Eh? It’s all Kabuki Show all of the time anymore. All of ‘em are pretty much equally culpable, not just Obama. Where’s Lautenberg been in terms of “educating” the populace about the Debt Ceiling and using HIS bully pulpit.

The whining is just for show… the big Kabuki Show. I don’t believe anything that any of ‘em say anymore. They’re all crooks. JMHO, of course.

Where is he?

Chained to a radiator in the basement of a house in South Jersey while his impostor mucks about?

Where is he?

Busy selling out Main Street to repugs.

This “my words have an effect” seems to have paralyzed him since day one.

Someone scared the shit out of him that he could crash the economy with one wrong preposition.

Solution: say nothing!
What a wimp.

They are either crooks and this is Kabuki as you say or these Senators are in complete denial and deserve to be voted out of office if they are this frickin’ stupid.

When has Obama ever fought back the GOP or espoused any progressive ideals in his time on the bully pulpit? To expect anything of him today other than his usual tepid remarks to make it seem like he is fighting for middle class of America would be insanity.

Obama knows Pelosi and Reid will follow along because neither have had the courage to stand up and say no when it came crunch time. It’s why Pelosi doesn’t have a seat at the table. She has been good little soldier and can be counted on to round up the votes needed. Reid . . . well he is still trying to find his spine along with Obama’s puppy Dick Durbin.

David Frum’s take on Obama being the wrong man at the wrong time is pretty much spot on. Otherwise, I’d think he sold his soul to Phama, Defense/Industrial complex and Banksters. Oh, wait.

Maybe that’s the reason for press conference today. But the main message I got was that he’d already given away everything I care about, in return for…nada…and the GOP still won’t raise debt limit.

He was strangely uninspiring, sometimes just sounded like whining and begging. Not the way to use the bully pulpit.

The Prez has failed to use his bully pulpit on pretty much everything. From day one, he started the long odyssey to snatch mediocrity from the jaws of potential greatness. Let’s just hope that his feckless quest hasn’t left us with a Bachmann (or some other lunatic) presidency in 2012. (“Jeebuz told me to push the Red Button.”)

All the dude had to do was fire up a cool $Trillion worth of direct infrastructure projects, and he would have been on his way. Hindsight is no better than being blind, right?

Well duh…

Obama is not leading at ANYTHING. Obama is taking orders from Wall Street-Bankers-Energy Industry-Wealthy Special Interests… just like the Republicans.

Obama is a corporate controlled politician… nothing more.

Frank Gaffey (I think) once said during a television interview that you do not make public policy by listening to the village idiot. Let the idiot speak and make policy otherwise. It appears Obama is actively listening to the village idiots.

Come on folks, Obama already explained things. People still having economic problems are private recessions. They will need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get re-educated or trained. We feel bad for them but, Wall Street and the Banksters are doin’ just fine.

Ah, that’s all campaign slogan for them. They’ve known this from day one of the Obama Administration. In fact, they helped him along with the Lily Ledbetter bill and the health care reform bill.

Sorry, but they are just as guilty as he is!

he is on Wall st with his head up LB and Jamie D’s ass! There is not enough room in South Jersey for two big assholes! Obama and Christies!:)

Ha! Those village idiots are even from our village! They have their own mini country behind gated communities.

Thinking about it, I can’t think of ONE thing Obama has led since he took office. His big issues were the bankster bailout and his wars and he pretty much let Geltner lead one and the Generals lead the other.

Boxturtle (In fairness, I understand he’s attended a couple meetings about the budget recently)

That’s because Obama IS one of the villiage idiots. I’m starting to think that stupidity is contageous and Bush bit Obama on the way out.

Boxturtle (And if warmongering is also spreadable, check his other leg for a Cheney bite)

A Democratic senator facing a tough reelection next year said it would be “disappointing” if Obama does not call out Republican leaders in the next few days for playing “Russian roulette” with the economy.

“Disappointing”??? That’s the best invective they can hurl?

“Disappointing”???

Spinelessness is not confined to the occupant of the White House.

And why oh why are they so surprised? Its easy to explain the situation. Obama is owned by Wall Street and the big banks and he is a huge coward. That’s all you need to know.

All the dude had to do was fire up a cool $Trillion worth of direct infrastructure projects, and he would have been on his way. Hindsight is no better than being blind, right?

Hindsight? A lot of people have been saying this from day 1.

“The Prez has failed to use his bully pulpit on pretty much everything.”

