hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm people of few u.s. presidents elected to a second term in office leave the white house successful or even popular. is the 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 i mean anytime you have three years of math on a term. there are really too soon to make that kind of declaration in american

politics so barack obama has a little bit of distance right now but he has some some great opportunities to implement his agenda ok that was short and sweet don do 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 saramago 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 was 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 all that and 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 weaving in a way that eisenhower was unable to do it you know kennedy was unable to do it with johnson 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 even done if we look at health care if we look at health care it's still not it's not any place here is a matter of fact it's far from being in place 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 his second term. that's by its terms first let's correct the history ok kennedy started formulating in johnson passed medicare a 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 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 health care 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 be. 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 to getting health care coverage. tended to get. i disagree with that but let's look at somebody's observations that we've seen of late you know especially the forbes in this. put obama 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 where it is believe. i'm glad you brought up this not bad you brought this up you know why 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 leadership chet i want to go back to 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

enough to get 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 a republican since the first term. but he has an opportunity now in what is about to happen in the twenty fourteen elections 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 the perception is i don't think it's so much a weakening of obama when you look at the entire what has happened as it is in 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 don but done eight if you 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 there's 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 this 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 and as 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 to his 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 in the first two years president obama was in office he was 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 tax

let me go to chant on 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 shock and awe we don't have you know. we're going around libya and let's not forget about libya you know it's 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 me that the balance here so for you this is not to seem to let me just correct you on the subject of your letter going to be some pretty easy but it is very easy to put it that way ok does not know now i had before i done got here 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 day one of like eleven 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 of 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 popular. and total at the time of six million people what he did to libya made what shock and awe 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 i say to them these numbers that i can't change i just stated i'm going to actually read a line you're going to resupply our new hampshire rake and after our short break we'll continue our discussion on obama's state party. i think. we're going to go digital the price is the only

industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our trust semi-colons we've been hijacked like handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once built up my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trying to fix rational debate and a real discussion of critical issues facing the book ready to join the movement then walk away from the big take.

place . player. play . clue. one of the twenty fourth olympics was this place like why is is so special as the

russian resort prepares to welcome the world power the games shaping the city's present and future life so this is a very very cold snowy windy mountain. beyond the olympics. starting the first. 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 and we're going

to be into the first half of the program so please respond to don go ahead. well you know i have a problem with the source of information. that's. just a nonstarter but we talk about is the effort. 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's some opportunities. especially with the shutdown of the government by the republicans and. whole piece with ted 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 shutdown. 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 polled that they would rather see all the members of congress replace and congressional approval is a percentage so ten percent compared to the forty two percent i don't think he's ok chad those are all fair numbers so those are going to twenty. fair numbers however if i go to the opportunity i say that not saying this is 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 don 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 and lightly they particularly for people that are outside of

the united states that are watching this there's two aspects to american politics there's what they call retail politics. yes 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 ball to 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 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 into these are chad point had changed some point don at some point don we're going to we're going to let me speak but this is what your numbers are though. the homeowner to country is throw the bums out and particularly the republicans and twenty four t. here's an opportunity need to reset this whole political paradigm looing 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. and 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. bad bad more more democrats go into the two congressional setting but this is with the knowledge of what happened with the last opportunity in two thousand and nine as far as moving agenda so we have to set the stage that we get past this callous a truce do we get past this deadlock and start moving some policy and start getting some. chant let's have to be split to do that let's take a plan statement so badly damaged that they have no other choice it's let's stay with policy you know no that's going to be done no died waiting to do or 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 the 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 don't have audio article to do pretty. serious are you serious you don't have audio magic observer is about to demonstrate what anyone had recovered about now you can't be you she had confidence in serious

listen. checklists and the rest of the world the range of ideological do. differences goes from basically libertarianism to socialism but not republicans calling barack obama a socialist because he wants to give somebody a quarter of 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 major you have to be savvy friend major wendy's and a friend i rejected socialism don you know as i know how much i want to pass a sunday designed one exam even if i want to read out read out a list so you have socialism all right what i have right i mean can't be ready for could let me and let me jump in but i'm mean transparent here i mean we have to we have to take in account i think this is what chant was getting to is the tea party now they are very ideologically i would go ahead i would add president putin what

do you think is not a political party i would ask president putin what do 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 these share the ideological is perspectives fundamentally that large corporations are allowed to exist that thought 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 has 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 really you know if their constituents parties are going to go on if 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 why is it i mean it's just contradiction why is it that we have this no 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 default quirks ok but all right gentlemen it's there gentlemen while we're fast lane 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 don't i don't 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 ok you want to blame it's almost suppose that sort of rock star status would such as the need 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 off 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 and running into different chant i want to give. the last word on the program to be fair three years what kind of bomb a accomplish in the last three years of his second term go ahead the 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 that so it is it is for me it is it is just unfathomable you could say did he has no major accomplishment and he does ok we still twenty seconds don

go ahead yeah one that actually comes into effect you could say that much except for the twenty five to thirty million people that are still not called. ok gentlemen thank you for a fascinating debate many thanks to my guests today in new york and thanks to our viewers for watching us here see you next time and remember. when he. was a. taxi wasn't like the easiest person to negotiate ways i mean many people who've met him or even those who knew him briefly all say that he wasn't completely sane what was

he like when you were talking to him and negotiating with him about the lives of these people you know he was very he was very how can i say maybe on the drugs or medicines but she was listening maybe it wasn't the right place said the right moments. some of the sixteen percent of imports came from movie goofy shit. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. to be ensured territorial waters they fish they load the fish into the ships and leave for europe. to do illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths.

these loopholes have been counts our hammer braving the elements in order to stand up to u.s. soil. chevron. this comes after a mass hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that some have dubbed the gulag of our times. it's an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines . of.

the remaining two jailed pussy riot members will free as part of russia's presidential amnesty pledge to fight for the human rights of. the media spotlight pledging to fight the release of his associates examine cases and why they are still behind bars. and all of the world's most famous assault weapon in. the age of ninety four. in the series of reports about the events that twenty thirteen today with. iraq and the post you will be remembered as one of fear and bloodshed.