Obama Hangs Back on Budget–for Now

Last sentence: Yer missin’ the word “POLLS” before the link

I asked yesterday – when is BO going to start appealing to his BASE??
Tea Partiers aren’t going to buy a single thing he does anyway.

It’s taken me awhile to figure out, but I think the best way to describe Obama politically is that he “loses fights and wins wars”. I mean, I know all the press, and just, the general impression of the guy is that he’s always losing, or weak, and just getting clobbered, but then at the end of the day, you look up, and… he’s got more points on the board. I don’t know how else to describe it, and it just seems to keep on working. It’s like Charlie Brown knows Lucy is going to pull the football away, but he can’t help but try to kick it.

Maybe HE’s got more points on the board at the end of whatever “game” is being played, but we’re the ones that are paying the price for the quality of a LOT of his “wins”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/rescue-choppers-or-corpor_b_835496.html
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Rescue Choppers or Corporate Jets?
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And in all the footage of people being saved, I haven’t seen one mega-bank rescue anyone. I saw help from a lot of volunteers, firemen, rescue workers, doctors, nurses, etc. But not one bank. And that was true during snowstorms in North Dakota, the floods in New Orleans, and the earthquake in Haiti.
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According to Simon Johnson, roughly 40% of the increase in privately held government debt over the past few years is due to the financial crisis caused by these mega-banks. Yet, the Federal budget debate is centered on slashing spending on things that we actually need, things that, when a crisis happens, saves our lives.
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Instead of taking back the money spent on these bailouts, the new “tea party” Republicans are instead trying to slash funds for the agency that warned our West Coast of the tsunami.
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As the debate in DC continues, remember what the Democrats and Republicans are agreeing to, in the form of spending cuts for us while banks continue to gorge on taxpayer subsidies and outright fraud.

“Obama Hangs Back on Budget — for Now.”
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Reasons for Obama’s reluctance to engage on the budget.
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1. It conflicts with his tee time.
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2. It interferes with fund raisers.
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3. Promised Michelle they would attend the party.
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4. Busy ducking calls from world leaders on middle east unrest.
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5. Voting present is not an option.

I’ll take an ugly, imperfect win over a pretty, principled loss any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I’m glad you’ve gotten on board with the golfing references. It really helps you stand out in the Clever Battle being waged within the Swamp.
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Kudos on your continued efforts to stay relevant.

I’ll take an ugly, imperfect win over a pretty, principled loss any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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Maybe so, but if you’re only going to get ONE bite from the apple, you better make a REAL attempt to pass a “pretty, principled” bill at the first.
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Because an “ugly, imperfect” bill, one which is passed with stickers all over it saying “needs future mods to actually work right”, isn’t going to do ANYONE a whole lot of practical good.
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And, NO, I’m not really interested in chalking up “ugly, imperfect” wins for their own sake…
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Because, right now, what we have can reasonably be called “better than nothing”… and it was passed pretty much with that description attached.
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Someone, in spite of the atmosphere that was in evidence even at the time, cobbled this together with the rosy assumption that we would undoubtedly get another shot at making it better, having “D” majorities in both houses, and one in the WH.
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Now, you’ll be lucky to keep what you had… Hope the “ugly, imperfect win” was worth it (in political terms, of course).

Obama has left the building. Thank you, thank you very much.

Obama is doing what he has always done as Paul @5.0 points out.
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He’s not a leader. He’s an opportunist. He waits to see which way the wind blows. He should hire Clinton’s pollsters. At least he could get a head start on which direction he should lean next.

Yes,april and good old Barry is as cozy with the bad guys as any Republican you so frequently (and enthusiastically) vilify

Goldman is lobbying hard on financial regulation, but that doesn’t mean they’re lobbying “against” regulation. And they certainly shouldn’t be considered White House foes: Goldman was Obama’s No. 1 corporate source of funds in 2008.

So when Obama triumphantly signs his “reform” later this year, forget the rhetoric and watch the smart money — it’ll be betting on Goldman

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/node/98166#ixzz1GhiDobXW

certifiablylazy@5.1,
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Hey, I have no objection to the POTUS taking some downtime, but there is a time and place. It does not paint a nice picture when the President decides to keep his tee time as the Middle East burns, Japanese reactors melt down and the budget impasse continues.
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That seems to be pushing his attitude of being detached a bit too far.

