SNAP ANALYSIS: Obama toughens talk, scales back ambitions

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5147CR20090205?virtualBrandChannel=10112%3Cbr%20/%3E

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has scaled down his ambitions for gaining a big bipartisan majority for an economic stimulus plan, toughening his rhetoric against Republicans.

- His declaration that the "time for talk is over" and that Republicans are misguided by trying to add more tax cuts to the legislation appeared to signal he would be satisfied with only a narrow victory in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress. Obama did compromise to some degree by agreeing to make a modest cut in the plan's cost to win over a few Republican votes.

- Two polls this week have suggested Americans are suffering some degree of heartburn at the size of the stimulus package, which emerged from the House of Representatives with an $819 billion pricetag and could soar higher once it clears the Senate.

- Lest public support slip away, Obama and others on his team, including Vice President Joe Biden, have made remarks daily arguing the stimulus is needed quickly to give the economy a dramatic boost.

[phantom power]

1. Wow, that spin is making me dizzy from here...

"scaled back his ambitions" == "realized he doesn't need the GOP minority to pass shit, and that he doesn't have time to wait for them to grow up."

[TwilightGardener]

2. Curious as to why GOPers were allowed, on every available media outlet, to

frame the debate on this. Apparently Dems were so sure that Americans' fear of further economic catastrophe was enough to earn public support--no explanations needed of what's actually in the bill. They let the Republicans define a lot of it as pork (some of it rightly so, it appears), and no one countered that until the last couple days.

[Thrill]

4. Because they own the networks

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Hopefully this will be yet another learning experience. It's like that tale

about the scorpion and the frog.

[genna]

15. Allowed?

Republicans were courted behind the scenes. Whatever Obama asked them to do or agreed to do was off camera.

I think he gave them a chance to agree or disagree.

They made their own choice to argue the issue in public. Obama did not counter on purpose. I think he chose not to go public because he was giving them a chance to disagree or agree based on whatever he told them.

Republicans are a one note operation. Attack. When that doesn't work, they attack again. If they are approached in a new way, they think about it and attack some more.

Obama was trying to be rational. They bit him in the butt.

He had to punt and regroup. He had all the cards. Republicans chose to use their one note strategy. He left them plenty of time to hang themselves and hang the American people.

I think he already knew what to expect from the media: propaganda.


It looks like you have bought the message of the last two weeks: Obama does not know what he is doing or how to do it. He knew enough to win. I believe he knows enough to govern.


The Democrats did not move forward and debate the Republicans because their leader, Obama, asked them not to respond to the attack. Did you notice how angry every Democrat who has come out looks? They are pissed! I think it is that they think they have been played and abused. They know Obama won against all odds, but they already know how nasty Republicans are.


The question is whether they trust Obama enough to follow where he is leading or do they trust battling the same b.s. we've been seeing for the past 3 decades in the same cancerous (seat losing) way?

I think Obama is smarter than Republicans are. (I haven't been drinking any kool-aid from Obama nor have I been buying the hype the Republicans/media keep selling us.) I think Republicans believe they have won the issue because of poll numbers and questions the media is asking. Obama still is a community organizer who did not rely on a media campaign to get elected.

Look at his back hand game. He has gone to state representatives to persuade national representatives to do what is best for their district. While Republicans are running their mouths on television, Obama has spent the last week building a ground campaign.


What part of that community organizing effort is deficient?

[TwilightGardener]

17. I think he isn't naive and knew the Repubs would try to make him look bad, and

maybe he is playing two separate games in terms of public vs. private work on this bill, but once public perception takes hold, it's very hard to change. The narrative has to be set early, and reinforced. Look at what happened to the immigration legislation in 2007--once the public got whipped into a fervor against it, even the most reasonable parts were condemned.

[Thrill]

3. Obama locked up Nelson, Snowe, Collins, and Specter yesterday

He knows he has the votes now. Now he's ready to tell the rest to kiss his ass :)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Which Nelson was being an asshole this time? nt

[Thrill]

11. Ben from Nebraska

But he changed his tune after his meeting yesterday.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. At least it was only one of them this time. nt

[anonymous171]

7. He needs to imitate LBJ. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. I don't know about that.

He'd sound weird doing that Texas accent. :+

[WI_DEM]

8. Narrow victory? if every dem in the senate voted for it it would be a solid victory.

Just as the House vote was even with 11 Dems voting against it. Still was a solid victory. Narrow, I consider only a few votes not the 50 or more that the stimulus program passed by in the House.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. If he had an R after his name it would be considered a landslide victory. I guess. nt

[Thrill]

12. Should Kennedy maybe think of letting his wife vote by Proxy on some

of these bills? His vote is going to be important.

I'm not sure if that is legal

[xchrom]

14. this should never have gone the way it did in the first place.

too much is being given out in tax credits and not enough in infrastructure.

too much time spent on 'bipartisanship' and not enoug being ahead of the curve.

and vetting? feh.

[anonymous171]

16. Correct. Bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake never works.

A true pragmatist would know that. Only when the GOP is in your way and you can't force them aside should you compromise with them.

[EraOfResponsibility]

18. Obama is a true pragmatist

get it straight.

[anonymous171]

19. He sure isn't acting like one.

A true pragmatist doesn't go out of his way to do something that is pointless. An Idealist would, but a pragmatist would not.

[DCBob]

20. This will be a huge win for Obama if the bill passes Senate tonight..

Even though its only been two weeks this may be a major turning point in the Obama presidency.