I gotta admit, I have no desire to watch Obama speak tonight. Not because I don’t like him, but because I’m just feeling sort of fatalistic today and not really sure anything can be done to solve this crisis that has been developing for 3-4 decades. Plus, he’s not crazy, and will give a sober, rational speech, so there won’t be that train wreck in the waiting effect that you get with the GOP. Besides, we already know what is going to happen.
Obama will propose something moderate and completely reasonable, but we all know it is not going to be enough to get us out of this mess, and that assumes we can even get it past the teahadist House (we won’t- they are in full on tilt mode). He’ll get flayed alive by the usual suspects on the left, Paul Krugman will be mainlining thorazine by the end of the speech, and someone at FDL will call for a primary or impeachment.
The right, of course, will ignore everything he said and scream about the program costing too much, and trumpet deregulation, offshore drilling, claim Obama is over his head while making teleprompter jokes, and then go back to wailing for tax cuts and screaming Obama is doing nothing about jobs.
The media will spend the night focusing on how many Republicans refused to clap, or comparing Obama to Perry, insinuating that Perry is manly and Obama is a pussy, Maureen Down will write another column calling him a wimp, and we’ll have a rogues gallery of rightwing dickheads from Ed Rollins to Mark Halperin to whomever the Politico shits up spewing bullshit on every channel. Each network will be sure to include one milquetoast corporatist Democrat like Evan Bayh for balance, because all the left’s effective communicators are busy sending dick pics to random women on twitter or lunching at AIPAC. Glenn Kessler will find one minor mistake in grammar and give him four pinnochios.
In the long term, assuming a plan gets through the House (it won’t), then we get to go through our usual drama of the blue dogs from Red States (Manchin, Nelson, Landrieu, McCaskill, etc.), Lieberman just so he can continue to be the world’s preeminent douchenozzle, and some others I am sure I am missing. They’ll cockblock it on the Senate side, moaning about the program being a deficit buster while conveniently ignoring the fact that each one of them represents a welfare state sucking at the federal teat. Finally, at the 11th hour, Snowe and Collins will swoop in and offer tax cuts for the ultra-rich as a sweetener and they will support it. At this point, Bernie Sanders or whatever progressive hero of the moment will claim he can’t support anything with tax cuts for the rich in it. This will bring things to a standstill for a couple more weeks until another shitty jobs report comes out, and the Senate, acting in the fierce urgency of when-the-fuck-ever will pass some piece of shit that is too small, unfocussed, and does nothing other than provide the left with another opportunity to fracture and start flinging shit at each other. Republicans will have spent the entire time using procedural tricks to slow things down while having Frank Luntz work on the framing of the issue so that by the time it is about to hit the President’s desk, they will already have a cute name, the talking points will be distributed, and we’ll all be hearing about the new “Porkulus” or “Obamacare” or whatever the fuck childish name they come up with. In three months time, when employment hasn’t picked up because we are actually in the same god damned depression we’ve been in since 2007, Rick Perry can claim that Keynesian ideology has once again been disproven. Because everyone hates the bill, Friedman, Brooks, and other members of the Centrist jihad will claim this as proof that the bill is great.
Alternately, Obama might propose an extension of the payroll tax cut, at which point I get to read 500 progressive posts on how this is Obama’s secret plan to enable the catfood commission to gut social security. Regardless, no matter what happens, if the market drops tomorrow, it will be Obama’s fault.
So fuck it. Why should I put myself through this again? I’m tapping out. Someone else can deal with this clusterfuck, because I’ll be watching NFL. I’ve already told you what is going to happen- use this post as a check list (I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I am wrong). I honestly don’t know why anyone wants Obama’s job.
*** Update ***
Two other points. What would I do if I were Obama? Other than resigning and spending the rest of my life writing a book every couple of years, living a pretty damned good life, watching my children grow up, and telling everyone in the country to eat a bag of salted dicks, fix this mess yourselves? I’d go all in. Nothing he is going to propose tonight is going to get passed without being watered down to nothing. The House and Senate dysfunction will see to it. So go for it. Use the speech to propose everything you can. Massive infrastructure spending, extension of unemployment benefits that will be automatically renewed every six months until unemployment is under 7%, a public investment back to free up capital for small business, you name it. GO BIG. Hell, propose putting a million Americans to work building that god damned wall around Mexico the Republicans are so fired up about. Just go nuts and use the event to frame the Republicans as do-nothing. And if they start their usual bullshit in the stands with the ‘You Lie” crap, go off. Break out a metaphorical STICK and beat some pudgy wingnut with a southern drawl and a shit eating grin in the audience with it. Call them liars and frauds and point out the bullshit they have been peddling for decades is what got us here. If someone so much as mentions inflation or the bond market, take your shoe off and throw it at them. If you miss, throw the other one. That’s what I would do.
Point two. I will put up a post with a livestream from the White House so you all can watch without having to hear Luke Russert’s deep godddamned thoughts before and after.
Cris (without an H)
Excellent Freudian slip (no offense to actual sufferers of Trisomy 21)
Shinobi
Why can’t I give up and be smart like Mr. Cole? I guess I’m in the high optimism phase of my disillusionment-hope cycle.
lamh32
I rarely if ever watch speeches live…that is what DVR is for. I prefer to read transcripts. And for the most part, I stay clear of pundits “analysis”.
I do enjoy the atmospherics leading up to the speech though, i.e. POTUS introduction/entrance, entrance of FLOTUS, etc…but yeah I thank gods every time for “live-bloggers” on twitter and the internets.
jsfox
Well let’s see. The speech hasn’t even been given and some on the left are already complaining about it. The Right has already dismissed it. So you have a point, but I will watch anyway.
Allan
@Cris (without an H):
Rick Perry is Spencer Tracy! Barack Obama is Katharine Hepburn!
There, wrote her next 25 columns for her.
lamh32
Oh and since you mentioned Rick Perry I had to post this here. I posted it as an OT in the last thread, but it kind fits here???
I would love to see what body language experts think about this
Seen during the commercial break at last night’s debate
ugh, is old man Perry trying to intimidate old man Paul?
I don’t know about ya’ll, but if anybody grabbed ahold of my arm like this and had the nerve to wag their finger in my face…they’d be pulling back a nub. I’m just saying.
Yevgraf
This is part of the set up for the Texas Secession after Obama wins re-election over Perry in 2012. Inasmuch as for them its “rule or ruin”, the gerrymandered Texas lege will hold its vote shortly after election day. Tensions will ly, urban centers in Texas will go nuts (with necessary violence by white cops and guardsment against minorities, and the Texas NG will assoume dominion over the Pantex plant in Amarillo. The Tribulation Air Force will declare for Texas, of course, and will order the Navy and USMC to stand down before nuking Washington and the KenyanMarxist usurper.
As it turns out, the days work out about right for the Mayan calendar.
askew
I can’t disagree with a single thing you wrote, yet I am going to make myself listen to the speech tonight anyway. I know I’ll regret it though.
geg6
Well, the speech will be on before the NFL tonight, so you can’t use that as an excuse, Cole.
Personally, I never miss a presidential speech or address, not even W’s. I want to hear it myself. I skip all the crap “analyzing” it, though. Wankery like that will be plentiful the next day and I won’t be subjecting my poor old retinas to their ugly mugs when I read it in the paper or online.
I’m going to try to see if Current is showing it. The stupid won’t be too strong there and Olbermann will probably anchor if they’re showing it.
Annelid Gustator
Did anyone see the crazification factor pop up in this Rasmussen pole re: “Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?”
Hawes
Awesome, thanks, John.
You just saved me two hours!
gogol's wife
I’m sorry to say you expressed my thoughts exactly (with the exception of watching football).
Splitting Image
Why not use it as a drinking game?
You might need to water down your liquor to avoid alcohol poisoning, but you’ll be much happier at the end of the night.
quaker in a basement
Cole, you forgot the part where actual buckets of shit start falling from the sky.
Adjust your dosage, man!
A Mom Anon
@geg6: CSPAN doesn’t have commentary,they just broadcast the speech and usually have the cameras rolling a little before and after. That’s where I ususally tune in because I loathe the commentary and analysis. I can interpret things on my own,thankyewverymuch.
Cris (without an H)
A guy’s gotta tailgate.
JenJen
I completely agree with everything you’ve written, but I’m going to watch it out of respect; I never missed a Dubya joint session address and I’m not about to start now even though I won’t hiss at the TV screen.
Difference is… I’ll watch with a pitcher of margaritas and some Labatt Blue on ice. Pre-gaming for NFL is still pre-gaming for NFL. Nothing’s changed.
Same as it ever was.
Trinity
I came for the Tunch pics but I stayed for the glorious Cole rants!
Spot on Sir. Spot on.
nepat
This is a work of genius.
barath
You’ve pretty much summed out the dysfunction of the entire American political system and how we got into the problem we’re in in the first place.
Plus as I’ve tended to harp on in recent days and months, nobody is looking at the right problem, which is that economic growth can’t continue on a finite planet, and we’re hitting the limits to growth. Just take a look at this depressing set of charts:
http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/commentaries/Great-Contraction-Percent-Off-Peaks.php
This is the first recession in modern economic history where GDP and GDP per capita did not recover to at least their previous peak before the next downturn/recession hit.
We’re on the down escalator now.
geg6
@A Mom Anon:
Yeah, that’s where I usually watch. But if I’m not careful, I’ll be subjected to one of the call-ins. Who are always batshit insane. I used to do PBS but once forgot to change the channel and got some Bobo all over me. ;-)
srv
So what you’re saying is that we can start drinking now?
Comrade Dread
No, I’ve long stopped watching.
Our political process has ceased to be about doing what’s best for all Americans and building a society and a sense of greatness of spirit that we’d be proud to pass on to our children and has become a sick debate about just how far the extremely wealthy should be able to shove their dicks up our ass when they’re raping us. With Democrats suggesting that it if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother, maybe they can say a kind word and leave a $20 on the nightstand when they’re done, and Republicans screaming about how much of an imposition that concession would be.
jibeaux
Well, it’s “eminently reasonable” as opposed to “GAH! Here comes the reasonable! It’s almost here! It’s so….imminent!” but other than that I can’t take much issue with your little rant. But I’ll still watch. I like to hear what he has to say.
Linnaeus
I rarely watch presidential speeches (for years, now); I’ll read the transcript, though.
Sentient Puddle
My favorite part about football season is this song. Yes, I know nothing about football.
And maybe if you kind of sort of squint, it could be applicable to the politics of today. At the very least, it’s soothing.
joeyess
This post sums up the entire, sorry affair.
I’m sick of it too and I just don’t give a fuck anymore.
Of course, this is exactly what the rightwingnuttalbangelicals have been aiming for since ’08, so I guess they’ve succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
Enjoy our dystopian future, folks, because that’s where we’re headed.
Bring on the Brawndo!!
waldo
I’ve been avoiding political speeches since the Clinton Admin. Heck, I couldn’t even get through Cole’s pre-emptive summary, and that was at least honest and entertaining.
brendancalling
yup.
except for the NFL. I’ll either be at my local bar getting hammered or at home, smoking weed and getting hammered.
our political “system” has become one of those awful unfunny SNL skits that they keep flogging. “I’m FIFTY YEARS old! FIFTY! FIFTY years old! I’M FIFTY, that’s right FIFTY!” is not much different than either the right’s “Muslim Sochulist Kenya” catchphrase or Obama’s “Now I’m sure that THIS time we can all work together” line.
never mind that I long ago lost faith in Obama, apologies to all.
Cat Lady
Well, everyone has their role to play, and the utter predictability of it all is wearying. If we know it, then I keep wondering why Obama’s going through this exercise if it’s all just an exercise in futility. Maybe he’s decided to go big, whip it out and literally try to ram his package down that snivelling fucker Cantor’s throat.
BGinCHI
I assume Obama is going to announce that the blue states are seceding from the red states. After that he can give a substantive, grown-up speech and we can get to work.
It’ll be fun to see how the Confederacy enforces all their social proscriptions without taxing people. It’s pricey to have a security state.
jl
@Splitting Image:
“Why not use it as a drinking game?”
You mean the whole dog and pony show, from speech itself through the nincompoop commentary and dishonest GOP reactions?
Because I for one do worry about alcohol poisoning.
PurpleGirl
I didn’t watch the debate last night (Cole, your tweets were great). I’m not planning on watching Obama tonight. If it’s live blogged here at BJ I may read that, otherwise I’m typing a grant application for my typing client.
Nick
So…watching the speech and cricitizing it = BAD. Going full-emo hours before it even begins = the only reasonable position! Cole, I think you may have a future in the MSM after all.
P.S.: Watch your back for ABL, I do detect a subtle under-current of Obama criticism/lack of pro-O rationalizations in this post.
P.S.S. Sarcasm aside, I do find it telling that “Obama comes out swinging and offers a bold proposal” was not considered a scenario you considered likely enough to even lampoon. This, in a nutshell, is the criticism many of us “usual suspects on the left” have been on about. If Obama’s proposal is gonna get mocked, shit upon and fucked up by disorganized/feckless Dems, ruthless GOP lies and lock-step nonsense abetted by a petty, horserace-driven media, why NOT come out guns blazin’ and at least go down in a blaze of glory rather than with a moderate whimper?
Cris (without an H)
I can’t tolerate the call-ins for long, but I do love how the C-SPAN moderator is always well-trained to show absolutely no reaction to whatever nonsense the caller is spouting.
wrb
Since John said everything I’ve been thinking, guess I get to sit this one out.
JoyousMN
@Comrade Dread:
That’s a darn good summation of what John said.
lamh32
@lamh32:
I was mostly kidding about perry v paul in my comment, but the paul-ites are not.
Ron Paul’s fanatics are crazy.
Ron Paul’s Fans Rush to Protect Him From Rick Perry’s ‘Assault’
Elliecat
@lamh32:
I’m no expert but I know intimidation, condescension, and disrespect when I see it. There is no situation in which this sort of contact is appropriate between two adults.
brendancalling
@Nikc:
“If Obama’s proposal is gonna get mocked, shit upon and fucked up by disorganized/feckless Dems, ruthless GOP lies and lock-step nonsense abetted by a petty, horserace-driven media, why NOT come out guns blazin’ and at least go down in a blaze of glory rather than with a moderate whimper?”
because of recent history, maybe?
barath
@Cris (without an H):
I swear it’s just that the in-studio monitor speaker cuts out after the caller says his or her name.
Jenny
THE SPEECH WASN’T [insert stale knee jerk complaint here]!!
gogol's wife
@Nick:
Can you actually read?
joeyess
Yeah. That’s not gonna happen.
You can clap louder, though!
Special Patrol Group
There’s some other mode They have?
Cris (without an H)
Criticizing it predictably.
And don’t be fatuous; John isn’t saying Obama should’t be criticized. He’s saying we already know what the criticisms are going to be, and it doesn’t get us anywhere, so why bother.
jazzguyal
That sums up the next year and a half. If I were advising our President, I’d have him go on the campaign mode, in essence ‘Get outta town’. Don’t promise anything except a verbal war on the Teabublicans and to veto anything he doesn’t like that actually makes it through Congress. Leave the feeding frenzy to Congress and let them take the blame.
cleek
if i was Obama, i’d step up to the podium, turn to Biden and say “fuck this. it’s all yours”. then i’d walk out, with a middle finger held high, into a limo waiting to take me on a direct flight to Montserrat.
this is why i will never be president.
Earl Butz
I don’t either. Were I him, I’d bow out at the end of this term and tell America to go fuck themselves and enjoy President Perry. We – the America “we” – have used this man very badly, quite a bit of the left and all of the right included.
Martin
President, no matter who it is, at least deserves an audience. I’m in, though I avoided the Reagan donkey show last night. They haven’t earned it yet.
RP
Perfect summary.
Judas Escargot
@lamh32:
“…so wait, as a doctor, they actually pay you to shove this up there…?”
Jenny
@Nick:
Because moderates outnumber liberals by a 2 to 1 margin.
Math- how does that work?
wrb
@Nick:
Nah. Any bold proposal that wasn’t just gas- that could actually pass and make lives better before the election- would result in 1000s of TheNobleandMisunderstoodKnightstheLeft dousing themselves with gasoline outside the White House and lighting themselves on fire.
I can’t blame Obama for wanting to shield his girls from the sight and smell of that.
He’s hemmed in by the baggers from either side.
Sentient Puddle
@lamh32: Here’s a few more pics from the incident. I find the one with Huntsman in the middle rather amusing, myself.
licensed to kill time
This kind of trenchant analysis is why I love to read ya, John Cole. And sadly, I think you’re pretty much spot-on.
I’m still going to watch the speech, though.
RP
From the latest CNN update:
The economic package that President Barack Obama will lay out tonight will total more than $400 billion, a Democrat familiar with the plan told CNN.
Americans who are currently getting a payroll tax cut could see an even bigger cut, according to the source.
PeakVT
I honestly don’t know why anyone wants Obama’s job.
They don’t plan to be president for more than 1% of the country. That makes the job a lot easier.
cyntax
Just to expand a bit on the media criticism (cause why the he’ll not?), I was thinking the other day that maybe Brooks, Down(d), et al lionize independents, because the alternative means coming to grips with how irrelevant their jobs as political reporters really are. Perhaps the Beltway media imagines independent voters to be people who ponder politics so carefully that they can’t take sides, since conceiving of them as low information voters who take no more than five minutes to decide who’ll they’ll vote for means that as political reporters they’re really only talking to staunch republicans and democrats who’ve already made up their minds.
Napoleon
@cleek:
You are a better man then me. I would moon them.
different church-lady
Man, that was so comprehensive even I don’t have to watch the speech or even read the internets for the next week.
sherifffruitfly
“…someone at FDL will call for a primary or impeachment.”
Just like teh crazy on the right moved from the fringe, inward, so too has teh crazy on the left moved from the fringe FDL inward to dkos.
You will see those calls at dkos – and that is more telling.
me
@lamh32: Wait. Paul has a bodyguard? I thought the invisible hand protected him?
Special Patrol Group
It will also be the Dirty Fucking Hippies’ fault. It always is.
Karen in GA
You’ve summed up why I’m no longer the hardcore news/politics junkie I once was.
I know what’s gonna happen. Call me if I’m wrong.
me
@Sentient Puddle: Hah!
Perry: “Let’s arm wrestle, old man. Mormon boy, referee.”
lamh32
@Sentient Puddle: That 2nd pick where Rick Perry has his arms back like he saying “whatcha gon’ do punk ass bitch” (that’s what they’d say in the hood) is pretty sad.
But yeah, Huntsman in the middle is too funny. Huntsman does look like he wants to be anywhere but there.
kindness
Wow….tell us how you REALLY feel John.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The really sad part isn’t that John Cole @top is absolutely right, but rather that it is all so depressingly predictable that everybody else knows he is right.
barath
@Karen in GA:
Yup – it’s only news if it’s different than expected. This is the same reason there’s no need to report the weather in Southern California.
srv
How about:
danimal
Republican obstructionism is DESIGNED to frustrate the opposition. Giving in to obstructionism is like surrendering to terrorists, you’re encouraging bad behavior.
I hope we can all keep up the good fight. We need to put these sons-of-bitches out.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
AZ-Oklahoma State could be decent and the Braves are just starting a twin bill with the Mets.
Culture of Truth
Agreed except instead of Evan Bayh it will be Harold Ford.
Also why did MSNBC have a parade of campaign advisors to spin for the candidates last night? Seems utterly pointless.
Poopyman
This isn’t beer weather, and/or I’m just not up for it, and there’s no single malt in the house. This seems like the perfect thread to call for recommendations for a single malt for the fall. (And feel free to read that any way you choose.)
aisce
so what you’re saying is…go pack go?
Martin
@Nick:
Well, Obama keeps staking out ground he knows the GOP is going to have to cede. If he keeps marching toward them, hands out in compromise, by the time we hit the general election, Perry is going to have to call for nuking Canada and installing electronic monitoring dildos for food stamp recipients as policy positions just to put sufficient distance between himself and Obama.
You’re basically saying ‘We don’t care if anything actually gets better, just tell us what we want to hear’ even though it’ll allow the GOP to take up policy positions that are ‘something moderate and imminently reasonable’. And that’s only going to improve their chance to win in 2012. So, if nothing is gong to happen, isn’t it better that Obama ignore you and instead make the GOP defend lunatic policies for the next year?
lamh32
@me: I read that too. I guess I can see why Paul needs a bodyguard, but isn’t it his paul-ites who are the crazies.
is the bodyguard to protect him from whom exactly?
General Stuck
I will watch it, even though I agree with about everything Cole writes here, that seems a bit on the dangerous Obotty side to me. But the script is already written for any possibility of the wingers letting anything pass that will help the country. They think they are helping the country get rid of the Kenyan soshulist that is sucking all the white precious bodily fluids. If the country goes down under that flag, then somebody just bury the baby with the bathwater.
The speech is just laying down some markers, and short of Obama biting off the head of a rubber chicken, all the usual suspects will be taking their pound of flesh. Modo will go back for seconds, because she likes it. The wingers aren’t even bothering to rebut the speech, that in their minds is coming from a poseur in the WH to be rid of. They are already planning to take more hostages, and watch their approval stay about the same.
I think we are at a crossroads in this country, and every signpost up ahead says, this is the .,,,,
Larryb
I dunno, John. If repealing just another 10% of the New Deal instead of the whole bannana is the new “moderate and immenently reasonable” I’m with the firebaggers on this one.
Cris (without an H)
By the way, how about links to the frontpagers’ twitter feeds from the sidebar? Don’t do the “latest tweets” plugin though, that’s just distracting.
(another) Josh
ThatLeftTurn, I only have one fault to find with Cole, and it’s minuscule.
has an “or” that, in the wake of Weinergate, should be an “and.”
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Karen in GA: So, what are you doing here?
Samara Morgan
chillax. all we have to do is get out the vote next september.
Cris (without an H)
way to troll the terrible towel
Martin
@sherifffruitfly:
Except elected and candidate Democrats ignore our fringe.
Elected and candidate Republicans pander to theirs.
jsfox
@Special Patrol Group:
It is always good to be reminded that the Tea Party hasn’t quite cornered the market on victimhood.
bystander
Re: update
Yes. Exactly. Stand for something; long, loud, and proud. And, if the voters don’t reward you for it, then go write those books, waltz the rubber chicken circuit, and watch your kids grow up in the comfort born of an absolutely guilt-free conscience.
ellie
I love you.
singfoom
Agree with JC 95%. I’ll be listening to the speech on NPR. I hope he’ll call out the Republicans and put forth a good jobs plan using small words and easy to understand phrases, but like JC said, anything that he proposes will be watered down by our Congress/FreedomGuards.
I wonder if the POTUS has any realization of that. How the fuck do you get geared up for that speech? Sitting there thinking to yourself, “This plan is good, and the American people should accept it across the board, but I know it’ll be tortured to shit in Congress.”
Makes sense as to why his hair has greyed so much….
the fake fake al
Agree completely, John. I hate seeing a good man torn asunder by the crazy and idiotic. Obama is a much better man and President then this crazy-ass country deserves. So I won’t watch, but I will make another contribution and hope BO can weather the current shit storm of crazy.
geg6
@General Stuck:
Wrong. Bachmann has already booked time in some congressional teevee studio for her rebuttal. Yes, Bachmann.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Thank FSM, Netflix sent me the Best of Colbert.
SiubhanDuinne
I haven’t read any of the comments yet, but DAMN, John! That was some kind of righteous rant.
Now I need someone to fan my moist brow.
And a cigarette.
quaker in a basement
Thanks, John, for the filter on Pumpkinhead Jr.
Arrrggghhh
@Cris (without an H):
Trisomy 21 is what you got from that Freudian slip? Guess my mind’s in the gutter as usual.
Scuffletuffle
Jesus, John, why won’t you run…you’d have my vote just for the speech.
gnomedad
@Martin:
In a nutshell. I think this is his best shot. Outline some perfectly reasonable things that need to be done, and then make the next 14 months of sabotage and teabagger subservience as visible as possible.
Tom S.Tom S.
Why I love Balloon Juice…
Linda Featheringill
@PurpleGirl:
Oooh! You’re actually working!
harlana (i said i was going to comment anymore , but . . .)
@Larryb: Stop attacking the president!!!
But seriously, I’m expecting a bandaid which, as John notes, will be the mostest hated, most eevil soshulist bandaid in teh world.
joes527
@geg6: Which way is she going to face this time?
Linda Featheringill
@bystander: #89
Amen.
General Stuck
@geg6:
I been out and about today, and had read somewhere this morning the wingers weren’t going to rebut. I guess crazy eyes just couldn’t resist sharing her brilliance with the rest of us.
lamh32
Someone posted this link on another thread, but it pertains to the at the very least, speech optics so gonna post it here too.
Sometimes I really like Harry Reid. This is of those times.
Reid turns tables on Obama speech-skippers by setting Thursday-night debt vote
Culture of Truth
I’m going to go out on a limb and say, yeah, he probably does.
Nick
@gogol’s wife: If you are referring to the content of my post vis a vis the content of the “UPDATE,” please note it had not been posted prior to my comment. If you are referring to something else, please say so.
Linda Featheringill
I am actually hoping for all that John listed PLUS a series of things that the Administration can do without the help of congress. Undoubtedly the Admin can’t do enough legally to make a big difference but it would demonstrate what side Obama is on.
MattR
Spot on John (including the update), with one minor exception.
@lamh32: Well played, Sen Reid.
Jenny
Marcia Brady vs Jan Brady
Marcia Brady is to the moderates as Jan Brady is the progressive. Jan was constantly whinning, “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! Why does Marcia get all the attention!”
Jan was pretty (she really was), but Marica was prettier (she really was) so she got more attention. Jan never understood that.
Liberals are pretty (they are), but they’re outnumbered by a 2 to 1 margin at the ballot box, so they get more attention. Liberals have yet to understood that.
Nick
Thanks for adding the “Update,” Mr. Cole. Glad to see I’m not the only one that thinks that Obama should just go for it.
TooManyJens
@singfoom:
Of course he does. He’s spent the last two and a half years watching Republicans (and some Dems) take big steaming dumps on everything he says and does.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Samara Morgan: I see what you are doing there!
NR
@Martin: Yep. David Frum had it right: The Republican fear their base, the Democrats hate theirs.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Finally, the center-right balloonbaggers have fallen in line with progressives and that bony-assed Jane Hamsher!
Also too, don’t forget to castigate the Republicans for their moral depravity in the last three decades, President Obama. Describe their vision for the future and contrast it with the vision of FDL. Oh, I meant FDR.
.
.
Culture of Truth
Re; Reid, I’d rather have the optics of the wingnuts skipping if that’s what they want to do, makes Obama all the more reasonable in contrast…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Martin: Like I said the other day, people like Nick want Obama to run the country for the benefit of his party. It’s the one feature of Bush they like. But Obama will not do that, and I am glad for it.
NR
@Jenny: You are assuming that moderates care more about so-called “moderate” policy passing than they do about fixing the economy. You’re dead wrong about that.
Also, too, poll after poll shows that large majorities of the public support liberal positions on a wide range of domestic issues, including economic and tax policy.
So there you have it.
Earl Butz
@Martin: Gotta call bullshit. Where’s the repeal of Roe v. Wade? The mandatory school prayers? The constitutional amendments balancing the budget, or outlawing homosexuality?
The right is far more jacked around and ignored by their leaders than any leftist voter is.
NR
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Bullshit. We want Obama to run the country for the benefit of the country. Unfortunately, he wants to run it for the benefit of the rich and big corporations.
singfoom
@geg6: Oooo! Maybe she’ll look across the camera with her crazy eyes again like before. I liked that video…it was less like a speech and more like she was a medium, channeling some kind of crazy spirit from the 1860s.
Jenny
@NR: Tell it to John Edwards, whose red-meat-populist campaign got a whole 17% of the vote in New Hampshire.
If liberal positions are so popular, why does capitol punishment have 70% support in liberal California?
SST
Federer-Tsonga in the quarters and I find it hard to believe that Fed has forgotten who took him out at Wimby. Speech until that starts.
MattR
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
That’s kind of funny because I read Martin’s comment as saying that Obama was being smart to put his election campaign first (ahead of what might actually be best for the country)
kgc16
Late to the party and I haven’t read the comments yet, but I’m feeling your pain. Everything you wrote is spot on. How sad.
NR
@Jenny: Look up the numbers on progressive taxation, Social Security, and Medicare and get back to me.
Elizabelle
@danimal:
What Danimal said at 73.
mk387
Fucking hysterical stuff, Cole, you made my day.
Fully agreed: the die is fully cast and set with Obama.
The media, his critics and opponents are now in full-blown endless loop cycle on this same BS.
Suffern ACE
If I were the president, I’d announce that I was ordering the U.S. mint of Austin, TX to produce 300 million $2 Trillion platinum coins to be given out on a first come first serve basis and then give Perry’s address as the location of the new mint.
Mino
Heh, heh. Maybe Obama should give your speech, John. I’d watch that and clap.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
@Jenny:
I’m a balloonbagger and I’m going to preemptively [insert stale knee jerk Obot’s dimwitted idea of snark here]!!
.
.
singfoom
@Jenny: Perhaps support of capital punishment is not a liberal/conservative split? I consider myself liberal and I support capital punishment for certain heinous crimes. I won’t go clapping about executions, though….
Culture of Truth
why does capitol punishment have 70% support in liberal California?
People hate politicians
harlana
soooooo, we’re suggesting the president should use the bully pulpit now?
hmmmmmm
Darnell From LA
Bravo, Mr. Cole. A sublime post. Truly one of your best.
I concur, that if I were Obama I would advise everyone in this country (left, right, and center) to “eat a bag of salty dicks.” Yes. Followed by flipping the bird, and screaming “you get Perry, motherfuckers!” All as I sauntered up the steps of Marine One on the South Lawn….
PurpleGirl
Unless the federal government does a survey of state UI laws and works with the states to restructure the tier systems and the level at which federal benefits kick in, extending benefits will not help many people. For example, NYS calculates a rolling 3-month average, which currently is 8% unemployment BUT federal extended benefits don’t kick in since the rate is below 8.5%. I’ve not figured out the magic of the 8.5, but that’s what I’ve been told. Several states have recently changed the length of their regular benefits, again, the feds have to coordinate better with the states or else just extending benefits won’t help.
Elie
@lamh32:
Rick Perry better get his shit under control. Putting your hands on someone can be construed as assault. If he is the nominee, he thinks he is going to get up in Obama’s face like that?
This guy is just “commander codpiece” all over again… with all that arms out to hint at a “piece” under his suit jacket and those hard eyes and tough talk. Without a doubt, he will end up making an ass of himself… he is just setting up way too much hubris for the universe to ignore.
Jenny
@NR: Look up the numbers on invading Iraq.
Jan, you’re gonna have to accept that while you’re pretty, Marica is prettier. The sooner you do, the happier you’ll be. Don’t let the pain from more guys asking Marcia to the prom drive you to self destructive drug abuse.
Elie
And John Cole — I agreee with everything that you said. Will miss the speech though to get some r&r with hubby Alan and read the text and visits bj for comments later.
I really wish that he would go BIG. Why not “throw it down”. They are already in full throttle anti anti, so why not give ’em something to bitch about?
Culture of Truth
@Elie: Rick Lazio tried that with Hillary Clinton. He disappeared shortly thereafter and was never seen again.
WaterGirl
Well, that’s just great. Even Obama supporters won’t watch the speech, so the MSM gets to say “only xx million tuned in to hear the president, that’s x times fewer than when people still liked the president”.
You know what? President Obama thought this was important enough to ask for a joint session of congress. And Cole and 98% of all the commenters so far aren’t even going to watch it? Fuck the republicans and the media. Can’t you think about watching him speak out of respect for the president? Geez, is everyone just gonna roll over and give this election to the crazy people who want to burn down our government?
Edit:
@danimal: Ding, ding, ding!
barath
@WaterGirl:
I’m going to at least do what I always do, which is turn on the video stream from CNN or MSNBC online. That way I’m counted.
Darnell From LA
@Elie: I was also shocked by Perry’s pocket-meltdown with Ron Paul, and I thought Perry wasn’t capable of shocking me any further than he does by just being Rick Perry.
Yeah, I can see Perry getting a little weird with Obama. What would make my life a dream is the Secret Service wrestling Rick Perry to the ground, Squeaky Fromme style, in front of the debate audience. Oh yeah…
WaterGirl
@Elie: Commander codpiece, now with more testosterone!
Tim O
SPOT. ON.
TooManyJens
@Elie:
I’d like to see him try that shit with the Secret Service around.
wrb
@Linda Featheringill:
It is down to fuck-all unless you count granting permits & licenses- like for that pipeline or for more oil and gas leases. Maybe they could sell some timber.
The other things they might have been able to do, such as refinance mortgages, the Republicans have blocked by not confirming Obama’s appointees, so the agencies are run by interim heads, who are Republicans.
NR
@Jenny:
Since we’re talking about economic issues, that’s irrelevant. Stop trying to distract from the topic and address the issue at hand.
NR
@Elie:
Because Obama is a center-right corporatist.
SATSQ.
Darnell From LA
@Culture of Truth: Harold Ford makes me want to gargle bleach and forget my first name….
socratic_me
This is why I just can’t quite you, John Cole, now matter how irritated I get with the site from time to time.
@Culture of Truth: I know it is an old joke, but it made me laugh out loud anyway, so thanks for that!
Chat Noir
Excellent post, John. Spot on.
Elizabelle
@lamh32:
Good for Harry Reid for setting that vote.
catclub
@gnomedad: I would use a video of McConnell saying that job one is making Obama a one term president. Then make it clear that anything that is good for the country is something McConnell is against, because that might help an Obama re-election.
Svensker
@Jenny:
Because they hate Washington, D.C.?
ETA: Oh snap, foiled again by Cultcha a Troof
Culture of Truth
Without Luke Russert’s deept thoughts what is the point
daveNYC
@Jenny:
But liberal policies poll pretty well, it’s just the label that is poison. Whatever the president proposes is going to get shot down, so going balls out isn’t that bad an idea.
