Dear Prez-Elect Obama: You're there to fix what's wrong, not appease Republicans

[Cyrano]

Dear President elect Obama: Eight days from now, you will be the President of the United States. And you're probably among the smartest people ever to hold that office.

So please spare us the "reach across the aisle" rhetoric. You're sharp enough to know that the Republican's main and only goal is to destroy you.

I have no doubt in my mind that you read Paul Krugman's NY Times Op-Eds. Today's column offered a bit of advice that you must already know -- Your business tax breaks are nothing but a ploy to get Republicans "on board" for your other plans.

Stop the political games we've gone through for the past eight years (and probably the past 200 years).

Today, America is drowning, as surely as New Orleans drowned in 2005. Bush did nothing. You don't have the same option.

Drop the "tax-cut" bullshit. You will never appease the wingnuts that you think will buy this crap. Do you really think you need their votes in congress? We'll here's a news flash for you. You won. The American people will back you. You don't have to kiss anyone's ass for votes this early in your (presidency-to-be). Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and/or Arlen Spector will cross over and vote with you. (Either that, or they will be gone from the Senate when they run again.)

The courage, patience and brilliance you demonstrated in both the Dem primaries and the final election served you well. And just in case you forgot, I'd like to once again remind you that you won. Now it's time to take that victory and use it to start repairing the damage that Bush&Co have done to our country.

I know it seems like an insurmountable task. But you've just finished reading a biography of Lincoln. And no one needs to tell you about the accomplishments of FDR.

There are millions of us that are projecting upon you the accomplishments of both Lincoln and FDR. But until next Tuesday, you are a blank page upon which we are merely writing our hopes and dreams.

So here's my plea. Please don't disappoint us.

[rateyes]

1. Damned straight!

:kick:

[Kansas Wyatt]

2. Obama should steal McCain's line about being made famous.

Anyone who stands in the way of meaningful and real recovery, should be made famous for all of the country to see and despise.

Hint to Obama: Even when Republicans get everything their own way, they still aren't happy. Piss on them, just ignore them.

[eridani]

3. Here'a clue. The Repubs will unequivocally oppose anything that Obama does

Therefore, compromising with them is advance is totally idiotic.

With respect to health care, Republicans will fight any health care plan that Democrats propose. Reviewing the history of Clinton’s attempted health care reform in 1993, it is important to remember that it was not really universal care, but a plan concocted by large insurers that would have involved massive public subsidies to themselves combined with a government request that they insure more people, pretty please with sugar on it and a cherry on top. Small and medium insurers would have been put out of business, so they launched the Harry and Louise ads.

Republicans absolutely refused to compromise under any conditions. "The plan should not be amended; it should be erased," conservative pundit Irving Kristol advised the GOP. And not merely because Mr. Clinton's scheme was (in his view) bad policy, but because "it will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests."

They are planning to do the exactly the same thing this year. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, put it succinctly in a recent blog post: “Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival.” He claims that if Obama succeeds in passing health care, then people who might have been conservatives will like it, and will be more likely to vote for the people who passed it.

The lesson is that Obama ought to go straight to the public on this and other issues, and ignore the Repubs as much as feasible.

[NJmaverick]

4. Hard to believe a man as intelligent and educated as PE Obama

needed you to tell him what his job is.:eyes:

[Cyrano]

6. Well, it was a lousy chore, but someone had to do it

[NJmaverick]

9. Did he call you on the days he taught the Presidential rights and responsibilities

in his Constitutional Law classes?

[Cyrano]

10. My hope is that he re-read his own notes. And that he remembers who he is.

[Froward69]

5. Hear Here!!!!

[Stinky The Clown]

7. God DAMMIT ........

........ I want to recommended this a brazillion times.

[Cyrano]

22. this is a post that it impossible to ignore

[tomp]

8. drastic tax increase on the rich now!

tax cuts for the working and middle class now!

return corporate handouts now!

stop spending on offensive military now!

but noooooo, obama's into "reach across the aisle"!

obama is taking his cues from the 2006 congress.

still waiting for change.

[Cyrano]

11. Call me naive, but I believe that much of this was campaign rhetoric

He knows that reaching across the aisle is a waste of time.

He knows that military spending is the biggest drain on our treasury in history and must be curtailed.

