President Obama Speaks on the Economy

[Coyotl]

[JDPriestly]

1. Wonderful speech. Great points. Except. . . . hasn't he learned by now that when he sets

politics aside he gets nowhere? Republicans are not about to put politics aside. President Obama has to simply acknowledge that being president of the United States is unavoidably about politics. Being president is politics.

I was born when FDR was still president. Every president in my lifetime who got things done (and with the exception -- huge exception of Viet Nam -- I think Johnson is a good example) had to admit that his job was politics.

Presidents who try to rise above politics don't get much done. Obama has done so much in foreign policy, but he won't get a Congress that works with him, and he won't be able to get much done domestically until he stops trying to be better than politics. There is nothing shameful about politics. It's a president's job.

[Coyotl]

2. I trust that strategy as good politics.

It is good politics to "seem to be" above politics.