Today's White House press conference shows a President in freefall

[derby378]

When a Democratic President vents most of his anger at progressive Democrats instead of at neo-conservative Republicans and encourages capitulating to the neo-cons in the name of "compromise," saying that's what our nation has been built on - well, I hate to say it, but Obama's got himself some real problems now.

You don't reach out to your friends by deliberately pissing them off. And if you think the Republicans will ever be Obama's friends, just look what happens to anything that gets caught in the middle of an elephant stampede. It gets squashed into the dirt.

[me b zola]

1. Poker players would say he's on full tilt

He doesn't know which way is up.

[derby378]

2. Good poker players can usually tell when someone's bluffing, too

Just an observation.

[xultar]

3. Well he's playing 3D chess don't cha know. That's how you play it. ROFL

[derby378]

6. That's the problem...

Obama's playing 3D chess, but the Republicans are playing War.

[bigtree]

4. if that's all you heard

that's your own problem.

Watch the polls. Show us where Democrats outside of this internet bubble feel the same way about the President and his reasoning.

[guruoo]

5. Exactly. nt

[derby378]

7. It's called Stockholm Syndrome

We've been beaten down so badly by eight years of Bush/Cheney and their crimes against this nation that too many Democrats are willing to accept any deal, no matter how rotten, so they can act smug and call it "compromise."

This shit is getting old, and we deserve better than to be shouted at from the podium.

[bigtree]

10. I don't think we should have 'accepted' many of the critics' position

. . . that the tax cuts should have been allowed to expire. I further don't believe that there was a chance in hell of preserving those cuts by themselves before the January expiration date; putting the question in a more hostile legislature's hands. That may well have been a good 'fight', but it's ignorant and destructive politics to allow so many vulnerable wage earners and their families to pay more to the government at tax time while they wait for some dubious political victory or concession from republican Senators.

[derby378]

11. I heard similar sentiments voiced during the healthcare debate...

...the result being a watered-down compromise bill that cost Democrats control of the House in 2010. I believe in winning, not losing and spinning the loss as "compromise."

[CakeGrrl]

8. Again - did you actually try to HEAR anything being said?

I seriously think not, based on your cherry-picking of the Boehner comment.

Why don't you just stop wasting your time and just post your updates on the search for a primary challenger? Why beat your head against the wall if you've closed your book on the President?

[derby378]

9. In other words, you want me to stop participating in the process?

That's one reason why the Dems lost so bad in 2010 - too many people got disenchanted and simply dropped out, including some of our best DUers.

You guys are stuck with us whether you like it or not.

[Scurrilous]

12. K & R

This Presidency is over.

OVER!!1!

[gratuitous]

13. I've won before; I know what winning feels like

And this isn't it, no matter what polls say.

What we're going to get is a new version of "Would you rather have Saddam Hussein running Iraq?" As if that one outcome completely justified or offset all the war crimes, crimes against humanity, Treasury dollars wasted, loss of life, squandering of national prestige, dubious legality and the invitation to righteous revenge from the millions we had wronged.

A temporary extension of benefits for some unemployed is this year's trophy pelt. And it was completely worth handing another $700 billion to the wealthy, screwing the base, setting social security firmly on the path to failure, and continuing the ruinous fiscal policies of the Republicans. Unemployment benefits! Meaningless poll numbers!

And when the chickens spawned by this hellacious agreement come home to roost, its architects will be long gone, secure in their gated communities, laughing delightedly at the spectacle of the poor clubbing each other for scraps.