Obama: We’re Fixing Economy “Without Help Of An Opposition Party”

[jefferson_dem]

Obama: We’re Fixing Economy “Without Help Of An Opposition Party”
One interesting moment during Obama’s big speech on jobs, which just finished:

The President, who has kept up at least the pretense of hoping that bipartisanship on health care is still possible, declared it dead and buried when it comes to fixing the economy, even as he laid the blame for the whole crisis squarely in the GOP’s lap:

So, in the weeks and months that followed, we undertook a series of difficult steps to prevent that outcome. And we were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve.

Despite this sharply partisan charge, Obama nonetheless concluded on another call for bipartisanship:

And the question we’ll have to answer now is if we are going to learn from our past, or if — even in the aftermath of disaster — we are going to repeat it. As the alarm bells fade, and the din of Washington rises, as the forces of the status quo marshal their resources, we can be sure that answering this question will be a fight to the finish. But I have every hope and expectation that we can rise to this moment, that we can transcend the failures of the past, that we can once again take responsibility for our future.

In political terms, it represents a gamble that if the economy turns around, the White House and Dems will be able to argue that they cleaned up the GOP mess entirely on their own, and that the GOP was never even part of the conversation about how to make things better.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/bipartisanship/obama-were-fixing-economy-without-the-help-of-an-opposition-party/

[Algorem]

1. he knows there's only one party

[jgraz]

9. Unfortunately, it's the Republicans.

[Cha]

15. What Pres Obama has always known is that there's

a party of dead end fascists who would never do anything to actually help our country.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Uben]

2. Intellectually dishonest.....

...to use the phrase "make things better" and "GOP" in the same sentence.

[napi21]

3. Sure took a long time for him to admit it! I realize he had high

expectations, but I don't think he realized just how deep the hatred is from the Pubs. It's been like that for a long time. Hell, they went after Clinton almost before he stepped his foot in the WH door!

[Cha]

22. It was strategy..he got it.

And, now the White House can say that they tried to reach out but the gop would have none of it..

"In political terms, it represents a gamble that if the economy turns around, the White House and Dems will be able to argue that they cleaned up the GOP mess entirely on their own, and that the GOP was never even part of the conversation about how to make things better."

[BeyondGeography]

4. Great line...keep sticking it to the Can'ts

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. After all Obama is clearing up the Republicans mess

they want no part because they don't know how to clear their own mess up. All the GOP is good at is letting corporations run the country.

[jaxx]

6. The more he asks, and the more they obstruct,

the better he looks. The repugs have done nothing to help, only hinder. Let that be their downfall.

[TwilightGardener]

7. He las learned just how much the Republicans are invested in making sure

nothing improves in this country. They're essentially treasonous.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

8. Re-airing right now on CSPAN2!

Listen especially to the last third...

[4_TN_TITANS]

10. I don't think Obama ever had hopes of bipartisanship,

or if he really did, we elected someone far too naive for the presidency. I do think he's done a fabulous job of extending the bipartisan rope to the R's so they could totally hang themselves in the public eye.

[uponit7771]

11. Yeap, the "tea party" is more popular than pugs now. That screams a lot ....

[Cha]

21. I know he didn't but

their strategy was obviously to show the common courtesy of the winning party and then let them impale on their own petard.

[Drunken Irishman]

23. It's all about the illusion of bipartisanship.

And you know what's awesome? The Republicans know this and scream about it, but look like fools when they do!

[TlalocW]

12. I admire Obama

I think he honestly wanted to give republicans a chance, and it drove some of us on here crazy. I'm sure right from the beginning, he wasn't expecting them to play ball, although he would have been pleasantly surprised if they did. He let them be their typical selves, giving them enough rope to hang themselves, while he's worked to start cleaning up their mess (and that cleanup has begun).

TlalocW

[Cha]

19. That's exactly how I feel

about it.

He couldn't just freakin' ignore them but he knew exactly what they would do and more.

[salguine]

13. 'Cause you're doing the same shit the opposition party would have done anyway.

