I was right, mostly. The serious, conciliatory Obama showed up at the press conference today. The only reasonable person in the room was the theme.
I was wrong to the extent that in his opening statement and throughout Obama framed the issue as the Republicans not being serious, not living up to their word in trying to tackle the deficits, not wanting to deal with an issue that must be dealt with “if not now, when?” It was the fist covered with a velvet glove.
There also were some comments peppered throughout about Democrats not wanting to deal with entitlements. But such comments were few and far between.
Mostly it was Obama pushing the theme of “I’m reasonable” and they are not. We need to “eat our peas” and “pull off the bandaid,” he said, with plenty of class warfare, bringing up the “corporate jet owners” and oil companies again.
It also was a rewrite of history. A completely irresponsible president who just months ago proposed a budget with devastating deficits, repeatedly demanded that the deficits and debt be dealt with now, without any delay. Where has he been for two years?
“Part of what the Republican caucus needs to recognize is that government works when …. we’re able to make sensible compromises….” Like Obamacare and Stimulus? Like almost everything this administration has done for two years? Like how Obama lashed into Republicans after Paul Ryan proposed a solution to the Medicare problem?
Obama also stated: “I will not sign a 30 day, or 60 day, or 90 day extension.” Those might be famous last words.
It was a good press conference, for Obama, because he was largely unchallenged, and was permitted to frame the issue for the 2012 campaign. In other words, Obama was able to deal with his own failures without acknowledging any of those failures.
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Fox has begun spinning for him, too, helping him rewrite history. If Fox is this bad (why do they hire so many Socialists?), you know the rest are in the tank.
Well, if your going to spew dung, you better do it with audacity.
Though I must admit that I am at a loss as how to debate someone who insists that they sky is not up.
My kingdom* for an edit button.
*This statement does not entail either the offer or existence of any said kingdom, with the exclusion of debts and liabilities.
[…] In his own mind, he’s the only reasonable person: “It also was a rewrite of history. A completely irresponsible president who just months ago […]
So now what will happen if he doesn’t sign a 30-90 day extension? Will the Republicans cave? Or will Obama just ignore the debt ceiling?
Why is it the press and lefties (yes, I repeat myself) have such keen vision that they can see clothes the rest of us can’t?
LukeHandCool (who denies all rumors that he’s a committed nudist).
He’s just playing the narrative.
All that spending was done due to Bush’s reckless disregard for our economy and our poor, therefore it should be put on his bill
Now is Day 1. Now is when we start fixing things and being concerned about spending.
Until of course the economy has recovered enough for us to spend again on “things people need”
Where’s the Budget?? Maybe they should go short term, 30/60/90 and do measurements, budgeted vs. actual. Only after they can stay within budget for this period, should they look at longer periods for extensions.
I Won – Barack Obama
I didn’t watch the speech. There is just so much abuse I am willing to heap upon myself. But I already knew what Obama would say; “I inherited this economy and the crisis, I am the sharpest knife in the drawer being the only one who knows how to end this crisis, people with higher incomes need to pay higher taxes although I myself will have to be forced to do that by law and not willfully, everyone has to share the pain, except of course Michelle, who just spent $800,000 taking her extended family to Africa, I have been working my tail off to come to some kind of agreement with the uncooperative Republicans, er, that is, between campaign gigs, yada, yada, yada.”
SSDD, only Obama failed to mention that although the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the Oval Office for two years, we are over 800 days without a budget.
What irritates me beyond…..”I don’t need those few extra 100ks hanging around, as a best selling author (I….I…..I)” well, guess what, I’ll keep the money I earned…for my future, Mr.Obama,….it’s called “saving for the future”, not giving it to reckless politicians who always want more,more, more from us, yet who are never satisfied. “Shared sacrifice”?….. Really? I hardly think it is shared when 48% of working adults don’t pay taxes….you ARE balancing the economy on the backs of a few….the wealth makers, the job creators, the hard workers…. You know, the ones you call “wealthy”. Today’s WSJ editorial gives a spot on commentary about taxes under Obama
I’m bone weary of this emperor and his incredibly divisive rhetoric.
o/t–read the column in IBD about mortgages for the “disadvantaged”. Housing crisis begins anew.
I have to agree that this was a successful press conference. I think his own team is scratching their heads about how, once his prepared statement was read, he lost his cool again and immediately resorted to class warfare.
He also positioned Boehner as being reasonable but being frustrated by the unnamed Tea Party “radicals” who have tied his hands. This is not a good sign about Boehner but a testament as to how strong we Tea Partiers have become. We won’t be hearing “teabaggers” from them anymore. We are the solid wall of “NO!!!) that traps Boehner from selling out again. It’s not that we can trust Boehner, it’s that he just doesn’t have the votes to sell out.
