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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama on MTP: 'Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem'
by Greg Dworkin
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That was the title of a now-famous essay by Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein:
Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the countrys challenges.
Here is President Obama on Meet the Press today, taped Saturday:
Mr. Obama told host David Gregory that "the only thing I would caution against is I think this notion of, 'Well, both sides are just kind of unwilling to cooperate.' And that's just not true. I mean if you look at the facts, what you have is a situation here where the Democratic Party, warts and all, and certain me, warts and all, have consistently done our best to try to put country first."
That the standoff persists, he said, "is an indication of how far certain factions inside the Republican Party have gone where they can't even accept what used to be considered centrist, mainstream positions on these issues."
- more -
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/30/1174799/-Obama-on-MTP-Let-s-just-say-it-The-Republicans-are-the-problem
samsingh
(17,599 posts)Towlie
(5,324 posts)samsingh
(17,599 posts)GETTINGTIRED
(330 posts)are the problem..
Marr
(20,317 posts)He offered to cut Social Security and they said no, because he didn't give them EVERYTHING.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)to claim that he's a "centrist" or representative of "the majority of Americans" when he can't stand up to the radical extreme righties that have taken control of the GOP ...
spanone
(135,841 posts)Generic Brad
(14,275 posts)But this will have to do.
johnfunk
(6,113 posts)This is the way Dems should handle Gregory:
malz
(89 posts)He wouldn't be able to spout his false equivalency nonsense!
greenman3610
(3,947 posts)it's all of the
"There's not a dime's worth of difference between Al Gore and George Bush" variety.
gasser85
(40 posts)I think the WH is happy with this MTP appearance
post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022096109
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Last edited Sun Dec 30, 2012, 01:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Better late than never, but this sort of talk was too long delayed.
intheflow
(28,476 posts)and he probably has too. But I'll bet part of his first term agenda was to establish a record of Republican obstructionism so he could rally more people (in Congress) to support his policies in the second. At least, that's what my inner optimist hopes.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts).... the Koch brothers threatened his daughters...
pangaia
(24,324 posts)alp227
(32,026 posts)Kennah
(14,273 posts)He is still trying to broker a deal, and hopefully one that doesn't fuck over Social Security. Calling them Teabilly Fucksticks right now will not get them to the table, although I honestly don't see the GOP coming to the table at all. Once we go off the cliff, perhaps they'll be a bit more willing to deal.
johnfunk
(6,113 posts)in January 2013 -- this is, I believe, a preview of things to come:
President Obama has threatened House Speaker John Boehner that if no deal is struck on the fiscal cliff, he will use his Inaugural address and State of the Union speech next month to blame Republicans, according to the Wall Street Journal. ... [T]he president is emboldened by his reelection and eager to extract more concessions from Boehner than he was willing to accept during last summers debt limit talks.
It's beginning to look like President Obama is going to get all Samuel L. Jackson (sans F-bombs) in the GOP's grill...
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)what a quaint notion for our corporate-controlled media.
AndyA
(16,993 posts)It's almost as if time has been turned back, and the GOP are the only ones being sucked backwards.
PennsylvaniaMatt
(966 posts)He would be called a "liberal RINO" by Santorum, Palin, and the rest of the Fox crowd.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Yes he would because he would be whatever they wanted him to be.
Reagan was the 1st "cardboard cutout" president. A place holder while those who were not elected ran the place. Bush Jr. was the "perfection" of this GOP strategy.
WHEN CRABS ROAR
(3,813 posts)LuvLoogie
(7,008 posts)"And does the Democratic Party still have some knee-jerk ideological positions and are there some folks in the Democratic Party who sometimes aren't reasonable? Of course. That's true of every political party.
But generally if you look at how I've tried to govern over the last four years and how I'll continue to try to govern, I'm not driven by some ideological agenda."--PBO
The President's own past statements perpetuated the false equivalence with the GOP. This most recent statement continues this. Yes one must take the President's words in context, but even now he can't unequivocally BE A DEMOCRAT.