He knows that corporations are his biggest problem, and that's it's impossible to get back those dollars tucked away in Cayman Island banks.

Pulling out of Iraq is doable. Pulling out of Afghanistan will alienate the majority of Americans (for all the wrong reasons.)

Tax cuts for the middle class will be meaningless when a vast number of the middle class are now unemployed, partially employed, or are considering suicide.

I believe that, given sufficient time, Obama can alleviate the doom, gloom and disaster that Bush/Cheney have brought down upon us.

Let's give him a chance before we pounce all over him.

[TheWraith]

15. It's not impossible to get back the money in the Cayman Islands.

Do you really think the British are going to defend the place if we decide to land troops? :)

[4_TN_TITANS]

16. That's what I say - give the man a chance...

If he starts with the premise of trying to 'work with them', which of course they won't, then he can point to them and say to the camera "I can't work with these people who want the worst for us all".

The Repubs are in a precarious position of alienating themselves from the majority of Americans who elected Big O. He's got tons of political capital, he's just not waving it in their faces - yet.

I think he's playing it brilliantly so far.

[tomp]

23. OK, you're naive.

Of course, only time will tell, but I'm sure I'm right. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm pouncing, and have been since he embraced colin powell. If you don't get the signal that that sent, well...you're naive.

[Occam Bandage]

12. They're insane ideologues with an extremist agenda who can't be reasoned with.

Talking to them doesn't lead to true compromise, it only legitimizes them while pressuring you into making unnecessary and harmful concessions. You have to flex your muscle, because muscle is the only thing that gets you anywhere with people like that.

Yes, I can't believe that Obama is going to negotiate with Iran. What an appeaser.


...wait, wait, wrong forum.


Yes, I can't believe that Obama is going to negotiate with the Republicans. What an appeaser.

[Cyrano]

13. He only requires one or two Republican senators to cross over.

The bigger problem is Southern Democrats. Some will desert Obama in order to get reelected.

These (pardon the expression) miserable pricks need to be voted out and replaced with people who actually believe in democracy.

Perhaps I'm a total fool, but I'd really like to live to see a day when the vast majority of Americans (North, South, Repubs, Dems, etc.) will stand up for the interests of all -- including their own best interests.

Sigh, having reread this post, perhaps I am a total fool.

[bvar22]

20. The South is ripe for the picking....

..IF the Democrats are willing to spend some time & money.
The economy in the South sucks so bad that the Democrats could run an "in your face" Economic Justice campaign that would drown out the Preachers and "RICH" Republicans.
They would have to Sell It, like they sold NAFTA to America. They would also have to deliver since they are now in The Majority.

Unfortunately, The Democratic Party has become so comfortable with their Big Business "contributions" that they are unwilling to upset the Status Quo.

I remember when The Democratic Party Stood for Something, but I'm pretty old.
The DLC & "Centrism" has destroyed the message of the Democratic Party.
FDR, JFK, and LBJ would not recognize today's Democratic Party.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[TheWraith]

14. What do you think is wrong with government, if it isn't the nuclear war between the parties?

You ask Obama to "Stop the political games we've gone through for the past eight years," then tell him to keep doing the EXACT SAME THING with different players by ignoring half the country instead of, say, trying to get them on board.

"Drop the "tax-cut" bullshit."

Because God forbid that we should give money back to the middle class. :eyes:

[Cyrano]

17. Giving money back to the middle class will accomplish nothing

The country needs jobs, unions to negotiate for decent salaries and benefits, universal health care, regulation of big Pharma, a minimum wage on which people can live, and, most importantly, regulation over the predatory practices of Corporate America.

So your "Drop the 'tax-cut bullshit'" wont accomplish squat without the rest of the package.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. How will tax cuts work for the unemployed? Because there are lots of unemployed, currently

:shrug: And unless jobs are created and loads of them immediately, tax cuts for the middle class won't help much.

[bvar22]

21. Not just the unemployed....

but the bottom 30% will NOT benefit from a tax cut either.

[Cyrano]

19. No, I'm asking him to ignore the 22% of the country that still backs Bush

And do your really believe the "tax-cuts" for the middle class will make a difference?

I would suggest that, for most people, it would mean dining out one week a month at a restaurant with cloth napkins.

Who could be dense enough to believe that this would make a difference to the enormous economic disaster in which we now find outselves?