Axelrod and Obama inept messengers or truly inept?

[mirrera]

Axelrod on Morning Joe:
Mika says to him something like,
"You call it political theater but sometimes political theater is needed to educate the American people on where people stand. I would have liked to see the Republicans have to stand up for tax cuts for the rich."

Axelrod's response:
He said something like,
"The American people don't need to be educated on this issue, they know that the Republicans wanted the tax cuts for the rich, we already had a vote in the senate and frankly it wasn't that good so the fact is we would not do any better in the next congress and this would push it to the next congress and the American people would wake up on Jan 1st..."

We know the rest of that talking point.

If Axelrod or Obama had said something like this:

"We had a vote in the House of Representatives to extend middle class tax cuts and the Majority won. The Republicans pretty much voted no. We had a vote in the Senate and the Majority won by a comfortable margin, but because the Minority is abusing the filibuster it is no longer enough to win with a majority."

"We even tried upping the amount of money that would retain the tax cuts to a MILLION dollars! Still not enough for the Republicans! The point is we WON this vote and the legislation would have passed if the Senate was not being hijacked by the minority. Clarence Thomas was confirmed with less votes than we had on this issue because the Democrats did not abuse the fillibuster."

"We are not going to give the Republicans two more years so that if they have a majority in 2012 they can make these irresponsible tax cuts permanent. No! In the next congress our first item of business is to put together a Democratic package and pass it either using reconciliation (which is exactly how George W. Bush forced through these tax cuts), or the Nuclear option —as the Republicans called it when they were the Majority— to make it harder to abuse the filibuster."

"So I apologize to the families that are going to suffer until we can get this done next session, but the Democratic party won the vote for your interests and the Republicans are playing games with the rules so that the party with the smaller amount of votes gets to stop the process."

"Talk to them over the next break and let them know that the filibuster is not there to abuse the process and wreck a presidency. Tell them that they are there to work on legislation that helps you, not their super rich friends. Tell the Republicans that if tax cuts for the wealthy—which have been in place for eight years— work to grow the economy, why are we in this ditch?"

"In closing I want to say thank you Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for trying to do the right thing, and to all the other groups out there fighting for the working people of America, thank you for keeping us on the right track and supporting us while we try to get the Republicans to come to the table as honest brokers, something that has so far been fruitless..."

"And finally to our Minority speakers, John and Mitch, I hope you have a nice Holiday. Maybe you will remember the people who have no money because of your votes, and come back ready to do your job."

That would be an education for the American people.

[BeyondGeography]

1. The good news is Axelrod's leaving

He has been an utter disaster as a public voice for this Administration.

K&R

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Sort of like saying that the Captain of the Titantic is being replaced...after they hit the iceberg.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Trying to be positive

And it is not easy.

Axelrod kicked off this tax "negotiation" by telling Howard Fineman and Sam Stern, "we have to deal with the world as we find it." Hard to think how he could have done more damage.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. The antithesis of RFK:

"Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?'
I dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'"

[BrklynLiberal]

2. When it comes to messaging and framing the debate,the Dems, and particularly THESE Dems appear to be

pre-schoolers playing checkers against college chess champs. The repukes have it down flat..and the Dems are not even beginners...and they do not realize how stupid they are about it.


"The American people don't need to be educated on this issue,"

ONE OF THE DUMBEST COMMENTS I HAVE EVER HEARD A WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL MAKE

You can be sure that a repuke would NEVER say that..

Someone needs to have them read every single book and article that George Lakoff wrote, and listen to every interview.
He has been trying to tell them about this for over a decade.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9712824

[mirrera]

4. They don't want to be mean... GAH!

[golddigger]

7. My jaw dropped to the floor when I heard him say this.

:wtf: