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Trusting Obama

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:27:37 PM EST
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Sully and his readers:

They are still operating under the grudge expectations of the past . . . Obama clearly seems to want none of this. He really seems to mean it when he says that this bill is not “his” bill, but everyone seems to be skeptical. . . . Change will not come in two weeks. It will be a long process that requires building trust first. He seems right now to be committed to this process and I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Obama today:

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future," he said. "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."

Maybe not such a "long process" after all, ay? After all, trust Obama, right?

Speaking for me only

< Wednesday Night Open Thread | Obama Weighs In Against Buy America Stimulus Provisions >

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    Trusting Obama | 34 comments (34 topical)

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    Good for Obama. (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by ThatOneVoter on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:33:31 PM EST
    Republicans are sitting ducks for someone with Obama's rhetorical skills.
    Can I say that I hope he gives them hell, Hussein?

    Yes (1.00 / 2) (#4)
    by squeaky on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:40:07 PM EST

    Can I say that I hope he gives them hell, Hussein?

    Sure you can say that if you want to sound exactly like our very own ppj.

    Parent

    Oh please. It's the only (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by ThatOneVoter on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:42:15 PM EST
    alliteration possible for the parallel
    The PUMA police are needed a couple threads back, btw. Why don't you make yourself useful.

    Parent
    Hey (1.00 / 1) (#9)
    by squeaky on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:24:38 PM EST
    You asked the question.

    Can I say that I hope he gives them hell, Hussein?

    And that is exactly how ppj would put it. The resemblance is remarkable.

    jimakaPPJ's alternate universe is called Tall Cotton, and it's not so much a Republican Party Island as a virulent, reactionary atoll.  I'm surprised its identifying graphics don't include a sheet with eye-holes and a coiled noose.

    Tall Cotton not only loves Senator McCain, he loves torture.  He hates John Kerry, and Democrats, and academics, and, especially, Muslims; and he believes that Senator Obama's reach-out to the devout community is a secret scheme to get federal money for madrassas (and no, I'm not kidding).  

    I should add that on his own website,  jimakaPPJ refers to Obama exclusively as Hussein.

    tl commenter katana

    So my answer to your question is go ahead and say it, but to some here, including myself, you will only remind them of jimakaPPJ.

    Parent

    Interesting: (none / 0) (#20)
    by ghost2 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:58:25 PM EST
    The PUMA police are needed a couple threads back, btw. Why don't you make yourself useful.

    You know each other?

    Parent

    Oh yeah (5.00 / 1) (#33)
    by sj on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 09:20:05 AM EST
    Stick around awhile and you will, too.

    Parent
    here I am!!! (none / 0) (#34)
    by jedimom on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 09:46:57 AM EST
    LOL!!!!!!!!

    Hey the Senate Dems are ALREADY holding a live presser using this mornings job data to push this porkbuster through

    manyana we get MONTHLY job losses for January and the revisions for December which I expect to be HUGE..

    it will be a shockah!!

    that should be the lever the Dems need to push this through with two RINOS Collins and such

    Reid is now ready to pass it with 60, so much for the 80 vote bipartisan kumbayah moment LOL!!

    AND I hear Barney let Treasury know they should NOT plan to come back to the Hill for the estimated 2 trillion for TARP D'uh, he told them lever up the FEDS balance sheet to get the dough instead..

    that doesnt bode well for housing...

    AND treasury announced today we need 1.2 trillion for debt servicing next month for interest on the debt we already have,

    and while BTD notes we are in a deflationary cycle, he sounds just like Cramer, ironic no? since he cant stand him lol

    anywho, inflation will wreak havoc and Obama will look like Carter on steroids if he doesnt back out this spending somehow in 2011...me I buy GOLD :0)

    Parent

    Well, it's about time. Good for Obama. (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by masslib on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:21:21 PM EST
     We are at serious risk of falling into a deflationary trap(See Krugman).  That would be terrible.  Oy, Obama should have proposed a much bigger stimulus with something in it that transforms the economy, I would have gone with high-speed rail, and a Medicare expansion.  But, whatever, it is what it is.  He's right.  We have to do something yesterday.  

    I like the urgency of his words (5.00 / 2) (#10)
    by Cream City on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:27:56 PM EST
    and I think he's starting to get angry.  It's still very controlled, of course, as he is.

    But I know guys like that, and you don't wanna be around when the line finally is crossed.  You don't wanna be in the same room with them then.  So I have a long list of members of Congress, from both parties, whom I hope ARE in the same room with him when it happens.

    I am betting that we soon see fire in his eyes.  And about time.  As he said:  He won.

