The Art of Being Presidential
Political Wire points us to Marc Ambinder’s Why The President Went Golfing Today which covers Obama’s Presidential non-response to the attempted terrorist attack.
Let the authorities do their work. Don’t presume; don’t panic the country; don’t chest-thump, prejudge, interfere, politicize (in an international sense), don’t give Al Qaeda (or whomever) a symbolic victory; resist the urge to open the old playbook and run a familiar play.
For the liberals readers of DL, got to Ambinder’s article and read it. For you teabaggers, just respond with your usual ad hominem attacks.
Tags: President Obama
How should the liberal teabaggers respond?
good point UI. How should Obama’s base that got him elected respond? I admire Nemski’s blind partisan style.
So do you think people who team up with Grover Norquist to push conspiracy theories that poor people caused the financial meltdown are Obama’s base?
Aw shucks, Donviti.
Happy holiday’s.
And I’m confused by the cut off your nose to spite your face style. Seriously, if you have a way to get results I’m all ears. I just don’t see the benefits of a teabagger/progressive alliance. What does that end up looking like?
As far as responding to this attempted attack… again, what do you want Obama to say? Can you follow up your criticisms with solutions? Bomb throwing may be fun, but without concrete alternatives, it’s merely… bomb throwing.
No, I think the base is semi-intelligent, petulant, and not knowledgeable about his campaign promises.
wait, that is this website
I’m confused by the need to support a side as long as they give you crumbs mentality expressed on this site.
To me it seems like we all know there is a cancer that needs to be treated, but we are happy with treating the hang nail instead because we were told we know there is cancer.
Try to stay on topic Donviti. This post is about Obama’s non-response to the attempted terrorist attack.
Okay, so how do we turn those “crumbs” into a loaf?
Yes Obomba golfs while TSA continues implementing meaningless “security measures” to slowly erode our civili rights. Eventually, flying naked in leg irons and handcuffs will be the accepted norm.
Meanwhile, UI decides that ridiculing Jane Hamsher, a survivor of breast cancer and a terrific Liberal blogger, is a good idea, and that calling people on the far left “liberal teabaggers” is just dandy.
I guess you’ll Just keep nodding your heads up and down at whatever Obomba/Rahm do.
what bother’s me about all of this is the fact that we can get the Rolls Royce if we wanted it. But, instead we take the ford. We say that this is the system and we bend over and take the huge cock up our asses.
Why 60 votes? Did the R’s need 60? When did we just roll over and need 60? what happened to 51. that’s just one example.
We, as a society don’t have to accept this bullshit, but we do? Why? Because of people on this website say we have too. Because people just like the contributors here say that we should just suck it up, deal with the confines of the system that THEY, the MONIED Class created.
Why? WHY? WHY??????
I’m not conforming. I’m not happy with this bullshit.
I dare you to go back and watch some of those campaign commercials and tell me this is what you voted for.
I’m not spiting my face, I’m staying true to what I want and am not backing away from it b/c my side is in power. If my side was in power I would have had a public option. I would have Gitmo closed and lobbyists wouldn’t still be writing laws
By not settling for crumbs pandora. By sending the fucking crumbs back up their noses and demanding the loaf! By stepping on the throat of greed and demanding that we the people be defended and considered.
A1 glad you jumped on the meme of the increased security measures. Care to enlightening us? Specifically, screening for international flights to the US has increased. Yeah, that sounds real bad. Also, on one flight — one flight — passengers said that couldn’t have anything on their lap or access their stow away items. The horrors, the horrors.
donviti wrote Why 60 votes? Did the R’s need 60? When did we just roll over and need 60? what happened to 51. that’s just one example.
Seriously, you don’t know the answer to this? Amazing, simply amazing.
Okay, so we throw the crumbs back, and get the loaf… how? This “how” is what’s missing from your comments. And, I’m with nemski on the 60 vote comment. The dynamics of this are pretty damn clear. But, again, if you have a solution to get past this…
The how isn’t missing Pandora. You are just missing it. What part of not settling isn’t registering with you? The HOW would be…by not settling.
