Barack Obama

[franalexes]

Why is Talk Radio only a right wing success story? Could it be that no one is intersted in the left or no one wants to sponsor it? Duh!

[randolph]

Originally Posted by franalexes

Why is Talk Radio only a right wing success story? Could it be that no one is intersted in the left or no one wants to sponsor it? Duh!

Could it be that the right wing likes bombastic windbags?

[franalexes]

Did you notice Pelosi last night? She acted like she had a pogo stick up her ass. Honestly, if Obamasan had farted she would have applauded.

[new believer]

Originally Posted by franalexes

Did you notice Pelosi last night? She acted like she had a pogo stick up her ass. Honestly, if Obamasan had farted she would have applauded.

what i like about Pelosi is her perpetual 'surprised' look.
like someone just came in her mouth when he promised he would'nt.

[randolph]

Originally Posted by franalexes

Did you notice Pelosi last night? She acted like she had a pogo stick up her ass. Honestly, if Obamasan had farted she would have applauded.

Obama "worship" is getting ridiculous.
Currently I am reading "So Damn Much Money" by Robert Kaiser. It is a fascinating book about the expansion of the lobby industry in recent years. Kaiser documents how lobbyists rule Washington. Democrats and Republicans alike should read this book. A wake up call for saving whats left of our democracy.

[randolph]

LEHRER: How well did he do?

David Brooks on Bobby Jindal.
BROOKS: Not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic, now. They may not like the way the Congress passed the stimulus bill. The idea that government is going to have no role in this...in a moment where only the Federal government is big enough to do stuff...to just ignore all that and say government's the problem...corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending - it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate: some people say the Republican party lost its way because it got too moderate, some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and he's making that case. I think it's insane. I think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

[CreativeMind]

Originally Posted by randolph

BROOKS: Not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party.

Considering that Obama's popularity has finally begun to dip...
Considering his job performance rating is slowly sliding towards only 50%...
Considering that 2/3 of the American people feel Obama's economic plan is for shit...
And considering that every time Obama opens his mouth about how he's going to fix the economy, Wall Street tanks even more (And yes, it was down again today. So much for the great "inspirational" speech last night)...

...It's pretty clear that Brooks (who, by the way, is a dope most of the time anyway) STILL doesn't get it. It's not a "stale" message -- it's what the average person really DOES still believe. The Reagan years produced one of the longest stretches of sustained economic growth in America's history by doing things completely opposite from what Obama is doing now. The problem is Obama started down that path, but now he's veered wildly off the road and gone utterly spend crazy. It's like he's in race between how fast he can print money and turn right around and spend it. The Obama glow has begun to wear thin and the irony here is that he dropped a phrase saying "I get it", not realizing it's the American people who "get it" -- and what they get is that spending is totally out of control and needs to be MASSIVELY reigned in.

Brooks needs a reality check and a bucket of cold water to the face. The problem is, given his political leanings, Brooks refuses to acknowledge that the average American STILL believes in Reagan's classic line "Government isn't the solution to the problem. Government IS the problem."

Originally Posted by randolph

BROOKS: The country is in a panic, now. They may not like the way the Congress passed the stimulus bill. The idea that government is going to have no role in this...in a moment where only the Federal government is big enough to do stuff...to just ignore all that and say government's the problem...corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending - it's just a form of nihilism.

LMAO! This is why I love Brooks. What a buffoon. On the one hand, he's saying the Republican are guilty of nihilism. And yet on the other hand, he is literally saying (regarding the Democrats): "Okay...yes...I admit it, the stimulus bill was passed in a shitty way...yes, the government really should stay out of people's lives...yes, the Obama stimulus plan is filled with corruption, earmarks, and wasteful spending -- but so what? It's your only hope!!!"

What was that about nihilism again?

[randolph]

The Democratic Reagan

Obama's speech was his best rhetorical moment since Grant Park on Election Night. This guy is really good and reminds me of Reagan: Tremendous stage presence, great smile, easy to like, knows how to hit the big theme and avoid the minutia (thus making his speech about 20 minutes shorter than a typical Bill Clinton address to Congress). Like Reagan, his numbers might not pencil out, but he's not going to talk about many of those numbers. He has the strategic advantage of being more popular than any single one of his policies. He can thus tug a policy along behind him, as if it were a distracted puppy.

The opposition party may feel virtuous in sticking to what it claims are its principles, but in a chamber dominated by a young, charismatic leader, the Republicans simply look like old, crotchety sticks-in-the-mud. The Yesterday Party, still defending the gold standard, and wondering if it was a good idea to give women the vote.

Every Republican in the chamber probably had the same nagging thought: This is likely going to be the first of eight of these things. Obama showed no rookie moves. The only real hope for the GOP is to rely on that old historic standby, dominant party overreach. Moral hazard could create enough moral outrage to give the GOP at least a semblance of a foundation for a 2012 challenge. Obama knows that, which is why he said so directly, "I get it."