Budget talks: This is getting nasty

I find this funny.

Dems are not happy with Obama or Reid.

I think the vast majority of Republicans are very happy with how Boehner has done.

 

The Dem base is not pleased:

 

As well it fucking shouldn't be.

 

Obama is a loser. Period. He's not venal or stupid, just wrong. His beautiful mind thinks that the Founding Fathers wanted a weak President, so that's what he'll be. He refuses to fill his role as leader of the party that elected him, because somehow that offends him. These are dangerous ideas. He has pretty much destroyed his party (which could've elected a fucking tree stump in 2008 as well as it did him) for many years. The people who take power in 2012 will not have many scruples about the Constitution or anything else. Why should they? They know their opponents won't fight back.
He has earned his defeat, which is now inevitable. Many Democrats will lose standing beside him. If I were a Democratic member of Congress or Senate, I would right now be holding a press conference to say I could not support Obama in 2012. It's just self-defense.

 

From your lips to God's ears.

 

The Lee Corso of politics.

 

The thing is, this is a problem with many Democrats. Obama is just the embodiment of it. They don't want to fight.

Oh, and any Democrat running in 2012 will be tied to Obama no matter how vociferously they try to distance themselves from him.

 

That's all correct, Suburbia. Elected Democrats have become a party of clock-punchers. Make no waves, don't kill the job, don't piss anybody off, get old, senior and rich. I think that at some primal subconscious level, they don't WANT to be the majority.

 

But the Tea Party Republicans have to be handled with caution.

What can make them different than many others in Congress is that, I feel, they don't "need" the position as much as the long-time politicians. They could get elected in 2010, do what they feel is right and be perfectly fine with getting bounced in 2012 -- as long as they signed off on the changes they wanted. Many of them are successful business leaders/operators and not the "law degree at 25, ran a campaign at 27" types that fill Congress.

That means, like Lester Burnham in American Beauty, they are the "I'm just a guy with nothin' to lose".

On Election Night, I rolled my eyes at the primary voters in Nevada and Delaware for putting up Angle and O'Donnell. I surmised that, sometime in 2011, Republicans would really wish they had those two votes in the Senate.

This is a fine-line to balance for Republicans for 2012. The Tea Party types tend to be the next wave of "Perot types". Go to far to the left of them and they'll just stay home. Sure, the Tea Partiers need a certain level of pandering but they also need someone to tell them, "LOOK! Principle is great. Winning elections are better. Tell Bachmann, Santorum and Cain to get the hell out during primary season. 2012 is for people who have a real chance at winning in November."

And I say this as a conservative Republican...

...but I'm not ready to throw dirt on Obama's 2012 re-election chances just yet. Still a year away. Hopefully, the economy turns around (although, I tend to think we're on the cusp of a double-dip. People aren't spending money... so businesses aren't hiring). If it turns, great, excellent! That will also mean four more years of Obama and, with a second term, he can become the man with nothing to lose. He can try and push through whatever he wants.

I still think Rick Perry could, with some ease, win the 2004 states that GWB beat Kerry with. He could win Ohio/lose Pennsylvania and Romney (if he was the nominee) would probably win Pennsylvania and lose Ohio. This all assumes that FL, IN, NC, VA and NV all "turn back" to Republican after going with Obama in 2008.

I think, however, that we've seen that the conditions must be ideal for a Democrat to win the White House. In the past 30 years (with the exception of Clinton's 1996 re-election), Democrats need:
- a recession
- apathy for the Republican candidate (Bush 1992, McCain 2008)
- an energized base to ensure voter turnout, especially with minorities in swing states (OH, VA, NC, FL)

If any of those elements are not in play for 2012, Obama probably will lose, especially as people tune out his "class warfare speeches". Of course, the Republicans could screw it up loooong before then. They have a bad history of overplaying their hand.

 

No vote tonight.

Progress Caucus claims President Obama has thrown them under the bus.

Congressional Black Caucus & Progressive Caucus to call on the President to use the "14th Amendment" option.

LOL. Just as radical as the "Tea Party".

50 votes Nancy. 50 votes from your caucus or we go over the cliff.

Demand it off her Speaker Boehner.

 

You all can keep saying "Tea Party representatives are different!" and "they don't even care about being re-elected!" and "they're so principled I could just swoon!" until you're blue in the face. It won't make it any more true.

 

The deal is one-sided and offers nothing to the progressives, so therefore this is the best option.