President Obama succeeded in using his bully pulpit against the majority of liberals (i.e. those “progressives” you see on various message boards who say things like “I HATE the health care law, that said, I support it and support President Obama and I am ready to argue 24/7 with any liberal who wants to break ranks. I think they’re either paid shills, or wishy-washy “liberals” who are just waiting for an authority figure on the blue team to change their minds).

As for senate democrats, they’ve got to be kidding. As was said here many times, President Obama showed a lack of leadership from day one. For me, it particularly resonated when he advocated the conservative individual mandate without a public option.

Bingo, he’s right where Bob Rubin and the Hamilton Project put him. The next shoe is a boot, with the trillion$ gambled on derivative “trading” and Washington’s nickle and dime thievery of the social contract to “save” bond holders and their 3rd homes we’re soon to run out of sofa cushions to look under. If not for corporate control of all 3 branches, our Best & Brightest would soon be eating each other. Austerity bitches! Hopefully your choices don’t include anything Hormel – http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/hormel-spam-pig-brains-disease?page=1
…or Monsanto. Is this a great country or what?

Anybody else notice that “framing the debate” wouldn’t be necessary if the media told people the truth instead of spinning the opinions that benefit their corporate overlords?

pulpy bull, it

I think the real reason Pelosi isn’t at the table is because the Republicans will pass the deal in the House once their leadership gets what it wants. She’s being excluded just to insure she doesn’t contribute anything. The entire Democratic caucus in the House will be free to vote against the deal, their votes won’t matter. If the Republicans had the majority in the Senate, Reid wouldn’t be at the table either.

I suspect we’ll hear some interesting stories about bad Presidential leadership once these Democrats retire and can speak freely. Just a hunch.

When Obama holds a secret meeting and gives away all our stuff it’s considerably worse than mere bad leadership. Is there a name for a quarterback who keeps making plays for the other team? I’m pretty sure it’s not just “bad quarterback.”

Through the Eyes of a Prog

I should have explained — Pelosi was being critical that she was not invited to the table and her input considered. That was why I included that.

But, it will be interesting to see how the Democrats in the House do vote. Because so much misinformation is out there on the debt ceiling, raising it is very unpopular with the public because the Democrats and Obama have done nothing to educate the public on why it needs to be raised. The GOP and press have convinced most Americans that the debt is what is leading to job losses. It is insane that there was never any push back on this meme.

Yup, including me. I was suggesting that the administration might have hindsight…but prolly not.

A June 13th poll – Only thirty-one percent (31%) indicate that their biggest worry about a political deal on the debt limit is that Congress would cut spending too much. Fully sixty-two percent (62%) indicate that their concern is that Congress will not cut spending enough.

And after thinking about this, I think the Democrats votes will matter — John Boehner knows he needs to pass it or the GOP will be blamed. His right wing nut bags want to vote no, so he must have to count on some Democrats to vote yes so that he can give cover to those nut bags. How much will Pelosi help on that if everything is cuts and she knows it will either prolong the economic crisis or slide us back into another recession?

The lessons of 1937, England today, and Greece are being ignored at our peril.

Obama’s leadership style, or I should say, the lack thereof, reminds me of the referee for a volleyball game that sits on his lofty perch and just makes sure the score is well kept while proclaiming “sideout” and pointing when the ball needs to change hands. So long as the clock is running the game is still on. When it runs out, well, somebody has won. So be it, at least I, as the ref, did not affect the outcome. All in a days work. Pay’s the same. Whatever. You fans want to get on my case? That’s just part of the job, and ha, at least I’m employed.

All anybody wants from a President is a little passion and conviction to go with their leadership. So much for that.

S–t, I let my hopes get up, way back when (silly me), now I can hardly even look at the guy. Oh well, as BTD says, “Pols do what pols do”. .

I bet that effective presidents would make lousy community organizers, because the opposite is certainly true.

I wonder if Obama is going to send out his Press Secretary to berate the Professional Left in the Senate. Probably not.

I thought it was typical that he said he’s showing leadership by fighting for things that’ll piss off his base. Basically, it’s saying that he thinks all those suckers who voted for him are wrong.

I wonder how many more bridges he thinks he has left to burn. He’s set himself up on the smallest island in the world already, he just doesn’t seem to realize it. Going to be hilarious to watch his re-election campaign, after all the shit he’s pulled.

hahahahahahahaha

“Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the former chairman of the Budget Committee, said the public has a “lack of knowledge” about the debt limit.”