How? By not saying to people that were on your side 1 year ago they are semi intelligent and petulant. By criticizing them and telling them that what they want isn’t realistic and what you want is.
How? By not telling Obama’s base to suck it up. By calling them names, by defending any and everything that he does no matter who is opining. If it isn’t one of your contributors.
How? By not immediately linking to fact check. org and saying Obama is keeping a campaign promise and makin excuses for him.
How? By not being afraid to criticize “your side” even though “your side” get’s plenty of criticism.
Many (not all) over here feel the need to shout down any perceived attack. “How” is that the answer?
We settle way to easy especially when our side is in power. We know what is right don’t we? But, we comprimise our ideology because we are getting bits and pieces.
The Horizon is always a few miles away….
How? By not fact checking. HILARIOUS!
So, because Jane Hamsher survived breast cancer she’s now immune from criticism. She’s signed up with an enemy of progressive values, Grover Norquist, to Whitewater Obama. She’s not helpful. I think she’s done terrific work in the past but allying with Grover Norquist will not accomplish progressive goals.
I wish she’d do something constructive with her passion and anger. Instead she’s going to try to destroy Obama’s presidency so we can get President Sarah Palin, who I’m sure is a big fan of single-payer.
The HOW would be…by not settling.
And after not settling, then what? This is my point. Kill the bill/don’t settle and then… what? What do you propose we do next, with this congress? Lay it out, DV. Show me how we achieve the “loaf.” Or, how the status quo is preferable to the bills on the table.
It seems to me that you’re more focused on the personalities involved rather than the policy and the make-up of the Congress. If criticizing “my side” would result in a public option or single-payer system, then I’m all for criticizing, but I don’t see that happening. If you do, please explain.
DV,
Bush was able to get 60 votes because there were Democrats willing to work with him and because Democrats didn’t routinely filibuster every bill. This is the situation we have now. We have to have some alliance to get to 60 votes in the Senate. There are no Republicans except at times Snowe and Collins who are willing to do this. That means we have to work with Nelson and Lieberman.
perfect example of what i mean.
If you want to pretend that keeping a campaign promise is your end all be all of score keeping then you better be prepared to use that logic all year long Nemski.
Gitmo should be closed any day now right right? That was a campaign promise wasn’t it?
Here are a few more “whoppers” by Obama.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_obama.html
I’m sure I could find other examples but I will wait for your post to cover that as it seems to be your forte’
UI,
what happens if they fillibuster?
Here Nemski I will save you some time:
http://factcheck.org/2009/07/obamas-health-care-news-conference/
* Obama promised once again that a health care overhaul “will be paid for.” But congressional budget experts say the bills they’ve seen so far would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade.
He said the plan “that I put forward” would cover at least 97 percent of all Americans. Actually, the plan he campaigned on would cover far less than that, and only one of the bills now being considered in Congress would do that.
Live by fact check.org, die by fact check.org
Now, feel free to attack me. Call me semi-intelligent, but from my perch I can say that I’m not compromising and haven’t pinned myself into a corner.
and correct your typo on the post if you can find it
fllllbbbbbbtttttttttt
The Senate blocked funds back in May 2009 to transfer prisoners out of Gitmo. Right now there are a little over 200 prisoners in Gitmo, basically the same as there were when Obama took office.
you guys both have very good points. If gitmo, a national shame is not closed by jan 20th I wont be on the liberal teabag bus, but i will at least expect an explanation.
I am a little miffed at the very least by the fact people who blamed bush for reading to school children while 9/11 happened aren’t criticizing obama for going golfing. The TSA FAILED. this jackass got on the plane with his weapons and only failed because he was inept. In defense of W, i can believe im doing this, but i really think he decided it was better to not panic the hell out of small children until his (albeit incompetent) people figured out what was going on. BUt Obama is the executive of the government and the TSA is a government administration. I want to hear what he is going to do to square the fact air travel is still a pain in the ass and we don’t seem to be any safer because of it.
again… not saying it is Obama’s FAULT… he at the very least should be letting the american people know what he intends to do about making sure it doesnt happen again…. assuring everyone that he “is on it” … golfing doesnt help the photo ops…. it only gives Glenn Beck fire to lie more and turn more americans against themselves. at the very least is was a horrible PR choice.
