism and not republicans calling barack obama a socialist because he wants to give somebody a quarter with their cup in the corner but will the workers on the means of production of socialism the state is own by the workers socialism that will listen let me finish that's the range of ideological and we have to have major if you have a lady anybody's any friend out when you have major enemies in a friend or rejected socialism don you know i know how much i want to task

assessment i just want to have me here many things i want to spread out right out list so you have socialism all right when i write i mean you can be ready for combat me and let me jump in but i'm the mean trance tragic and i mean we have to we have to take into account i think this is what chant was getting to it's the tea party now they are very i don't want to play i would go ahead and chant i would have president putin what do you think it's not a political party i would ask president putin would you want to sit with him you have missing the point you're missing the point chet the point i was making is that elsewhere in the world the political parties are organized around different ideological perspectives and in the united states that share the ideological is perspectives fundamentally that large corporations are allowed to exist that flight finance is allowed to control the political system that whenever there is a problem we have to maintain the largest military in the world by far and that's

appropriate that we have to maintain the largest prison system in the world by far these are all areas by the way for example the prison industrial complex barack obama hasn't lifted a finger you have a young black man being killed like every thirty eight hours in this country it's actually gotten worse since he became president and he has he's not doing anything about it not nothing there's a million issues like that that's going to you know if their constituents parties there are going to go on to the parties if the. parties themselves are so so similar if the parties are so much of a lie then why is it that we would have to look them up and see why is it i mean it's just character. why is it that we have this then i know i'm not you can have two you can have two guys trying to break into your house to steal your t.v. set but one of them will block the other because he wants it ok that doesn't mean that there are any different they're both quirks ok but all right gentlemen it's there gentlemen while we're faslane running out of time i want to change gears here

one of the great criticisms of barack obama today is that he's not respected around the world america's enemies don't respect him and america's friends don't respect him anymore chad how do you react to that. why don't i don't see that i mean i know i know you see that is the great criticism i think this guy is very respected and where it began to plan and you see this enthusiasm with people who would not only. look to him for leadership but also respect him greatly ok don but i think you know one of his when he was making a stop in europe right after his election he was welcome as a rock star i don't think chad he's welcomed as a rock star in germany today but you agree he blew he blew it why don't i don't unity i don't know of anyone who commits a whole suppose that sort of rock star status would such is the time. ok chad i'm sorry john go ahead. yeah just very quickly when barack obama came into office he

had the opportunity particularly among third world countries of really showing a you know a different side of america and what he has done instead by pursuing more aggressively than the last president as that president did before and going back the imperial policy of the united states in africa if you look at the way he dealt with walmart gadhafi and look at what nelson mandela said about what markets offer he held them out as a hero if you look all around the third world at the position the united states has been staking out under obama in central and south america and how the people feel in those places where he could have done tremendous outreach and they were giving him the benefit of the doubt the problem is that he wasted it because he pursued the interests that put him into power just like everyone before came running to their first chance i want to give. the last word on the program to be fair three years what could a bomb a accomplish in the last three years of his second term go ahead first their first

and foremost duty person and foremost duty of the american president is to serve the american people and he did that with the delivery of health care reform he did . so it is it is for me this is just unfathomable you could say that he has no major accomplishment and he does ok we've still twenty seconds don go ahead one that actually comes into effect you could say that much except for the twenty five to thirty million people that are still not covered ok gentlemen thank you for a fascinating debate many thanks to my guest today in new york and thanks to our viewers for watching us here see you next time and remember top rules. is.

i think the issue of privacy the issue of surveillance hasn't gotten enough coverage in the mainstream media i think the majority of americans don't know what's going on don't understand the significance of what's come out this summer i don't think it necessarily they need to hear about me and my story because a lot of it is one small piece of a much larger puzzle but what i do think that mainstream america needs to hear about and then her stand is just to what links our government is going to conduct surveillance just how much information they're actually collecting and storing in some cases for years you know these are very significant problems these are the

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