Manchin: I'd Support Delaying Obamacare To Avoid Govt Shutdown

[beerandjesus]

92. Well, assuming it's just a trial balloon, which I think is likely:

Its purpose would be to gauge public opinion on negotiating with the terrorists, to see how the terrorists respond to the overture, or both.

It also reinforces the notion that the Democrats are reasonable and willing to work in a bipartisan way--in marked contrast to the ransom note/list of demands the House put out yesterday.

Given that yesterday, Obama if anything ratcheted the rhetoric up a few more notches, my hope is that the response to Manchin's comments was as universally hostile as it was here on DU. But yesterday's speech may also have been analogous to the threat of force against Syria, which turned out to be pretty effective in laying the groundwork for what's proving to be a diplomatic breakthrough.

I think the "11-dimensional-chess" business some sling around is pretty corny, but I don't deny that Obama can be a great tactician!

And of course, it's still possible that Manchin went out and made those comments all by himself. I still think there's some teamwork going on, but if I personally were a reporter looking for a new angle on the Democratic position, I'd seek Manchin out, because he's known to be pretty moderate, and I've always (perhaps naively) thought he comes off as a genuinely nice guy in a way that few senators do.

Incidentally, I think raising the debt ceiling is Obama's problem because it's America's problem. If I were in his shoes I'd be deciding who should go on the trillion-dollar coin.