Concerning Gitmo… perhaps you should look, once again, at Congress.
Via PolitiFact:
donviti calls me out on a typo. HILARIOUS!
A.,
I don’t see how the screening procedures in Amsterdam and Africa are the fault of the TSA.
The attack was thwarted. I don’t see what Obama is supposed to do or say. I think he’s doing what needs to be done.
The criticism of Bush wasn’t that he was reading to schoolchildren. The criticism was that he sat motionless and paralyzed after learning of the attack that killed Americans.
DV,
What do you mean what happens when they filibuster?
I think me, pandora and many others are looking at the Senate as a source of the problem. I want to concentrate my efforts on getting a better Senate, one that is more responsive to the people.
There seem to be a lot of people that think that Obama can just will things into being. He still has to work through Congress to get laws passed.
ui, ive always thought that flights TO, or even over america should be subject to american security screening. this of course is not Obama’s fault, but it is a clear flaw in our system that needs to be addressed 2 days ago.
I don’t know if El Al is state-owned, but El Al takes care of their own security instead of depending on local governments — and this includes the US as well.
I also find it funny that Americans complain loudly about having to go through all these security measures at the airport, but then complain when the measures aren’t strict enough. Just saying.
A.,
I agree the would-be terrorist exploited a flaw in the system that needs to be fixed. Supposedly they are already doing this.
great. then i will say Obama is doing his job… or at least making sure his government does his job. (by the way, i hope everyone is doing a nice job thawing out in delaware. I am wearing shorts and a nice bight shirt in (currently cloudy) sunny south florida.
Once again a contributor blames congress. I’m noticing a trend here.
D, of course i blame congress. The health care let down is because of republicans who only exist to stand in the way of reform and demo-rat healthcare whores like carper, nelson, and landreu.
Nemski,
just like your use of fact checking when it suits you I expect you will never again use grammar attacks in the future either 🙂
I blame the leadership as well as congress. One isn’t mutually exclusive or I should say mutually excluded. Which, is what many like to think sadly.
I can debate whether Obama could have handled the health care debate differently. I’d still need a crystal ball, since passing health care was always going to be extremely difficult no matter which path it took. That said, I do believe he would have signed a bill with a public option had Congress given him one. My challenge to you, DV, is still how you turn the crumbs into a loaf.
Just saying Obama sucks doesn’t explain how you would get what you wanted.
I explained the “how” Pandora. Feel free to lay out other challenges. I challenge you to not settle and then I can achieve how I turn the crumbs into a loaf.
I used to have a platform that tried to get people to see through the bullshit on both sides, but I was elected off. Now I will try to change people rom the outside once again.
That’s how plan on getting what I want.
How are you getting what you want? By making excuses for not getting what you wanted and settling for what you get b/c it almost achieves what you wanted?
donviti wrote I blame the leadership as well as congress. One isn’t mutually exclusive or I should say mutually excluded. Which, is what many like to think sadly.
WTF?
I guess I should have asked for a donviti translator for Christmas.
I blame Obama and Congress. You can’t blame a Dem Majority running the Congress and not Blame Obama at the same time.
better?
Very well put.
Yes, but wrong.
From Wikipedia:
Oh my. Jason 330 and Donviti are agreeing.
you make it too easy Nemski.
So then basically from 2006 to 2008 very little was Bush’s fault. The dems were in the majority then too and we had the great recession occur on their watch.
Nemski, Not being allowed to get up or have any personal item in your lap for the last hour of a flight is an utterly meaningless “security measure.” NYT says it is for international flights:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27security.html?_r=2&hp
UI: Jane Hamsher is not immune from criticism, but writing her off because you disagree with her alliance with Norquist (I don’t like that either, BTW) and then accusing her of trying “destroy Obama’s presidency so we can get President Sarah Palin” is ridiculous. Your just trying to discredit her because she is fighting against the fraudulent HCR senate bill.
