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One of the most memorable parts of President Obama’s hour-long press conference on Monday came he was forced to face the issue of his own negotiating credibility problem. From the transcript:
OBAMA: Julianna Goldman?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to come back to the debt ceiling, because in the summer of 2011, you said that you wouldn’t negotiate on the debt ceiling, and you did. Last year, you said that you wouldn’t extend any of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and you did. So as you say now that you’re not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling this year, why should House Republicans take that seriously and think that if we get to the one minute to midnight scenario that you’re not going to back down?
OBAMA: Well, first of all, Julianna, let’s take the example of this year and the fiscal cliff. I didn’t say that I would not have any conversations at all about extending the Bush tax cuts. What I said was, we weren’t going to extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. And we didn’t.
Now, you can argue that during the campaign, I said — I set the criteria for wealthy at $250,000, and we ended up being at $400,000, but the fact of the matter is, millionaires, billionaires are paying significantly more in taxes, just as I said.
This issue is not just that Obama has a habit of drawing lines in the sand only to later break his promise, as he recently did on the Bush tax cuts.
Obama’s behavior regarding the debt limit has been all over the map. Back in 2011, Obama seemed to actively encourage GOP “hostage taking” because he wanted to negotiate over the debt limit to get a grand bargain.
When that blew up in Obama’s face he changed his tune by claiming he would not negotiate over the debt limit again. Yet only a few days later Obama included a one year increase in a possible fiscal cliff deal, basically allowing it to be used as a negotiation bargaining chip by John Boehner. It is only because those negotiations failed that Obama has again gone back to claiming he will not negotiate over the debt limit.
Finally, Obama describing this current situation as the GOP holding a “gun to the head of the American people” is not at all reassuring given his past statements. The last time Obama used this hostage metaphor to describe a congressional negotiation it was to justify folding in 2010. At that time Obama said he had to break his promise because,”the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”
I will admit this time Obama does really sound sincere, but he sounded sincere almost every other time as well. If I have trouble I believing Obama is credible this time, and I can only imagine it is much worse for House Republicans.
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If the GOP stand firm and Obama doesn’t use the coin option, he wind up breaking either the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 or 31USC3101(b), the debt limit, which he agreed to and signed into law.
“lucy, have you seen my football? it’s around here somewhere.”
Seriously, WTF. The Raider ownership sounds sincere every year too but SCOREBOARD baby! (just keeping the football theme going)
A relevant cartoon strip from Tom Tomorrow.
“I will admit this time Obama does really sound sincere, but he sounded sincere almost every other time as well.”
It’s hard to fake sincerity like that, but Obama is a master at it.
Now we we know why he hates Romney. When President Obama looks in the mirrors, the reflection of this epic tale is that of Mitt Romney.
Q: What’s the difference between Obama and hillary Clinton?
A: Hillary Clinton’s got balls.
Difficult to believe? Try impossible.
What are those?
It’s a hallmark of sociopaths.
Great point. Goes to the fact that Obama really wanted cuts to Social Security and Medicare all along but could not get them with his strategy of blaming the Republicans. He’s a master at presenting himself one way to the people and backdooring his real policy intentions using the Republicans as cover.
This headline works for everything you know.
That’s it in a nutshell.
And sirens. Who turn out to be harpies.
John Stewart has pissed me off on a couple of his shows here lately, a talking about how dumb the trillion dollar coin would be, he even took on Paul Krugman last night….
John Stewart, man of the people, friend of the 0.01%, is well-versed in getting the herds of little people to “move along” as there is “nothing to see here”.
It has been his modus operandi all along. He is the court jester of the plutocrats. The ones in on his game must laugh their heads off as he takes vast swathes of their victims along with him, week after week.
Another way of looking at him is perhaps as a slightly more upmarket and vastly more wealthy version of TBogg.
I think the headline should be:
It’s Difficult to Believe Obama
or maybe:
You Are Only Fooling Yourself if You Believe Obama
or maybe:
Pay No Attention to What Obama Says… EVER!
He’s been in office for four years now. What’s all the fresh outrage about his lack of credibility? He’s never had any.
Obama is just Bush with a false intellectual veneer. He plays games with how he screws you to make it seem like he doesn’t want to. So he can to it again.
I see a method to his madness. He is determined to break the back of the social safety net and to open the door to privatization of SocSec and Medicare. This may be his last chance and he’s going for it, even if it brings down the global economy and wreaks havoc within U.S society.
It’s one of the last things left for the oligarchy to loot. They’re salivating at the prospect. Think of the size of the yachts they can build once they get their hands on those trillions. And they can pay for entire private armies to keep the plebs at bay when the time comes.
“It’s hard to fake sincerity like that, but Obama is a master at it.”
You know what they say, the key to being a successful lawyer (politician?) is sincerity — if you can fake that you’ve got it made!
Obama will be richly rewarded by his masters on Wall Street after this little gig.
There is a HUGE difference between $250,000 and $400,000. What a con artist.
sorry, couldn’t figure any other way to add url under edit. see next msg
Why I suggest one stop “listening”. Read the transcripts, follow the actions, but why would one want to “listen”. Do some WANT to be spun?
There is NO PENALTY in the US for a politician either lying or bull shitting.
On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt
There sure is.
As my wife & I agreed on election night: President Used Car Salesman.
Anyway, you can replace “Very Difficult” with “Impossible” if you’re not a sucker.
Finally, yes you ARE wealthy if you make $400K. No two ways about it. My wife and I have a solidly middle-class lifestyle (in NYC) on less than a quarter of that.
Maybe a new dynamic. Looks like 60-70 rabid gop wingers will never vote for anything Obama proposes. If Obama proposed privatizing SS they would vote against him. Obama now needs Dem House and Senate members to pass his budget–he cannot pass his essentially moderate-to-right-wing budget by solely relying on gop. He must gain enough support from the Dem representatives. My impression is that this time out, many Dems ma not be lockstep (except for Pelosi). Three of four Oregon dems voted against the current budget.
I suppose the great irony here is that blind Obama hatred by teabagger reps has caused them to validate the old saw: Cut one’s nose off to spite one’s face. It was this group of crazies who kept Obama from knee-capping SS.