Will Obama's bipartisanship strategy work in the long run?

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

I sure hope it does, because it sure as hell is failing in the short run! See, e.g., Judd Gregg. I guess I just have to hope he's seeing longer and farther than I am, because I have very little faith that these Republicans will ever change or will ever try to be productive by cooperating in a bipartisan fashion. VERY little faith.

[katandmoon]

1. It's doomed to failure. The Repugs are even more committed to that than Obama is to bipartisanship

[MadMaddie]

2. That remains to be seen but what is being seen now is that

the Repugs are acting childish and throwing temper tantrums. It is becoming more clear every day that they are party first and country somewhere down the line. We are seeing signs that their strategy is starting to fail....

[bdamomma]

9. they will not get re-elected that is for sure.

they can kiss their seats good bye. And they are acting very childish.

[Andy823]

17. I agree

I have listened to some of their "rants" on CSPAN, and can't believe that these are adults that are whining like babies and coming up with the most childish reasons, or should I say lies, about why they couldn't vote for this bill!

I think in the long run the majority of republicans will keep on being childish thinking that it will help them with their right wing wacko base, and it probably will. On the other hand I do think that some of the republicans will come to their sense's, not many, but a few, and they will vote with the dems on some of the things that will be coming up in the future. What it will boil down to is do they want to help this country and the people in it, or do they want to play childish games and damn the country and the people who are hurting. It will be their choice!

[msongs]

3. maybe for the repubs lol nt

[WeDidIt]

4. I don't think it was a strategy at all. It's purely tactical

I think he pretty much handed the GOP the rope and they've been busily fashioning it into nooses.

They'll come off as the partisans, then he'll be fully justified in his next actions.

[FrenchieCat]

5. IT will work for the American people's peace of mind and Barack Obama's

American support of his policies. That's all that really counts.

President Obama is appealing to the people of this country,
not so much the assholes in congress.

It will only alienate the extreme partisans who care more about exacting revenge,
strict ideology, and who believe in party before country.

Those of us who really care about our country and believe that Barack Obama has
common sense answers will appreciate working together to get us out of the hole that we are currently trapped in.

[bdamomma]

14. well Frenchie Cat when his approval ratings get higher from us

the repigs will still not get it.

[tekisui]

6. Gregg failing is a gopper failing.

It ultimately hurts the repukes. I'd like to see some 'leaks' about ole Gregg. You know they were vetting him, and they can expose something of his and move the attention to his in-adequateness.

Obama has a long term plan. It is for the people, not the elected shitheads. His popularity and support will increase, while the repukes, as a party, become increasingly irrelevant. THe Democrats will be see as the doers, and enough repukes will want to keep their jobs in 2010, that their obstructionism as a party position will lose its luster.

[Thrill]

7. He promised voters he would try. And thats what he's done

Now its time to move on to being Partisan.

[silverojo]

11. Bingo!

Obama needs to grow a pair and quit being their bitches.

I just had to try to explain to my tearful mother today why she (a retired Medicare recipient) won't be getting as big of a tax refund as Obama promised.

I couldn't.

I think he's just pretending to be bipartisan, and it's politics as usual. Because he's not stupid enough to cave in this way.

And no, it's not some "brilliant political strategy", because a strategy would involve getting what you wanted in the end. Obama's giving up far too much, and selling the neediest people down the river.

Shit, if I'd wanted Republican Lite, I'd have voted for Hillary in the primary.

If she runs in 2012, I *will* vote for her.

[bdamomma]

8. well the actions of the repigs for the last week show

have shown they are not interested in reaching across the aisle or even this President. They are really showing how they continue to be obstructionists and just do not give a crap about the country or the American people.

Boehner's response to Judd Greg, Wonderful.

[Pirate Smile]

10. It depends on what you mean by "work". Will it get many Congressional Republicans

to support his initiatives? I don't know. Doubt it.

Will it work by winning him the support of the "center", the "middle"? Yes. Does he look good and do they want to support him? Yes. Do the Republicans look bad, assholish, selfish, etc.? Yes.

