bama's Answering Questions Live Right Now At The House GOP Conference

Former McCain adviser Mark Zandi: The ‘stimulus was key’ to the strong 4th quarter growth of U.S. economy.

Mark Zandi — who was an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign — heralded the positive numbers as a result of the stimulus passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by President Obama last February:

Most serious minded people who follow these sort of things all agree that the stimlus, while not big enough, has been and will be a success.

And healthcare will be passed.

 

MSNBC to do two our special on today's meeting starting @ 8 EST.

 

Sounds like a bit much, but I think it is important for people who weren't able to watch it when it happened to see it because it sounds like it was one of the few instances where both sides faced off for real and not just lobbing rocks from different press conferences.

Plus I hear Fox cut away 20 minutes before it was over, so hopefully people will find a way to watch it and not just edited clips.

 

fyi, just caught a few minutes of Bret Bair's show, and the beginning of shep smith, and this meeting is all over fox news, including "analysis" by messrs krauthammer and hayes, and the delectable kirsten powers.

had to turn it off tho- i just can't abide shep...

 

****in' hilarious:

 

You are quite right, Obama's speech and debate skills are quite impressive but his political negotiating is lackluster. He can come on TV and say all the right things and inspire people but then when it comes time to craft the ideas into workable legislation, he lacks the abilty to get it done through negotiations. His political circle is full of mules looking for direction while the policymaking is left to the likes of Reid and Pelosi who time and again continue to hijack his political image to push their own interests. It was apparent in the numerous waste provisions added to the Stimulus and then made even more visible in the backroom shady dealmakings by Reid in an attempt to pass the healthcare bill. Too often Obama is left defending those very corrupt DC practices that he vowed to change. Just this week he was asked about the recent secrets deals that were made in the senate over healthcare and his response:

"There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked. So that’s point number one."

This coming from the man who campaigned rigorously that he would bring "Change" to Washington's culture of corruption.

My opinion of him prior to his election still remains the same. A great salesman with top notch sales pitch but not a workhorse leader we need.

I think the crucial element plaguing his presidency is his delusion that he is still an outsider campaigning against the established order when in fact he is now the establishment himself. His SOTU was similar in tone to his campaign rhetoric where he promised once again to "fight". But who is he fighting? The minority GOP opposition? The detracters and hijackers in his own party? The corruption among his own appointed cronies? The lobbyist he denounces on TV but who are then invited to secret fundraisers by his aides?

He still doesn't get it, the buck stops at him. He is President not a community organizer or Senate candidate trying to fight the system. He is incharge of the system. The preacher has to at some point become the practioner.

 

^^Amen.

Spoiler

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to ghettocheeze again.

 

ya DAMN right!

 

$750 Billion, not big enough for the "serious minded"?

What would make them happy , another trillion? Maybe the 2 trillion that Congress is going to print out of thin air after it raises the debt ceiling yet again?

What are the "serious" waiting for Stimulus: The Sequel?

Why don't we let Bazooka Bernanke make it rain from his helicopter?

Seriously, "serious" people please save me the time and read what the CBO reported on the Stimulus. Here's a sneak:

if you have received any funds from the Stimulus even a grant or subsidy then you are lucky enough to be part of the "2 million jobs saved" club Obama proudly pumps his fist in the air while speaking about.

 

oh to have your passion six years ago

 

I think Obama got his point across though people will most likely continue to ignore it. He's suggesting measures like a domestic spending freeze and tax cuts for businesses which are bread and butter GOP ideaology and then challenging the GOP to either support it or prove that they are obstructionists by voting against it.

It's a great move, problem is the group of people he is trying to inform regarding the blatant hypocrisy are the same ones who want government to keep their hands off their Medicare and advocate for across the board tax cuts while crying about the deficit.

 

That was awesome. Well worth the watch. I especially liked the part where he pointed out that they've put themselves in the position where they can't even approve of their own policies when Obama embraces them because doing so would cost them votes back home.

