Obama is playing the right-wing like a ho'd out fiddle with the school speech thing.

[xultar]

Even the not as crazy right-wingers are admitting it, they know they are getting played. But, unfortunately they woke the crazy quotient in their party without a plan to contain the bastards.

tee hee hee...hopefully this will play into health care reform and the independents who are siding with the crazy side of the right see the truth about the types they've aligned themselves with over the past few months.

[Sugarcoated]

1. They look crazier and crazier to average, reasonable people

Un-hinged.

[Bolo Boffin]

2. That's nice.

Can we have a public option?

[xultar]

4. I think this will help facilitate that.

[Raven]

3. I've been thinking the same thing. He gave them plenty of rope

and then, with a "Motherhood and Apple Pie" speech, he's let them hang themselves. Beautiful!

[Bonn1997]

5. Or has Obama simply played his liberal base?

[xultar]

9. Oh, he did, you can bet your ass on that. The administration's thinking is that

where were we going to go? He was still in his honeymoon phase and felt he could take the chance. But he got owned by Grassley in a hugely public way.

Obama would have signed what ever the gang of 6 put out before grassley went public with the pawn.

[drm604]

6. I hope you're right.

I think the critics should have been ignored. Changing the wording of the lesson plan will be interpreted by his opponents as a confirmation of their initial fears. They'll claim that their protests caused him to change his talk to something more innocuous than was originally planned.

[vi5]

7. The problem with continually doing this...

..which (if we are to believe the ardent and faithful supporters) he is constantly doing on every issue, is that with each of these controversies that the administration "allows" to fester does manage to peel off a percentage or so of people with each one. So while someone may not care about idiotic controversey #1, and not pay attention to idiotic controversy #2, maybe something in or about controversies #5 through 8 have something about them that resonates with them (whether or not it is actually true). Each of these small percentages adds up and has a snowball effect.

In short, going to that well far too often is a dangerous game. That is, if one actually believes all of this is a conscious effort and a strategic game (which I do not).

[xultar]

8. I do believe the school thing is an effort to repair. The previous mess

was a chance they took because they felt that we wouldn't go anywhere because he was too popular.

Obama will sign anything with or without a public option as long as he can say that he won. That is where we are getting played. There won't be a public option but Obama will claim the win but we will lose. He's willing to take that chance.

[eleny]

11. I remember when he was admonished for not answering controversies fast enough

So, darned if you do and darned if you don't.

Btw, I don't recall him starting many of the controversies. There have been a few like telling Hillary Clinton that she's "likable enough". There was was the pastor mess and perhaps one other after Obama became president. Some slip of the tongue thing.

But for the most part, they're just trying to answer the opposition quickly before their lies become cemented in small minds as fact.

[vi5]

19. I think you can never answer them fast enough....

..that's my point. Whether they start the controversies or not, I always think that the danger of letting it fester for too long before responding is exactly what I listed. Each time there's a few days to a week news cycle controversy that doesn't get responded to right away, more people get peeled off and influenced by it.

I don't necessarily think they start the controversies but I think they always tend to or try to employ the zen like approach of letting the enemy hang themselves with their own rope. But I think they go to that well too often and it's losing it's effectiveness.

[StevieM]

10. I don't think he planned this out. I don't think it ever occurred to him that anyone could be stupid

enough to make a stink about the president giving a back-to-school speech.

Steve

[eleny]

12. Amen. At this point it's more like following a presidential tradtion

[inna]

13. i think he's absolutely shocked by the stupidity.

i hope he finally realizes that he cannot appease those types no matter what he does.

[polichick]

18. No kidding - that's one for the record books! nt

[LWolf]

14. No he's not.

A large error was made when publishing "suggested" activities to go with that speech. That error turned the speech into a political battleground, instead of being the public service it was meant to be.

His administration fucked up, and that fuck up has already denigrated the positive beginning that speech could have been.

[Toasterlad]

15. If By "Playing" You Mean Capitulating, Knuckling Under, and Legitimizing Them, Then Yes.

He's quite the maestro.

[ChiciB1]

16. Ding! Ding! Ding! Or Maybe Boing! Boing! Boing! n/t

[opihimoimoi]

17. The Rookie President didn't get there for being stupid...he noes he is a rookie

and he has yet to get his "Oval Legs"

Give him 6 more months...maybe a year....there will be much GOOD coming from him/Team

The Pubs are Traitorish Cowards for cutting and running in the face of the Enemy(Depression, recession)

All they ever do is complain and nit pick....never to offer support to get the Nation going

The GOP is so lame

[HamdenRice]

20. Oh shit Xultar -- you tell it like it is!!! nt