Failure is our friend. Obama is not a can-do sort of guy.

Good. This seemed like the direction they were headed in, but these days you never can tell.

Barack Obama’s political nads are sitting in a mayo jar on John Boehner’s desk. Obama donated them. Why on earth should the republicans give a shit about making deals?

That little sign that Harry Truman talked about didn’t read:

“The buck stops here UNLESS the president has laid down like a cur dog for the GOP, in which case the american voters will blame the GOP.”

That little fantasy-island-for-democrats is shrinking by the day. By next spring, politically speaking, it’ll be the size of a telephone booth, and the republicans damn well know it.

Next!

The best part is that not only are those asshole Republicans going to get yet another good dose of negative image that they so deserve but that the war mongering fuckers are going to piss down their legs when the defense budget gets cut automatically after these cheese dicks won’t compromise.

Win win.

“…there is no reason to believe he will stop trying now.”

Certainly not. The “new” Obama is going to fight the good fight like his political life depended on it. Of course, since, early on, he voluntarily checked into the GOP’s spaying-and-neutering clinic, it will all be Kabuki, with the outcome pre-determined, while he whimpers and moans about the big, bad, republicans thwarting his efforts to do the right thing, at the same time they offer “deals” that are based on the principle that it’s much better that working class and poor americans get run over by an 8 ton semi, than by a 10 ton semi.

The man is the lamest lame duck in our history. Everything that we’re going to see and hear from him is just play-out-the-string bullshit.

Any “negative image” that accrues to the GOP is going to be tripled when it hits Obama. THAT deal they’ll go for, in a heartbeat.

Oh, joy.

There is logic here. Nobody is accountable for what follows, as expected.

No, I think they will turn it around and use it as a call to vote Republican. They will blame it all on the Democrats, Already Cain, Bachmann, and the rest of the syphilitic horde are crying about making American more militaristic and starting more wars. They will blame the potential, but not really happening, 2013 Pentagon cuts on Democrats.

And chances are the Democrats will be too spineless to react quickly or respond in an effective way.

The military and the oil companies run the country. Everything else is just light and shadows on a cave wall. Unless the Occupy movement can open it up.

Did anyone really expect any other result? Noone on either side wanted to be on record for either service cuts or tax increases.

Plus: the current elected class is at its best when it is inert.

I will be thrilled if they don’t make a deal. Every time I hear the phrase “go big” I want to scream. Obama, Hoyer, et al really want to cut SS and Medicare and do it under the cover of the big bad deficit. Had they been really serious about deficit problems they would have put a public option or medicare for all into the health care bill.

I hope that the Occupy movement grows to the point of offering primary candidates against the conservadems the way the Teahadists did against the GOPers. I realize they/we don’t think of the movement as political, but politics is literally the work of the people. We need to do this for the salvation of the nation.

If nothing else, OWS has made the Democratic Party disappear. There are Repubicans. There is OWS. Democrats must have found a bunker somewhere to hide from being responsible for anything or accountable to anyone.

God forbid any of them should show up in a picture with the dirty hippies.

I love that NY city councilmen have been getting arrested with the Occupy folks.They get it.

Yeah, I’m afraid I’m going to have a heck of a time finding those Democrats on my ballot in 2012. I’m not so sure I want to be seen with them either.

I hope OWS comes up with some creative lawn signs for the campaign.

O will tell us, again, that the governement needs to tighten its belt just like all families are trying to do. He is a fucking idiot cut from the same cloth as the thugs. Even Bernie Sanders buys into the “bad” deficit nonsense. The government is not even remotely like the family budget. Idiots. And the deficit is not a problem at all unless you mean we should double it to get people back to work.

Some day maybe we will learn that our primary work is to create jobs. And the the deficit does not matter except to be sure it is large enough to do that. Go big indeed, make the deficit twice as large.

OWS has not shown any signs of understanding the deficit or how to create jobs either. We all still buy into the need to cutting the deficit. Nonsense.

Well, maybe.

The selective, piecemeal backtracking is what will count. It will come later based upon the numbers and size of brushfires and nothing more.

GOP and Dems are both in the same boat because neither can forecast even in the short term. So make no mistake, there is but one political party in play — the two of them. There are no cocksure suppositions with shelf life, and they know it. So the herding instinct rules. Then, what would you do?

I’d suggest the sequestration cudgel. That seems to be what’s coming. Neither party benefits from a solution in the cat food commission. They benefit in sequestration, an orchestrated illusion of conflict, and grandstanding without accountability, but with some friendly golf and steak dinners shared by all.

Afterwards the subsequent exceptions to sequestration will be tailored accordingly. The process will be like a slightly unpleasant but necessary enema, no?

If the Super Committee does fail to reach a deal by the deadline next Wednesday, that would be a victory for those hoping to defend Medicare and Social Security.

A great ancillary benefit would be seeing Alan “Catfood Man” Simpson’s head explode. Hell, that’s almost pay-per-view level entertainment.