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Bush looking for those WMD. And sadly they all laughed.
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http://jonox.livejournal.com/25625.html
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Bush vacation time:
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487 days Camp
490 days at Crawford Faux Ranch
43 days at Kennebunkport

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Total 1020 days, more than 1/3 of his presidency. Bush set the record for most vacation time taken by a president.

meltdown,
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Do you have ANYTHING constructive to add to the discussion?
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Or are you just here decorating the landscape with “verbal fertilizer”?

“We must stop the terrorists. Now watch this drive.

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By the way, does anyone know how many times Bush went biking.
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Stupid issue.

It appears to me that Obama is meking sure that the Tea Partiers have just the right length of rope. At the end of the day, their obsession with budget cuts is precisely that – an obsession.

Earl, reel in your paranoia. I believe the linked article inluded Republican and Democratic negligence. Liberals on this site are not afraid of criticizing Dems.

We’ve been at war for 10 years.
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Talk about detached.

Of course af, the truth is always constructive.

“Yes,april and good old Barry is as cozy with the bad guys as any Republican you so frequently (and enthusiastically) vilify

Goldman is lobbying hard on financial regulation, but that doesn’t mean they’re lobbying “against” regulation. And they certainly shouldn’t be considered White House foes: Goldman was Obama’s No. 1 corporate source of funds in 2008.

So when Obama triumphantly signs his “reform” later this year, forget the rhetoric and watch the smart money — it’ll be betting on Goldman”
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Earl,
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Thanks for your snark. Now when you are p!ssing all over Goldman Sachs for their ties with Obama are you going to work with us to get rid of all the finance markets/money influence over our politicians?
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You think Goldman is buying off democrats only?
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We don’t worship Obama the way you hate him; we have buyers remorse because he’s just another centrist corporatists while the bunch of you see anti-crist, Kenyan and Karl Marx reborn.
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We see a centrist win some lose most policies and you see the legislative mush as the neo-socialism anti-constitution it’s not.
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Yet I would gander that while we find the finance systems involvement in our politicial system bad you will only extend to critique it buying off Obama – buying off GOP won’t find your ire.
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Apr is right – we’re very much able to critique Obama and Democrats because we base it on what we think is a long term ill for our nation – yours is that insane laughter followed by the idea that liberals are subhuman scum. We don’t hate you or your brethren for your thoughts, we just find you hilarious in your ankle biting and see you as a useful tool for your paymasters since you can’t find one single argument outside your bubble why this influence over YOUR political tribe is bad.
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Note just like with Freeinpa you can only growl about George Soros and his money and things like Goldman and their ties with Obama, but not one peep about Goldmans money in GOP pockets. Not one peep about Koch money or anyone elses massive resources in GOP pockets.
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I don’t like any of it. Straight across the board, democrat, independent and GOP alike. Including Unions. I don’t want any money in our political system as it corrupts it.
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You? Obama bad. Any of it.

Really? Then why all the criticism about spending cuts? Where is your enthusiasm for balancing our budget?
I have yet to see you (or any other liberal) accept the premise our spending is out of control and needs to be drastically reduced.
All I hear from you is “those dastardly Republicans” and how dare they start slashing budgets.
Get use to it, april, the liberal sun has set.

I think you and Sean DeCoursey have it right.
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1) Drive the racist GOP base crazy by being elected while black.
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2) Relentlessly cultivate the image of cool, reasonable non-partisan within the Village.
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3) Let the Frankenstein monster of “conservatism” chase the GOP in an ever-more-radical direction.
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4) reap the electoral reward for exposing the lying, lunatic right and looking like the only grownup in the room.

“Stupid issue.”
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I agree the MSM’s obsession with Bush was stupid.
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And Obama is definitely stupid.
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Thanks for agreeing that presidents shouldn’t be golfing and joking during a crisis. In this case multiple crises.
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So, now all we need is this to be the lead story for the next 2 years and we’re even.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/7607947/Barack-Obama-plays-golf-eight-more-times-than-George-W-Bush.html
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President Barack Obama has played golf 32 times since he took office, eight more than his predecessor George W. Bush – who was mocked by the Left for his fondness for the game – did in his entire presidency…
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Mr Obama’s Sunday golf game prompted anger in Poland, where the Warsaw Business Post carried a headline reading: “Obama goes golfing instead of attending Kaczynskis’ funeral”.
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Since liberals are so concerned with our image in the rest of the world, it seems Obama’s golf game isn’t respected by Europe. I bet it scares the terrorists.