[Cha]

16. It must be hard to navigate

with your head buried.

[impik]

14. "It's a sight to see"

He really kicked them in this speech.

[jefferson_dem]

17. After Dig at GOP, Obama Invites Bipartisan Group to White House (WSJ)

After Dig at GOP, Obama Invites Bipartisan Group to White House
By Jonathan Weisman

President Barack Obama has invited congressional leaders from both parties to the White House Wednesday, a day after he launched his drive for a new jobs bill.

The move is somewhat surprising, given the tone the president struck in his jobs speech today at the Brookings Institution. Nearly a year after his outreach to Republicans on the stimulus went largely for naught, Obama appeared to be writing off another effort at bipartisanship for Stimulus II – not that he’s calling it that.

In the address on job creation, the president appeared to be burning that bridge before he got to it. Speaking of efforts to head off a second Great Depression, he got in this dig, almost as an aside: After listing the early efforts to halt the economic free fall, he added, “We were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party, which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that had led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve.”

Could be a chilly meeting tomorrow.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/12/08/after-dig-at-gop-obama-invites-bipartisan-group-to-white-house/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fwashwire%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+Washington+Wire%29

[Cha]

18. They don't have to go.

[Clio the Leo]

24. "We dont have to succeed at bipartisanship, we just have to try."

Go get 'em boss!

[Skittles]

26. it sounds like he has learned a big lesson

very good indeed

[CTLawGuy]

25. damn right

and on cue, even our own base is blaming us for why we can't pass legislation that requires unanimous agreement among Dems in the senate, a standard that has never been required in history, when the Rs are blocking for the sake of blocking and filibustering for the sake of filibustering.

[NJmaverick]

27. Or the help of his self proclaimed base

[Life Long Dem]

28. During the campaign McCain was helpful...

So helpful he wanted to shut down the presidential campaign just to work on the economy.

[amandabeech]

29. I'm waiting, Mr. President, for my economy to be fixed.

I'm not Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley.

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. Did he not just give a speech today declaring his intentions? Wow.

I'm sure the snark attack made you feel better, but try to keep up.

[amandabeech]

31. This is not my first snark attack, and it won't be my last.

The President gave another speech today, and it won't be his last either.

I have a deal for him: I stop snarking when he starts doing for regular people like me and stops doing for Wall Street.

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. Were you not happy with the news that more than $500 bln of TARP..

was being returned? I can guess the answer to that question. Are you not in favor of using the returned TARP money to create jobs for "regular" folks like you? Looks like GM will be paying back a few bln as well. Does this not make you happy?:sarcasm:

[amandabeech]

33. That TARP money is being paid back not because the banks are doing well

and have dealt with the drek on their balance sheets, but because they want to pay their executives huge amounts of money again. In a related matter, check out the administrations cave on AIG compensation in today's AIG thread. I didn't like TARP to begin with because it had almost no strings attached, but I don't want to clean out the TARP fund until either the banks write down their assets to something approaching market value, or the value of the assets legitimately rises to former levels without the government pumping up the market, as in the current subsidy for first-time buyers. Furthermore, the banks aren't even lending. They're gambling with the TARP money and, even worse, with zero interest loans from the Fed's discount window. It's sickening.

I'm a Krugmanite, so I welcome stimulus money generally. I await the details of the President's plan, although I wonder what is going on since he seems to be cutting his program to reduce the deficit with the TARP money that he was advocating a couple of weeks ago. I doubt that I will benefit directly from his stated priorities, however.

As to GM, I strongly support manufacturing in the U.S. and wish them well. If Obama had not bailed them out I would have been very disappointed. However, as I'm sure you know, the GM program was subject to very severe restrictions, in sharp contrast to the TARP program. It now appears that GM may be doing better than the TARP recipients in improving its operations. One must wonder why that is.

[depakid]

34. Often without "help" of many "Democrats" too

Of which, Obama himself has to rank among...

Soirry to say, but honestly that's how it's playing out.