In order to get the house to vote for McConnell's proposal, Obama has to pretend to be against it

[scheming daemons]

That's the reality that he's dealing with. If he hints at being in favor of letting the GOP grant supreme debt ceiling authority to him, then the teabagger nincompoops in the House will vote against it.

This is a game of Obama effectively saying "please don't throw me in that brier patch!" to the GOP.


Remember.... just 3 months ago, Obama wanted a "clean" debt ceiling vote that was decoupled from the 2012 Budget. The McConnell plan is pretty close to that.



Given the attitudes of the current GOP, the only way Obama can get what he wants is to appear to be against it. The only way he can stop the GOP from getting what they want is to appear to be for it.

i.e. the only way to get the GOP to not cut Medicare and SS is for Obama to publicly embrace cutting Medicare and SS.


It's a political zen thing. It's what Obama has learned about the GOP in the past 3 years. Whatever he is "for", they're against. Whatever he is "against", they're for.




This is why the administration will posture as being against McConnell's plan. It's the only way to get the neanderthals in the GOP-led House to be for it.

[polichick]

1. Even though Pres. Obama is far from the progressive that I'd hoped for...

I really feel for him having to deal with so many assholes - I'd never have the patience for it!

[rubberducky]

2. Kind of like dealing with hormonal teenagers.

[polichick]

3. Or tired two-year-olds.

[CakeGrrl]

4. I buy that. It's ridiculous, but it's true.

They're pathological in their need to oppose him.

It even extends to FLOTUS: If she says 'eat healthy', they'll kill their kids with junk food.

[scheming daemons]

5. Yep! They are actually arguing in FAVOR of fatty foods precisely because Michelle is promoting

healthy diets.


They argue in FAVOR of inefficient light bulbs precisely because environmentalists are against them.


It's the bizarro world they live in.

[Ship of Fools]

6. May I go so far as to suggest

that he understood this during the last go-round re Bush tax cuts? To me, he *came out of the room* looking tired and rather panicky when he said he had to give it up ... Whether you see it that way or not, this president deserves a medal, at the very minimum, for putting up with a bunch of RACIST, LYING M-FOCKERS -- with the intellectual/emotional of 8th graders -- who are OWNED by Wall Street. The man has patience, if nothing else, and he's kept the bullets from flying.

Just one woman's opinion.