On 'Responsibility,' Obama Takes Page from GOP Book

[babylonsister]

GOP got punked! :spray:

On 'Responsibility,' Obama Takes Page from GOP Book
@ 12:15 pm by Jeremy P. Jacobs



President Barack Obama has taken a page out of the GOP playbook and conservatives are in a tizzy about it.

In his address to a joint session of Congress, Obama called on the country to come together in a time of crisis and take responsibility for past mistakes. “Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities – as a government or as a people,” he said. “I say this not to lay blame or look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.”

Obama’s appeal for taking greater personal responsibility immediately resonated with conservatives. Throughout the night, Republican members of Congress rose to applaud the line and the idea, which has been a touchstone of the conservative mantra.

Michael Franc, a vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, told The Hill that the theme was a part of the speech the right immediately latched onto. At first blush, he said, Obama “seems to have his head screwed on the same way as Bill Bennett,” referring to the conservative radio talk show host.

Quickly, though, Franc realized that his idea of personal responsibility and the role government clashes with Obama’s. To Franc, and other conservatives, increased personal responsibility leads to less government because, the argument goes, citizens don’t need a safety net of federal programs when they are taking care of themselves. Obama, in contrast, paired personal responsibility with a call for expanded federal programs in healthcare and education.

“What I think he is very deft at,” Franc said of Obama, “is he can use that language to make his points and everything but when he gets to the prescription phase, it’s almost bipolar. He ends up taking the lessons and channeling it in a different direction than you’d expect.”

Perhaps to the right’s dissatisfaction, the theme got rave reviews from viewers across the political spectrum. Michael Maslansky, CEO of Luntz, Maslansky Research, conducted focus groups during the speech. The next day, he wrote on CNBC’s website that “for all of the large reform proposals outlined in Obama’s speech, the messages that resonated most were not about government at all. They were about people and personal responsibility.”

more...

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/02/26/on-responsibility-obama-takes-page-from-gop-playbook/

[midnight]

1. Franc is a duzy.

“What I think he is very deft at,” Franc said of Obama, “is he can use that language to make his points and everything but when he gets to the prescription phase, it’s almost bipolar. He ends up taking the lessons and channeling it in a different direction than you’d expect.” Franc gave me my first laugh out loud moment today. In other words Mr. Obama is treating them with the medicine they have been perscribing for us, and now Franc doesn't like it. Nope, he finds it down right unhealthy!

[Cha]

2. We want people to take personal

responsibility, too, especially the republicans in Congress. Not just talk the talk.

[EraOfResponsibility]

3. kick and rec'd

[tanyev]

4. Republicans sure do love to talk about personal responsibility.

Actually putting it into practice? Not so much.