Calling Radicalism by Its Name (NYTimes Editorial -- they liked Obama's speech)

[Sparkly]

[div class = "excerpt"]Calling Radicalism by Its Name

(first paragraph) President Obama’s fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism. He accused his opponents of imposing on the country a “radical vision” that “is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity.”

(snip)

Mr. Obama has, in recent months, urged Republicans to put aside their destructive agenda. But, in this speech, he finally conceded that the party has demonstrated no interest in the values of compromise and realism. Even Ronald Reagan, who raised taxes in multiple budget deals, “could not get through a Republican primary today,” Mr. Obama said. While Democrats have repeatedly shown a willingness to cut entitlements and have agreed to trillions in domestic spending cuts, he said, Republicans won’t agree to any tax increases and, in fact, want to shower the rich with even more tax cuts.

(snip)

The speech was immediately attacked by the House speaker, John Boehner, for failing to deal with the debt crisis, but Mr. Obama pointed out how hollow that charge has become. “That argument might have a shred of credibility were it not for their proposal to also spend $4.6 trillion over the next decade on lower tax rates,” he said. The math is, in fact, quite simple: cutting both taxes and the deficit can mean only more sacrifice from the middle class and the poor, ending the promise of Medicare and Medicaid. Over the long term, the deficit can be brought down through a combination of cuts and new revenues; doing so immediately, as Mr. Romney and his party want to do, would reverse the fragile recovery.

Mr. Obama provided a powerful signal on Tuesday that he intends to make this election about the Republican Party’s failure to confront, what he called, “the defining issue of our time”: restoring a sense of economic security while giving everyone a fair shot, rather than enabling only a shrinking number of people to do exceedingly well. His remarks promise a tough-minded campaign that will call extremism and dishonesty by name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/opinion/calling-radicalism-by-its-name.html

I sure hope so!

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Bookmarked for later.

[Skittles]

2. *FINALLY*

"But, in this speech, he finally conceded that the party has demonstrated no interest in the values of compromise and realism."

OMG - FINALLY

[longship]

3. Please, please, take the time and effort

Read the entire editorial and click through to the speech and read it, too.

This was a barnstormer! He really lays into the Repungnant way the Repug party has acted in bad faith.

I am going to call the White House tomorrow and thank the President and encourage him to continue to take on the lunatic policies of the Repugs. I hope you will all do the same.

Thanks for the post.