It will work when we go over the 60 mark in the Senate in 2010.

At least that is what I hope will happen and the polling I've seen makes me think it may work out that way. :)

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

13. i HOPE you are right

HOPE HOPE HOPE!

[Avalux]

12. Obama knows the heart of Republicans. He knows they want him to fail.

However - he will continue what he promised and try for bipartisanship; he wins in the long run. They end up losing.

[NYC_SKP]

15. Yes, it's working now. Doesn't the GOP just look more and more like losers?

I fear the only ones who see what Obama is doing as "failure" are a few progressives on the left and deniers and liars on the right.

He's given Republicans the chance to be a part of his sweeping plans.

Success isn't defined as whether or not they chose to join him.

everything is fine.

people need to calm the fuck down.

:patriot:

[nevergiveup]

16. In the publics eye

he has already succeeded in making a sincere attempt at bipartisanship. This may serve him in the long run in terms of public support for health care and energy initiatives.

[Jennicut]

39. BINGO! He looks sincere, they look like whiny crybabies.

[MarjorieG]

18. The entitlements and health care require true give and take to get anything.

I hope GOP leadership realize they can't keep up this type control forever, but they have control over primary challenges and funding. Self interest usually wins.

[Better Believe It]

19. Obama can learn something from Abe Lincoln's radical Republican partisanship

The Democrats justed hated the old radical Republican Abe Lincoln.

He was so partisan!

Those radical Republicans forced reconstruction and democracy on the South.

The Republican Party was so partisan!

Horrible.

Where was the love and bi-partisanship between slave owner and slave, north and south, Democratic and Republican?

Bi-partisanship could have prevented one of the greatest and most progressive chapters of American history, Radical Reconstruction.

[ej510]

20. The independents like it.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

21. You may be right

[PFunk]

22. No. At least not until after 2010.

With a few execptions the current breed of repugs are pure idiologs who put party over country first. These folks cannot be reasoned, much less worked with and thus should be kicked to the curb and move past them. Hopefully the 2010 elections will give us more the saner, old fasioned, pre-reagan repubs like Snow who todays repubs would call "RINO's" that the dems can work with. Until that happens forget about bipartisanship.

[Numba6]

23. Yes. The Clinton's showed what happens when you respond in kind

They were attacked w/ visciousness 1992/1993, they reacted in kind, & the GOP took over Congress in 1994

It's what the wingnuts are hoping will happen again.

But Obama is killing them w/ kindness -- continually reaching out, he gets credit, the GOP sinks further as they're shown to be the intransigents they are.

& then he can go on the offensive, as he has w/ his bill, & get his shots in -- w/ a smile, and making them like it.

That's why, in general, the GOP is trying to attack the Dems in Congress, rather than Obama personally (w/ notable exceptions) -- but that won't work for'em, I predict

[Cha]

24. Think big picture strategy..Obama

reached out and it's not working with the repods so since Obama isn't insane he will not continue doing what doesn't work.

[KharmaTrain]

25. It Already Has...

I joked that the GOOP is all but handing President Obama a second term right now.

While I believe the President's initial intentions were genuine, he's not naive. He won the election by capturing the middle...many who were moderate repugnicans and the polls are showing his outreach has kept this group firmly in his camp. Look at how his poll numbers jumped this week when he took to the stump...hovering at 60% while the GOOP House & Senate languish in booooshian 20%. Instead of being smart and taking the olive branch, the GOOP is still trying to coddle to the flying monkey right and together they're going off the political abyss.

My late mother always would tell me to "be bigger"...show compassion and strength, you might not always win, but you can always hold your head high, and people will respect you for it. Many many on this side see this attempt at bipartisanship as selling out or worse, it was a calculated attempt to grab the high rode and ride it for as long as possible. President Obama is firmly on that road now and the GOOP can either lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.

[Parker CA]

30. I think you're spot on, and I am thinking more and more that he will again select

a puke to fill the SoC position, although this time around, I think he will do so with a bit more of a calculated intent in regards to their support of the stimulus and their concern over current economic realities.