    Parent

    Oh please. I am completely unimpressed. (5.00 / 5) (#12)
    by masslib on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:41:52 PM EST
    I still fail to see what Obama's principles are.  A few weeks ago he wanted 40% tax cuts in his stimulus package.  Today he denounces tax cuts.  Of course only tax cuts aimed at the least among us stimulate in a piss poor economy because those folks have no expendable income.   But I really don't care when Obama gets angry or whatever.  I care about the policy.  This is a pretty weak policy.  But it is what we have.  Now he just needs to ram it threw.  I keep hearing about this we need 60 votes or they will filibuster.  ok, so let them.  Bill Clinton let them shutdown the government.  See how the public reacts to a filibuster.  No, I don't care about Obama's style, if he gets angry, none of that, just that he gets his effing job done.  

    Parent
    The Republicans are the ones (5.00 / 2) (#13)
    by andgarden on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:45:09 PM EST
    who should have had no margin for error. They have 41 members, and if just one defects, there is no filibuster (the whole Senate is 99 for the moment).

    Parent
    Yes (5.00 / 2) (#19)
    by squeaky on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:55:28 PM EST
    That is if all the democrats vote in lockstep.

    Parent
    If our Democratic President (5.00 / 4) (#22)
    by andgarden on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 12:17:01 AM EST
    had gotten his ducks in a row with his own party in the first place, that wouldn't have been a problem. Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu should be much easier votes to get than any Republican.

    Parent
    And (5.00 / 1) (#29)
    by BackFromOhio on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 06:39:23 AM EST
    I think the Republicans are controlling the public conversation about "THE" bill. MSM coverage is not favorable.  The admin needs to decide what about the bill is important, line up supporters & DEM talking heads, & drive their own points home.

    Parent
    I'm not completely that way yet (5.00 / 0) (#15)
    by Cream City on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:46:28 PM EST
    and what I'm saying, if you put it together, is that if he gets angry, he will push it -- through, threw, whichever.  

    I am completely turned off by "supercool" in the face of crisis.  I like fire in the eyes.  But I like fire in the belly even more.  He's got guts; let's see if he can get fire in them about the plight of the public, putting as much into this fight as he into gutsing it to the finish line.

    He may just be finding out, in more than a cerebral way, that was the finish line -- but it has been moved.  And that it will keep moving on a daily basis for the next four years.

    Parent

    I wonder how (none / 0) (#25)
    by Socraticsilence on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 01:00:39 AM EST
    people would react if he got angry like Bush and Clinton did when they were frustrated, I mean are we far enough along that it would be viewed the same or would he become angry black man?

    Parent
    I'd forgotten that (none / 0) (#27)
    by Cream City on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 05:38:48 AM EST
    but no doubt he does not.  But it is Obama -- atypical in every way.  I think it would work.

    Parent
    It's already working, to some extent (none / 0) (#35)
    by andrys on Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 07:16:22 AM EST
    but this bit about bipartisanship was too transparent - inviting the Repubs so publicly to stroke them, as if they were newcomers who would feel appreciated and react in kind.  As if they were young'uns.

      There's a fine line between getting people on your side quietly ... and openly seeming to manipulate them, so that their own base and their own compatriots are watching them to see how much they will buckle under to gain favor with Obama in return for the public strokes of recognition.

      In other words, they risk looking used by Obama and without credibility, so instead they resist by being even more oppositional, to make a show (which is what we see so awkwardly in John mcCain too).

      The Republicans were then faced with a bill made by Pelosi's Dems without input from the Republican members.

      I've seen people saying that their cries to cut the budget constitute input, but that's of course reaction after the fact.  

      There is a case to be made (when deciding to spend so much money for a specific end) that too much of the money was not of the kind that would stimulate the economy -- at least not for at least three year -- when what is needed is a boost right now.  And it gave the Republicans ammo with the public that we didn't have to give them.

      The funding cuts is from programs most of us would want $-provided, but putting them into a bill meant to boost the economy now was a bit cynical and it also indicated Obama did not have control over how the bill was even constructed, which didn't help.

      But the situation is so serious with the economy that Obama's new impatience, frustration and anger that focuses on what the Republicans are doing for the country (nothing at all) can help.  

      Just something, not germane, that I read today that's mainly ironic ... we'd discussed here the red white and blue Hope/Change posters done for the Inauguration.  The artist is in some trouble, though this may help his overall counterculture aura.  He was arrested just before his arrival at an event kicking off his exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

      Things could have gone better this week.

    Parent

    His strength (none / 0) (#24)
    by Socraticsilence on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 12:58:24 AM EST
    At least in campainging has always been to get his opponents to over play their hand and then fire back, we might be reaching that point here- while Obama's overall approval ratings have fallen the % of Americans who think he tries to work across the aisle has jumped in spite of the fact that the stimulus plan passed on a straight party-line vote.

    Parent
    Um (5.00 / 2) (#26)
    by Spamlet on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 01:17:41 AM EST
    while Obama's overall approval ratings have fallen the % of Americans who think he tries to work across the aisle has jumped in spite of the fact that the stimulus plan passed on a straight party-line vote.

    Yes. That is precisely the problem, no? Obama

    tries to work across the aisle

    and

    the stimulus plan passed on a straight party-line vote.

