In the wake of President Obama’s capitulation to the GOP on tax cuts, one of his fiercest critics during the 2008 Democratic primary is getting a second look.
In an Ohio speech at a Hillary Clinton event two years ago, Tom Buffenbarger of the International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stopped just short of calling Obama a wimp and a fraud.
“‘Hope’? ‘Change’? ‘Yes We Can’? Give me a break! I’ve got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.”
Slate blogger Dave Weigel revisited that speech earlier this week:
And now, Buffenbarger’s returned from obscurity into the not-quite-obscure world of the cable news circuit.
On MSNBC last night, Buffenbarger relitigated the ’08 primary, and offered a counterfactual: he still believes Clinton would have been a more effective president than Obama.
“I was really hoping…once he won the nomination…that Barack Obama would come out fighting for the people of America,” Buffenbarger said. “I’m still waiting to see that Barack Obama.”
Watch:
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