Oliver Stone Slams Obama in New Book

Director Oliver Stone delivers a harsh critique of President Obama in a new book set to be released one week before the election. “The Untold History of the United States” by Stone and historian Peter Kuznick offers a liberal interpretation of U.S. history from the turn of the 19th century to present times, though it blasts Republicans and Democrats alike.

In the 618-page book, Stone and Kuznick criticize the president for, among other things, breaking his campaign promises and perpetuating the policies of George W. Bush.

“The country Obama inherited was indeed in shambles, but Obama took a bad situation and, in certain ways, made it worse,” they write. “…[R]ather than repudiating the policies of Bush and his predecessors, Obama has perpetuated them.”

On some policies, the authors argue, Obama has gone even further than the Bush administration did.

“Obama asserted presidential power in ways that must have made Dick Cheney jealous,” Stone and Kuznick write.

Stone backed Obama’s presidential run in 2008, but said this year he preferred former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Politico:

The biting criticism from Stone and Kuznick includes:

On Wall Street reform: “The biggest winner under Obama was Wall Street.”

On health care: “Obama’s failure to articulate a progressive vision was also apparent in the fight over health reform, which was to have been his signature initiative…Obama’s health care reform effort, marked by the inability to even refute Republican charges of death panels, was so unpopular that it became an albatross around the necks of Democrats in the 2010 election.”

…On civil liberties: “Among the greatest disappointments to his followers was Obama’s refusal to roll back the expanding national security state that so egregiously encroached on American civil liberties.”

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— Posted by Tracy Bloom.