 

I love how people will crap on recent spending and point fingers at Obama while entirely ignoring Bush's reckless spending (tax rebates, etc).

I do think one needs to take both forms of "reckless spending" into consideration and not simply make this a partisan issue.

 

Your post was like vomit all over a computer screen, but in your stupor you happened to stumble upon something that I quoted above.

Obama has been naive and too idealistic. Modern Presidents tell Congress what to do and then that party tries to make it happen as dictated. Here, Obama allows the legislation process to go on without his guidance which is something closer to what the Constitution intended. It is not that Obama is incapable of making policy, it is that he is too idealistic, just like his call to have no lobbyists in his Administration which is practically impossible but one he almost met; it is now being held against him because there are a couple.

Obama has incredible power and he has chosen not to use it. He needs to start guiding the process and leaning on his own party as well as the opposition party. Today both the Republicans and Obama did well, but Obama ran circles around them. He showed that even in his worst month, he can change the game up as he pleases and have independents back on his side. The Republicans looked dumb at times, but at least they got their message out so that was their limited victory.

The rest of your post is vomit because it doesn't portray Obama in any realistic representation. Political negotiating is lackluster? He is anything but politically inept. His political capital amongst Americans is far higher than both congressional parties combined. Who are you trying to convince? Basso? You could probably get Basso to kiss wherever you want if you place a Republican sticker there.

 

What do you mean he has the independents back? This wasn't a debate. It was a question and answer. Sure, he's quick off the hip, but thats not what gets things done. Telling people what they want to hear doesn't get things done. He keeps repeating two things that are killing him

Healthcare - Instead of chastising Pelosi with her "ram healthcare through at all costs" mentality, he continues to ignore the peoples wishes. He needs to openly say he will put healthcare on the backburner until we have positive job growth.

Owning his job - Quite frankly, im tired of him reminding the public that "his administration inherited this mess". His job is not to find fault for all of the problems. His job is to fix them. Him playing defense is one of the biggest hidden weakness his opponents are playing off of him. When the Republicans were grilling him on the stimulus package and the current 10% unemployment rate, he immediately went on the defense stating the brunt of the job loss happened before he was sworn into office and he couldn't predict the actual unemployment rate. Ya know Mr. President, you are 100% correct. But admit you made a mistake, don't blame the Bush administration. Its getting old. When are you going to own this mess? A good leader would have owned it the moment he stepped into office and never looked back.

 

So you're saying that if your girl, who is 8 months pregnant, keeps calling you the baby daddy and saying how she expects you to provide for your child...........even though you just met her 2 months ago....you would just own it right

 

Right. In a first of its kind televised event, where his opponents were clearly attempting to paint him in a bad light and misrepresent facts, Obama should have said, "You're right, this is all my fault! Boy, I really screwed the pooch here..."

right...too bad you're not on Obama's team, you'd have this all figured out and already be crowned history's greatest leader!

l

 

How many times has Obama said "...inherited this problem..." or any other verbiage along those lines? And of those times, could he have simply looked past the reminder and talked about the problem on hand instead? How often has other presidents blamed previous administrations for the problems?

And owning a problem is not the same as admitting to the mistake. He and his administration said 8% in defense to get the stimulus support, not the Bush administration or congress. Now we have the stimulus and we are past 10%,so yes, I expect him to admit to a mistake in the numbers, not weasel out and remind everyone the crash didn't happen on his watch.

 

You fool. He was saying that in response to a very narrow conclusion. You make a broad conclusion as a child does when handling too much information.

The Republicans have been misrepresenting the facts. They portray the debt as the whole thing is his fault. Never do they mention the certain percentage that he inherited. Never. I'd love to know how many times they make this distinction. Do you remember? Please, tell me. I'll give you some time to think about it. . . .




Think long and hard.





