Obama General Discussion... (Part 2)

[anitram]

Republicans do the wrong things, Dems do nothing.

That's very true.

 

[INDY500]

The only thing I love more about this shirt than the great sense of humor that conservatives obviously have in abundance (and liberals seem to lack), is the fact that I live in a country where I could safely wear it.

 

[corianderstem]

I, a liberal, think that shirt is relatively amusing.

 

[martha]

Me too.

 

[INDY500]

I, a liberal, think that shirt is relatively amusing.

 

[BVS]

the great sense of humor that conservatives obviously have in abundance (and liberals seem to lack)

It's funny that you say this, you usually bring it up after you get called out on some bigoted joke you posted. Yet when a Palin joke comes up you scoff...

So it might just be your definition of humor.

 

[INDY500]

It's funny that you say this, you usually bring it up after you get called out on some bigoted joke you posted. Yet when a Palin joke comes up you scoff...

So it might just be your definition of humor.

I may pooh-pooh or jeer something from time to time but I'll have you know I've never scoffed in my life.

 

[BVS]

 

[Strongbow]

thank goodness obama has now ended the recession. 3.5% GDP growth!

is there nothing he can't do?

Do you also credit Obama with the following?

Monthly unemployment rate in 2009:

January 7.6%
February 8.1%
March 8.5%
April 8.9%
May 9.4%
June 9.5%
July 9.4%
August 9.7%
September 9.8%
October 10.2%

 

[Irvine511]

concerning stuff.

Is the Tea Party Gang Turning GOP Into a Party of Hate?
POSTED: 11/6/09

When John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, appeared at the Tea Party rally at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, it was a dramatic signal: The wing-nuts have taken over the GOP.

Think I'm being harsh? The angry folks at the protest -- which attracted several thousand conservatives -- held up signs with messages of hate: "Get the Red Out of the White House," "Waterboard Congress," "Ken-ya Trust Obama?" One called the president a "Traitor to the U.S. Constitution." Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. Yes, Sambo. Another read, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" -- a reference to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory holding that one evil Jewish family has manipulated events around the globe for decades.

All of this extremism was on display -- proudly -- at an event that was officially sponsored by the House Republicans. After Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) invited tea partiers to the Capitol to rail against the emerging health care bill, the GOP leadership -- somewhat blindsided by Bachmann -- jumped on board, providing speakers and logistical support for the event. Certainly, the crowd was not made up entirely of bigots; I'm not smearing all the protesters who oppose Obama's health care reform effort. But it cannot be denied: Racism and anti-Semitism were part of an official Republican action.

Extremism was also flowing from the podium, where Republican House members were eager for microphone time. Boehner, for one, declared that the health care bill is the "greatest threat to freedom that I have seen." That's some statement. A greater threat than Hitler's Nazism or Soviet communism? About the same time he was speaking, Obama was making a surprise appearance at the White House daily press briefing to tout the fact that the American Medical Association and AARP, the powerful seniors lobby, have each endorsed the health care reform bill. Here's a question for Boehner: Are these two groups opposed to freedom? And at one point during the rally -- call it a Bachmannalia -- when John Ratzenberger, a.k.a Cliff Clavin from "Cheers," claimed that the Democrats were turning the United States into a land of European socialism, the audience shouted, "Nazis, Nazis." No Republican legislator left the stage in protest. Boehner and his fellow GOP leaders should be asked how they feel about mounting a rally that attracted intense hate-mongering.

With their overheated rhetoric, Boehner and Bachmann (who called this rally "the Super Bowl of freedom") are placing the GOP into a corner -- just at a time when external circumstances are shifting in the party's favor. If the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia showed anything, they indicated that moderate Republicans (real or faux) can fare well against Democrats during a time of high unemployment. These two elections also suggested that independents are skittish about the status quo, open to Republican importuning, and perhaps yearning to send incumbents a message -- and most incumbents nowadays are Democrats. The one place where conservatives made a conservative stand was the 23rd congressional district of New York. In that high-profile contest, the Tea Party movement, which had swung behind conservative third-party candidate Doug Hoffman, was defeated by Democrat Bill Owens.