Lautenberg said “the leadership has to be more outspoken and make the case.”

All politician’s have gone to great lengths under the guise of “trust me” to make sure the electorate has had a “lack of knowledge” and remained uninformed because it kept their coffers filled and now it’s about to bite them in the ass.

If Lautenberg really meant what he’s saying, he wouldn’t be wasting time blaming the voter’s or the “leadership”, he’d step up to the plate ala Bernie Sanders right on the floor of the Senate.

Spineless bastards. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of them.

Cocky pop!

Sacrifice, austerity these are all for us “little folks.” Obama like the rest of the elite in DC, Wall st. Westhampton, and wherever they have their 4th homes doesn’t do these things well. Its all of us that don’t seem to understand the way it works now. The WINNERS get all the rewards because they’re winners and we want to encourage others to be winners. The rest of us LOSERS must never be rewarded in anyway as that would be a moral hazard of rewarding the fallen. This is what Obama has bought into or has always believed. Its what passes for politics these days in DC.

That’s because Obama IS one of the villiage idiots. I’m starting to think that stupidity is contageous and Bush bit Obama on the way out.

It is

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/06/25/psychologist-stupidity-is-contagious/

Spineless bastards. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of them.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deny a vote to every.single.incumbent next year.

And while doing this the Decider sneered about War Powers. So nice that the Decider and Koh are setting the US to be in a permanent state of non-”hostilities” against countries we don’t like…just go and fly a fleet of drones as an act of aggression into a sovereign country and rain down Hellfire missiles. Now we engage in neo-colonialism by setting up puppet governments in the name of humanitarian non-hostile time-limited scope-limted kinetic military actions.

Obama can’t use the bully pulpit because people would expect him to pitch in public what he is against in private and it could backfire.

I believe this is exactly what happened with the public option. Much to his horror, he actually sold the public on a concept he couldn’t care less about and was happy to trade away early on in private, but then he was stuck with it as a public albatross around his neck.

What’s really interesting about the whole HCR debate is that every single committee in Congress working on it, with the exception of ONE, passed out a bill with a public option. Which one committee didn’t? The Senate Finance Committee with Max Baucus as chair who was President Obama’s personal point person. And what a surprise! No public option in their bill!

I think this is the back story of Waxman publicly saying, “if you’re gonna cave, tell us now (and don’t waste our time like you did with the Public Option in healthcare)

So why would anyone be surprised when we end up with what the Baucuses and the Simpsons (and the Obamas) want in the final deal?

President Obama’s delivery today was flat, halting and passionless. I think his Faustian bargains are beginning to wear on him.

Again, Obama doesn’t need Olympia Snowe’s or Ben Nelson’s or the Blue Dogs’ permission to do this.

Where is he?

Fellating John Boehner on a golf course somewhere?

The debt limit is a fucking farce, cover to allow the Dems to do what their sponsors want and blame it on the GOP.

wigwam explains: LET’S STOP THIS HIGH-STAKES GAME OF CHICKEN

Obama/Dems are doing the no push back again as the Fox/GOP claim the corporate jet depreciation fix they want is one they put in the law – indeed ABC reports it as a he said/she said.

The fact is a faster depreciation is a tax break – and while new faster depreciate was part of the stimulus, the 5 years for corporate jets, versus 7 years for commercial jets, is old law that needs to be changed so that corporate jet depreciation reflects the longer life from lack of use – say a 20 year depreciation.

But I will not expect the Dems to put out a spokesperson to explain this – that would require a spine – and indeed would require a real rather than a fake desire to tax the rich and corporate a bit more.

Indeed Obama has put out that he no longer wants to discuss putting the Clinton tax rates for the over $250,000 folks into the debt limit bill because it makes the GOP unhappy when says he wants to do this.

Thamk God we have this tough leftest President to take on the rich and corporate.

Obama’s clearly resigned himself to the notion that he’ll be a one-term president.

So why doesn’t he just take the political hits for doing what’s right for all the American people – and be beloved for generations for having done it – rather than sell out 98% of us to the a$$holes who know that what they’re doing is ruining this country but just don’t care?

Reminds me of JP Morgan buying two corporate jets for $138m after getting their TARP funds

He is already very strongly exercising his leadership. Things are going exactly the way he wants right now. One of my pseudo-Zen maxims is, “Things are the way they are because people want them to be that way.”

The converse is that if you want to find out what Mr Obama wants and intends to do, pay attention only to what he does, not what he says or what is said in his name.

