[lbo-talk] Tea Party: less than meets the eye

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Thu Nov 4 07:58:22 PDT 2010


Dennis Claxton


>In early '09, people were saying Obama fell in that category. The TP
>helped make it not so.

I don't think so. Obama made it not so by not availing himself of the authority of the bully pulpit. And despite Charles et. al. saying otherwise, I don't think anyone in our little part of the world here expected him to do otherwise.

^^^^ CB: I dont believe that you really hold a theory or model of the US system and Presidency that includes the notion from Teddy Roosevelt (!) that the Presidency is a bully pulpit with some automatic power to influence by just speaking like a preacher and in some sense "bullying" people into doing things Maybe Teddy Roosevelt could do it back in 1906 or whatever, but...



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