Obama the compromiser
Obama’s capitulation to the Republicans on the Bush tax cuts has made the left furious. Katrina vanden Heuvel has this to say:
This president has a historic mandate. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to lead the nation from slavery and Franklin Roosevelt from the Depression, this president must lead the nation from the calamitous failures of three decades of conservative dominance.
Vanden Heuvel goes on to list as first step the reversal of the “perverse” Bush tax cuts that have led to “gilded-age” inequality etcetera etcetera. I wonder, though—even if you agree with her and interpret the election of 2008 as having given the president just that sort of sweeping anti-conservative mandate (which I don’t), would you not also need to acknowledge that it was rescinded in 2010 and the opposite mandate given? Ah well, let’s not expect consistency from vanden Heuvel.
Obama capitulated to the Republicans, it’s true. But it’s no time for Republicans to crow. I believe that the scenario I outlined here (right after the election) may be being played out:
…Obama actually will move towards the middle, in deed as in word. But it will be a temporary feint, a move made to convince doubters that he’s gotten the message and changed his ways.
It need only be until the next election. If Obama can moderate himself enough to be able to point to a few small but real compromises with the Republicans, he won’t be losing much and he’ll be gaining a lot. The American people are a generally genial and forgiving (not to say trusting) lot, predisposed to like him, and by then he may indeed have rehabilitated himself in the eyes of enough voters that he will win his bid for re-election and even increase the Democrats’ Congressional representation.
And then, and then””voila! Four more years! Four years in which he won’t have to answer to the electorate at all. He will be unleashed to do whatever it is he really wants. And does anyone think that would look moderate at all?
One more thing: if the economy improves as a result of extending the tax cuts, it will be seen by many (especially the moderates he needs in order to win) as another reason to support Obama in 2012. He can finally claim he’s bipartisan, and effective as well.
I hope the economy improves, because I think the country needs it. But I also hope voters see through the ploy, and defeat Obama roundly in 2012, because I fear that four years of Obama unleashed would be a disaster for the country.
Katrina lives in an odd universe where the basis in facts are meaningless.
She’s entitled to an opinion – but she makes herself irrelevant.
3 decades of conservative dominance???
The only thing I can make of that is when Reagan (and the Congress in 1982 moved the top marginal rate down from 70% to 28%.
Since that time so many americans have prospered – so many jobs have been created – enabling so much government revenue and too much damn government spending by too many liberal congresses.
In 1981 the revenue into the government was 550 Billion.
In 1989 the revenue had grown to over 990 Billion.
In Katrina’s mind this was calamitous.
BTW, during those 9 years spending by the federal government increased more than revenues.
I wouldn’t label that as “conservative” Katrina.
Only in a perverse psycho world.
P.S. ∅bama was not gracious not was he presidential as he said
Has he ever referred to actual enemies with such language?
One final thought –
2 years is not enough. Business will continue to brace themselves and not make long term plans with “hires” knowing taxes will go up in 2 years.
The economy would need to expand (along with demand) for businesses to buck the trend.
Yes, there are cycles and we could very well see leaders in the private sector fuel an expansion DESPITE poor policies – but why not have helpful policies by taking the 2 years and make it “permanent”.
If legislatures see an expanding economy and want to slow it down later they can raise taxes later – to pay down debt.
I agree that the President being reelected in 2012 is something to strive against.
But, if he is reelected, we can hopefully retain (and expand) the Republican/tea party majority in the House, and take the Senate.
With Congress taken away from the Progs, the President will be limited to what he can get away with by abusing the powers of the Executive.
So let’s work for more Tea in Washington in 2012, especially in the White House, but I think all is not lost, as long as Congress doesn’t revert to the progs.
At least he keeps going overboard with partisan attacks on the republicans… it might mask the move to the center.
On the down side, this agreement seems bad. An extra two years might just give the wealthy time to pack up and move (vs. putting down more roots with investment)… like they might have thought they needed to do anyway… after two years of Obama’s attacks on them.
Baklava @ 3:01
“P.S. ∅bama was not gracious [nor] was he presidential…”
Just watched “O’s” press conference about the tax cuts. He was divisive and confrontational – clearly not used to his “rule” being challenged successfully.
He is not a leader…he is a petty tyrant – vindictive, peevish, and disingenuous. That pretty much precludes his ability to be gracious and presidential.
