How Obama Handles Crisis

[bigtree]

_____________________

by Jon Favreau (former Obama speechwriter)


Honestly, they act like it’s his first crisis . . .

By and large, the president’s most difficult moments—the true crises he’s confronted—haven’t been the political ones. At least not in his view. I was reminded of this by an anecdote in Peter Baker’s New York Times story from Thursday: “As he was traveling on Marine One on Monday, Mr. Obama took note of news reports describing last Friday as a terrible day. ‘You know what was actually a terrible day?’ an aide recalled him saying. ‘The day Benghazi actually happened.’”

A biracial, freshman senator named Barack Hussein Obama wouldn’t be president if he didn’t possess ample political talent. But to say that his decisions are driven primarily by politics is to fundamentally misunderstand the man who occupies the Oval Office . . .

This is a president who has seen the nation through many serious and consequential crises, and he has done so without losing the core of who he is or why he ran for this job in the first place.

. . . in the case of the IRS, the president must have been furious when he learned the news. I can remember how angry he was during the GSA debacle (parties in Vegas; think there were clowns and jugglers involved? Wow). He was angry because he knows that a progressive vision of government requires faith that government is efficient, and responsive, and trustworthy—and the handful of morons who break that trust sully the reputation of all the federal employees who uphold those values every day.

But the president was not willing to fire a bunch of people before knowing all the relevant facts. He was not willing to go on a witch hunt before the investigation of the independent Inspector General was complete. That was more important to him than his short-term political standing in the eyes of the Washington press corps.

That is who he is. The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack Obama will never be on their timeline. He does not value being first over being right. He will not spend his presidency chasing news cycles. He will not shake up his White House staff just because of some offhand advice offered to Politico by a longtime Washingtonian or a nameless Democrat who’s desperately trying to stay relevant. And if that means Dana Milbank thinks he’s too passive; if it means that Jim VandeHei will keep calling him arrogant and petulant; if it means that Chris Matthews will whine about him not enjoying the presidency, then so be it. He’ll live . . .


read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/20/how-obama-handles-crisis.html


Barack Obama and Jon Favreau in the Oval Office

[veganlush]

1. exactly. n/t.

[madokie]

2. I'll take a President Obama just the way he is

and feel good about myself for it
I like it when I wake up in the morning and he is my President, or when I wake from my mid day nap and he's my President.

[bigtree]

4. it's going to be way too short a time

. . . two terms with this once-in-a lifetime president.

[madokie]

15. I think the repulsive party thinks the same thing

Their mission is to slow him down as much as possible, to not help him in any way.

[siligut]

30. I agree, but am overjoyed that we have the time we do

Obama has given me hope that I will never forget.

[madokie]

31. That he has

[rhett o rick]

28. How do you feel about Penny Pritzker? The female Mit Romney. nm

[BlueCaliDem]

3. There are a few bedwetters on DU who actually dislike Democrats

and believe they're better than us. Read their holier-than-thou comments under this ridiculous cartoon:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022870000

I ask myself, what are they doing on a Democratic Party site? They're obviously NOT Democrats.

[el_bryanto]

5. That's pretty clever. Telling those who want Obama to stand up more firmly

for basic Democratic values that they are spineless bed-wetters. Very clever.

Good politics. Might be of questionable accuracy.

Bryant

[bigtree]

6. clever of you

. . . to equate what this writer is referring to - the worst of D.C. punditocracy - with whatever you're advocating.

Classic contrived victimhood . . .

[el_bryanto]

7. Look at the other responses. nt

[bigtree]

8. tell that to them, not the writer of this article

. . . who says absolutely nothing about "those who want Obama to stand up more firmly for basic Democratic values."

Your interpretation is pure invention.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Pretty ugly way this guy speaks. Insensitive and crude.

Sad that such withered hearts are in positions of power. He should read Sarah Silverman's book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bedwetter

For that matter 'hand wringing' is often a symptom of Rett's Syndrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndrome

I guess he was well trained by Rham 'retarded idea' Emmanuel.
Makes me sad that mediocre and willfully ugly people are rewarded in this country, the entire pundit class is so mean and uninformed that it gets hard to endure the shit they say just to make a buck.

[Fumesucker]

10. Using terms like that says much about the author, nothing about his targets n/t

[bigtree]

12. I'm just amazed. Is this an epiphany?

. . . are you now renouncing all of the offensive and inflammatory terms you've used to describe writing and authors you object to?

[Fumesucker]

13. I'm not a professional paid author

Just a poster on a bulletin board.

Standards, professionals are supposed to have 'em.

[bigtree]

14. the guy's retired from the WH

. . . just as entitled (and proper) to express his unvarnished opinion as you or me.

[Fumesucker]

16. Maybe he should have just called them "retarded", eh?

I have a niece who was a "bedwetter", only assholes and there were a few found it at all funny.

[bigtree]

17. I don't think he meant it as humor

. . . but, as with many other terms, it was a descriptive term for the contrived complaints from the D.C. press corps which I don't believe more than a handful will interpret as a literal equation with a common and mostly embarrassing medical condition.

[Fumesucker]

18. It's a term I've heard out of right wing talk radio enough to be thoroughly allergic to its use

Why are some embarrassing and unfortunate medical conditions fodder for stupid insults approved by liberals/Democrats/progressives and others are not?

The English language can be used to skewer someone with finesse and wit, trite cliches are boring and show a lack of sufficient skill to come up with something original.

