Right decision, wrong reason. I'll take it!
--S.
Obama's Harvard law professor says 'President MUST be defeated in 2012' (even though he's the man Barack used to have on speed dial)
- Roberto Unger, 65, is respected author and Brazilian politician
- Taught Obama about 'reinventing democracy' at Harvard Law School
- Professor was an adviser during the 2008 election campaign
PUBLISHED:| UPDATED:
A former professor of Barack Obama has turned against his one-time student and publicly urged voters not to re-elect him.
Roberto Unger posted a video on YouTube detailing the reasons why he believes the President does not deserve a second term in the White House.
Mr Unger, a prominent Brazilian politician and an adviser to Obama in 2008, said: 'President Obama must be defeated in the coming election. He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States.'
Scathing: Obama's former professor Roberto Unger said that he had 'failed' the United States and should not be re-elected
The 65-year-old academic was in frequent contact with Mr Obama on his Blackberry throughout the last election campaign but has since decided that he no longer agreed with the President's decisions.
His list of complaints against the President is a long one in the video entitled 'Beyond Obama'.
The esteemed philosopher is scathing of Mr Obama's plans to salvage America's ailing economy, saying that his policy solely consists of 'financial confidence and food stamps'.
He adds: 'He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.'
The politician admits that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the election 'there will be a cost... in judicial and administrative appointments'.
However his most barbed remarks he reserves for the Democrat leader saying that Mr Obama has'evoked a politics of handholding, but no one changes the world without a struggle'.
Delete! The President regularly talked to Unger during his 2008 campaign... this is no longer likely to be the case
Taking a shot: Roberto Unger criticised President Obama after being a long time supporter
His summary of the past four years is equally scathing: 'Give the bond markets what they want, bail out the reckless so long as they are also rich, use fiscal and monetary stimulus to make up for the absence of any consequential broadening of economic and educational opportunity, sweeten the pill of disempowerment with a touch of tax fairness, even though the effect of any such tax reform is sure to be modest.'
Making enemies: Obama has lost a respected adviser Roberto Unger
Most of Mr Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Mr Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.
And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.
Mr Unger argues: 'He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.'
He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims 'to put a human face on the programme of its adversaries'.
The professor concludes his video by saying: 'Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.'
Mr Unger is a renowned politician in his native Brazil. He has twice has run for president of Brazil and has served as Minister of Strategic Affairs.
Unger was one of the founding members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and drafted its founding manifesto.
He has also advised on politics throughout Latin America.
Model student: Obama was taught by Unger when he attended Harvard Law School in 1988
The professor is a respected author having published dozens of books on economics, philosophy and politics.
In philosophy, his arguments are said to focus on some the greatest problems of the human existence.
The video, which was posted three weeks ago, has been viewed 22,000 times.
Mr Unger has taught at Harvard Law since 1976.
Obama studied jurisprudence and reinventing democracy with the professor.
The President attended Harvard Law School in 1988 and was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year.
Last week Obama announced that young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally will no longer be deported.
The Obama administration said the policy change announced on Friday will affect as many as 800,000 qualified immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation.
The President also came in for sharp criticism last week after he combined fundraising events with an official event - and charged the bill to the taxpayer.
Obama raised a total of $4.5million at the fundraisers, one at Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker's house and the other at the five-star Plaza Hotel.
However, the President's re-election campaign will not have to pay the full cost of his jaunt to the Big Apple, because he scheduled a short visit to the World Trade Center site.
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