Its a very real possibility that 10 percent of the electorate could be fooled by an improving economy and a more moderate Obama and vote him in for a second term. And it may also be the only way for this country to be purged of its socialists, a solution which risks the entire enterprise. How near to Lincoln’s “house divided’ speech we are!
Hopefully California will serve as a teachable moment and still the most important mandate is the next generation.
The fact he sees a tax compromise as the equivalent of a hostage situation shows again the meanness and smallness of the man’s spirit. If we are worried about him pretending to move towards the center language like that should be reassuring that he will not do a good job of it.
BTW, there is something is very peculiar about the polls. Obama has been a disaster for the entire free world, yet the polls numbers don’t seem to reflect his now international ignominy. (see http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/wikileaks-cables-tell-the-story-of-an-empire-in-decline-1.328145)! Something does not make sense here.
I’ve watched vanden Heuvel a few times on the Sunday talk shows and have marveled at the disconnect between whatever universe it is that she lives in and the real world.
I’m reminded of one of the scenes from an old movie–The (original) Fly, I think–where the camera allows the audience to see the bug’s-eye view for a moment. I think that must be how the world looks to her.
I can anticipate his 2012 slogan: “CHANGE — this time I really mean it!” I believe that most of those who now regret having voted for Obama are not likely to be fooled a second time. The economy may well improve, but the threat of the deficit will remain.
The extension of the current tax rates, including those on dividends and capital gains, don’t raise or lower anyone’s taxes from current law. Why is the far left steamed? Is it because they have a better idea for economic recovery? No. It’s because they wanted to hurt and punish the “rich.” It’s all about class warfare.
When the economy starts improving, the Republicans need to repeatedly point out at every opportunity that their policy of not raising any one’s taxes during hard times was correct. They can also point out that the payroll tax holiday was suggested over a year ago by Republicans as more appropriate than the bogus failed stimulus program.
Don’t kid yourselves. This is bait-and-switch. The Democrats in congress are not on board with this. They will come back with the switch, the Republicans will say, “No” (as they should) and the Dems and media will accuse them of renegging on the deal.
The prospect of “four more years” of Obama with a conservative Congress really wouldn’t bother me too much without Obamacare. In other words, stalemate is not good enough because of the facts on the ground that Obama himself established, and he MUST lost in 2012, because Obamacare MUST be repealed.
My own view is that this is the guiding principle of all political maneuvering in the next two years. And if that requires me to say that the country needs the economy to drag in order to truly revive in the future, so be it. I just can’t be happy about a tiny uptick in growth and employment if it means the end of our republic (as I believe Obamacare does mean).
From a Machiavellian perspective, the prospect floated by commenter Deeka would actually be desirable. Let the Democrats burn the house down, and let them try and blame conservatives for it.
And remember that the only tax cut extensions we got were the ones over 250. When or if Obama is elected in two years, that’s likely to go away. I.e., the extensions are almost perfectly designed to do their work in getting Obama re-elected, and then to disappear.
I’m not at all sure that this is a win for conservatives, but I’m also not sure what else we could have done. Perhaps drive a harder bargain, but then we would be in Machiavellian territory (drive a harder bargain on the tacit assumption that a deal will collapse, taxes will go up, and the economy and the Democrats will be hurt).
I just don’t know. I’m highly ambivalent about this.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/07/palin-just-say-no-to-state-bailouts/
Really good facebook post by Palin today.
I hope the economy improves, because I think the country needs it. But I also hope voters see through the ploy, and defeat Obama roundly in 2012, because I fear that four years of Obama unleashed would be a disaster for the country.
its not going to improve, its going to take a hard turn
too busy focusing on the man, not busy enough focusing at all on the whole machine, what its making, and whats coming…
the dollar is not far from toast…
among about 30 things i can list
All that mostly gets talked about is the front of the front and how it appears and if its spots will change…
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie (middle class) is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation” Lennin
“It’s useless to wait-for a breakthrough, for the revolution, the nuclear apocalypse or a social movement. To go on waiting is madness. The catastrophe is not coming, it is here. We are already situated within the collapse of a civilization. It is within this reality that we must choose sides.”
– The Invisible Committee (The Coming Insurrection)
“We have to see that the economy is not “in” crisis, the economy is itself the crisis. It’s not that there’s not enough work, it’s that there is too much of it.”