[bigtree]

20. I imagine there's some sorry survivor of a suicide somewhere

. . . outraged that someone would name themselves 'Fumesucker' to be clever on a discussion board.

I'm not one of them.

[Fumesucker]

21. Bless your heart

[bigtree]

11. I don't think you read the article

I don't imagine you actually agree with the reporting he's referring to.

It's rather amazing to see you stand up for the punditry of the likes of Dana Milbank, Jim VandeHei and Chris Matthews . . . but, so be it.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. Dear BT. The fact that I loathe the pudits he speaks of does not require me to become a lout.

And you are being dishonest. Nowhere did I stand up for those writers in any way. That is you manufacturing content that is not there in my post. Others can read. Can you? Show me this defense of those jerks?
No, the thing is that the pundits being idiots does not offer anyone excuses for using hurtful, crude, name calling based on medical conditions that cause suffering. Milbank being an ahole does not mean you get to call him rude names.
You know this is nasty verbiage. But you endorse it because the targets are people you don't care for. Do you use that same slippery standard for racial slurs, or anti gay slurs?
The fact that you have to make specious claims about my post to defend this verbiage shows that you have no rational, reality based reason to support such language. What a rude, nasty thing to do.
I can speak for myself, and I said what I said. You, of course, did not respond to a bit of what I said, instead you made up some stuff and ascribed it to me and made a stink about your own rewrite,sort of like what ABC did with that email about Libya. Same tactic.

[bigtree]

22. all right, all right. I get it.

. . .upset over 'bedwetter?'

Wow. I'd have to actually know you to say whether you've made a similar, disassociated analogy that might be hurtful to someone, somewhere. I can't imagine that's beyond you. The American language is replete with analogies that have absolutely noting to do with the words' original meanings.

You've really not ever lashed out at someone with offensive language defending or objecting to something? I get that 'bedwetter' upsets you, but I'm having a hard time accepting that it's as hurtful as you make it out to be in the context that it's used in the opinion piece.

And you want to stretch this to suggest he's open to racial or homophobic slurs?

You're just churning up your own invented outrage.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. No, I don't do that. Sorry to disappoint you, also this is not about me.

Also, let's be clear. I did not suggest that the author is open to other slurs, I asked you if you were open to defending such slurs if the targets of the slurs were sufficiently right wing or otherwise unacceptable. Because you are defending this by claiming that criticism of the verbiage chosen is a defense of those targeted with that language. I'm asking YOU what YOUR metrics are for such things. Clear yet?
I want to point out that you have not responded to one thing I wrote, you have not answered any question asked you, and instead you keep trying to make this about me, when it is about a crude pundit attacking other pundits, and you supporting any language no matter how harmful to good people, if it is directed at political enemies.
Milbank? A shill for hire, I celebrated when Keith Olbermann barred Milbank from his show for being a nasty duplicitous shill. I don't need to equate him to a person with a medical problem to state my disdain for him nor do I need to defend those who do have that need.
I'm not sure why you are so committed to this verbiage. It is not needed to make the point the guy was trying to make. Had he used a more mature political lexicon he'd have reached a larger audience instead of sounding much like the very people he criticizes.

[bigtree]

24. well, I didn't process that word as a slur until it was pointed out on this thread

I understand the context and i agree with the actual inference the author is making.

Personally, I can't account for everything that might offend folks. I've been humbled and amazed by the responses i get on the internet. it is an invaluable insight into reasoning and perspective that is different from our own.

It's, perhaps, a good thing that you spelled out just what offended you here. I didn't guess that 'bedwetter' was your beef, but I'm certain that I"LL never use it as an analogy in my own writing, having been so thoroughly chastised here.

I do maintain that you really can have a blind spot to words and analogies which might offend. I don't have a hair trigger for most words which are generally accepted as offensive. I'm a bit dull to most other more unassuming language which isn't as regularly denounced as offensive. I'm dull to most of that as a defensive mechanism. I'm just not, personally, going to allow myself to be defeated by what someone else might think of me or how they might characterize me. I will defend against slurs, but I'm not always as attuned to them for the sake of others as I maybe should be.

It shouldn't be such a stunner that I took this fellow's comment for what he meant to convey. I think you took a divergent route. That may well be a consequence of the language used. I hope that you might find an opportunity to make this fellow aware of your complaint. It might serve his writing as it serves a community which might be sensitive to the use of the term.

I'm going to compromise between my own antipathy and your concern and revert to the original title.

[DCBob]

26. Good grief..

these are common slang terms which most normal people dont find offensive.

[Number23]

32. I'm sitting absolutely DYING at the faux outrage. "My niece was a bedwetter???" WTF!!??!!

[DCBob]

25. Sometimes it seems Obama is the only adult in the room.

and in most cases its true.

[Enrique]

27. a very generous view of Obama

not surprising of course, and nothing wrong with it.

But the reality is that Obama does very much care about his press image and about politics. Just look at the targets Favreau goes after: they are all pretty easy targets, people on both sides despise Milbank, et al. And he personally went after Maureen Dowd, and Axelrod just went after her as well. Dowd is another easy target. Attacking these people is safe for his image, maybe he'll even get a poll bump.

Compare to how his administration responded to Shirley Sherrod, they told her that she needed to resign before Glenn Beck started his show that day.

[rhett o rick]

29. He begs the Republicans if they will accept just a small cut to SS and Medicare. PLease, please. nm