From the president’s press statement after meeting with congressional leaders (via email):
Now, none of this is going to be easy. We have two parties for a reason. There are real philosophical differences -– deeply held principles to which each party holds. And although the atmosphere in today’s meeting was extremely civil, there’s no doubt that those differences are going to remain no matter how many meetings we have. And the truth is there’s always going to be a political incentive against working together, particularly in the current hyperpartisan climate. There are always those who argue that the best strategy is simply to try to defeat your opposition instead of working with them.
And, frankly, even the notion of bipartisanship itself has gotten caught up in this mentality. A lot of times coming out of these meetings, both sides claim they want to work together, but try to paint the opponent as unyielding and unwilling to cooperate. Both sides come to the table; they read their talking points; then they head out to the microphones -– trying to win the news cycle instead of solving problems, and it becomes just another move in an old Washington game.
But I think there was recognition today that that’s a game that we can’t afford. Not in these times. And in a private meeting that I had without staff — without betraying any confidences — I was pleased to see several of my friends in the room say, let’s try not to duplicate that. Let’s not try to work the Washington spin cycle to suggest that somehow the other side is not being cooperative. I think that there was a sincere effort on the part of everybody involved to actually commit to work together to try to deal with these problems.
And they understand that these aren’t times for us to be playing games.
Here’s the thing. They are not sincere; they don’t want to work together; they don’t even know what language you are speaking when you say there are times you ought not be playing games. They want to destroy you.
This needs to be the last time the president pretends that he has any friends across the aisle.
When push comes to shove, the Republicans playing the blocking game are going to be seen as doing just that.
THe polls show that people want the government to work and not do the fighting that is usual.
The president is well aware that he is black, the Republicans want to destroy him and if he goes out and uses hard words, the legislation that is important won’t have a chance.
Reagan rolled over in his grave today. The food safety bill passed the Senate.
The language Obama uses is political.
Sorta kill them with kindness.
Should have written when the food safety bill passed today.
I actually don’t care if he pretends. I care if he isn’t. There have been few indications that he was pretending so far which as Krugman and Drum pointed out in their excellent columns on the subject, is the root of the problem.
It is a strategy. Make your opposition look like they are doing nothing but saying no. It has to be repeated over and over again.
Krugman supported Hillary and is not pro Obama.
I haven’t read Kevin’t post yet.
It also helps to get something passed if the Republicans don’t think they look they are, to use an old term, losing face.
I want to watch this play out.
UI hasn’t passed yet. That could be tense.
We are used to presidents being uncouth and not taking the cost of that into effect. Like, you’re either for or against us. Bring it on.
But that’s just it. There’s been nothing, NOTHING that Obama has not compromised on. And so there’s no evidence that he’s actually committed to anything, well maybe war in Afghanistan. He remains a cypher, the anti-dog whistler. There’s no reason to believe that he won’t sell the farm for a wooden nickel.
The deal will be UI extension in exchange for extending the tax cuts for the rich. Watch.
We need to tax the rich to pay for the unemployment insurance.
52 billion for those struggling to survive and hooking up rich people with 700 billion. Man, our team sure knows how to negotiate.
He’s not exactly pretending, it’s a little more subtle. He genuinely WANTS to have some Republican support. On the face of it, that makes sense. Nor is he a rube. He knows perfectly well they want to destroy him.
But for the great middle of the spectrum out there, including the moderate republican voters, just getting the GOP honchos to meet with him is a plus. The rest doesn’t really matter. They’ll do what they do anyway. The hard right will continue their talking points about how Obama does not GENUINELY want bipartisanship no way no how, and nothing he does will change their spin on that. His message is intended for the great middle, and we find it hard to understand because we are not part of that great middle. Remember, the Tea Party is very popular with the Tea Party, but most Americans do not like them anywhere near as much.
I understand there is not a perfect correspondence between Palin and the radical right, because apparently a sizable number even of them don’t want her to run. But I still think she is widely considered the figurehead of whatever you want to call the wave that has taken over the GOP. And the statistics on Palin are pretty interesting:
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/60-of-voters-say-sarah-palin-is-unelectable/
BS. The man is a rube, and he hasn’t learned a thing in two years.
What a waste of a vote.
I used to play basketball, though I never got a chance to dribble with the POTUS. So I think that I’ll use a paradigm from the world of roundball. I was a fair shooter and pretty good at blocking out, but try as hard as I could, I still made a lot of petty stupid fouls. My fouls were always light touch or grazing fouls when I was actively defending against a shooter. As a result I always managed to foul out long before halftime.
When it comes to politics, Obama is like I was in my short basketball appearances. Over the course of the past two years I have come to the conclusion, along with the Congressional Republicans, that Obama is one of those rare people who just cannot see faults in other people. Obama likes to compare himself to FDR, but in reality he is much much closer to Hubert Humphrey in personality.
Like many other supporters, I too tried to rationalize Obama’s passive behavior. When he get involved with Gates and the Cambridge Police Officer, I couldn’t figure why he immediately backed down when Police Chiefs around the nation started wolfing “unconditional solidarity” for Sgt. Crowley in the controversey. I thought his call for the “beer summit in the White House garden was really lame and I couldn’t figure it out. When the Republicans went after ACORN in Congress with a bunch of phony allegations and Obama did little to come to ACORN’s defense, I was dismayed in consideration of the huge number of inner city votes ACORN delivered for him in the Presidential election. After mulling it over, I decided that it must be a situation where Obama was tied up with trying to get the stimulus plan through Congress.
Unfortunately the list has continued to grow and I finally had to face the fact that Obama sees the world through “rose colored glasses” and he clings to the personal belief that everyone has some redeeming attribute even Russ Limbaugh. Obama’s personality quirk even supercedes his natural proclivity to reject the most virulent forms of American racism. It is futile to expect that Obama will modify his personality to develop the suspicious aggressive nature that is necessary to have the slightest chance at foiling the Republican political schemes. I am still holding the faith that in the grand scheme of things that Obama’s good guy character will pay off big time for him before 2012.
This makes a lot of sense. He needs good advisors. Fortunstely he’s married to a woman known for her “gritty realism.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/tomorrows-time-magazine-d_b_103070.html
Shorter Barack Obama: “there’s a sign on my back that says ‘kick me’.”
anyone who believes this is the last time might as well be wearing one too.