The GOP debt reduction plan is what will be enacted. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid will be cut. Taxes will not be increased. Some loopholes will be closed but others will be created.

What people really are asking is: Why is the President not on our side? Why is he working for the other side? This is what your headline should be.

Let’s rethink the observation. Perhaps Mr. Obama is using his leadersheep, but not for purposes Democrats think proper, reasonable or even legal.

How did he turn out to be such a failure? Was there something in his past record we missed? Or is it that there was no record to miss?

I think the term you are looking for is third string quarterback or possibly unemployed quarterback or maybe Arena Football quarterback.

The lesser of evils is still evil!

To let him tell it, he’s being above the fray. You see Obama sees his role as president as Mediator in Chief. Notice when he calls out Congress, he calls on the entire Congress, not the obstructionist Republicans. So the public blames the Democrats and Republicans equally. Apparently this guy doesn’t realize he’s a Democrat, and as the leader of the party, it’s his job to make the case for progressive policies. Yes Obama is the president of all Americans, but he got primarily elected by progressives, liberals, and Democrats, with a certain of policy proposals we expected to be enacted. Obama also won a large swath of the middle with those same policy proposals. So why is this president so unwilling to fight for the policies he told us he would if elected president. The answer is this is the most risk adverse president in history. He has no stomach for the fight, and wants to play the gentleman, in a room full of vipers. Listen to what he said in his press conference today, “Call me naive”, really, naive, you’re way past naive at this point, you’re just pathetic now. At what point will he finally get it that the right has no interest in compromising. As long as they can continue to push him around, and make him cave, why the hell would they compromise. He’s not doing a damned thing to make them!

Where are Nixon’s “plumbers” when you need them? I would love to plant a mike and camera in the offices of Boehner and Geithner to witness their ACTUAL demonic laughter when they talk about any negotiations with Obama or any other democrat. Only problem is that no amount of public humiliation will have any effect. Two and one-half years of humiliating defeats has so far been totally ineffective. It is excrutiatingly sad and damaging.

Frankly, Congressional Democrats can piss up a rope as far as I’m concerned. Obama keeps selling people out because Democrats never stood up to him and said no to him whenever he did it (hello, House Democrats & public option/Bush tax cuts) and just rubber-stamped whatever piece-of-shit legislation came from the minds of Joe Lieberman, Max Baucus, Billy Tauzin, and John Boehner.

Sucks for their political careers that the chickens of this feckless asshole of a President will be coming home to roost on them (again) in 2012, but I won’t be shedding a tear. And if 2%-more-evil Romney wins, it will serve Obama right – at least Republicans will have to own the results of moderate Republicanism, and people can buid towards something else for the future.

Didn’t they notice which political party took the hit in all chambers of Congress and the Presidency when the President was a Republican in 2008, but the Senate and House were Democratic? And given their shit performance, they think this won’t repeat itself because…?

Yeah, it’s really not about leadership because Obama has no interest in leading. He’s only interested in presiding. He’s got his. Was there ever anything else it was about?

President Obama’s delivery today was flat, halting and passionless. I think his Faustian bargains are beginning to wear on him.

Boy he reminded me of Nixon today as I watched him.

Mad, you’re buying into the second line of defense for Obama.

He is not a weakling unable to accomplish what he really wants to accomplish. Do you see how that is a defense of him? Oh he’s really one of us he just needs a spine transplant and to learn how to deal with these Republicans. Keep supporting him but keep on giving him advice so he’ll do a better job at getting what both he and we want.

He’s not weak. He knows exactly how to negotiate. He knows how to be a strong leader who doesn’t take shit from his enemies. It’s just that we DFH are his enemies.

What you think is poor negotiating skills is really playing the good cop against his allies, the Republicans, who are playing the bad cop. “This is your last chance, I keep trying to keep him calm, but he just might go crazy, he does that sometimes, you know.”

They don’t care if they stay in office. What’s their future when they get voted out? Check out Harold Ford, the whitest Black man in America and the most Republican Democrat in America. He’s doing very well and the money is pouring in. Plus he has a permanent spot on the Sunday talk shows speaking for the Democratic Party.

This isn’t about them winning elections. That’s part of the big lie they sell us. This is about giving more and more power and wealth to their owners, who will be sure to reward them with some nice doggie treats, a pat on the head and a “Good doggie, very, good doggie, aren’t you just a very, good doggie!”

Where is he?

Wherever corporate shills insinuating they’ll be transformationally progressive figures go, I suppose.