The narrow subject addressed is merely this. He has specifically said in interviews that he should be taken accountable for the debt he added, BUT not the part which he inherited. You want him to own up to everything, a nice little trick to be held accountable for stupidity and thus, lack of confidence from the American people. Let's call it as it is.

YOU own up to it, and we'll own up to ours.

Bush's debt: revenue out far exceeding revenue in. Tax cuts skewed towards the wealthy, tax cuts during times of prosperity, tax cuts that we found out were not the reason for prosperity as we had thought. The housing market's fake profits were. FINAL OUTCOME: squandered Clinton surplus to give us the biggest deficit in our history at the time. Awesome.

Obama debt: A RESPONSE to the failing economy. If you've read conclusions from the Great Depression, the way out is to throw money at the problem. Hell, I learned this in US History AP back in the 90's. Furthermore, prior to leading the Fed, Helicopter Ben did a study on the Great Depression and he came with the same conclusion. Throw money at the problem (from a helicopter, if you wish), it is the way out. Another way to put it is, pay someone to dig a hole, then pay another person to fill it up with dirt. That is the solution, but here we are building infrastructure instead.

Republicans give credit to Helicopter Ben for saving our economy, credit through committee hearings and credit when he was approved by the Senate rather easily. People don't seem to understand this response to depressions because they are more angry than rational these days. What's your excuse?

Obama is specifically saying to hold him accountable for the stimulus debt, and not the U.S. debt. Because his debt is justified while the other part is not.

THERE, two sentences you should be able to remember.

After a few months into his presidency, Republicans already were saying, stop blaming the other administration it is getting old. Obviously, when we barely escape a depression, half a year, or even two years would not cover the damage already done. It is just a Republican tactic that makes pawns out of the weak-minded: You.

 

Naive? Absolutely. Not idealistic but idealogue.

Sounds like an excuse for his incompetence to act the role of the President. Oh and he is still a terrible negotiator. Every former President will tell you that it takes a lot give and take to craft legislation that will pass in Congress. Obama however, in his misguided idealism believes there can be no compromise in his views no matter how unpopular his agenda becomes to the American people. He still defends healthcare as not having explained enough to the people what he wants even though he made a record number of speeches on that very issue. The more the people found out about the content of the bill, the faster it lost support among his constituents.

What political planet are you living on?

A few month ago his Party locked out the Republicans from healthcare when they were too busy caught up in cutting backroom deals with their own crooks. Then a few weeks ago Obama himself took the time from his campaign circuit to fly up to Massachusetts to trash Brown and the GOP.

Now Obama wants bi-partisanship from the same GOP which he ignored for 12 months?

If that's not a desperate attempt at saving face then I don't know what is.

Now today he had good intentions to work it out with GOP members but once again his ideaology took over and he spoke more than he litsened. Yes he won some major points for his debate skills among the media but he seemed to further alienated the GOP with his attempt to intimidate them.

The tide is turning, the Democrats will lose power in the House for their sheer lunacy of attempting to shove that monster of healthcare through Congress. Pelosi still can't escape her delusional state. She continues to insist on finding a way to pass it whatever the cost may be.

That said, there is very little chance him getting any real legislation passed from now until November. The GOP has no reason to come to the table anymore, they've shown how they can use populist anger to crush the Democrats in an election. Republicans are the outsiders fighting the establishment in the eyes of the independent voters. The very people to whom Obama was the more appealing candidate back in 2008. This shift is the result of Obama continuing to appease to his far left radicals like Reid and Pelosi. Also the fact that the Blame Bush Game is wearing off its novelty very quickly. A President who continues to look back after having been in office for over a year now is not one whom the public sees with hope anymore.

Finally what popular capital are you looking at? His decline in approval rating is the fastest we've ever seen for a President after his first year in office.

But you go ahead, continue to regurgitate the Democrat talking points.

1) Blame the GOP
2) Blame Bush
3) Blame the right wing extremists
4) Blame the Tea Party movement

If all else fails, Blame Sarah Palin.