The lesson of all this for GOPers might well be: Don't go crazy; instead, court dissatisfied independents and be a reasonable alternative to the people in power. By embracing the Tea Party mob, Boehner and company are doing none of that. They are partnering with an extremist band that many indies won't identify with. And that may end up giving Democrats a better chance to hold on.

A recent poll found that only 25 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of the Republican Party (compared to 42 percent for the Democrats). Hanging out with "Nazi"-shouters who wave racist and hateful signs is not likely to boost the popular appeal of congressional Republicans. Boehner and company are not merely playing to the base; they're saddling up with the worst elements of the right. It won't be a pretty ride.

******
You want more evidence the Tea Party activists are not reality-based? A bunch of them have been promoting the theories of a crackpot Russian academic who predicts that ethnic and racial conflicts will cause the United States to disintegrate within in the next year or so into several different countries. It would be hard to make this stuff up. Check it out here.

what's next, in light of the Fort Hood shooting and 10% unemployment? more violence?

 

[HyperU2]

Depends on the pissed off Muslims I guess.

 

[BVS]

I had a theory during the W Bush years that the far right would start to rise, and that if we elected a Dem things would get messy, this was before Obama was in the picture, the fact that that Dem is a black man accelerated my theory...

 

[HyperU2]

You're fucking amazing.

 

[BVS]

You're fucking amazing.

You're pretty amazing at trolling, so you have that going for you...

 

[BEAL]

You're fucking amazing.

How about instead of being a dick, you actually contribute something.

Republicans, enjoy the downward spiral.

 

[2861U2]

Republicans, enjoy the downward spiral.

Keep on pretending there is one. This has been a terrible week for Democrats, and they are losing popularity fast and peoples' toleration of their "leadership" is wearing mighty thin. At this point next year, I think this "downward spiral" you speak of will result in the GOP making huge congressional gains.

 

[Irvine511]

Keep on pretending there is one. This has been a terrible week for Democrats, and they are losing popularity fast and peoples' toleration of their "leadership" is wearing mighty thin. At this point next year, I think this "downward spiral" you speak of will result in the GOP making huge congressional gains.

all that happened on Tuesday was that moderate, reasonable Republicans are able to win seats -- in states that historically *always* elect a governor the opposite of the person in the WH -- in a time of 2 failed wars and 10% unemployment.

what's more disturbing are the Tea Bagger "insurgents" and how they tipped a district in upstate New York that hadn't sent a Democrat to Congress since the Civil War to the Democrats.

the GOP is going to gain seats in 2010. we all know this. Obama will remain generally popular, especially as the stimulus money starts to kick in big time in 2010, and unemployment, always a lagging indicator of economic health, starts to finally drop.

anything could happen, but to talk about a broad American shift to the right i think is incorrect. i think what's happened is that, 1) Bush is out of office, so the conservative moderates who value things like basic competency can now vote for the GOP again, 2) people are scared, and incumbents are easy to blame, and, 3) it's only within the GOP are you seeing a real, hard Right insurgency, and the moderates in the GOP are going to have to deal with that.

and finally, i'm not opposed, totally, to the GOP winning more seats (so long as they are moderates, and not part of the Beck/Palin axis).

we had very, very good government from 1989 to 2001, and that was due to divided government.

 

[BoMac]

Keep on pretending there is one. This has been a terrible week for Democrats, and they are losing popularity fast and peoples' toleration of their "leadership" is wearing mighty thin. At this point next year, I think this "downward spiral" you speak of will result in the GOP making huge congressional gains.

You know, this bit of "logic" has always been troubling for me.

It's obvious that the honeymoon phase is over and, yes, the Democrats' popularity seems to be waning compared to where it was a few months ago.

