June 10, 2010
That’s a question that NPR listeners might ask after being told that the differences between organized labor and President Obama were due to the President’s political pragmatism. Many of the differences stem from President Obama’s willingness to serve the interests of powerful business groups such as the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance industry, and the big banks. President Obama’s positions may be viewed as politically “pragmatic” in that these are very powerful interests who can badly hurt politicians who cross them, but they are not politically pragmatic in terms of being responses to public sentiment. It would have been useful if this report had made that distinction.
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