US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

I kind of found the whole kerfuffle, *yawn*. Like, okay i"m amiddle aged guy but the last thing I was thinking aboput last night was whether the pres was melatonin enhanced or deprived but what a decent job he did given the shitstorm that is America, right now. I totally get where TNC coming from and I begrudgingly accept that Matthews has his point and his right to it, but, seriously, is that what we should be talking about?

― Mit der Kattzheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens (Michael White), Thursday, January 28, 2010 5:56 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, it is! just because were all beyond race or whatever doesnt mean its not important to call out figures who use iffy race-related discourse

frankly the less I think about/hear of Chris Matthews the better. when it comes to the POTUS, I prefer to stick to policy

isn't matthews considering running for congress?

He's in excellent company.

I begrudgingly accept that Matthews has his point and his right to it, but, seriously, is that what we should be talking about?

― Mit der Kattzheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens (Michael White), Thursday, January 28, 2010 5:56 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh it's just funny because it just instantly makes me think of the Pat Parker poem 'For The White Man Who Wants To Know How To Be My Friend' and it's like ok man, halfway there

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091005144658AAleP7h

The only other thing I've gotten politically from the last day or so is that all these Dems are coming out saying they need to 'move more the to center' and 'be less liberal in their policies' and those statements are spineless and just go to show how right wing even the 'liberal' party in the US is.

Jon Stewart summed it up good: Want Guantanamo open? Got that. Want gay rights curtailed? Got that. Want no public option -- not even the option? Got that too. And now they are talking spending freeze (except 'defense OF COURSE) and maybe bringing back Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%.

The whole thing extremely disheartening and to tell you the truth I didn't watch the SOTU for fear of hearing the words 'Bipartisan Apprach' once too often and suffering an aneurysm thus.

It's not that I think race 'over' in America or unimportant, I just wondered wtf Matthews was smoking after that speach for that to be something to mention. I mean, okay, cool, that CM is feeling his post-racial vibe and all, but that was far from the first thing that sprung up in my mind after (during) the President's speech.

and maybe bringing back Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%

i think that's just two dems, no? got the impression o's speech alluded to those cuts expiring in 2011

O was pretty explicit about that

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-28/one-hell-of-a-speech/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/jan/27/fact-checking-obamas-state-union-speech/

the lobbyist thing is an annoying untruth. the rest of this isn't very surprising. note that I think most people oppose "this" health care bill because it didn't include a public option, not because people are opposed to reform.

". . . the arguments for recent GOP successes are rather like Republican arguments concerning our wars abroad. . . . Especially in Iraq, the strategy has always been unclear, unrealistic or even non-existent, so there is great emphasis on finding tactics that 'work' to make a basically incoherent policy seem successful on the surface. . . . Tactical success later matters more to them than the strategic folly they committed earlier. It is almost as if resisting Obama tooth and nail counts for more to them than the utter failure of their time in government, and they fully expect to be rewarded with a new chance at governing on account of their blocking maneuvers."
http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010/01/28/derailed/

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/01/29/HP/R/28993/President+Speaks+at+GOP+Retreat.aspx

See, this is what I think Obama's MO is: give opponents an 'opportunity' to play nice, and when they don't, POUNCE.

I recall eerily similar Clinton theories.

yeah i'm not expecting much pouncing tbh

if clinton was pouncing on anything it certainly wasn't his opponents

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/01/murray-hill-inc-for-congress.html

he pounced on them the way Lewinsky pounced on him

xp

guys it's enough that leno is still on the air

"President Obama took something that was in terrible, terrible shape, and he brought it back from the brink of disaster: The Republican party." –Jay Leno

news of the Republicans resurgence is greatly exaggerated imho. the public still hates them (less than a third of the electorate identifies with the Party!) and they're in the process of being split asunder from inside thanks to this Teabagging ridiculousness.

And they have absolutely no (less than the Dems, even) general responsible policy of governance. The party that acquiesces to calling Obama a socialist, will complain against all cuts to Medicare, easily the most socialist program on the books, but won't back off knee-jerk opposition to ANY tax increases and that will end up killing more elderly people in the long run than any death panels.

They will partisanlly defend torture even if it smears our repoutation with shit AND worsens our national security.

None dare call it treason.

yeah they have nothing to run on except hatred of Obama and his policies, which any capable Dem opponent will handily point as attempts to REMEDY what the Republicans' were doing just less than 2 years ago.

Hey, guys, I take back what I said: Obama kicked ass at that House Repub event. He made them look like the kooks and fools and cynics they are.

yeah everything i've read about it, it sounds like he was kind of awesome

And, like I said, if the DNC had balls they'd air clips in every open Congressional district.

seriously cant BELIEVE gop let obama do that

i mean that was like a democratic party-level mistake--give the most popular politician in the country a mic, a stage, and the opportunity to swat down each and every one of your ideas, and make it look like a bipartisan exchange

"fuck, it's only c-span, what's the worst that could happen?"

hahaha can't wait to watch this!

They probably thought they would humiliate Obama with their better ideas.

almost made up for rahm emanuels comments about hcr

I was being facetious with that, but they could also be banking on Obama slipping up at some point and offering a soundbyte that might be damaging in political ads later. The downside - Obama defending the administration's policies and offering the reasoning behind them - may be obvious for Obama voters, but I think it's pretty obvious that GOP voters and teabaggers aren't really affected by reason.

yeah my sense is that hubris got the better of them

kind of ironic, given the normal line of attack against Obama

I mean, the guy was a con law professor; this was no contest.

i hope he keeps doing it--aren't they gonna meet once a month or something, but do you think they'll get smart & uninvite him

yeah the WH really needs to push on this--lets do it once a month!

I kinda wondered if something like this as coming when Boehner was recently quoted as saying he hadn't spoken/seen Obama face-to-face in a year (which at first I assumed was a boldfaced lie). simply put, these guys are morons and didn't see the potential political implications of what they were doing, and Obama did. He made it look like he was making a conciliatory overture, then let them hang themselves with their stupidity.

as = was

I mean, the guy was a con law professor; this was no contest.

that hasn't stopped him from lying in the SOTU address

it probably helped him tbh

I recall eerily similar Clinton theories.

totally sympathetic to this, as a Clinton voter who felt completely and totally betrayed by him post-'94... but Clinton never confronted the opposition the way Obama did today, I don't think he was capable (or interested) in it. otoh, it seems like a stretch to believe that the GOP will change their tune following this embarassment. Its good politics for Obama, definitely, but these guys are so unprincipled and obstinate I don't know if there's any minds there for Obama to actually change. This is the kind of opposition that sees any compromise as a sign of weakness (and that goes both for themselves and for their opponent), so you can't make nice and hope they'll play along... but they also aren't really susceptible to being bullied. Maybe Obama's playing the long game here and hoping that if he can turn the political fortunes of the Dems around, then enough of these bozos will be voted out of office and he'll get an even bigger majority in the fall...? although that's a long ways away, and also seems kinda unlikely...

I guess we can look forward to this

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/jan/29/fact-checking-obama-and-republicans-gop-retreat/

that hasn't stopped him from lying in the SOTU address

oh STFU even your "fact checking" post couldn't come up with anything

We found Obama was exaggerating the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance when he said it would "open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign companies – to spend without limit in our elections." We rated that Barely True.

for the record, this (for example) is not a FACT its a fucking prognostication - and their opinion on the future is no more or less dubious than Obama's.