However, this is less a reflection of the overall performance of Obama, and more the natural ebb and flow of politics. I think it's quite normal for the party in power - Republicans, Democrats or any other part anywhere - to see their popularity dip after a few months in office.

 

[BVS]

Keep on pretending there is one. This has been a terrible week for Democrats, and they are losing popularity fast and peoples' toleration of their "leadership" is wearing mighty thin. At this point next year, I think this "downward spiral" you speak of will result in the GOP making huge congressional gains.

Who knows, it all really depends on where the economy is next year.

Anytime you have this much control by any party, there's going to be a backlash, that's just a fact.

What's suprising to me is that the Republican party as a whole still hasn't shown any solidification yet, I would have expected that by now if they really wanted to cash in on this. But there's still this debate and divide between moderates and the right wing. I think some Republicans are scared by the tea bag crowd, they know if they embrace them they look just as idiotic and racist, but if they don't they lose votes.

Right now as I see it, the tea bag crowd is the best thing to happen for some of us...

 

[Strongbow]

the GOP is going to gain seats in 2010. we all know this.
.

Unlike Bush who in 2002 and 2004 was able to increase the number of seats his party had in both houses in congress.

Obama will remain generally popular, especially as the stimulus money starts to kick in big time in 2010

Thats already kicked in, and in order to sustain the current rate of GDP growth in early 2010, a second stimulus is needed.

and unemployment, always a lagging indicator of economic health, starts to finally drop.

More stimulus will probably be needed to have a chance at substantially reducing unemployment. Unemployment declined in 1984 by over 2 percentage points, but that was thanks to large 8% GDP growth.

 

[BVS]

Unlike Bush who in 2002 and 2004 was able to increase the number of seats his party had in both houses in congress.

Context fail

 

[Strongbow]

Context fail

Nothing against Obama really since historically the Presidents party always loses seats in the mid-term election and often when a President is re-elected too. But, despite that, Bush was able to increase the Republicans' majorities in both houses.

 

[BVS]

Remind me how many seats the Republicans had after 2000... and how many did the Dems get in 2008? That's the context to which I speak of.

 

[2861U2]

Obama Gives Shout Out to 'Congressional Medal of Honor Winner' Who Isn't | NewsBusters.org

The Washington Post this afternoon reported "President Obama delivers remarks on Ft. Hood shooting at end of tribal leaders conference." The transcript begins:

OBAMA: Please, everybody, have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you.

Ah, the dangers of giving shout outs without a teleprompter. Crow is not a Medal of Honor recipient. As noted by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society: The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Generally presented to its recipient by the President of the United States of America in the name of Congress, it is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Crow's name is not included on the Society's Medal of Honor recipient list. He was, however, awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in August.

Obama, often described as "cerebral" by the mainstream media, should know the difference between the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom, especially since he personally awarded the latter to Crow. Don't expect his blunder to receive wide coverage. It's not something he can blame George Bush for.

------

He's such an intelligent man.

 

[BoMac]

And your point? Even the most intelligent men can make mistakes, and this was an easy mistake to understand. He is, after all, human.

 

[Irvine511]

He's such an intelligent man.

you can do better.

 

[Tiger Edge]

He's such an intelligent man.

"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." --Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004 VIDEO EVIDENCE

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right." --Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

Another American hero.

You're really grasping at straws here if the worst you can pin on Obama's intelligence is when he mistakes a military award for a civilian award. He's not here to play Jeopardy for you.

 

[Diemen]

He's such an intelligent man.

Thank you for bringing these important issues to light and discussing them in rational, respectful ways. It'd be a pity if we ever devolved to trading jabs over banal matters.

 

[indra]

you can do better.

Are you sure?

 

[Dreadsox]

its a pity he was giving shout outs at a time when soldiers had been attacked and killed. Apparently shout outs were high on the list of priorities verses...shout outs.