Mr. President. It's not "those folks in Washington" that are the problem. It's THOSE REPUBLICANS

[Armstead]

Obama's speech today perfectly encapsulates why I (and I assume many others) want to throw our shoes at the TV when he speaks these days.

He insists on describing the problem as ideological partisans of both parties being too rigid and playing games. Oh gee, if both parties would stop pushing their "tired ideologies" and just work together.

No, the Democrats have been more than flexible. More than accommodating. They have offered to give up more than they ask for.

It's not the Liberals and progressive Populists who have held government and the economy hostage.

The problem is those GOP Corporate Obstructionists -- and especially their Teabagger wing -- who have been willing to destroy the country to ram through an unpopular agenda that further enriches the rich and gives more power to the powerful. They are the ones who brought us to the brink of catastrophe this month, as they have been doing for the last two years.

They are the ones who shoot down everything that might help average Americans and the economy. They are the ones who even reject their own former ideas.

Democrats did not do this. The GOP and their Right-Wing Corporate ideology are the ones throwing sand into the gears.

You have to start saying that to help spread that awareness among those "swing voters" you so anxiously want to court.

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Sir, And He Should Say It: 'My Fellow Americans, Republicans In Congress Are Our Problem'

[DJ13]

2. I would extend that to "those conservatives"

Our own party has enough conservatives to halt most progressive ideals.

[Armstead]

17. True but that's a seperate issue

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Obama probably thinks that approach is too confrontational

He wants to reach out to the GOP and build bridges even though they want to completely and utterly destroy him.

[Armstead]

24. He's trying to build bridges, while the GOP keeps blowing up the pylons

[Vincardog]

4. BO can not call out the 'Corporate Obstructionists' because he works for the same corporations

[Armstead]

15. That's a different matter. If the GOP wins we're all veal calves.

At least with the Democrats we have a chance to fight and squawk and push to retain some vestige of an American democracy and a middle class.

[jimlup]

5. See the reall heart of the matter is that Obama is really one of those who

is in favor of more power to the corporate profit-motive set. He's not one of us. The sooner we figure that out - the better off we'll be.

[Vincardog]

6. +1

[hifiguy]

9. Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand are the modern gods for

the neoliberals of all stripes.

And when you worship those gods, the destruction and eventual selective slaughter of the middle class will soon follow.

Read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine." This has been planned for years and the Current Occupant basically agrees with it, in kind if not in absolute degree.

[jimlup]

13. Thanks - I've been meaning to read "Shock Doctrine"

I think I had better head off to the library. Seems like a must read these days.

[Armstead]

25. It is....Scary how on target it has become

[Armstead]

16. You have a point. But (as I said above) if the GOP takes over we're all veal calves.

[jimlup]

28. We have to put up with Obama in 2012

But we don't have to like it. Frankly my strategy is to work for the congressional candidates in my area - we have one really close congressional district which really does matter a lot. A good progressive verses a pseudo (wants to be but isn't really even that) teabagger. But I'm not going to work directly for the Obama campaign even though I'm sure they'll be big time active in my area.

[Bill USA]

7. you might as well give up hoping for that. he's not going to do it. That's why we need a Democrat

to run for President in 2012, to replace this moderate Republican.

[Vincardog]

35. +1

[okieinpain]

8. I'll agree with you complainers, he does do that a lot and should

stop it. see I can be reasonable and compromise.

[Armstead]

10. I agree with you

[Recursion]

11. I dunno. Our party has been pretty problematic too, lately (nt)

[scheming daemons]

12. some of you people have no idea how to run a NATIONAL campaign

...which is why liberals seldom win national campaigns.

You want him to run like McGovern or Mondale.... and he will lose.

He wins by winning over the independents... which is why he uses language like he did today.


The big dawg got it. Obama gets it.


You folks don't .... and that is why hardcore liberals NEVER win national elections.

Most folks are in the middle... the candidate that wins the middle wins the election.

[Armstead]

14. Ooooooo Please forgive me for being so stupid. We are not worthy.

Well in my stupid uninformed opinion, after paying attention since the 1960's, this is not the years that Mondale or McGovern ran, nor is Obama as a person like Mondale or McGovern.

You have to give the folks in "the middle" a reason to vote for you. And, in bad times like this, if they think you are just an ineffectual version of the "fresh face" the GOP will be running, guess who they are likely vote for?

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. Harry Truman disagrees with you.

I'm sure you know the quote, but here it is anyway.

Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time

[JoeyT]

26. It's also why the national discourse continuously moves rightward.

Both sides do it is evil when CNN says it, ten dimensional chess when Obama says it.

And in ten or twenty years when the entire country is absolutely convinced the only way to stimulate an economy is cutting taxes for the rich while kicking a homeless person, this strategy won't look quite so good. The Big Dawg is one of the reasons we're as far to the right as we are.

[eridani]

34. The middle does not like gultess cowards with no values.

Anyone who thinks that defending retirees from the Catfood Commission is a "tired ideology" can just go fuck himself. Raising Medicare eligibility age is mass murder, period.

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. I really don't get why he is so afraid of distinguishing the differences

People don't vote for vague notions, they vote for what they understand and agree with.

So call out the Republicans and let those who agree with them vote for them.

Why doubling down on this flawed ideology of "we"?

Truman must be rolling in his grave.

[Armstead]

23. Plus 1 -- "vague notions" describes it perfectly

[bullwinkle428]

19. K&R. His Presidency is truly turning into a "Saturday Night Live" sketch.

If they just started employing Tom Tomorrow ("Middle Man") as a writer, they could bring back the funny as a bonus.

[Armstead]

27. Sometimes I feel like we're just living in a Tom Tomorrow strip

Guy is brilluant at capturing the absurd truth of it all

[DonCoquixote]

21. though please add

Those Blue Dogs.

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Note the difference with Boehner's response to this

Clearly defines Republicans (by name, 3x), what they are doing and where they want to go and why they disagree with the President.

I prefer this approach. Lay it out and let the people decide.

I read it and say, "no, I disagree with this. No vote for you".

How difficult for the President to do the same? Can he not possibly say why he disagrees with them as opposed to noting that they have "some good ideas"? Maybe a "but" or "however" appended to that?

http://www.speaker.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=255919

[Bluenorthwest]

29. I don't know much about sports, but is it not a basic requirment

that the quarterback actually see the game as a competition and the other team as the other team? The opposing side? Is there a term for a team member in sports that does not actually try to win? Is there room in those games for a player who refuses to acknowledge that the objective is to defeat the other team?

[Armstead]

30. He is trtying to be the impartial referee rather than a team member or coach

Trying to be above the fray. Problem is that he is undercutting Democrats and liberals by lumping them in with the GOP Teabaggers among the causes of these problems.

Putting yourself "above" the team (political party and ideology) is not the definition of a team player.

[Puglover]

31. What the fuck is WRONG with him?

I want to throw something at the TV everytime I hear that pablumy bullshit coming out of his mouth. Is he TRYING to not get reaelected? :mad:

[Armstead]

32. Honestly, sometimes it seems thinks he can get elected by tossing the Democratic Party undercthe bus

It seems like he deliberatly refuses to condemn Republicans specifically while also refusing to defend or seperate the Congressional Democrats from them. That way he can be "above" the fray "I'm with you real Americansv in opposition to the whole of Congress, Democrats included."

Problem is that's not going to help other Democrats, bit is mainly looking out for Numbet One.

[donheld]

33. Blue Dogs, Bought & paid for Dems, you don't consider that a problem?