reality check for White House: If lose Congress will GOP treat Obama better or worse than Clinton?

[yurbud]

The thanks Bill Clinton got for compromising with the GOP was them trying to take photos of his penis and talking about his sex life for his entire presidency, then trying to impeach him for a lie so petty that W or Cheney wouldn't even consider it worth responding to charges about.

Obama has already ''reached out'' to the GOP repeatedly, added their ideas to his major proposals even though it earned him at most one or two GOP votes per bill, and they still kick him and obstruct at every opportunity.

The result has been that the base of Democratic voters is dispirited, the GOP is energized, and the people in the middle will have a hard time seeing the difference between the parties when they see a Democratic president talking about tax cuts to cure the economy, privatization scams to fix K-12 education, and packed a deficit commission with right wing cranks who want to raise the retirement age and cut social security benefits.

Further bipartisanship and compromise (actually capitulation) will continue to cost the Democrats seats in Congress and maybe even the White House in 2012.

And what will it gain Obama from the right if they gain control of one or both houses of Congress?

Will they treat him better or worse than Bill Clinton?

[KingFlorez]

1. Much worse

It's all but guaranteed.

[scheming daemons]

2. It's not a reality check for the White House... they get it... it's a reality check for the

"professonal left".

[daleanime]

5. Right, do you want your throat neatly cut....

or just ripped out. :banghead:

[yurbud]

11. that shit doesn't fly when the Democratic base agrees with the ''professional left''

[yurbud]

12. and thanks for reminding us how retarded DLCers are about messaging

The GOP works synergistically with right wing media, but the DLC seems to think it's smart to shit on the emerging progressive media rather than work with it.

How are you going to get your message out if you don't have the media and you don't even have the enthusiasm of your base?

[Vincardog]

13. Right the question "is the 'professional Left' going to continue to support the 'NEW DEMS' as they

undermine the American public in support of the Rich elites"?

I say it is time for us to say NO

[daleanime]

3. Duh!

Republicans have always been about short term benefits over long term values.:banghead:

[onehandle]

4. Worse, because unlike President Clinton's, this White House doesn't know how to fight them. nt

[JuniperLea]

8. I wouldn't say that...

I think they are plenty smart and know exactly what would work... but choose not to employ Bushian and Roveian tactics.

[JuniperLea]

6. Pft... Clinton wasn't black... pft...

Obama is already getting the poo flung, if the Pubbies took over either house, there would be hell to pay.

They aren't going to win shit. It's all smoke, mirrors, projection, fake orange tans and glycerin tears.

[CakeGrrl]

7. Some, such as this OP, grossly underestimate what the President understands about the GOP

I've seen several Obama detractors make the assumption that he is a clueless simple thinker who has some weird psychological disorder that makes him need the Republicans to like him. This is apparently the way they explain his efforts at bipartisanship.

I think that assessment is severely off-base.

[JuniperLea]

9. Seriously...

The projection from the RW mixes well with the assumptions of the LW... like oil and more oil.

[yurbud]

15. I would like to hear an another assessment that would give us hope for our democracy

because the other possibility, and the one that I actually think is more likely, is Obama is pursuing exactly the policies he wants to and they are more in line with what corporatist Republicans want than what Democratic voters want.

We are essentially getting a variation of what happened to the Labor Party in Britain, New Zealand and elsewhere: the supposedly left party became as much enforcers of neoliberal policies as their Tory opponents.

[Cosmocat]

22. Not for nothing, but c l u e l e s s ...

I am going upfront out of respect, seriously ...

HCR barely passed, I mean it took the reconciliation backdoor - not that there is anything wrong with that, but it was THAT close to not passing ... If it has been any more to the left, it would never have made it ... And, for the record, I have and still do advocate for a straight single payer system ...

What he wants ???

You think he is a flipping dicator or something ... He can't just write and pass uber liberal laws, he has deal with congress gestates, and he has very little control over it ...

As the preceding post accuately note, the meme here that he is so soft or so weak or so short sighted is the polar opposite, and just as wrong as the crape the wingers say about him ...

He is playing chess, and there are FAR too many people playing checkers, even here ... I got new, we don't have a british system with three, four or so viable parties, the are TWO parties, one of which is completetely united and homogenious and one of which is split close to the middle between fairly leftward types and moderate to slightly rightward types ...

He knew HCR was going to go down to the wire, and pushing any harder to the left would have killed it ...

People like you act like he has a true majority in congress, and he doesn't ... The only thing he has right now is the ability to go to bed knowing they won't try to impeach his arse, beyond that, he has half his caucuse not voting with the "left" hiding from their own shadows desperate to keep their jobs ...

[NewJeffCT]

10. Darrell Issa has already said he will start impeachment proceedings

Over promising Sestak a job in exchange for not running against Specter.

[Cleita]

18. I wish somebody would go after Issa.

I'm certain that there are all kinds of skeletons in his closet waiting to get out. He needs to go. He's as dirty as pig slop. Otherwise the Repubs will keep using him as their hitman. Look what he did to Grey Davis and made it all look nice and legal.

[Ozymanithrax]

14. Worse, because they have ratcheted up the fear will have to play the card...

to keep the crazy birthers, birchers, and psychos voting for them.

[napi21]

16. They'll treat Obama worse but I don't think for the reasons you

listed. All the marginally rational Pubs have been purged from their party, and those who are left are insaely vicious, nasty & downright mean. I think they'd go after ANY DEM no mattr who it was, male/female, black/white/brown, young/old. They're just pissed that they're out of power and want it back!!!!!!!!!

[NewJeffCT]

20. +1

The only moderates in the Senate - Snowe & Collins - are still fairly conservative. The other "moderate" Republics are very conservative overall, but may take one or two positions to the left of Rush Limbaugh & Ann Coulter, so are considered traitorous moderates by them.

Back in the 90s, there were still several moderate Republicans in the Senate & House - Chaffee, Shays (R-CT), Jeffords, etc.

[Cosmocat]

23. Yep, the aren't even making pretenses about it ... Sarah Palin ...

and they know the MSM won't call them for being bold faced about it ...

I mean, seriously, when in our history could some completely self obsessed, brain dead twit quit her job as governor HALF WAY THROUGH HIS FIRST FRIGGEN TERM, and be given a complete free pass to throw the bald faced and simple minded partisan crape that Sarah Palin does ...

15 years ago, someone like Sarah Palin would be viewed for the joke she is, and would be openly ridiculed ... Today, the media can't wait to quote her, and let he play the victim card anytime someone actually calls her for the screwball she is ...

We live in a VERY bad time, and the Rs have the run of the roost ...

[Cleita]

17. What I think they will do is try to remove his citizenship

and deport him to Kenya. It won't be about sex this time but they will take the birther crap and investigate it to death until they find a loose thread to hang on to and never let it go.

[Deep13]

19. Worse, because they can. nt

[ShadowLiberal]

21. They're already treating him worse and making up lies because they have no real dirt

And yes, some of the motivation/reason for that difference from Clinton is racism, the 20% that say Obama is a Muslim are really saying that they're racists who don't want to admit it because it's socially unacceptable to hate Obama for being black.