Obomba and Rahm are doing quite well is destroying his presidency and setting back progressive causes by themselves and the “thanks for the crumbs” liberals.
HCR 2009 = WMD 2002 Obomba lies while healthcare reform dies.
What makes you think I am defending Congress?
we should start a sight that is deserving of our ideology and our state of residence!
at what point do you go back to attacking my grammar? it’s really the only defense you have left at this point.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Defense against what? I’m happy with Obama as President, much happier with him than I imagine I would be with McCain and Palin. Jumping up for joy with having Obama as President rather than George Bush.
DV: Take your homophobic fantasies about “taking it up the ass” back to your blog. They’re disgusting here.
And it’s not just your grammar and spelling, which are appalling. They are merely the outward signs of someone who doesn’t bother educating himself, yet insists his opinion outweighs all others.
I am no Obama apologist, but his response to this was the rare example of why I voted for him: calm under crisis (though this hardly constitutes a crisis). The chest-thumping conservatives, eager to prove they don’t have tiny dicks, want something bombed. I suggest we give them bomb-making materials and bad instructions so they can blow themselves up.
Well, I don’t about you folks, but my plan goes like this:
1. Let Blanche Lincoln and Harry Reid lose.
2. Replace Kit Bond, Mel Martinez, Judd Gregg, and George Voinovich with Democrats – Carnahan, Meek, Hodes, and Fischer will all be better than Lincoln/Landrieu/Nelson/Lieberman/Carper.
3. Retain the rest of the Democratic seats (this involves Chris Dodd retiring and Roland Burris losing his primary).
4. Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson become irrelevent.
5. Elect Dick Durbin Senate Majority Leader.
6. Pass better legislation in 2011 than we did this year.
7. Replace Carper and Lieberman in 2012 with real progressives. Hope Olympia Snowe gets teabagged, or retires, or gets a cabinet position, or gets straight-up beaten by Chellie Pingree. Let Ben Nelson lose. Re-elect Obama.
8. Safely re-elected, and with a 62 seat majority in the Senate, hope Obama swings for the fences.
I know, being an incrementalist means being patient, losing a lot of battles, and moving slowly in the right direction. Not as much fun as teabagging us into irrelevance, I know.
I realize that has nothing to do with Obama not freaking the fuck out that one lone guy failed to pull a Richard Reed, but hey, I try to avoid getting the vapors over stupid shit from people with no sense of perspective.
xstryker wrote I realize that has nothing to do with Obama not freaking the fuck out that one lone guy failed to pull a Richard Reed, but hey, I try to avoid getting the vapors over stupid shit from people with no sense of perspective.
With that I shall retire with a glass of wine and a good book. xstryker for the win with geezer coming in a close second.
Now that’s a plan, X. It’s specific and goal oriented. Still waiting for how to actually get the whole loaf. And no, DV, you haven’t explained it.
I doubt we ever get the whole loaf. As best I can tell — and the percentages obviously are guesses — 25% of the country is wingnut/’Bagger/whatever, about 20% is centrist Republican, about 30% centrist Democrat, and about 25% liberal/progressive/”moonbats”.
Though in a straight vote we could probably win a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party, just as the ‘Baggers would win that fight in the GOP, the folks in the middle are the corporatists, spending the corporate dollars that put them there to keep themselves cemented into place.
Odious as it may be, BOTH fringes together could form a coalition — not one that could hold together, but one that could win on particular, populist issues.
Number One on that list should be campaign spending reform. Candidates on both the left and right have raised millions in days for people who stake out populist stands (Hoffman in NY 23, Grayson in Fla.), so there’s not really any inherent advantage to either side. It would represent a purer form of politics.