What "knee-jerk ideological positions" does the Democratic Party support? NAME them! To the extent that anyone in the Democratic House/Senate are unreasonable, are they covertly/overtly racist? Contemptuous of the poor? women? minorities? LGBTs? Like the coalition of those that oppose you and a DEMOCRATIC agenda?
THEY are the ones opposing you! The Democratic Party has no equivalent in the rank and file or in the platform! Hold no quarter!
forestpath
(3,102 posts)seniors to the wolves.
Never thought I'd live to see the day when a Democratic president would talk like this.
senseandsensibility
(17,056 posts)I kind of knew he would try to "balance out" a comment as straighforward as the one above, and I wasn't wrong, unfortunately. I just skimmed an article on the aol start screen ( a straight news article) that casually mentioned that the President said that he had agreed to cut social security benefits. Supposedly he said this in this interview with Gregory. It wasn't in quotes though. So maybe you or others who saw it could chime in on that.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)Video or just audio. I grabbed this one because Obama was on but usually don't bother with it.
Actually, you can watch it online here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/50323569#50323569
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)You gotta be kidding me
Well, I guess it sounds better than Rahm's 'fucking r%$%#ds'
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"He actually said 'knee-jerk ideological positions' ??
You gotta be kidding me"
...he's talking about the 2nd Amendment gun-toting progressives who tout the NRA talking points.
I mean, when did the Democratic Party become perfect in your eyes?
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Correct me if I'm wrong...
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)bigtree
(85,996 posts)prove he means whatever you think he does
Marr
(20,317 posts)In an interview in which the main line of questioning centered around whether or not he was willing to 'talk tough to seniors' and work with the GOP on entitlements-- an interview in which he held up chained CPI as his big olive branch; his "look how willing to compromise I am"... he was referring to the Democratic Party's 2nd Amendment nuts. Whoever THEY are.
Uh-huh.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)I haven't seen the interview yet, but I downloaded the podcast and will watch tomorrow.
Did they talk about gun control? How does that factor into not making a deal to avert the fiscal cliff? And who are the gun fanatics in the Dem party that are keeping us from making this deal?
I don't get how that can fit into the equation.
TiberiusB
(487 posts)The "knee-jerk" quote was just an aside to say some Democrats are as bad as the GOP, but the GOP overall is worse.
It's the rest of his talk that should make everyone nervous...
OBAMA: ..."I also have an obligation to the American people to make sure that the entire burden of deficit reduction doesn't fall on seniors who are relying on Medicare....I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs ... "
GREGORY: "Would you commit to that first year of your second term getting significant [entitlement] reform done?" ...
OBAMA: ..."One of the fallacies I think that has been promoted is this notion that deficit reduction is only a matter of cutting programs that are really important to seniors, students and so forth. That has to be part of the mix, but what I ran on and what the American people elected me to do was to put forward a balanced approach. To make sure that there's shared sacrifice....
Looking at the entire transcript, he's clearly referring to Social Security and Medicare. He talks about the "entire" burden not falling on seniors who rely on Medicare and continues to peddle the same garbage about "shared sacrifice" and "balance". Let's not forget Pelosi's sudden reversal on the chained CPI and how it's now a way to "save" and "strengthen" Social Security. She came out and promised to deliver the House for such a proposal. That didn't happen without White House prodding.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)That must be it.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Leopolds Ghost
(12,875 posts)mountain grammy
(26,622 posts)Total breakdown of reality and reason. Call out the bullshit!
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,009 posts)http://www.salon.com/2012/12/30/sunday_show_roundup_obama_braces_for_impact/
young_at_heart
(3,768 posts)He only works for one thing...himself. Does he think we don't notice?
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)I wonder if Mitch even knows what Don said.....
freshwest
(53,661 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)easy, really. The public are getting fed up with congress and it's games.
jinx1
(45 posts)When did the Republicans ever support anything that this President wanted to do?
calimary
(81,297 posts)Glad you're here! Good question! We all need that help! The only time I can even vaguely remember that the answer would have been "yes" is some commemorative thing upon the passing of some public figure or other. Completely non-essential, and utterly irrelevant regarding the hard realities of policy-making and law-making.
