Obama: Fighter, Conciliator, or Scold? - American Prospect

[JohnWxy]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=fighter_conciliator_or_scold

Despite justifiable pride in his legislative successes, President Barack Obama never had a working majority to enact the program that the economy needed. Obama's signal accomplishments -- the stimulus program, health reform, financial reform -- all built half a bridge. They were big steps in the right direction, but not enough. Most of the resistance was

caused by Republican obstruction, some of it by conservative Democrats, and some by the limits of Obama's own imagination as a crisis president who needed to act more boldly.

Democrats are suffering voter retribution because during Obama's first two years, they seemed to be in charge, though often only on paper. But over the next two years, the president will be even less able to get Congress to act. However, he may be able to influence whether Republicans belatedly reap some of the blame for economic problems unlikely to go away.

Unemployment is at a persistent plateau. The revelation of undocumented mortgage paperwork is exposing deeper underlying weaknesses of bank balance sheets that could set off a second banking crisis. A vicious circle of depressed consumer purchasing power combined with skittish banks is discouraging business investment. No second stimulus is in the cards. Even if Obama gives in to the Republican version of a stimulus -- massive tax cuts -- it's unlikely to spur a recovery.
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[KoKo]

1. He seems to SCOLD..this quote where he apologizes for "Tax and Spend Liberal Democrat!"

He seems to SCOLD..this quote where he apologizes for "Tax and Spend Liberal Democrat!"


In just this ONE example, below. What is WRONG WITH HIM?...Why does he do these interviews and repeat the Talking Points of the Right Wing? :shrug:

Quote from Interview: (just one of many he's given in current interviews where he repeats this)

"So, what does the country need in these circumstances and what are President Obama's options? Obama's thinking to date, as revealed in interviews with selected journalists, does not produce much comfort. In a mid-October New York Times Magazine piece, correspondent Peter Baker quotes Obama saying that he let himself look too much like "the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat." A recent authoritative story by the AP's White House correspondent, Ben Feller, reports that Obama plans to focus on reducing the deficit. Feller quotes the president, "If we're going to get serious about the deficit, then we're going to have to look at everything: entitlements, defense spending, revenues. ... And that's going to be a tough conversation."

[TheWraith]

2. Your preconceived notions taint pretty much everything you look at about Obama.

God forbid he should use the media to point out to the public that he isn't a caricature of a big-spending liberal Democrat. That, in your mind, somehow gets transformed into him confessing that it's true and apologizing. So you literally just completely inverted his meaning.

[xchrom]

3. He is a bit of a scold isn't he?

Any way -- I'm not sure I really care.