The Wall Street Journal editorial page is squealing like a stuck pig. I guess the president must have done something right in his budget speech. What I love is the indignation that anyone would be mean to Rep. Paul Ryan.
Mr. Obama did not deign to propose an alternative to rival Mr. Ryan’s plan, even as he categorically rejected all its reform ideas, repeatedly vilifying them as essentially un-American. “Their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America,” he said, supposedly pitting “children with autism or Down’s syndrome” against “every millionaire and billionaire in our society.” The President was not attempting to join the debate Mr. Ryan has started, but to close it off just as it begins and banish House GOP ideas to political Siberia.
Aren’t you just welling up with tears for poor Mr. Ryan? I mean, his feelings are really hurt:
Someone pass Budget Chairman Paul Ryan a tissue, because it appears President Barack Obama has broken his heart.
Reacting to Obama’s Wednesday speech on deficit reduction, Ryan said that he was first “excited,” then “naively optimistic,” then “disappointed,” then “sad” and finally, in the end, “sincerely disappointed.”
“I was excited when we got invited to attend his speech today,” Ryan, who authored the Republican budget proposal unveiled last week, said just hours after returning from George Washington University where he was given a front row seat for Obama’s address. “I thought the president’s invitation…was an olive branch. Instead, what we got was a speech that was excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate, and hopelessly inadequate to address our countries fiscal challenges.”
If you watch the video of Ryan’s press conference it almost seems like he sincerely thought the president invited him to the speech in order to honor him in some way. If he truly believed that, that would be the saddest thing of all.
Joe Scarborough this morning said he thought it was poor negotiation strategy for Obama to call Ryan unAmerican in his presence. He thought Obama was just playing to his base and not being a smart negotiator.
Quite the contrary. I think it was perfect to invite him and give Ryan a proverbial punch in the nose to his face (not through campaign stops or spokespersons) that certain lines will not be crossed. This is real.
And it is very good negotiating given that the GOP has made its position and tactics clear.
IMO it was a game changing first shot.
Go ahead, tell America that there is absolutely no way the rich can pay “a little bit more” out of patriotism. Go ahead and explain how ending and turning Medicare for everyone under 55 over to the insurance companies is good for us. We’ll wait. See how that goes.
And Obama, in many people’s eyes, can rightly be seen as compromising in deals so far, but the GOP has only taken that to ask for even more. Combined with the what been going on in WI (and the Koch Bros.) people are IMO starting to get what this is all about.
I saw Scarborough this morning and he was making me sick. He was even using Ryan’s “poisoning the well” bit.
I agree. Obama played this well now follow through and don’t get scared. He is pushing a middle of the road plan. There is no need for unnecessary compromise.
I was happy to see human kewpie doll Mika B actually disagree with Morning Joke by saying it was better to have it said to Ryan’s face than behind his back. Seriously, though, just what did all these clowns expect? If Obama had given a major fiscal policy speech – and this speech was advertised as such – WITHOUT inviting Ryan and company (the GOP’s “budget” experts), then he would have been accused either cowardice in not saying it to their faces or evasion. No, Obama wants them to know that he’s got their ticket and he’s not afraid to punch it. He stood in front of them and said “Imma tell you what, if you bring that piece of crap you call a budget to me for a signature I’ll slap a V for veto on it faster than you can say va-jay-jay. Got it, chumps?” Obama’s the only guy I’ve ever seen who can dress up a back alley smackdown to sound initially like a mild policy disagreement until the listener suddenly thinks “Wait, WHAT did he just say?” It’s a real skill. So much for caving in to the GOP.
I prefer Lee Papa’s smackdown:
Yes, comedy.
And embarrassing.
But IMO also not sympathetic at all. Obama did it in a way that was NOT partisan, at least not in the sense that I think people felt at all sorry for Ryan.
One came off as the president. The other a whiney punk
Love the Rude Pundit, most of the time.
Good. Let Eddie Munster start weeping like Orange Julius as the DCCC finally fields a serious challenger to him. Obama won that district in ’08. Time to retire Munster to K Street.
