The Hostage Crisis Continues: Why Obama Can’t Pivot to Jobs and Growth

It’s a sad truth. Admit it or not, Republican­s have just won the 2012 elections even before we have waged the first primary. Obama can talk about jobs as his top priority all he wants but Reich makes a valid argument about what jobs are there for the government to create if he comrpomise­d not to spend a penny on something extra that can stimulate the economy? Sadly the compromise­d bill does not even talk about how to create jobs in the private sector.

Obama has nobody to blame but himself for allowing the GOP to tie his hands to not spending more, for allowing them to run away with the false illusion that spending on things like the stimulus did not work.

Or maybe he was too blind or blinded by the reality that the GOP was handing him a bill that only guarantees his defeat in 2012. I mean why would the GOP come out in big numbers to support the bill when this President would be lucky to just get Olympia Snowe (or even fellow Democrat Ben Nelson) on other major pieces of legislatio­n like the stimulus? That only means the “party of NO” knows this only means Obama can’t forward his aggressive economic agenda anymore.
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The Empty Bully Pulpit

I’m no fan of President Bush but compared to President Obama, he was willing to go alone when times were tough. He was willing to veto legislatio­n, go defend the country without congressio­nal authorisat­ion. I don’t know what President Obama is waiting for before “punishing the kids” as Keith Olbermann puts it.

Reich offers some explanatio­n to what was lingering on my mind all day long: why has President Obama allowed himself to be bullied by congress when in fact he was elected to take-on a dysfunctio­nal political system in Washington­? President Obama had the licence to go against Congress when he was given more than 300 electoral votes in 2008. But rather than changing Washington­, he allowed Washington change him.

We may be wondering what if President Bush or even President Clinton were in the White House when all of this debt fiasco is going on. My answer to that is there would be no debt fiasco to talk about because neither President Bush, Clinton nor any president before them would allow themselves to get bullied by congress in the first place and congress knows that.
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Obama Succeeded Where Bush Failed: Osama Bin Laden Rhetoric And Reality

UBL may be dead, but the war on terror and certainly Obama’s other woes are not. I think politicall­y the best thing this will do is buy him a little time. But let’s not forget and David Gergen pointed this out, the first president Bush rode a wave of high approval after Saddam was defeated in capturing Kuwait. However his victory was not enough to erase the reality that the economy was in shambles in 1992. That reality was enough to kick the first president Bush out of the white house.

Here, the death of UBL successful­ly crafted by Obama and his team may provide some comfort to the thousands of families who lost loved ones in 9/11. But it does very little to provide comfort to millions of americans worried every night about whether they have a job to apply at, let alone a job to keep.
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Arianna: Democrats Didn’t Listen To The American People (VIDEO)

I can’t believe I’m saying this but it looks like based on the President’s tone and what he (didn’t do) in his press conference, President Obama looks more like George W. Bush than George W. Bush himself as he stuck to healthcare just like Mr. Bush stuck to Iraq.

To give Mr. Bush some credit, he did a noble thing after his midterm loss by firing Rumsfeld and I don’t think Obama is any close to wanting to do that. Also, Mr. Bush made it clear that he got what voters wanted him to keep in mind but President Obama dodged the question when asked by reporters.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama’s Gulf Oil Spill Response: The System Has Failed (VIDEO)

My main question: Why only now did it take for you to react? Why this late? Why did you have to wait?
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UK: Tories win vote, but not yet in power – Fred Barbash – POLITICO.com

UK: Tories win vote, but not yet in power – Fred Barbash – POLITICO.com.

The bottomline is that Gordon Brown should eventually leave.  Whether it’s a hung parliament or not, he and his party have lost seats and the Conservatives lead by Cameron have overtaken them.  Nevermind if they just lost seats while the torries didn’t have enough to surpass the seats they had left.

Financial Reform Puts Republicans on the Spot – AOL News

Financial Reform Puts Republicans on the Spot – AOL News.

Sure Democrats can play politics with this in saying the Republicans are pro-Wall Street.  But the bottomline out of all of this is this is cold comfort for people angry at the big banks.  They don’t want Dems scoring political points by saying the GOP is pro-Wall Street but not doing anything about it.

A strong financial reform bill would resonate with voters – Michael Bocian and Andrew Baumann – POLITICO.com

A strong financial reform bill would resonate with voters – Michael Bocian and Andrew Baumann – POLITICO.com.

They may have not gotten their health care bounce.  Wall Street reform though, if they make it strong can be their best card to play even if Republicans filibuster it.  It can be the best way to mitigate their losses.

Poll shows Tea Party is about social Darwinism

It was in March 2007 that I realized I was behind Barack Obama, and what he said that day rings true with today\’s Tea Party movement.  I even  remember the

via Poll shows Tea Party is about social Darwinism.

It’s pretty ironic.  I give them credit for fooling the public into thinking they are independents and just ordinary Americans.  They don’t want the bailouts but their income is considerably close to the league of those who received the bailouts.

Forgetting the Healthcare Bounce

I was looking at realclearpolitics.com, particularly the section which pertains to health care polls.  Their poll of polls consolidates all the results of previously done polls from a variety of sources.  I found one major finding striking.

The Democrats were expecting a bounce out of passing a landmark healthcare bill.  It was supposed to make health care more accessible to the public.  However I don’t think the bounce materialised.  In fact, most polls report that Democrats are in a worse position than before the bill’s passage.  The margin between approval and disapproval has widened, in favour of the latter.  The latest RCP poll of polls puts the average spread at 12 points.  In every poll, disapproval is at least at 50%.

At first I thought that a key reason for why the bounce didn’t materialise was independents didn’t sign-on.  While that was seen on the poll, what surprised me was that support among registered Democrats has gone down.  Rather than say great job for getting this far, the base found this more unacceptable.  The latest CBS-New York Times poll puts Democrats’ support for the bill at just 52%, down 8 points prior to the bill’s passage.

Reading the blogs, a fact that people can’t reconcile with is the idea that purchasing health care is compulsory.  They argue that the government can’t force them to buy anything against their will.  Sure they are required to buy car insurance when they drive but they aren’t required to drive.

Here’s my reading: independents will be key.  From what I’m gathering, these are generally a fiscally conservative group.  They want change but want to be confident that the deficit is under control and that their taxes won’t have to go up.  The president may have not hasn’t realised lately that independents have turned on him and that it was that group who handed him a) his primary victory over the “inevitable” Hillary Clinton and b) the presidency over John McCain.  Now if he appeals to independents, he can lose support from his base but then again, independents are a growing part of the electorate so politically, it can be worth the gamble to do so.  In doing a politically correct move, the paradox in this is independents are the ones who want straight action to politically correct action.

His other problem is that Republicans have been politically disciplined from the beginning.  The frankly appear to know how to play the game of political musical chairs better than Democrats.  Now, the people have faith in the republicans more and more while democrats, despite their numbers have shown how politically weak they can become.