Frank Rich -The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision

[malaise]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/opinion/31rich.html
<snip>

HANDS down, the State of the Union’s big moment was Barack Obama’s direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold over a government they already regard as a partially owned onshore subsidiary. How satisfying it was to watch him provoke Alito into a “You lie!” snit. Here was a fight we could believe in.

Perhaps McCain was sneering at Obama because of the Beltway’s newest unquestioned cliché: one year after a new president takes office he is required to stop blaming his predecessor for the calamities left behind. Who dreamed up that canard — Alito? F.D.R. never followed it. In an October 1936 speech, nearly four years after Hoover, Roosevelt was still railing against the “hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government” he had inherited. He reminded unemployed and destitute radio listeners that there had been “nine crazy years at the ticker” and “nine mad years of mirage” followed by three long years of bread lines and despair. F.D.R. soon won re-election in the greatest landslide the country had seen.

Obama should turn up the heat on both the G.O.P’s record of fiscal recklessness and its mad-dog obstructionism. He should stop paying lip service to the fantasy that his Congressional opposition has serious ideas to contribute to the cleanup. Better still, he should publicize exactly what those “ideas” are.

Yes, the Republicans were correct to laugh at one of the president’s own gimmicks on Wednesday night: a symbolic and pointless spending “freeze.” But their own alternatives are downright hilarious. When the G.O.P. House leadership last year announced its plan to cut federal spending by $75 billion annually, it enumerated specific new cuts of only $5 billion per year. A tax-cut-laden “stimulus plan” endorsed by Jim DeMint, the South Carolina senator and Tea Party hero, “would cost more than $3 trillion — more than triple the cost of Obama’s stimulus — over the next decade,” in the estimate of Jonathan Chait of The New Republic.

[Raster]

1. During the speech when President Obama was speaking about the pile of shit he had inherited,

...the camera cut to John McCain who turned to the colleague next to him and said "he's gonna blame Bush*," and then gave his head a little teevee shake. I thought right then and there: "HELL YES, he's gonna blame bush* you senile old bastard. Who the hell else should he blame? The cheney*/bush* illegal pResidential Administration is DIRECTLY responsible for the vast majority of problems facing our country today, especially the financial morass churning all around us. Own it, republican motherfuckers, own it!

[malaise]

4. Great post

ReTHUGS are never responsible for anything. Just think deficits -RETHUGS own them, but according to the so called liberal media, all deficits are associated with Dems

[Raster]

5. The one advantage that rethuglicans *had*, was if you control the messenger, you control the message

It appears that President Obama has somewhat leveled the playing field with his oratory gifts. I am thrilled to death that he is *lately* showing no reservations about shoving their own shit back in their faces. And very publicly.

[malaise]

8. Absolteuly correct

:hi:

[LiberalFighter]

7. He actually said "Blame it on Bush".

[Raster]

10. Probably. I think his intent was the same.

[DainBramaged]

2. This about sums up the leadership of the Democratic party

"Harry Reid, could be found yawning on camera Wednesday night. He might as well have just taken the whole nap. Here was this leader’s pronouncement last week on the future of the president and his party’s No. 1 priority: “We’re not on health care now. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” Yes, a lot of talk — a year’s worth, in fact — with nothing to show for it."

[Octafish]

3. To solve the nation's problems, Obama must spell out who is obstructing...

Then he should prosecute Bush and his cronies to the fullest extent of the law.

[TexasObserver]

6. Yes, he was.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Hell ya, he was right.

These Republicans love to hide their misdeeds in the collective "we" found in group-think. Obama just call them out for their singular decisions. If it made them feel uncomfortable, well, that was the whole point of the exercise.

[Cha]

11. Kick..thanks Malaise..Good to know!

"How satisfying it was to watch him provoke Alito into a “You lie!” snit. Here was a fight we could believe in.

Perhaps McCain was sneering at Obama because of the Beltway’s newest unquestioned cliché: one year after a new president takes office he is required to stop blaming his predecessor for the calamities left behind. Who dreamed up that canard — Alito? F.D.R. never followed it. In an October 1936 speech, nearly four years after Hoover, Roosevelt was still railing against the “hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government” he had inherited. He reminded unemployed and destitute radio listeners that there had been “nine crazy years at the ticker” and “nine mad years of mirage” followed by three long years of bread lines and despair. F.D.R. soon won re-election in the greatest landslide the country had seen."