Elie
@MattR:
Unless you think that Obama NOT being elected would be a good thing for the country, given the alternatives
I do get your point, but its stretched pretty thin and distorted so you can again point out some deficiency in Obama. And make no mistakes, he has definite deficiencies. Until you think about the Klown Kandidates from last night… at least for most of us anyway.
boss bitch
So if he’s going to fail, fail BIG? hmmm…
General Stuck
And oddly enough, the Gallup daily poll has Obama jumping up to 44% approval. Go figure
Marc
@NR:
And you’ll say this regardless of his actions. Which was, of course, John’s point.
WaterGirl
Before everybody gives up and sticks their fingers in their ears instead of listening to a possible way forward from this mess, maybe you could sign Elizabeth Warren’s petition to Call on the Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee to protect the interests of middle class families, to confirm a director for the CFPB, and to let the agency do its work.
Darnell From LA
@NR: Well, I’ve been told Alan Grayson is the acme of true progressive rhetoric, so therefore if Obama were to call a female banker a “corporate whore” and rhyme a GOP Rep.’s name with “Taliban” that would get the ole’ economic pump workin’! All WIN, baby. All win.
Gozer
I think I’m gonna spend the night calling in mortar strikes on Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
And drinking.
MattR
@Elie: I pointed out no deficiency in Obama nor did I disagree with Martin. I just pointed out that Martin did not seem to be making the point that Belafon was.
Elie
@TooManyJens:
Hell, I think that O could probably give him a little schoolin…. would love to see THAT…
I would not be surprised (if he is indeed the nominee), that he doesnt pull some sort of “dominance” type stunt. I don’t think this boi could resist..
13th Generation
Cole, when you’re on, you’re spot on.
This kind of post is why I keep coming back.
Oh, and DougJ, also too.
Elie
@MattR:
No worries man… I was too lazy to follow the track back
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MattR: There’s a difference, though. Obama could propose a $5Trillion dollar education/infrastructure spending push. This would make some in the party happy, but would easily be blocked as excessive by Republicans. Or he could propose an $800Billion push, which would be decried by some as too small, but a lot more “middle” people would be willing to accept it. It would be nice if those numbers were the same for both groups, but it’s just not going to happen.
ETA: The second one would be harder for the Republicans to oppose, and they would come out looking bad, which is good for the country. Embarrasing the Republicans is beneficial to the country.
Elie
@General Stuck:
Hey there, Stuck..
glad to see ya…
4tehlulz
Per TPM, the jobs package is up to $450 bill, with deeper payroll tax cuts.
Will we hit $500B by the speech?
Martin
@Earl Butz:
You must not live in a state, because that’s where it’s all happening. Toss in union busting, voter discrimination, anti-immigration laws, privatization of everything possible, and so on.
Darnell From LA
@General Stuck: The jobs speech (face it, every time Obama gives a speech to congress) will cause his ratings go up a little bit. I think Obama hit a low point for his ratings in the last couple weeks, a real low water mark.
Between a modest bump from tonight’s speech, as well as another modest bump from playing his role as “consoler-in-chief” this Sunday (also, too reminds folks of Bin Laden, and we know how Americans like “KILLIN’!”) President Obama will come close to, or hit 50% by next week.
That’s my prediction. If I’m wrong, I hope he instead tells the country to “eat an EXTRA large bag of salty, deep fried dicks.”
WaterGirl
Could we please have a thread for the 5 of us who plan on watching Obama’s speech?
gogol's wife
@Nick:
I’m referring to your reference to ABL’s probable anger at the original post. (I was writing before the “update.”) I did not see anything in the original post that would upset an Obot like myself or ABL. The original post fully acknowledges the real-world difficulties standing in the way of Obama being some kind of far-left dictator who can JUST IGNORE CONGRESS, which seems to be the fantasy of a lot of people on the left, of whom I am heartily sick.
MattR
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): That may be true, but that is not the point that Martin was making. He was arguing that by starting in the middle, Obama was pushing the Republicans to the right and forcing them to support positions that will hurt them in 2012. From his comment:
Martin
@daveNYC:
And Obama can propose those at his discretion, when it’s suitable to him.
Honestly, folks, Obama is going to own all of the policy real-estate come the election and can offer up as much as Congress is willing to swallow. If that means he can go more left then he will.
I don’t know why everyone is so eager to assume that he’s trying to sell you out.
EriktheRed
@Martin:
That approach has worked well so far, this year.
/sarcasm
wrb
@gogol’s wife:
this
Darnell From LA
BREAKING: Obama announces FDA will hold off on new regulations covering the sale of bags of “salty dicks.”
An administration source said “cost to salty dick makers would have hurt employment in dick salting and bagging industries.” Liberals outraged; Diary at liberal site Dailykos.com: “Obama goes limp on dicks! Primary him!”
Developing…..
Elie
@wrb:
And THAT is one of the biggest reasons for going all out, balls to the wall for Obama. Our many government agencies need to be refreshed and again populated to do their work effectively. After ten years of W and shrinking government under the Clinton years (remember “Reinventing Government”), there has been a huge loss of leadership and just plain experience and knowledge. Those of us who believe in the role of government cannot evah forget that and I think its important to shift our progressive critics from making it all the personalized Obama show versus the many many other things at stake.
FlipYrWhig
@harlana: You should “use the bully pulpit” if your goal is to speak to the people and shift public opinion and you have given up on the idea of winning votes in Congress. The argument isn’t that the bully pulpit is good for absolutely nothing, it’s that it’s a rhetorical strategy rather than a strategy for how to get better legislation. What it doesn’t do is move politicians leftwards as a result of popular clamor, definitely not Republicans and almost as definitely not conservative Democrats from red and “purple” states. Good communication is a nice way to spread a message, but there’s a gulf between spreading a message and converting the public’s embrace of that message into politicians voting differently than they would have without that message. _That’s_ what the “bully pulpit” discussion boils down to, IMHO.
trollhattan
@TooManyJens:
Not to mention I’ll wager he’s too much of a pu** to do anything of the sort with a younger, healthier dude.
Elie
@Darnell From LA:
That IS very funny
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MattR:
My original statement was in response to this part of his comment:
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl:
Thank you, WaterGirl and danimal. The cynicism is thick on the ground.
How about us, like, giving Obama some political cover? Maybe he’d be more in the GOP’s face — elegantly — if he knew his supporters, other than union members in tee shirts — would turn out to rally again and again. A pictorial contradiction to the media meme “oh, Obama’s losing his supporters. What a peckerwood. Effing wimp.”
I loved when Tim F was organizing and impelling us to call Congress. Make them pick up the phones. Let them know you care enough to turn out in a park with a sign. Or a bumpersticker.
I think John’s blogpost is incredible too, and probably accurate, but what does it get us if the smart kids sit around and point?
And refuse to even watch the president’s speech?
If this president goes down, so do many of us.
My wealthier friends are starting to make noises of concern over the economy and the tenor of public life.
We’re a community, not the self-sufficient islands the GOP likes to pretend.
Off my soapbox.
[Shorter Elizabelle: yeah, we might be hosed. But go down fighting.]
Darnell From LA
@MattR: IF that was his plan, I do say IF, it has truly worked like gangbusters. No joke! The GOP today is making Barry Goldwater look like Abbie Hoffman.
Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .
Elie: With the buyouts and cutbacks, there won’t be a gov’t. by 2013.
Except, of course, the big $ technology buys. Those come before human capital.
Elie
@Darnell From LA:
got me laughin again…
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
I think I have to clarify, and I believe I will perhaps be speaking for some others here who have said they are not going to watch. I am not going to watch it in real time, but I will certainly either watch it later or read the entire transcript, as I always do. I simply get too nervous and anxious for Obama to be able to sit still while he actually gives the speech. I certainly cannot abide any color commentary by the likes of Chris whatever his name is. I’m sorry I won’t count in the Nielsen ratings, but that’s the way it is. I can’t afford to be having an anxiety attack tonight, that’s all. I’m cynical about Congress, not Obama.
Jenny
@NR:
If Jan is so popular, why did moderates support extending the tax cuts last December?
.
See, even Daily Kos’ go to polling outfit (PPP) says more people like Marcia. To repeat what PPP said, “huge gains”.
On deficits:
Even Jan (Paul Krugman) admits deficit spending isn’t popular.
And he’s right. In a Gallup poll taken in the November 1936, in the midst of great hungry and unemployment, only 28% of the population supported deficit spending. If FDR couldn’t get support for Jan (massive deficit spending) in the middle of 25% unemployment, why would it be any different now?
On taxation:
Even Jan admits raising taxes isn’t popular.
So there you have, even on economic policy, Marcia is more popular than Jan.
JWL
“Go Big”. Good advice.
No, scratch that. It’s great advice.
Two questions you should now ask yourself: #1) Why hasn’t he already? And, #2) Why won’t he tonight?
