Obama Promised

[babsbunny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KkzsVYUdI&feature=player_embedded

[Me.]

1. Truth Hurts

That's why you already have unrec's

[impik]

6. Did Obama kept the tex cuts for the wealthy? I must have missed the news.

[Me.]

11. Fineman Reported A Deal Is In Place To Extend Them 1-3 Years

Any bets that he's wrong?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. I'll take a bet, since Fineman also reported that health care reform is dead.

I'd rather wait and see what happens.

If he caves, I'm done with him.

If the Senate caves and Reid doesn't force the Rethugs to filibuster, I'm done!

I'm sick of weak-ass Democrats! Seriously!!

[Phx_Dem]

15. Me too! He and all other pundits also said Obama could NEVER win the primary.

Surprise. He won and he won BIG.

[Me.]

16. We'll Know Soon Enough

But I wouldn't bet your house if I were you.

“WASHINGTON -- Democrats and Republicans tentatively agreed late Thursday to hold four "test votes" on Friday to see who holds the balance of power and what the final details of a tax-cut compromise will be, a top leadership aide tells HuffPost.

The four:

-- the House-passed bill, which caps the tax cut extension for families at the first $250,000 in income.

-- another bill, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, to cap the cuts at $1 million.

-- a bill from GOP leader Mitch McConnell, to permanently extend all the cuts.

-- a forth -- the key one -- still being finalized and probably calling for a two-year extension of all cuts.

The test votes will be "fake filibusters" -- ones to see if any measure can get 60 votes. Senate Democrats may meet as a caucus to discuss the plan tonight.”…cont…

“One Democratic senator familiar with the negotiations predicted that the the first three measures would fail and that -- sooner or perhaps later -- the forth one would pass. The three other votes would be for internal partisan consumption. "We're not going to leave town letting everyone's taxes go up," said this Senator. "It's just not a credible threat.”…cont…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/02/bush-tax-cuts-cave_n_791215.html

[Phx_Dem]

14. Oh, well then. If Howard said so . . . ROLF.

[harun]

18. Deals been done, don't be so naive.

[ProSense]

2. Greg Sargent

Lefty group running ad slamming Obama -- in Iowa

<...>

Between this spot and the new one unveiled this morning by MoveOn, it's clear that the left has settled on a strategy of actively trying to damage Obama politically with the base and with left-leaning independents by painting him as weak, to force him to draw a harder line against Republicans. The left, clearly, has no intention of stopping with these efforts.

Surely some will insist that it only helps Obama to be attacked from the left. But efforts to encourage the perception that Obama is weak and refuses to fight -- which is gaining some traction with the mainstream media, whether fair or not -- could very well damage Obama politically over the long term. And the White House will probably have to deal with it sooner or later.

This is a stupid strategy. The President has a fragile Democratic majority to work with and most of what he achieves must come through them.

These groups have a completely distorted view of what a President does.

Congress has a role in this too, and anything that passes will go through them before it reaches the President. What this does is position the President as the deciding factor and simply does not address the issue of getting the right outcome through the legislative process. What's this about a veto?

This is like a strategy that serves the same purpose as the RW, tearing the President down.

Demanding that the President and Democrats act does not require portraying them as weak. What the hell is the point: Making Republicans appear strong?

Daily Kos: "A Dangerous President" Howard Zinn Warned Us

There is even the obligatory "cult of personality" reference. Letlse

[griffi94]

4. i disagree that it's left wing groups making him look weak

he's made himself look weak.

[JuniperLea]

5. I disagree...

The vile spin gives the perspective of weakness... he's doing exactly what he said he'd do. And from my perspective, he's pretty freaking strong to be able to carry on doing the right thing with so much obstruction from all sides.

[impik]

7. Lunatics. All of them.

[zipplewrath]

9. Your position is based upon a presumption

It presumes two things actually.

1) That Obama isn't weak

2) and/or the critics don't believe/know that he is weak.

This is "weak" in the sense of conducting effective political strategy. He wouldn't be the first. Even Dean Rusk claimed that an early problem for Kennedy was that he didn't have a strong position, politically, with certain areas of the executive branch. He credits much of the Bay of Pigs to Kennedy's inability to credibly challenge the DoD and the CIA on their larger plans.

There is a very real possibility that the president is "weak" in the sense that he is implimenting a strategy which is ineffective and counter productive. If his critics are correct, attempting to block him from taking actions/positions which would allow him to fail, is a legitimate method for "strengthening" him, or at least his strategies.

Your point is that if he ISN'T weak, the current strategy will have the effect of encouraging his opponents to plan and act as if he is, which could make his job more difficult, and actually weaken him.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

20. Ohh he's dangerous now. Good stuff. That wily Kenyan had us all fooled!

[Laelth]

21. If what the President has done so far constitutes "work," I'd rather him take a vacation.

Seriously. Only Nixon could go to China, and only Obama can gut social security and subsidize the vampiric health insurance industry.

I'd rather Obama do nothing more than pick people for the Federal judiciary if what I've seen from him so far is to continue.

Never thought I'd actively seek gridlock, but it appears to me that the people are safer when this President can't get anything done.

-Laelth

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[struggle4progress]

8. Um ... White House is a different branch of government than Congress

We know where Obama stands on the Bush era taxcuts. But he doesn't control what Congress sends him

[TriMera]

10. Until people want to add it to a list

of his accomplishments.

[struggle4progress]

12. The land of vague and bitter-sounding generalities is full of sucky swamps; I don't spend

much time there

[kickysnana]

17. I saw a 2010 movie on Starz early premier this week...

It was set on the date of Pres Obama's Inauguration and used spies, spying on spies in a control room with the speech going during the movie. The premise was another super secret, contracted group set up by LBJ. They all worked who worked in the same office but who were giving exactly opposite instructions on covert ops and should cancel each other out. For example they said the Benazir Bhutto was a failure of one side the omega side to stop the assassination attempted by the alpha side.

They end up murdering each other while locked in a doomsday bunker headquarters while searching for a secret way out that was rumored to be put in by the director without his superiors knowing.

Lots of irony, and arguments about politics and foreign policy. All the while Obama is giving his speech which was evidently not what he meant to say because what he said is not what he promised in that speech.

Low budget flying below the radar may become a classic when this is all over.

[jefferson_dem]

19. To be fair, he also promised that he will not raise taxes on anybody earning less than $250k.

Watch here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJVMWjTQh_Y