“Time to retire Munster to K Street. “
Or Gold’s Gym.
I thought he was already employed by K Street.
He is. Except he needs to move his office officially to K Street.
Republicans hate it when you tell the truth about them. It’s very upsetting.
They hate it so much they even have a name for it – they call it “Borking” when you point out the actual results of their preferred policies.
Inviting the Republicans to sit in the front row and then telling them off to their face was a good move. I would even say it was essential.
One of Obama’s big problems is that people are not afraid of him. The Republicans think they can roll him. And, judging from comments on this blog, most progressives think he would rather make nicey-nice than stand up for anything.
Obama needed to show that he could be a bit of an a-hole. If Paul Ryan is crying a bit today then I would say mission accomplished. (Boehner, I assume, is crying too…but that’s only because it’s a day ending in y.)
“One of Obama’s big problems is that people are not afraid of him.”
Having a leader that people fear is NOT a good thing. I am a very strong supporter of Obama but the worst thing to wish for is to have people be afraid of him. I find a lot of the criticism and advice given to him to be total garbage but I feel good knowing that well meaning and constructive ones are able to get through.
Stop looking at Obama as someone who is being cowed and bullied. He does what needs to be done and is not overly concerned with looking like he has the biggest dick in the room.
I actually don’t want people to be afraid of Obama, but it’s nice to see him actually stand up to bullies and put them in their place.
In fact, that’s more of what I want to see – Obama showing people he’s not afraid of them.
And that’s what’s going on here – Paul Ryan is a bully who wants to shove old people and the poor around. Obama came out and stood up to the bully and called him a bully to his face. That’s why Ryan’s running around with a pouty face right now – he’s the bully who just got stood up to by a guy who isn’t afraid of him AND told he’s nothing but a bully and a bit of a moron besides.
More standing up to bullies please.
We shouldn’t ignore the fact that Ryan has been told so often how smart and wonderful he is that he actually believes his own press. Getting smacked down like this by a guy with a much better academic resume than his had to hurt and will make him feel injured and disrespected. This is actually a good thing because he’s more likely to dig in and insist on his reading of things rather than compromise. When that happens he’s definitely going to come across as the biggest dick in the room and not in a good way. Part of this was about messing with Ryan’s head.
I love all these replies…they are on point.
agree with that. it’s good ppl aren’t afraid of them. to their detriment, however, they underestimate him. And his health care summit was impressive viewing.
Oh boo friggin’ hoo. Little whiney butts can dish it out but sure can’t take it when somebody is so MEAN to them.
SUCK. IT. UP.
I could be wrong, but I think this is the second time Pence has been punked in public by POTUS.
It was either the GOP retreat, or the health care summit and Obama said something to the effect that they didn’t have a plan, they had a pamphlet. It was priceless. I’m just not sure it was Ryan..might have been Pence.
thing is, they actually think they’re heroes for putting together that big red-white-and-blue dildo they wanna ram where it hurts worst.
Really…..heroes. and the Corporate Press is fawning on them and licking their hands like a pack of hounds anxious for another canned foxhunt.
I’m still gonna take a more measures stance toward all this…I’ll wait on my praise until I see definitely that President Obama wasn’t simply laying out the points on which he’ll cave during negotiations…but describing those things that he considers the right of every American who paid into them with their blood, sweat, and paycheck.
The Repugs are definitely out of touch. They found out with the outcry over planned parenthood. Taxes and Medicare are the next issues. They act like the last election was the will of god. Get a grip assholes it was one midterm.
I recently listened to an NPR piece on him. The reporter pointed out that–among other things–he demands that his staff members must read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. All 1088 pages of it. No tears for Paul Ryan. That man is a sadist.
Now that’s sickening. War and Peace, I can see. but Atlas Shrugged???
Do you know this quote? It cracks me up every time:
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
That is great!!!
That’s Krugman, isn’t it?
If Obama had been yelling and reacting to all of the Repub nonsense for two years, then the speech would have fallen on deaf ears. He speaks when it is the right time and the right subject.
Ryan set himself up and didn’t know it.
That’s funny…in a very sad way.