This is, by my count, at least President Obama’s fourth attempt to get a “grand bargain” to cut entitlements, so there is no reason to believe he will stop trying now.

After this, I think the election will be too close for the Democrats to try again. Obama will still think he can win votes by doing something 80% of Americans oppose, but the other Democrats will be trying to distance themselves from him.

Congressional and Presidential failure – what do we expect when Congress and the President try to shovel crap down the American public’s throat?

The way forward has been clear since 2008-

Stop the wars, bring the troops home, cut back defense
Get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, raise taxes on the rich and corporations.
Prosecute the fraud and criminality in the banking system and housing market.
Medicare for everybody
Start infrastructure spend for our future – green power, green utilities
Get serious about changes to combat global warming

Almost everything being done now including the Super Committee is a continued effort to prop up the same people and the same failed businesses that have lead the US and the world down an obviously failed and flawed economic policy which resulted in a world collapse due to voodoo Reaganomics deregulation, and the resulting fraud and corruption.

Along with the idiotic “War on Terror” that keeps making us less safe, kills our troops and wastes our money when we can least afford it all started because we had a spineless brainless idiot as a President which resulted in the largest most deadly terrorist attack ever who responded by doing exactly what the terrorists wanted.

I find the fact that Obama will run on his “record” which consist largely on sticking his fingers in his ears and saying “la, la, la” over and over and pushing polices like he’s Bush III as humorous. He personally and almost single handedly started this crap with his own appointment of the Catfood Commission.

I would not be confident at all that no deal can be reached. You have one party that is totally irresponsible, behaves like a spoiled teenager and won’t have any problem taking its usual rule or ruin position. The Democrats are the other party, feeble and cowardly, claiming to be responsible and seeking a civil discourse,etc… The truth is they have no principles at all. They only claim to be the champions of social security and medicare. They are far more concerned with pleasing their rich clinetele of contributors than they are concerned with protecting the bedrock of the Democratic Party. I think it is as likely as not that the Democrats will figure out some way to cave in to Republican demands and claim that they could have held out because the harm to the defense budget would have been too great. That’s precisely what Obama the weak did when it came time to do nothing and let the tax cuts for the rich expire. In exchange for their trillion dollars in tax breaks he secured a one time unemployment extension benefit or, put another way: nothing. If I had to bet right now I’d bet the Democrats cave and we get just what the republicans wanted from the outset if not more than what they wanted.

Excellent synopsis!
I’m confident Mr. Obama WILL find a way, however….if not by extraordinary parliamentary procedure then by fiat. That seems to be where the presidency is headed anyway…just by pass Congress; not that Congress is great shakes with all the Blue Dawgs and Tea Baggers in there now.

I’m beg ginning to think that the best possible outcome (at this point) would be to get some republican in there for [president and then have super-majorities of democrats in congress again.
As it is now, Obama is the leader of the dems and he’s “leading” them right over the cliff.

If one thinks back, Bush was worse in his second term and I expect Obama will be as well. He was put in there to destroy the entitlements and he’s going to do it by hook or by crook(s)

No, they will simply pass legislation to undue the trigger.

Whoa, the big bad deficit !!! Let’s see now, we can borrow money for thirty years at 3% interest rates. It would seem thirty years is enough time to turn around our economy, bring in green jobs, rehab every energy draining building in the US, create a healthy and productive workforce with single payer healthcare and good public schools, tax the rich assholes who ran us into the ditch, subjugate our financial system to what it used to be, rewrite all trade agreements to enforce a worldwide minimum wage and environmental laws, reduce the Pentagon budget about 80%. Seems like most people know what has to be done, all it takes is some good progressive leadership to do it.

As for the deficit commission, I think the Dems realized that they would really like to hear the rethugs say “no tax increase for millionairs” all the way through the 2012 campaign, it’s actually a pretty good idea for once. Just remember, this is the first negotiation that Prez Zero is not conducting, and guess what, the Dems are actually winning the negotiation, so I guess it kind of validates that Barry is the problem, not the rank and file dems who have figured out that at this point to keep their pampered lifestyles, they really have to follow the wishes of the electorate who are overwhelmingly saying “tax the rich, and do not touch our social security and medicare benefits.”

well said – I agree with your conclusion that a goal for the left of electing Democrats but only if they are progressives, and putting no effort in electing Obama, is logical given the destruction cause by Obama’s take one for the team ability to get GOP laws passed. Indeed a GOPer as president may be the best choice.

Who cares?

When this ends Obama will wag his finger at us firebaggers for being less reasonable as teabaggers because the tea baggers wanted to work on his deficit package.

He’ll slam his foot against the ground and shout “Curses!” like gargamel after the smurfs latest get away.

He’ll then begin drawing up plans for a super duper ultra bi partisanship committee which will FINALLY make the SERIOUS choices.