FlipYrWhig
@Martin:
Because that’s how you prove how “left” you are. Everyone else is a sellout and a “corporatist” who’s content with the status quo, but not you, man, you want to see shit burn, because you’re just that badass, and if you’re satisfied, well, you might as well put on a pair of khakis and listen to fuckin’ Coldplay.
Elie
@Darnell From LA:
Naw — I would rather see O just defensively push Perry flat down on his backside with almost not effort…
..and then gallantly bend down and help him up…
ha ha ha ha…
boss bitch
Steve Weinstein made a good argument on Twitter:
reasonable plan, BIG rhetoric? we’ll see.
Elie
@FlipYrWhig:
This this this
Odie Hugh Manatee
This is why I come here, the truth in reporting before it even happens. John, your story about the story is going to be closer to the truth than the story any other ‘reporter’ or news outlet will be reporting on.
Sadly.
John’s ‘reporting’ is good enough for Jon Stewart to use on his show.
boss bitch
You know who can go BIG? Progressives. All these bloggers/pundits could organize a massive effort to harass Congress into passing the bill, but I can predict the answer to that request too.
lamh32
@lamh32:
speaking of “boycotting” the speech. I see that Boner issued a release earlier to day urging his GOP congresscritters to mind there manners and not skip the joint session.
That and Reids vote scheduling just may make some of the putz show up…jackasses.
I’m guessing maybe Boner’s office got some calls damning him for members of his caucus not showing up.
Top Republican urges no boycott of Obama speech
Jenny
@daveNYC: see this
Elie
@Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .:
I don’t think folks know how thin these agencies are and how much they can really really fuck up…
..and lets not even talk about what it will take to implement any kind of HCR — there just aren’t enough of the right people in place yet. ..and the pent up appointments. The acting head of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid was a recess appointment because O can’t get his people approved. That major agency, essential to Medicare and Medicaid may be leaderless soon because of Republican dickishness
FlipYrWhig
@JWL:
Because he kept holding out hope that Republicans and conservative Democrats could come around to supporting the ideas they had always supported in the past to boost the economy, because the economy really does need boosting more than it does rhetorical flair or less sad-faced blogger-pundits. Seems like he’s getting ready to give up on the chances of conservatives in both parties actually embracing conservative ideas for economic stimulus and is gearing up for the all-rhetoric, almost-no-legislation phase — a/k/a campaign mode.
boss bitch
White House created this hashtag for the speech: #JobsNow
ABL
you’re spot on. i’m already pre-annoyed, in fact.
i seriously hope at some point in the address, obama tells republicans and the media to eat a supersized bag of salted dicks.
FlipYrWhig
@boss bitch:
Which do you think would make more phone calls and send more irate emails to Congress: the readership of the liberal blogosphere, or biddies upset about Janet Jackson’s nip-slip? I say the biddies, by a factor of at least 10:1.
Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .
Elie: It’s not just the appointments. Unlike the guys at the CIA, I can’t reveal my agency, but we are losing people from the top and bottom. Career people are retiring or taking buyouts, the kids are leaving for the private sector or defense agencies. We are getting gutted.
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife:
Understood. I have been anxious all week too.
Good to know logging on through CNN or MSNBC will be “counted” so I will do that with the laptop.
Although planning to catch the speech live on PBS.
With mute at the ready if they’ve got Bobo doing color commentary.
grandpajohn
@Martin: Probably the fact that he lives in a world of reality and therefore attempts to accomplish that which is possible instead of living in fantasy world of doing the impossible. Remember that “To Dream the Impossible Dream” is a song not a policy statement.
Elie
@Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .:
No man, I get you. I was not intending to address the appointments as the main problem. The appointments however are many times the key leadership to plan and let others below know what to do…otherwise, everybody just treads water waiting for direction.
Let us not forget that there are also quite a few W folks “burrowed in” and will be leaking and fucking up shit as often as they can…
No — its a HUGE crisis that is the best case (given the progressive need for constant 24/7 Obama critiques) to take a breather and really look at consequences. Anyone who would risk another Republican President after one term of Obama is not awake and oriented to the laws of physics and the universe..
Sad_Dem
Yeah, go big, and read Mike Lofgren’s “Goodbye to All That” article, Ike’s Cross of Iron speech, and immediately start putting an end to American military intervention abroad. What’s the use of being a level-headed moderate when the GOP is determined to burn everything?
Patty K
Shouldn’t that be “eminently” reasonable? But while we’re on Maureen Dowd could you please ask the NYT to stop running columns of hers about her stupid brothers? Otherwise, although I don’t think we’ve heard from Seamus, Dylan and Gavin so far, they’re sure to be next.
Elizabelle
@grandpajohn:
I’m thinking you need to give people some fantasy and a little bit of magic too.
John Kennedy didn’t live to see a man on the moon, but he — among others — popularized the idea of our fulfilling that mission.
Go for the possible, but aim higher and compromise down when you have to.
Am thinking Obama’s biggest problem is he isn’t swinging for the fences — at least one or two balls.
A lot of people do understand how out of control the GOP Congress is. They don’t expect perfection from Obama, but they don’t expect to get “school uniforms” when the problem is they can’t even send the kid to school.
Darnell From LA
@Jenny: Good points. Some more are the facts that FDR (NOBODY Fucks with Liberal Jesus!) as soon as he took office cut wages for Federal workers, slashed pensions for the elderly, and even cut benefits for vets. He ran in 1932 on, among other things, cutting the deficit.
By the end of FDR’s first term unemployment was still in the teens, his chief sheechwriter, Raymond Moley (the man who coined “New Deal”) broke with FDR and opposed him publically.
By the time FDR ran for a 3rd term in 1940 unemployment was still, you guessed it, in the teens. And John Sullivan, the then President of the CIO labor union (prior to merger with the AFL) opposed FDR strongly, supporting GOP candidate Wilkie instead, for failing to cure unemployment and “selling out labor.”
JFK (NOBODY Fucks with THIS Liberal Jesus either!) ran on, along other things, cutting taxes! As a matter of fact, JFK proposed the single largest cut in upper income taxes in history! JFK’s tax plan was passed after his death, cutting the top bracket a full 13%, while cutting the lowest bracket by just 3%! (WTF? Sellout! Primary! Oh, wait…)
On Civil Rights (the issue of the day)Herbert Hill, the then head of the NAACP, said of JFK’s watered down Civil Rights bill:
“not worth the paper it’s printed on. The Kennedy administration has compromised its integrity by cutting out the heart, the guts, of the bill,”…snip..”a policy of compromise and retreat in the matter of Negro rights.”..snip…”Kennedys’ compromise” will be felt strongly in the next election, Hill maintained. “If Rockefeller becomes the Republican nominee,” Hill said, “there is no question that there would be a large Negro defection in the South. The Republican party is beginning to make large gains throughout the South, and even if Goldwater ran, he added, there would be a significant Negro Republican vote.”…snip…
and….”The Kennedy administration is retreating and trying to placate the racists,”
So, in short; fron FDR to JFK to LBJ and Vietnam, Democratic Presidents have problems with their left wing. Same as it ever was….Nothing new under the left half of the sun….
TL;DR – All Dem Presidents have problems with their base.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@ABL:
Improved. :)
Linda Featheringill
@WaterGirl:
Make that 6 of us. I’ll be there.
Are those other guys really going to be able to just ignore this?
ABL
@lamh32: that’s fantastic.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl:
I’m in.
Elie
@Darnell From LA:
Thank you for the much needed refresh on history…
Not just the Democrats
Although immensely popular, Teddy Roosevelt had big run ins with his own Republican “progressives”. The book “The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan is a good read on Roosevelt’s efforts to establish the Forest Service and the many public lands that the Robber Barons and their legislative shills wanted for themselves…
Like they say, those who will not remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them — over and over.
Emma
@Martin: Mandatory school prayer? Point me to it. Outlawing homosexuality at the federal level? Show me the statute. In fact, show them to me at the state level.
I know — I KNOW — things are bad, but some of us seem to have decided it’s the end of the world and we might as well cut our own throats.
FlipYrWhig
@Darnell From LA: Kennedy also ran on the “missile gap” and other Cold War bullshit. I wasn’t alive for his presidency but he’s always seemed like the beneficiary of crazy levels of hype, basically for being the first cool president, rather than for anything he did or wanted to do. YMMV.
ABL
@gogol’s wife: apparently the livestream is going to be interactive with charts and graphs and free pie for everyone.
i would definitely avoid the chattering fuckknuckles this time. i really am so irritated already.
blargh.
barath
@Darnell From LA:
That’s some great info, thanks.
Sometimes I wonder whether the Fourth Turning historians were onto something in 1997.