Let us know when you find it, M-D.

certifiablylazy@5.3,
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The last two years of war were under Obama.
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But have no fear. The White House reports that Barack Obama is videotaping his NCAA tournament picks today. You can catch them at ESPN on Wednesday.
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Feel better?

The MAIN problem I have with all of the “image cultivation” and political maneuvering is that the problems themselves aren’t going to wait while we decide who “wins” the messaging battles (based on results of the right polls, of course).
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Ultimately, unless something is done before long, the “captain” of the “ship of state” is going to cut a fine figure (according to polls, anyway) as we circle the drain economically.
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We’re in trouble… and I STILL can’t figure out what they believe is going to substantially improve the employment figures.

NCAA picks! Clever Battle won.

“The MAIN problem I have with all of the “image cultivation” and political maneuvering is that the problems themselves aren’t going to wait while we decide who “wins” the messaging battles (based on results of the right polls, of course).”
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But “the problems” have no solutions without a consensus coalition of something like a majority of voters. To do that, you have to win the support of Village centrists and politically-vacuous independents. Since they are not rational actors – they are held sway by “conservatives” and “conservative” dogma – you get Kabuki for the pathologically bi-partisan.

As Republicans are only too happy to explain to their enraged base, this bill is only temporary. I’d say it’s still a pretty good likelihood that the House GOP follows trough on their radical promises to the tea baggers and shuts the government down. Jobs don;t matter to these ideologues…
http://www.sunstateactivist.org

certifiablylazy@5.5,
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Barack Hussein Obama never disappoints. He has met every low expectation that I had for him.

Everybody gets to stand at the edge of the drop off, looking at the car at the bottom, still arguing over who was supposed to set the brake and who was supposed to turn the wheel.

reply to 4.4

Hey earl, hello? As a proud Liberal, I have on more than one occasion called federal spending as being out of control. Interesting point, while a number of Liberals have responded, I have never seen any conservative respond to such posts, though I been given “props” from 3xfire3 once or twice.

I notice that not one Conservative on these posts has ever talked about Paul Ryan, the congressman from Wisconsin. While I don’t agree with everything he says, at least he has some interesting ideas that need to be considered. Instead, most Conservatives on Swampland love to defend Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, two politicians conservatives should be ashamed of. Hey we Liberals love Dennis Kusinich, but we would never consider him for national office.

“Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has a message for President Obama: How dare you be a sports fan!
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Priebus just posted this on Twitter, linking to a right-wing blog post that attacked Obama for videotaping a brief segment on ESPN:
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How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues? http://bit.ly/ieSuCI“.
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To see Priebus have his marching orders followed so quickly is inspiring.

Paul-no…@5.7,
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Pretty feeble retort, Paul. Is that all you’ve got?

Not a retort, a compliment.

@paul…
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And how did you feel when Bush was out cutting brush while the middle east burned with HIS bombs?

erieangel@5.10,
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What would you had have him do? Pilot the plane? At least he was engaged in his presidency. It didn’t bore him.

@liberal…
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A game of golf takes a few hours, during which time Obama is still no more than a short drive from the WH. How many hours did Bush spend on his ranch cutting back brush and doing other things a ranch hand could have easily done, all while being several hours by plane from the WH?
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Obama did not forego the funeral because he wanted to play. He did not attend the funeral because he felt he was needed at home, in his office. That he took a couple hours away from the office is a non issue.
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And if Obama had attended the funeral you and other conservatives would have complained about him being out of the country–the cost of the trip (remember his state visit to India was falsely reported to cost over $200 million a day), he shouldn’t leave during a time a crisis, etc, etc….

The question is whether the White House is getting ready to pivot…. this statement’s call for an end to short-term budget bills would be consistent with the theory that Obama has made an effort to look conciliatory and reasonable about spending cuts before making his stand and counterattacking the GOP.
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We’ve been waiting for this counterattack for two years now. Who really thinks it’s going to happen?
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Conversely, it’s being pretty clearly telegraphed that they (‘they’ being politicians of every stripe) are angling to blow away Social Security and Medicare.
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My money is on Obama having hopped on board the “reform entitlements” bandwagon.
If he’s ready to cut Social Security, then don’t be surprised if he’s willing to throw everything else out the window, too.

I like your links, apr, but….
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Gads. We’re talking about who golfed more. Pull it back, the trolls are winning….

Better then nothing. American exceptionalism?

I know. That’s why I stated it was a stupid issue. You know however:
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“What would you had have him do? Pilot the plane?”
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This after you b!tch about Obamas golfing.
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The disconnect is…funny