The Republicans really pounded their own approval ratings into the ground with their brinksmanship over the debt ceiling. Not only did they win a stinging rebuke from Standard & Poor and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernacke, but the Republican Party and the Republican leadership of Congress are now more unpopular than they’ve even been in Pew Research polling. And what did they accomplish in return for destroying their brand?
Well, they hurt the president’s reputation for being a leader who can get things done, they drove down his overall approval rating, they ramped up the perception that things are on the wrong track, they also hurt the Democrats’ reputation, they got our credit rating downgraded, they unnerved the markets, and they made the economy worse.
It’s as if they’re taking a bullet for the eventual Republican nominee, because they helped him/her at the expense of themselves, the economy, and the country.
It is within the Republicans power to obstruct and, by doing so, make the president look weak and ineffectual. That’s the path they’ve chosen. However, the collateral damage has been enormous and the voters seem to have noticed.
People now are much more likely to tell pollsters that they want to see the president take a confrontational tone with Republicans rather than cooperate with them. That plays right into Obama’s hands as he shifts to campaign mode.
You know what I’m noticing right now while we’re looking at 65 million Americans being threatened by a major hurricaine? Boner and Cantor seem to be in agreemeent that we can’t do what we always do in disasters and give them a generous disaster relief package. They want equal budget cuts to cover it.
Obama needs to go to the largest venue in Eric Cantor’s Virginia district that is still standing after this disaster and tell the people and a nationwide television audience – during Prime Time that Eric Cantor says that The Unites States of America just can’t afford to help their state fix the damage that they can’t afford to do on their own. And just say, “Sorry guys, you’re on your own now. Welcome to the New Republican Reality(TM).”
“Also, too. Tenth Amendment. Ask Rick Perry about that one.”
I particularly enjoyed Ron Paul proclaiming that “we don’t need a national response to Irene” and “we should be like 1900, 1940, 1950, 1960.” Here’s betting a lot of people in his district might catch the significance of 1900, and what happened in adjacent Galveston.
The biggest reason that was the deadliest natural disaster in US history, and second costliest after Katrina, is that Galveston residents had no warning before the storm was on them – this was before the days of NOAA, the National Weather Service, and hurricane tracking. That’s what the Tea Partiers want to go back to. Nice.
And in case you think it’s ancient history, Galveston was also flattened by Ike in 2008. I’ll bet Paul’s constituents remember that. Maybe Paul thinks 12,000 should have died then, too. Wonder if he has the guts to draw up a list of names.
I didn’t think that was a real statement until I read Alex Pareene tonight.
“It’s very old news that Ron Paul thinks we should abolish FEMA, it’s just rare that you hear anyone say we should go back to the good old days of disaster response and management. “We should be like 1900″ is a very illuminating statement.”
Indeed.
Guys-
This is pure insanity. Point this out to the American Public just after a horrifying disaster and they will run as fast as they can from these freaks! Seriously – INSANE. What in the hell is a federal government supposed to be about? Why bother having one? Just have 50 states all on their own. Hell, who needs state governments either, for that matter? It just costs money and stuff.
Pure crazy-talk. Anyone in the Mainstream Media(TM) reading this? Is this craziness right here? How ’bout some in-depth investigative reporting? Just copy and paste.
That would be near the Richmond area — he doesn’t represent the city, but right around it and to the north and northwest. You see, Virginia is very clearly gerrymandered, and Cantor’s district is carved right around where black and latino voters might live. It almost looks like a horseshoe lmfao (not the district itself, but the carving around the city). But he could still prolly rally people in Richmond itself to come on over…I’d certainly drive the 45 mins to go.
your future congressional district
Mmmk, but will he? He certainly didn’t do this much in 2008 — although at the time I thought he was exactly what we needed, especially on the campaign trail; we needed a healer, or someone who is perceived to be one.
I’ve often said I didn’t have any illusions about the president, but I should add a caveat. I didn’t think he’d go to the lengths that he has gone to try and transform politics with the current opposition. I figured he’d try a few times, show the American people just how crazy they are, and then go bash the shit out of them. I thought the campaign was just that — a campaign stump. I didn’t think he actually believed it. I mean, I believe it to an extent; to the extent that your opposition believes in the Federal Government enough to want to improve it and everyone’s lives (even if that vision isn’t what I believe in…like I get a carbon tax, you get clean coal subsidies).
So we’ll see. I hope he takes your advice.
In my view, that IS his only path to victory. Bash the shit out of ’em. And do it consistently until next November. It may make him queasy, but his advisers know the only way he can win with a bad economy is to go Scorched Earth. Watch. They will do it even though it makes him visibly uncomfortable. He wants everyone to like him but that just will never happen.
I still think he’ll win mostly because I don’t see a Reagan or Clinton amongst these current Republican jokers. The closest I see is Romney, but he’s more like a Kerry or a Dukakis.
I agree. But if he doesn’t put up a fight, his base may not bother to show up at the polls and he may not get the Dem Congress he needs to make some real progress in his second term. He WANTS to make a big impact and the second term is the best time to do it because you’re not up for re-election anymore and don’t give a rat’s ass what your contributors think anymore.