For those not familiar with it, they make an argument that the Western world and the US in particular are in a cyclic history with a roughly 80-year cycle divided in 20 year chunks. They use a season analogy – FDR was president during the 20 year winter, as were Lincoln and Washington. They argue that the character of generations in each 20-year chunk affects the mood of the nation, and pushes the cycle forward. In 1997 they forecasted based upon this that in 2007 we would enter another 20-year winter – a period of time akin to the Great Depression, Civil War, or Revolution.
I’d argue they got it right, but for a reason nobody is paying attention to, which is the end of economic growth / energy issues.)
Davis X. Machina
The phrase ‘Luke Russert’s deep godddamned thoughts’ is impossible.
Deep thoughts — possible
Goddamn Luke Russert — possible
Luke Russert’s thoughts — possible….
Luke Russert’s deep godddamned thoughts before — impossible.
It’s like colorless green ideas sleeping furiously. Well formed, but meaningless.
les
My advice is that the O man study Jimmy Carter’s last speech, as reported in the Onion.
FlipYrWhig
@Odie Hugh Manatee: We could spread a rumor that Michelle Obama wants to curtail production of deep-fat fried salted donkey dicks. That way panicky wingnuts would start eating them as fast as possible. Or, just a tad faster than they usually do.
Elie
@barath:
Hmmmm —
Gonna get that book… interesting premise…
HumboldtBlue
There’s an NFL game on and our local college team, Humboldt State will be on TV as well playing their brand of D-II football. What fucking speech are you talking about?
Martin
@EriktheRed:
How many Presidential elections did you have this year? In my parts we’ve had none, and none scheduled for the rest of the year either.
MikeBoyScout
BEST POST EVER!
Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .
Elie: I do think that Obama shares some of the blame: he tried with the ‘insourcing’ policy at the beginning, but the small gov’t/shared sacrifice rhetoric is harmful. I’m a contractor, so i am already shat on twice, but the career people really do get jobbed on pay (but not benefits), especially as COL/housing issues here in DC are much more viscious than they were a generation ago.
Career Feds used to be able to live in David Brook’s and Tommy Friedman’s neighborhood on 1-1.5 salaries, now it’s a two income ‘hood, and one of those better be Dr, lawyer, lobbyist money. The housing costs in the Peoples Republic of Takoma Park are also pretty bad, and that used to be 2 hippy income territory.
I know less about the situation across the moat in VA, but it’s a hellhole antway.
FlipYrWhig
@Davis X. Machina: For that matter, “Colorless green Luke Russert sleeping furiously” feels apt.
danimal
@Elizabelle: Keep fighting the good fight. It might be ‘cool’ to establish liberal credibility by distancing from Obama, but I contend that is poor politics and a poor coping mechanism. Better to provide Obama support when deserved, constructive criticm when needed and a maintain a willingness to continually engage the opposition when they tell lies and manipulate the political process. Most people are only slightly aware of the games played by the GOP; that’s about to change as election season starts. There is hope, much more than is apparent.
Elie
@FlipYrWhig:
lol…
me likee
barath
@Elie:
I should say that I wouldn’t buy it – the book is a bit boring though the premise is interesting – though maybe get it at the library. If I had to recommend some reading, I’d say read Richard Heinberg’s The End of Growth (online drafts of which are free) because he lays out what actually is going to happen in this 20 year period we’re entering…
Darnell From LA
My favorite though is when my fellow liberals (without knowing better, bless their hearts) state: “We need a real liberal figher, like Harry Truman!” LOL…
Harry Truman in 1946 told labor they could strike, but then when railroad and coal unions actually went on strike he;
1) Had the government take over the railroads and mines.
2) Used the military as striker-breakers.
3) And when all else failed crushed the strike by asking
congress for permission to DRAFT STRIKING WORKERS into
the military!
It was the greatest abuse of organized labor by a President in the history of American labor itself. And somehow I think it’s just a LITTLE BUT worse than Obama not walking the picket lines in Wisconsin, ya think?
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5137/
http://millercenter.org/president/truman/essays/biography/4
AhabTRuler
History is not cyclical; the past is not prologue. Whatever the outcome of this particularly wretched time in world history, there is no guarantee that things will end well or that there will be ‘progress’.
Admiral_Komack
“Point two. I will put up a post with a livestream from the White House so you all can watch without having to hear Luke Russert’s deep godddamned thoughts before and after.”
And why the fuck would I want to listen to that affirmative action gasbag?
I’m going to get a glass of wine and check out CSPAN.
elftx
@Nick: post #35
at least
“You can take Glory with you when it’s your time to go”
Hob
@BGinCHI: It’ll be fun to see how the Confederacy enforces all their social proscriptions without taxing people. It’s pricey to have a security state.
They’ll sell ad space on the soles of the jackboots.
AA+ Bonds
I agree, John. Going big in this speech would not only make the Republicans look bad, returning them to the Party of No, but also reassure world financial markets that someone’s hand is on the tiller here.
Elie
@Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .:
Well, what do you do when you have a mountain off shit to do and you know that the agencies aint got no one?
You have to ramp up some kind of way pretty fast and esp since HCR was up front and center fast.
Its just hard to hire that many people that fast and before you know where you need them the most so you go with some approximation of a working group you can pull together quick.
Salaries I think are pretty competitive to the private sector but unfortunately the cost of housing in the DC area is off the charts. I will be moving there soon and I nearly passed out seeing how much you have to pay for shit. But that is not Obama’s fault, frankly (you know that, right?)
barath
@AhabTRuler:
Hmm…I’m confused. If there’s no guarantee of progress (and I agree, there isn’t), then why can’t history be cyclical? One of the main problems with the way we see things is that we view our history as linear whereas most societies in the past have viewed history as cyclical. But a linear, growth-driven civilization runs up against the limits of a finite planet, which is what’s happening now. That pops our linear bubble.
Elizabelle
John just put up a livestream open thread.
The Orange Man and Biden are already in their places.
AA+ Bonds
@Darnell From LA:
Yeah, the treatment of UMW was a major fuck-up of his (not as big as Korea, but pretty big). Then again, he learned enough from it that by 1950, he listened to the unions and nationalized the steel industry rather than apply Taft-Hartley (before the Supreme Court told him he couldn’t do that).
Truman was certainly the last liberal President who appealed to me, but also sowed the seeds of the demise of that brand of liberalism. Korea led to the rise of the McNamara school and the fall of Lyndon Johnson, as American strength became confused with Communist weakness.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@FlipYrWhig:
Evil… I like it! My wife was saying tonight that Obama should just propose the opposite of what he wants. That way the repubs and blue dogs can vote against it and we get some good bills passed!
@Elie:
I hope you mean the idea and not the actual ‘snack’! ;)
El Cid
@Hob: They didn’t have to be everywhere in those days, either: all they had to do was make frightening examples of people they ‘caught’ (for real or fictional violations) on a semi-regular basis.
There are always thugs looking for a few dollars who will be willing to abuse someone for the money.
Elie
@AhabTRuler:
nor any certainty that they won’t either…
patterns don’t have to be predictive to be interesting to examine and learn from.
danimal
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I’ve proposed that Obama should propose a “don’t drink bleach” public safety campaign, followed by a “don’t put a gun to your temple and squeeze the trigger” campaign. The conservative ranks would be considerably thinner by the end of those two campaigns.
Cat Lady
@Darnell From LA:
You forgot to mention that little internment business our progressive betters would like to forget about FDR, also too.
Davis X. Machina
250 posts, and the speech hasn’t even happened yet?
AhabTRuler
@barath: Because regression doesn’t imply repetition.
@Elie: Yes, I can absolutely guarantee that history won’t repeat itself, at least not in any way that bears close scrutiny.
Can we learn from the past? Of course. But that doesn’t mean that we can view history as “cyclical” in any way other than in terms of society/culture, and in that sense, the present is informed by, but not determined by, the past.
John
Thanks for the wake up call. I was about to watch for some reason. Honestly. Thanks.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@boss bitch: Exactly
Makewi
Democrats own the Senate and the Executive and you STILL whine about how unfair those damn Republicans are.
You suck. Everybody knows it.
LT
God you are such a prick. A loveable, smart and caring prick, but still:
You’re trying to et a rise out of people, I understand, but it’s still prickish. I’ll respond mostly by quoting you from your update, saying something that, oh, say Paul Krugman might say:
Matt
@srv:
That works until Bachmann unhinges her jaw and swallows the thing whole. ;)
Tanya
If Democratic ideas are so spectacular, why are the cities that have had strong Democratic control for decades always the worst off?
Inner cities are crumbling, despite massive spending; why won’t anybody address this?
Adrienne
@Tanya: But you do realize that as a whole traditionally blue/democratic states ARE better off than red states don’t you? Blue states subsidize the gov’t spending happening in the supposedly gov’t averse red states.
