Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Loved the flight suit -- and how it appeared he stuffed a few pairs of socks into his shorts for the photo op.

Can't wait for the book giving the full psychoanalysis of that joker. This country deserved better -- and wound up victims of the Sopranos shuffle.

 

Not for nothing,the protests in Iran were largely centered in Tehran and around the younger generation. Outside of the capital, in the rural and very religious regions, it never really caught on. The regime was never in trouble.

 

Again. Obama offered a deal that would have been even larger than the one reached. And it was a deal that would have been three parts spending cuts, one part getting rid of loopholes and a few percentage points higher of taxes on the people who have benefitted the most from this country. The Tea Party couldn't even be bothered with that.

 

I've tried to stay out of all this bickering about whose fault everything is, mostly because I am fiercely independent when it comes to politics and have major problems with both parties, but here goes.

I don't think any rational person believes Bush II was a successful president in any sense, really (other than somehow getting re-elected) and ran up ridiculous deficits. But I think it's pretty clear by now that Obama is just as ineffective -- actually, an even weaker leader, if that's possible -- and is in the process of running up even more ridiculous deficits. I'm really not sure how anyone can defend either of them at this point.

 

Like I said earlier, either on this thread or another (I can't remember). I'm hoping Obama is trying to look purposely weak here in the hopes of getting re-elected, then shifts into permanent FU mode and starts pushing his weight around. I'm hoping he's kinda rope-a-doping the right by saying, "I agreed to keep the Bush tax cuts. I agreed to drop increasing revenues in the debt ceiling bill. And we're still fucked. Now, we're doing this my way."

But right now, I'm not too optimistic he will.

 

Oh, Jeeze.

The "Zeke", "he's so smart, he's playing chess , while everyone else is playing checkers" theory.

The theory that everything Obama does has to be right. Has to be better. Has to be smarter.

Sometimes, it's so smart, we can't even comprehend it.

Keep believing it.

 

1) Don't Ask, Don't Tell
2) Health care reform
3) Bin Laden
4) Regulatory reform that the public doesn't even pay attention to, but is very important
5) Stimulus

I don't think Obama has been a perfect president. Neither did I expect him to be. But Bush had 9/11 go down on his watch and Obama essentially had the recession go down on his watch, both of them early on. Books can be written - have and will - on how they've handled the aftermath of those events. But these are two presidencies that were knocked off track very early on.

 

Again, it's all about posturing for the party. And BOTH SIDES ARE DOING THE SAME THING! I mean how stupid is this rope a dope theory if the country is on the brink of financial ruin? Would anyone want to pin his legacy on being a party to that, intentionally or not?

You can trace this back to 2008 and the Democrats having all the power they did and yet still had to go behind close doors in backroom deals to get a health care plan passed, the party of Gay Marriage had a president give this "states rights" spiel that no hard core liberal wants anything to do with because in their minds, the states exist to serve the federal. They had the chance to ramrod a whole lot of their shit through THEIR WAY and they couldn't work up the belly to get it done when they had every lever in their hand. The Democrats are frauds, the Republicans are masking a lot of their mantra in 1950s feel good America when it's really about the upper 3 percent. The fact is it's THAT WAY with both parties in power now. Real liberalism and real conservatism do not exist in a powerful way in D.C. What we have are two ugly suitors with different dresses. But they're still ugly no matter what they wear.

 

1) Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- Strictly a party thing and not necessarily what America wanted, but I'll give you half credit for that.
2) Health care reform -- Hasn't improved anything yet.
3) Bin Laden -- Three-quarters credit. Which is more than Bush got.
4) Regulatory reform that the public doesn't even pay attention to, but is very important -- too vague to justify.
5) Stimulus -- Minus one point. This only helped those who got him elected while increasing the budget. Temporary work, temporary help in the few places where it made any difference.

 

"Thank you sir, may I have another?"

"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"
"And another"

1) Still waffling
2) Gave away the whole store (public option) right out of the box, preemptively folded to the teabaggers
3) Already forgotten
4) Allowing to be watered down by teabaggers
5) Too small at the beginning, should have fought for more, folded in the face of the teabaggers.


Thank you sir, may we have another, etc etc.

 

In the case of Obama, it was completely inherited, so it was his starting point. By the election, the shit had already hit the fan, so it was a given that the mess was going to need to be fixed. For Bush, 9/11 set things in a different course from the original gameplan. Subtle, but important, difference.

Criticism should stand on its own merit. It's easy to look at both unpopular presidents and lump them together. But that wouldn't portray an accurate picture.

For example. Invading Iraq was a flawed idea at the premise. Bad intel leading to a war that was probably a bad idea even if the intel was accurate. It was just F'd up from the start.

In contrast, the idea of trying to stimulate an economy that had already gone in the tank was sound, but the execution was poor (because of poor negotiating). Healthcare reform as a way of addressing costs is a sound idea, but the execution was poor.

There's an important distinction to be made between a bad idea and a good idea executed poorly. At least one is on the right track.