– The Invisible Committee
The ban [on oil drilling in the gulf] was lifted in October, a month early, but since then the administration hasn’t issued any new permits.
so some are saying there is a permitorium… the rigs that held on at a loss now are leaving.
U.S. crude oil futures prices rose sharply on Tuesday, pushing above $90 a barrel for the first time in 26 months as cold weather boosting fuel demand and the dollar’s weakness kept oil lifted
Gold hit its second consecutive record high as the dollar fell, also driven by year-end fund buying, the prospect of more U.S. monetary easing and investor nervousness over the European debt crisis. Silver hit a 30-year high for the seventh consecutive day.
Gold hit record highs for a second successive day above $1,430 an ounce
anyone remember way back when I said what was coming, that the price of gold was $1,000 less?
and how i said it was so close to Wiemar its incredible, and now we are monetizing our own debt like Wiemar…
India,China in race to amass gold reserves
The price of gold spiked above $1400 an ounce today in reaction to China’s surprising decision to publicly disclose its imports during the first 10 months of 2010—which are five times the level in 2009. India’s imports also jumped despite a 23% rise in the price of gold this year. , even as the IMF continues to sell gold bullion in the open market.
JPM Chase has shorted more silver than has been mined…
The gold and precious metals derivative contracts of major commercial banks in the US have climbed to a new record of close to $140 billion, a substantial increase from $80 billion in late 2006. The largest holder of gold and silver derivative contracts is JP Morgan Chase, which holds 25% of these contracts.
hey, and they are trying to pass so many bills that the senate voted successfully on a bill that should have started in the house (and so was unconstitutional (if that matters))
over 100 bills on land use…
and how do you like the powers that the FCC is now claiming?
Nine Nato divisions — US, British, German, and Polish — have been identified for combat operations in the event of armed aggression against Poland or the three Baltic states. North Polish and German ports have been listed for the receipt of naval assault forces and British and US warships. The first Nato exercises under the plan are to take place in the Baltic next year, according to informed sources.
joong ang daily
Narcistas Gun Down Their First Female Police Chief near Ciudad Juarez, Garcia in Post for 50 Days..
[the younger one that was in the news is marisol]
a mass grave of 20 bodies was found, one an american…
The 20 bodies, which had bound feet and hands and bore bullet wounds, were dumped in at least 11 graves discovered near a farm on the U.S. border, some 150 kilometres from Mexico’s most deadly city of Ciudad Juarez.
Second drug tunnel found under US-Mexico border
and people say that Iran or North Korea have no way to deliver a nuke… (or anyone else… )
dock in Venezuela, hand it over, drive it north, bring it through a tunnel, transport it to the city of your desire… [as was pointed out by KVOA tucson]
“President Daniel Ortega has asked Nicaraguan lawmakers to pass emergency laws to give him greater power to mobilize troops, amid a surge in tensions over a border row with Costa Rica.” dutch media
“These bills give the impression that Ortega is preparing for war. Instead of creating the image of a civil country, these initiatives give the image of a warmongering country. This is very dangerous.” The “Border Law” bill specifically designates all land within 15 kilometers of international borders “national territory” in cases requiring “special treatment for the protection of the environment, culture and socioeconomic development.” Jose Pallais president of the National Assembly’s Judicial Affairs Commission
so much going on….
I want republicans to poke this man and his party relentlessly. Just one good dig a day like “The democrats taxed the hell out of tobacco in a ploy they admitted was to stamp out its use. Just what are we supposed to deduce from them taxing the hell out of job creators?”
Continuing the Bush tax cuts is not a stimulus. It’s a continuation of the rates already here. So while the unemployment rate may drift down a bit I doubt the next two years will be seen as a return to the good times. We need 3 percent growth or more to decrease the unemployment rate and Obama’s tendency to over-regulate everything that moves or crawls when he’s not taxing it or forbidding it, will, I’m afraid, keep a cap on GDP well below that.