Being less than twenty-five days into this new position, Obama has barely begun to get the wheels really spinning on things. I believe that it's far to early to assume that the conviction Obama has to prove bi-partisanship can work is already waning.

[prolesunited]

26. Yes, Americans are sick of partisanship

They want to get things done. The last election hinged on independents and turning a few red states blue. If he goes too far left, he's done.

He needs to keep the olive branch out until after 2010 and we have a more solid majority, and if the Republicans keep it up, they will deliver Congress on a silver platter. Then, we can see even bigger changes.

[Better Believe It]

28. What Democratic Partisanship? Senate Republicans wrote the badly weakened stimulus bill

And we didn't even need the three so-called "moderate" Republicans to get a better stimulus bill passed.

If the Republicans had actually organize a Senate floor filibuster on this legislation the Democrats had the following options.

1. Surrender to the filibuster and withdraw the legislation.

2. Agree to Republican demands and weaken legislation to the point of being ineffective. (They did that on a grand scale)

3. Let the Republicans filibuster until the public tired of Republican obstructionism and 60 Senators finally agree to end debate and proceed with an up and down vote for new legislation.

4. Use the so-called "nuclear option" in which the Senate simply and easily changes Senate rules which would require 51 votes to pass legislation and prohibit Republican filibuster.

So what really is the "nuclear option" which scared the crap out of Senator Reid and other Democratic Senators in 2005?

-----------------------------

In U.S. politics, the nuclear option is an attempt by the presiding officer of the United States Senate to end a filibuster by majority vote, as opposed to 60 senators voting to end a filibuster. Although it is not provided for in the formal rules of the Senate, the procedure is the subject of a 1957 parliamentary opinion and has been used on several occasions since. The term was coined by Senator Trent Lott (Republican of Mississippi) in 2005

The Nuclear Option is used in response to a filibuster or other dilatory tactic. A senator makes a point of order calling for an immediate vote on the measure before the body, outlining what circumstances allow for this. The presiding officer of the Senate, usually the vice president of the United States or the president pro tempore, makes a parliamentary ruling upholding the senator's point of order. The Constitution is cited at this point, since otherwise the presiding officer is bound by precedent. A supporter of the filibuster may challenge the ruling by asking, "Is the decision of the Chair to stand as the judgment of the Senate?" This is referred to as "appealing from the Chair." An opponent of the filibuster will then move to table the appeal. As tabling is non-debatable, a vote is held immediately. A simple majority decides the issue. If the appeal is successfully tabled, then the presiding officer's ruling that the filibuster is unconstitutional is thereby upheld. Thus a simple majority is able to cut off debate, and the Senate moves to a vote on the substantive issue under consideration. The effect of the nuclear option is not limited to the single question under consideration, as it would be in a cloture vote. Rather, the nuclear option effects a change in the operational rules of the Senate, so that the filibuster or dilatory tactic would thereafter be barred by the new precedent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

[doc03]

27. NO

[Better Believe It]

29. Simple, sweet and absolutely true. Follow Abe Lincoln not Harry Reid!

[doc03]

31. You gotta give the Republics credit for one thing,

they stick together. The Democrats rarely ever agree on anything. The Democrats couldn't even carry all the votes in the House for their own President's Stimulus Bill.

[Parker CA]

32. This is a huge area the Dem's need to brush up on. The concept of group cohesion in the face of

adversarial encounters. Everything from being on message in the MSM, to appearing at microphones in the Senate and House, to quickly responding to false memes the pukes start. If they had more Dem glue holding them together, the puke efforts would tire much more quickly and carry much less weight when compared both visually and audibly to what the Dem's put in front of the camera or microphone.

[doc03]

34. Look at the last 8 years they didn't have the majority

we have yet they had virtually a lock on every vote even after the Democrats picked up the House in 2006. It's interesting how that asshat Lieberman is suddenly falling in line now.

[Uzybone]

33. What do you mean by "work"

Will it pull in the bulk of the GOP to work with him? No.