Also, too… What massive spending is happening in inner cities? I surely haven’t heard of any. Per capita, inner cities receive LESS funding than surburbs and exurbs.
Effin' jeebuz...
Um, I’m not endorsing @LT #256’s tone, but he or she is precisely right:
Do you even read the guy? Here’s his last column:
Which is exactly what you said in this post.
I don’t use words like O-Bot, and I don’t even read Fire Dog Lake, but I’m sure I’ll be called a firebagger nonetheless, the way comment threads have gotten here, but I do want to say this: None of the mess we’re in is the fault of liberals. It’s not Paul Krugman’s fault people think the economy is shitty and are voting against the president’s party accordingly. Whatever caricatures you intend by “usual suspects on the left” haven’t been calling any of the shots, so it’s kind of like you’re down five touchdowns at halftime, and pissed at the punter for some reason.
AhabTRuler
@Tanya: That is almost painfully simplistic. Part of the answer is that generic Democrats don’t always have the answer and individuals are as venal as anyone else. The other part of the answer is that the problems that conurbations, which account for most of the population of this country, pose are very difficult to resolve.
AhabTRuler
@Adrienne:
Bingo.
Tom Hilton
I’m disappointed. I was hoping he would stand up for what he believed in. Fight for something, for a change. Draw a line in the sand. Instead, he totally caved.
I’m talking about John Cole, of course, who ended up watching the speech after all.
The President was awesome, though. Glad I watched.
Ron E.
I rarely comment here although I read the blog every day, but that was one hell of a righteous rant, John. Well said!
auntie beak
WORD. that is all.
RossInDetroit
This is why I love this blog.
I’m not going to watch it either. I’m going to listen to some Strauss and play with the dog. The economic mess will be there tomorrow.
LT
@Effin’ jeebuz…:
Fucking A right.
Karen in GA
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Sorry, would have responded sooner, but, well, I wasn’t here.
I could see you asking “So why are you here” if I were tellng Cole to fuck off, or singing the praises of a Palin/Bachmann/Perry/Paul quadruple ticket. But agreeing with him, and not needing to hear the same bullshit a thousand times over before I decide not to waste my time listening to bullshit, doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing that would provoke that sort of a response.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
Not to interrupt John Cole’s massive downer, but, y’know, that’s pretty much what president Obama just did. He went for it. Yay! Big proposal. Serious numbers.
Three cheers for the guy. And you know what? I bet response will be a lot more positive than anyone expects. A groundswell of popular support might even force the teahadist hatriots in the House to either change their positions and vote for the damn bill, or stake out positions so extreme they get nuked and disappear from the House in 2012.
gvcrew
best post ever. been away for awhile. glad to see you are as sharp as ever. what’s the name for the demographic of people who agree with your post, and would have written substantively the same post you did had they half the talent you do?
I have a comment
I think this means we have reached a British level of experience with democracy and we can now officially be proclaimed completely cynical and disgusted just like them – but the American style sexy macho snarkarific talk is more fun. I am avoiding looking up a picture of John so I can imagine someone attractive writing this clever and unfortunately accurate item. BUT – let us be honest… It is Obama’s fault that things are going this way. This is really quite late for a speech like this and from the beginning of his term he let them outmaneuver him. I remember at the “health care summit” when Paul Ryan was testing the waters at how much chutzpah he could use in public against the President. Well – we all know the answer now. Unprecedented levels. Why? It can be analyzed until the cows come home …But I can tell you this, if he does get re-elected he better be one tough SOB and fight for the working people who are going to give their time and money to give him another chance. If he does not “go all in” as John suggests, we will know he is just an empty suit like the rest of them.
Marginalized for stating documented facts
@I have a comment:
Oh, gimme a frickin’ break. It’s Obama’s fault? That the world economy melted the fuck down like Fukushima Reactor Number 3 before he ever became president?
Or maybe it’s Obama’s fault because he’s…you know…black. If only he could do something about that pesky dark skin of his.
Jeez. Folks, c’mon, cut the guy some slack here. Fox News is not Barack Obama’s fault. Karl Rove is not Barack Obama’s fault. A bunch of far-right lunatics on the Supreme Court radically reinterpreting settled case law to give corporations powers that Mussolino would have envied is not Barack Obama’s fault.
Cris (without an H)
@I have a comment: John describes himself as a pale fatass. But it’s impossible to find photos of him, so who knows.
CaliCat
Wow, John, what an unnecessarily miserable post. But by all means, enjoy your football.
And to think I used to like this blog.
SYSPROG
Gosh John I know you are a professor and so you are the smartest man in the room, but screw you. You are like every other democrat. Obama doesn’t do it MY way so I’m taking my toys and watching the NFL. You have done nothing but BLOG for 30 months while waiting for the ‘magic Negro’ to save the country. Tonight he was mostly specific, stern, took no punches and said he’ll take it on the road. Oh yeah, and he was respectful…but no, that’s not good enough. After whining and sniveling for eight years with Bush you now what the President to act like Karl Rove. Shame on you.
salacious crumb
John, the fact that you didnt wanna watch Obama’s speech, no starry eyes adulation.. makes you a racist..you criticized a black man.
ABL, can I get an AMEN?!
MikeInSewickley
John,
Now I can just use this as my cut and paste template for the next 14 to 62 months (whatever Obama’s term in office will be) to remind me of just how absolutely batshit crazy this country has become.
Frankly, I’m beginning to think the movie “2012” might be a better way to America’s end than the crap we are going to be putting up with these execution applauding, war mongering, middle class killing assholes.
Back to drinking…
Ruthless
One thing I don’t think I’ve ever seen mentioned, when talking about why Republicans get to do whatever they please, Democrats whimper in the corner, and the media just calls it business as usual: The reason this happens is because the mainstream media, for the most part, has the intellectual and emotional maturity of junior high kids. And everyone is playing their part: The Republicans act like bullies. Democrats act like the nerdy kids who get their lunch money stolen. And the MSM just wants to be accepted by the “cool kids”. Honestly, the best thing Obama could have done the last several years is to counter the narrative. Don’t act like the nerdy kid who’s just going to take it. When dumbarse guy who yelled “you lie” at the SOTU, Obama should have stopped the speech and made that person come up to the front to be identified and say it to his face. Democrats get trampled on because that’s the role they play. If I were Obama, I’d have already thrown Boehner through a window. Sure, it might end with my impeachment, but you’d be damned sure the Republicans would think twice. And you know, you just know, that the MSM would cream their shorts over how manly an act it was to throw the SOTH through a window.
Carolina Dave
Best Post EVAH!
i have a comment
@Ruthless: Exactly. You are 100% right. Surely we can all think of ways to implement without glass shards. That is what I was talking about. When Phil Rudd was asked his favorite memory of touring with AC/DC, he said. “The greatest thing I’ve ever done with this band was smoke The Stones into the weeds in Toronto in front of 485,000 people. It was for the big SARS benefit that they had there almost two years ago. A big event, I believe it was the biggest ticketed show in North American history. They closed off the motorways, and there was this big mass of people that walked in and out in one day. We did three shows in Europe with The Stones during the summer, and they said, “We’re going to do this one in Toronto, do you want to come?” We said, “Yeah we’ll come.” So we went, and it was The Stones, us, The Guess Who, and Rush. The Stones gave us an hour – that’s a dangerous thing to do. You don’t give us an hour before you go on, mate. We’re not going to leave much left. [laughs] It was a great show, it was tremendous. [Vocalist] Brian [Johnson] was rocking. The whole band just nailed it. We got into the van offstage and went, “Yeah, f**king follow that!” Because we’re an arrogant bunch of little pricks. We do take our command of the stage pretty seriously, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
So there you have it folks – TAKE COMMAND OF THE STAGE SERIOUSLY – that is what we need from Obama.
jwalden91lx
Good Lord, I want to take this post around back and get it pregnant.
Bludger
John Cole = best ranter on teh interwebz
Rancher
John, you’re such a Pollyanna.
Admiral_Komack
@srv:
SWEET!
John Tucker
Son, -I wish you had the honor of serving in any branch of the United States armed services. If you had, you’d have infinitely more respect for this country so many before you have sacrificed for.
John Cole
@John Tucker: I’ll show you my DD 214 if you show me yours.
triangular gutters
@John Cole:
Mmm, troll food. But tasty.
I’m still trying to figure out the logic. If a person had served in the US military (gonna count the Coast Guard?), then they would not have written the post. I wonder what characteristics of the post are so revelatory. Lack considered duty and sacrifice of comfort for the country? But there are other Federal employees, not members of the uniformed military, who put themselves in harm’s way in national defense in various ways. So I wonder how they could be distinguished from uniformed DoD from the content of the post.
I personally invite Tucker to sample the bag of salty treats too. The better trolls don’t have lacunae like that.