I just followed Jim Geraghty’s link to his big list of expiration dates:
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/254743/so-obama-actually-thinks-hes-done-good-job-keeping-his-promises
As Obama continues to lecture to his base, they will start to notice that Obama’s promises are unkeepable. Republicans have a great campaign issue against Obama. They can say:
Yes, governing is hard and you sometimes need to compromise. BUT, that’s not what Obama told the country. Obama’s problem is that he opens his mouth and makes promises before he has studied the issues. He has lost the trust of foreign leaders, of American businesses trying to plan for the future, and of many of the American people. It’s time to elect a president who thinks before he speaks. It’s time to select a president who can lead the country in setting priorities instead of telling people they can have it all right now. It’s time to turn the American dream back into what it always was–a goal you work toward, not something you pull out of the sky. As we work together in solving our most pressing problems, we will realize how blessed we are to live in and share a land with such wonderful people. We will nourish our own creativity and incredible problem-solving ability. There can’t be one big answer to America’s problems and there can’t be one person sitting above us who knows all the answers. Little bits of the answers lie in each of us. Let us choose a president who knows this before he speaks.
I think this message along with some PAC-sponsored ads showing the expiration dates will be very effective in countering an Obama tack to the middle.
BTW, I guess you all know about the reversal on the Israeli settlement issue. That’s just another example of Obama setting policy without studying the issue. He is so committed to the platitudes he grew up with that these types of mistakes will continue to arise. Obama’s thinking is done within a very small box, and when someone pierces it, he becomes a petulant child. It’s time to retire him to LaLaLand.
Artfldgr Says: “President Daniel Ortega has asked Nicaraguan lawmakers to pass emergency laws to give him greater power to mobilize troops, amid a surge in tensions over a border row with Costa Rica.” dutch media
1. I presume that Ortega has fabricated the border dispute as a pretext to remove democratic impediments to his power.
2. Remember the administration’s behavior wrt Honduras.
3. The planet’s thugs see that American allies can be bullied with impunity. We’re back to the ‘pitiful giant’ of the Carter era.
Teddy Roosevelt was known as pugnatious. Obama is fugatious: he flees from hard issues. Or, if you prefer, fugnatious, but fugacity is a real word.
expat wrote, “Obama’s problem is that he opens his mouth and makes promises before he has studied the issues.”
I fear that much the same would happen with Sarah Palin. I long to see evidence that she is given to ^studying^ an issue. I reluctantly see evidence that she “is so committed to the platitudes [s]he grew up with that these types of mistakes will continue to arise.” (expat again)
That I agree with her platitudes but disagree with his, is beside the point.
She’s a rock star (just as Obama became), and that stardom detracts from whatever seriousness she needs to project (and ^live^). I love her as a rabble-rouser and I loved her initially as a needle to puncture that grossly overblown messianism of The One in August 2008. But that point at which she winked at her audience as she was delivering her first national speech was for me the first signal (of too many now) that we need a genuinely serious person as president rather than one who plays to adulation. For these are serious times.
I like your strategy, SteveH. Republican congressmen should make it their goal to keep pushing legislation that makes him angry. The more times the voters see this side of Obama, the better.
Add to my list the sudden despotic militaristic turn the police are now taking against common citizens (they are the brutal class)…
a woman fined 100 for throwing away a newspaper
a woman beaten by police who claim that her dog took a poop, and then forced her to clean up another dogs mess, and arrested and beat her for making too much noise about it.
and the nice thing they are doing questioning children, then sending the (unconstitutional) CPS to investigate based on the answers… [realize that normally a minor CANT be questioned by police without a parent, guardian, or lawyer present… but CPS has illegally delegated powers that exceed those of the police… (and a secret court!)]
the interesting Kulak type question about saving food is interesting… as are other things…
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-govt-trying-to-find-out-who-has-what.html
expat said:
“Yes, governing is hard and you sometimes need to compromise. BUT, that’s not what Obama told the country. Obama’s problem is that he opens his mouth and makes promises before he has studied the issues. He has lost the trust of foreign leaders, of American businesses trying to plan for the future, and of many of the American people. It’s time to elect a president who thinks before he speaks. It’s time to select a president who can lead the country in setting priorities instead of telling people they can have it all right now. It’s time to turn the American dream back into what it always was—a goal you work toward, not something you pull out of the sky. As we work together in solving our most pressing problems, we will realize how blessed we are to live in and share a land with such wonderful people. We will nourish our own creativity and incredible problem-solving ability. There can’t be one big answer to America’s problems and there can’t be one person sitting above us who knows all the answers. Little bits of the answers lie in each of us. Let us choose a president who knows this before he speaks.”
Outstanding!! If you decide to run for President, this would make a good opening statement. If you’re not running, you ought to send it to your favorite candidate for his/her use.