Will it make him appear gracious and increase his popularity thus diminishing the power of the GOP? Yes.

[liberalsince1968]

35. Not with this Congress. Hasn't so far, don't know why anyone would think it ever would.

[Parker CA]

37. Constant and continued pressure will generally result in erosion. It has been less than 25 days. nt

[Better Believe It]

36. It seems to be working OK for the Republicans so far

They managed to greatly weaken the stimulus bill.

[FrenchieCat]

40. That's one way of looking at it. Here's another.....

The Political Implications Of The Stimulus
....
The left claims that Obama's bipartisanship has failed. They argue his "centrist" compromises, as well as the failure to offer a bigger initial package, will fatally weaken the stimulus effort. Republicans see "glimmers of rebirth" through their opposition to the Democrats' plans. But both groups are missing the larger context.

Progressives are in the process of winning a transformative political victory that may be the harbinger of a new era of activist government. For conservatives, their unity might be cause for celebration; but from a policy standpoint they have suffered a decisive defeat.

The most striking element of the revolution that is taking place in Washington is how quickly it has occurred. Four months ago, the Democratic standard bearer made the centerpiece of his economic message a decidedly, non-liberal, middle class tax cut. No one was seriously talking about a massive spending package to revive the economy and had Obama made such a proposal then we would likely be discussing the finer points of the McCain Administration.

The shift is a result, in part, of the worsening economic recession; but the specific solution being favored by Congress is more a function of the trust that Americans have in President Obama (as well as the advantage of a Democratic-controlled Congress).

...

At the same time, Obama has changed the national conservation about taxes, away from the usual conservative mantra of broad income tax cuts, which disproportionately helped the wealthiest Americans, and toward cuts narrowly tailored toward the middle class. Not only is this arguably better from a policy perspective, but it could lead to a more progressive and egalitarian approach to reducing taxes.

While conservatives are putting on a brave face, steadfast in their opposition, they seem oblivious to the fact that the debate in Washington is no longer between big government and smaller government; it's between big government and bigger government. By supporting a slightly smaller stimulus package - and empowering centrist Republicans by giving them the credit for shrinking its size -- Obama looks conciliatory, while actually getting about 80-90% of what he wanted in new spending and tax reductions. Republicans, by holding out for only tax cuts and failing to offer any compromise that included government spending have painted themselves as political losers - a situation that could get worse for them.

more...
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/12/the_political_implication_of_the_stimulus/

[Jennicut]

38. Obama tried with their sorry asses and got nothing in return

He can simply take this and tell the American people that its the Rethugs that are unwilling to do a damn thing for this country. I think the Rethugs are setting themselves for another epic fail. Obama is way more likable right now to the public.

[FrenchieCat]

41. Not so that he has gotten nothing in return........

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8193462&mesg_id=8193750

[Jennicut]

44. I agree Frenchie! The shift in public perception has changed

Now we are arguing about how much spending, not if we should. That is a good thing. Rethugs have nothing to offer us.

[tonycinla]

42. Not a chance

Republican leaders whether politicians,media etc. sense that Obama is weak and naive.Read Paul Krugman's article today regarding Obama not being strong enough.International leaders sense this also.The hard core Republicans and conservatives ,and most are hard core,have every intention of fighting against his agenda until hell freezes over and then fighting it on the ice.You can't make a race horse out of a jackass,good leaders kick ass and take names.I am not sure Obama can or will do that.Being "nice" and diplomatic will not work against hard faced men like Putin or Netanyahu.Time will tell.

[Hellataz]

43. Obama is setting ground work for framing the GOp as a party of self interested obstructive tools

Every time they slap his hand back and he succeeds, They are doing the democrats a favor, because it can all be brought up again. Obama can point out time and time again that he took the high road and had the best interest of this country at heart while the GOP was only interested in regaining power at all cost, including at the expense of the american people.

[kwenu]

45. Obama is a smart man. I doubt this "one-sided bipartisanship" will have a long run.