Let’s get him a Democratic Congress in 2012.
Yeah, Dukakis. Do you remember “Dukakis after dark” on Saturday Night Live, where “Dukakis” said “I can’t believe I’m losin’ to this guy.”
Obama had better wake up and smell the climate. He needs to discover his inner partisan, and crack some heads. Nobody votes for Professor Milquetoast.
My dad, who considers himself to be an Independent, said after the last election “why did I vote for that guy? He’s a loser and I don’t vote for losers. But I just did.”
He was really upset about it and I reminded him that the “loser” he voted for represented the best policy positions and that’s why he chose him. But he would have happily voted for the “winner” Republican (who did win, by the way) because he seemed like a “fighter” – for something. (monied interests, not real people’s needs.)
Food for thought about how the illusive “Independents” think.
McCain won?! Holy Shit! Obama better refund me for the ten bucks for his re-election. Shyster.
This was a local election, not President.
What he needs to do is do what he has so far totally failed to do – offer a compelling Democratic vision that is not simply pragmatic. Thus far, his presidency is a failure. Yes, he passed health care, if we can keep it from the Roberts court. Yes, he has done other things. but he is not a Democrat. He offers no vision from the Democratic perspective, merely a pragmatic compromise which satisfies no one.
A bashing strategy, which is desperately needed, would settle the problem of taking sides. I strongly hold to the notion that politics is a team sport, in which you pick a side and work to damage the other guys. Obama needs to re-discover the notion that he is a Democrat, that Democratic ideas are worthy, that Democratic opponents are basically evil. This would be wholly positive. I do not believe that we can all get along if we just sit down and reason together. That is crap, total crap, and if we realize that politics is the way we divvy up the loot, we’d all be better off.
I’m reading Roman history and also reading The people’s history of the US. These issues have existed, in one way or another, for a long time. It’s always the rich vs everyone else.
You can’t be serious:
For two and a half fucking years the left has been demanding that Obama take a confrontational stance against the moronic Republicans.
Now you tell us that he’s been playing some kind of rope-a-dope so he does well in the CAMPAIGN?
America doesn’t care about the campaign. America cares about the things that Obama has been adrift on for his entire term – jobs and economic stimulation and ending the senseless wars and standing up to the Republicans instead of letting them lead him around by the nose.
A politician screwing the people to get re-elected. Some “change” huh?
Yep. At this site, it’s all about obama and his campaign. Forget about actual people and the pain that his middling compromises make and the brutal toll that this manilow approach to govt is taking on 100 years of democratic progress. Lets just shut our eyes and JUST BELIEVE again…and then and only then will obama show us the politician he really is…four years later because these last for years haven’t been the real obama. Get that? More of that 11 dimensional chess, he’s so much better than you, shut up and clap louder bs.
Vote obama…the best we got(tm).
“Taking a confrontational stance” doesn’t create jobs and improve the economy.
Even if it makes you feel awesome and pump your fist.
The election is about winning the argument and the party that wins the argument gets a landslide. The Republicans won enough of the argument to win in the past because they could mask who they really are then shift the conversation to wedge issues. Obama has enacted the Republicans’ own ideas and it is so obvious that it has angered his own base to the point they question if he is really a Democrat. During this last year Obama has really, really, really defined the Republicans for what they really are, a party that cares only to get all they wealth in the hands of the of the top 0.5%, destroy all unions, destroy the big three, reverse the right to chose. To get this the Republicans are on a deliberate obvious path to destroy the economy. This is topped off with the Tea Party minority domination of the Republicans to select Rick Perry. . Obama even offered cuts to the big three and they took the bait and walked away. Obama establishes the right for all to get basic health care, kills Bin Laden, takes a position to ignite the Arab Spring and changes the government in Libya without involving us in a ground war. All the previous wedge issues are now in Obama’s favor. To win all Obama has to do is tell the truth. The odd thing about the truth is that once it’s out there, no amount of money or spin can make it go away. Obama makes the Republicans sound like Baghdad Bob. Who do you think wins the argument and gets the landslide?
What I find most ironic about the bitchin from liberals that Obama needs to be more like LBJ is that President Obama is in the same position LBJ was at this point in his only elected term. The only thing missing is a catchy liberal jingle comparable to “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?!” I guess you can substitute kids for Al Queda but that would miss the point.
At this point in LBJ’s re-election campaign he was consistently polling under 50%, running about even or behind Romney, being hit by liberals on the war and moderate/conservative Democrats for excessive spending and taxes. LBJ blamed the ‘professional left’ (liberals, preachers and professors) for his troubles.
History is a hell of a bitch that keeps repeating itself. The only thing missing is a catchy chant and a “pure liberal” and charismatic Kennedy to force President Obama to quit.
The only lesson that President Obama needed to take with him to the White House is that every modern Democratic President gets cannibalized by the Democratic Party with the exception of Bill Clinton, which is really ironic as he was the most non-liberal of all modern Democratic presidents.
Are you including Truman in this group? He had to deal with two different groups from his own party. Right and Left. And he actually won in the end.