What I remember in detail is this wall of "No" that we kept banging into, with untold numbers of attempts to break through that wall, or at least bore a hole in it. These assholes were HORRIBLE. Just take a moment to imagine what kind of nay-saying the enemy would say if OUR side did nothing but turn up its collective nose at ANYTHING the President wanted.
And we all know why, don't we? Because the republi-CONS are being led around by their own noses by the teabaggers. And what pumps through their veins, in far greater numbers and proportions, is racism.
It seems there's one really remarkable thing about racism: its staying power. We supposedly declared it over and done with about - how long ago? From somewhere in the middle of the 19th Century? Isn't that somewhere around 150 years ago? Haven't we been able to get over it by now, as a country? Why is this still a problem? Why is it still an issue in this country? What's been done to perpetuate, or even reinforce it so effectively? And what HASN'T been done to bring it to a complete, stale, closed-and-locked, body's-gone-cold, end-of-discussion END? What HASN'T been done to make sure this is SECURELY and in TOTAL FINALITY over and done with? Dead and buried and just a bad memory? Why has racism been allowed to continue? Actively? Passively? Both, probably?
We need to look at this seriously, and ask ourselves some pretty serious self-examining questions, seems to me. WHY is racism still a problem? Why have we not been able to conquer it? If a generation is about 20 - 25 years, how many generations is that since Abraham Lincoln's day? One hundred and 47 years works out to five to seven generations. Give or take. I mean, it just seems to me that it's time we grew up as a nation.
All I see when I observe teabaggerism - whether it's what they're saying on radio/tv/cable or writing in editorials, books, and blogs, or shouting and stamping their li'l feet at rallies, protests, and town hall meetings and hoisting their poorly spelled protest signs - is a bunch of adult-size three-year-olds throwing temper tantrums, because mom or dad didn't take them to Kiddie Land today. I see a bunch of spoiled brats yelling and screaming in the cereal aisle at the store, because mom wouldn't buy them all the Count Chocula they demanded. They embarrass me as an American, and humiliate themselves. These people has insisted they're not growing up at all, stuck on a world view that extends no farther out from them than the tips of their noses (or pot-bellies, whichever is larger).
We weren't born yesterday, as a nation, or as a reunited nation. We should be asking ourselves seriously, as a nation, isn't it time we grew up?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Rush said they wanted Obama to fail. McConnell said publicly their goal was that Obama not be re-elected. They have carried out their plan almost perfectly.
...The 15 Republicans were in a sombre mood as they gathered at the Caucus Room in Washington, an upscale restaurant where a New York strip steak costs $51.
Attending the dinner were House members Eric Cantor, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, Dan Lungren, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and Pete Sessions. From the Senate were Tom Coburn, Bob Corker, Jim DeMint, John Ensign and Jon Kyl. Others present were former House Speaker and future and failed presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and the Republican strategist Frank Luntz, who organised the dinner and sent out the invitations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)K & R
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)libodem
(19,288 posts)The obstructionists are traitors to the country.
We face:
BORROW and SQUANDER politics
Vs
TAX and INVEST diplomacy
Figure it out or go home. Bitches.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Skittles
(153,164 posts)yes INDEED
BanTheGOP
(1,068 posts)I will go one step further: The republican Party is not able to exist as a political party without its obvious repressionist tactics and illegal actions. Fortunately, most people in this country have seen the light, and 2012 has brought out the first true demonstration of how out of touch the rethugs are. President Obama should not compromise one iota and should go for EVERYTHING; the people will ensure that no GOP compromise muddies up the works.
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)but still one that needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
RT_Fanatic
(224 posts)"Reports emerged Monday morning that Democrats might be willing to embrace a freeze of rates below $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/31/fiscal-cliff-mcconnell-biden_n_2387924.html
If O is holding all the cards because of his landslide win, why are GOPers even allowed in the conversation?