    That--in some quarters, at least--is why

    Obama's overall approval ratings have fallen.


    Parent
    Good idea. (5.00 / 2) (#17)
    by ghost2 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:51:33 PM EST
    A plan with a vision, such as spending on infrastructure and public transit, or a rail system, both provides jobs, reduces dependency on oil, is good for environment.  In addition, if they have some cool designs for rails or transport to get people talking, it creates hope (yes, hope).  I dream of bold, cool projects to usher in a new era.  

    A vision is needed.  None of this, "let's tweak here and there, and wait and see." That's a recipe for failure.

    Parent

    Krugman piece: (5.00 / 6) (#18)
    by ghost2 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:55:03 PM EST
    Shock and oy

    You know, it was widely expected that Obama would have a stimulus plan ready to pass Congress even before his inauguration. That didn't happen. We were told that this was because the economic team was working flat out on the financial rescue.

    In fact, when it comes to bank rescue it's hard to see much evidence that anything was accomplished during all that time; the team is still -- still! -- running ideas up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes. And the ideas look remarkably bad. (Welcome to the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill, Yves.)

    Meanwhile, when it came to stimulus legislation, when Obama finally introduced his economic plan he immediately began negotiating with himself, preemptively offering concessions to the GOP, which voted against the plan anyway. (And Obama appears, in the name of bipartisanship, to have thrown away a Senate vote he may well need.)

    As a wise man recently said, failure to act effectively risks turning this slump into a catastrophe. Yet there's a sense, watching the process so far, of low energy. What's going on?

    I heart Krugman and Somerby.  They have the courage to tell the truth no matter what or when.


    Parent

    It is an interesting point (none / 0) (#16)
    by eric on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:46:53 PM EST
    while I remember how Clinton was attacked from day one by republicans, and the economy was bad at first (post 8 years of Reagan and 4 years of Bush), but it wasn't this bad.

    Maybe we have to look to Carter, who inherited the great slowdown after the last voluntary war, Viet Nam.  If so, Obama's support is going to sour soon.

    BTW, I was age 5 to 9 when JC was President, and it was brutal.  As it turns out the next 12 years were worse because, to be frank, Republicans don't care about people like me.  But 76 through 80 were horrible.

    Parent

    Trust, but verify. (5.00 / 3) (#11)
    by oldpro on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:37:34 PM EST


    Isn't that just the problem? (5.00 / 2) (#32)
    by ruffian on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 08:02:46 AM EST
    He really seems to mean it when he says that this bill is not "his" bill, but everyone seems to be skeptical.

    I'm not skeptical that he means it. I think that if he took ownership of it we'd end up with something a lot closer to the bill we need. but he'd rather ride the bipartisan pony right off the cliff.

    It (none / 0) (#1)
    by Maryb2004 on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:31:25 PM EST
    is going to be so entertaining when Sully turns on him.  As he will. Eventually.

    btw your links are messed up.

    Dyslexic links (none / 0) (#3)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:35:36 PM EST
    Fixed. tks.

    Parent
    This has been tonight's episode of (none / 0) (#6)
    by andgarden on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:47:38 PM EST
    "Why I stopped reading Sully."

    I cannot stomach (5.00 / 1) (#31)
    by Jjc2008 on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 07:01:00 AM EST
    Sully.  To me, he is nothing more than a pompous a** who gets away with spewing crap because he has a British accent and wears a suit.  He loved Bush for a long time; and has CDS as bad as Hitchens.

    Parent
    BTW, doesn't sully agree (none / 0) (#7)
    by andgarden on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 10:49:25 PM EST
    with the right wing Republicans who want to block all social services spending and drown the government in the bathtub? Or am I being stupid for brining up substance in this context?

    Parent
    Somebody got it backwards (none / 0) (#14)
    by vicndabx on Wed Feb 04, 2009 at 11:45:27 PM EST
    Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential

    Should read

    let's not make the essential the enemy of the perfect

    It's no longer called compromise, nowadays we call it synergy.  That way, if you don't get what u want, you still get what u want, it's just better for more of us.

    i'm going to wait (none / 0) (#21)
    by cpinva on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 12:15:55 AM EST
    for the cliff's notes version, then i'll see the movie. by that time, i figure i'll be able to fake the book report.

    Wow! (none / 0) (#23)
    by neme on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 12:38:30 AM EST
    So let me get the gist of this, someone on "Sulley"s web site sent an e-mail and that e-mail was posted on the web site. And you take a portion of that e-mail and put it back to back with a paragraph from a speech today that Obama gave that was about how we have to act quickly on the stimulus bill to avoid ecomomic disaster. The stupidity and cynicism is mind blowing at least to my eyes.

    "The stupidity is mindblowing" (5.00 / 1) (#28)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 05:58:55 AM EST
    It is indeed.

    Parent
    Trusting Obama | 34 comments (34 topical)

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