It would be so much better if we didn’t have to send a Democrat to negotiate for us. Paul Ryan should be the guy handling our case.
To me, perhaps the most telling part of the speech was his use of the word “fortunate” to describe those who make what he considers a lot of money. “Fortunate” implies that you won some lottery somewher–hard work, smart work, risk taking, perserverance, etc. have nothing to do with it.
Using the word “fortunate” implies that the money wasn’t really earned in an honest fashion. Now, I am quite prepared to believe that most rich people of his acquaintance may not have got there fairly. Cite his wife’s big raise in a position they haven’t seen necessary to replace as an example. But–that is not the experience of those of us outside the media-governmental complex.
This guy is pure class warrior. If you call him a Socialist, be prepared to be mau-maued. But, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, craps like a duck., maybe , just maybe, it is a duck.
Typo,
“I have to DISAGREE that this was a successful press conference” We need a “preview” button.
Rumor is that the President spent the rest of the day poking around historical sites in D.C. looking for the valuables shown in “National Treasure”
The sad part is even if he found them, they ($10b) would only fund about a half-day’s worth of government spending ($20b)
When he loses re-election, I suspect an honest tell-all may reveal the depths to how disorganized, yet unnaturally self-confident, this President was. He’s not even logically coherent anymore.
I feel this desire on his part to massively expand government is driven by a need for more power for himself. The well has gone dry with regards to his other “talents”: he’s no longer attractively persuasive, the power of his speech has waned and he is bereft of reasonable governing ideas.
The impression I get from Obama, is that he believes his Presidency is supreme, not co-equal to the other branches, and the Constitution can be ignored or creatively interpreted at will. Disturbing.
Instead of leader of the greatest nation on earth, this guy is much more fit to be leader of the Flotilla of Fools, where he could be blaming others for taking a right turn at Crete and insisting that the engines on their boats be wind-powered.
LukeHandCool (who wonders, what happened to the flotilla? Haven’t seen those useful ignoramuses in the news recently).
It also was a rewrite of history. A completely irresponsible president who just months ago proposed a budget with devastating deficits, repeatedly demanded that the deficits and debt be dealt with now, without any delay.
Here is the video of Geithner admitting the administration’s budget is unsustainable.
Obama said: “I will not sign a 30 day, 60 day or 90 day extension.” Is Obama getting marching orders from Gov. Dayton of Minnesota? 11 days and counting.
At every one of these appearances, Obama beclowns himself. Is there *anyone* left who doesn’t see right through this thin-skinned, phony-baloney, legend-in-his-own mind, B- artist garbage? I mean, really. It’s already past the national joke stage and the only reason no one is savaging him is because he’s black and he’s doing and saying all the things the Dems have told black people to do and think from the Great Society forward. Can you IMAGINE what the left would be doing to a black conservative President if we had elected one instead of the O and the economy were this bad for this long? Imagine for a second that under a black conservative president we had record black unemployment. Record underemployment, no growth, serial trillion dollar deficits, a doubling of the national debt and record lengths of unemployment (99 weeks??!!).
Can you imagine the savagery and the racism? The misogyny they’ve displayed to Sarah Palin wouldn’t begin to compare.
I got terribly confused when Obama said tax increases would not kick in until 2013. So, is the need for additional “revenue” urgent enough to hold up a vote on the debt ceiling, or not?
And now, best-selling authors are his new target?
Maybe he should have gotten the Nobel *Peas* prize.
In case he hasn’t noticed, folks aren’t too keen on it when the First Obesity Police, er, First Lady, is dispensing diet advice. So, you know, maybe he should stop the condescension. (I know, the odds are astrophenomical against it.)
Reasonable people don’t take hostages and make ransom trillion dollar demands.
The Obama regime realizing threatening the credit rating of the US is not credible by implying bond holders won’t be paid has decided to take senior citizens hostage by implying he won’t allow monthly checks to be mailed to them. Claiming checks “may” not go out on time means he won’t let them go out since he has a choice on who get’s paid. Obama and Geithner wouldn’t dare not pay the bond holders since their entire liberal agenda would unravel instantaneously with interest rates immediately rising. Having realized that we all know this, he’s looking for other leverage to force tax increases. You notice he didn’t threaten not to pay military personnel nor other government employees?
Go ahead Obama threaten not to pay EPA employees… go ahead I dare you, yeah you know we won’t shed a tear if all of them get laid off.
Now it’s a PR battle, the hostage takers demanding ransom in the form of tax increases or the victims (taxpayers) burdened by a government that is too expensive already.