We think of the “political spectrum” as a line; it is more helpful to think of it as a circle split down the center. The “fringes” off all sorts are shut out of the center, where the real action takes place and the real money is parceled out. The real battle is not right vs. left — it is inside vs. outside.
love it X. only thing left is what to do with the liberal teabaggers…. or the Herbal Teabagz. do we let them back on the bandwagon when they want to be fair weather democrats? or do we punish them for their lack of faith?
nothing happened, the system worked…
“The System Worked” – Film of Napolitano Shucking and Jiving
CNN ^
Homeland Chief Napolitano on terrorist attempt stopped by passengers: ‘The System Worked’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V_Godcyq-s
hey Brownie, your doing a great job!
thats a shame. is the system vigilante justice? i think they need to own up to the fact national security needs to be looked at. It was a joke under bush, and napolitano cant make it sounds like Obama’s approach is to let fellow passengers deal with the problem.
Price – there’s nothing to do with them. Let them create some pressure on Congress and Obama to move to the left. They don’t hold enough power to do any real harm. Not like the GOP teabaggers, who have the power of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh propelling them.
xstryker definitely FTW here! Nice that x remembers that more and better Democrats in Congress didn’t just stop with the presumed magic of “more”.
Geezer – a technicality, but anal sex is enjoyed by heterosexual people too. The reference that DV is making is offensive based on its rape connotations, not gender-preference.
I think DV is able to express himself in much more ably than that when he puts his mind to it.
A1,
I’m not trying to discredit Jane Hamsher, but I am disgusted that she has decided to become a Fox News Democrat. She made that decision on her own.
I can understand that, UI. I think the Norquist alliance is more troubling. We’ll see.
Thank you for that, A1.
I don’t really understand the Fox News Thing? Let me see if I have it right….
1) the only people who watch Fox News are teabaggers, repubs, conservatives and idiots.
therefore
2) Anyone who is progressive or a liberal should a) not watch and b) not appear on any of their programming
I get the idea that a progressive would agree with about zippo coming from Fox News…but help me understand the inherent harm in a liberal trying to counterbalance the nonsense coming from them. I know they have a “fair and balanced” catch phrase and libs and progressives love to decry that it is a lie, but if Jane Hamsher goes on Fox News and shakes one teabagger from their stupor, isn’t that a good thing? Is it really Jane defecting, or trying to broaden the progressive agenda?
Lastly, as many progressives and liberal repeated for the entirety of the Bush years: dissent is patriotic. That said, I applaud Jane Hamsher for a) being principled and b) staying principled. The fact is this HCR is not what Obama or progressives wanted at all (see: http://slatest.slate.com/id/2239911) and all she is doing in my opinion is expressing her requisite and appropriate dissatisfaction.
Seems pretty progressive and American to me. I say keep challenging HCR into every open mike you can find.
Also, Rahm is an asshole, straight up.
Jane didn’t go on Fox until she signed some letter with Grover Norquist supporting a witch hunt against Rahm Emmanuel. I’d argue that Fox isn’t interested in her views on healthcare. Fox is not a news channel, it’s a propaganda channel for the Republican party. They don’t hold honest debates on issues and that’s why people like 6-months-ago Jane Hamsher said Democrats shouldn’t appear on the programs. It gives them cover to still pretend to be some kind of news channel.
I don’t find Hamsher’s opposition principled anymore. She’s gone from talking about hcr to pushing Fannie & Freddie conspiracy theories. She’s made Rahm into some kind of super-villian who’s controlling the agenda. Which is pretty damn insulting to Obama if you think about it.
My criticism of the kill-the-billers isn’t that I disagree, it’s that I don’t understand what alternatives they’re offering. We’ve spent the last year trying to convince people that our health care system status quo is unacceptable. Now we have some people saying that the only thing they wanted was a public option and that all the other stuff (the subsidies) are worse than status quo. I find that a bit confusing since the bill changed very little from when they finally dropped the private national non-profit from the mix. In fact, the other parts of the bill have gotten significantly better and may get better still in the House-Senate conference.
Obama’s “non-response” to the plane incident is predictable and purely political. He will distance himself and not take any personal responsibility, then throw someone under the bus.