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

Why should anyone bother? All they have to do is check any of the next two dozen threads you'll start filled with the latest talking points from the RNC, Rush, and your active imagination. You know, those mounds I used to try to avoid in my grandpa's pasture, that resemble your threads.

 

Thank you, exactly. "Liberals" have actually recorded their thoughts and their sincere disappointments with Obama to date, minus all the hyperbolic rhetoric and seething emotion -- that's probably why the bassos of the interwebz can't recognize it. (sigh)

 

Nonetheless, Obama and the Democrats did promise greater transparency but instead have darkened -- not brightened -- the legislative process. That said, I was disappointed at this allegedly conciliatory outreach. Both sides were pugnacious with Obama, since he was the keynote speaker, dropping the gauntlet first.

 

So much for the idea that Obama needs a teleprompter to be effective. This was totally an anything goes question and answer session. He had no teleprompter and his command and knowledge of the issues at hand were very impressive.

basso is probably pacing the halls as a nervous wreck and scouring the freeper website to find a way to combat our president's latest success.

 

my outrage is a given- i'm disappointed you don't share it, since you voted for the man.

 

You like to put obvious things amidst a lot of crap and ask us to swallow it all.
Every President knows give and take? You must be young. See Reagan and W. Bush. We could perhaps argue about Clinton and Papa Bush.

Obama's popularity has fallen like Reagan's has. They are actually very similar, you can objectively look at the numbers. Obama was extremely popular, and we barely missed a depression. Of course there was going to be anger and a rapid drop. Same with Reagan. It hardly brings about the conclusion you wish to make.

Yes, Republicans have been successful in distorting the healthcare legislation, just as they even distorted the debt. You have a party directly responsible for stupid debt, and they have now enforced it in the minds of the American people that Obama is the big spender. If they can pull that off, then yes, Obama will have to explain the healthcare legislation because they have been distorted as a "Bolshevik plot." They've said he wants to kill your grandparents.

Obama has said that the closed-door situation was bad. You didn't say much.
But honestly, when the Republicans have demonized the left, then it was impossible for democrats to work with them and vice-versa. Nothing would have happened except more distortion and manipulation when people are trying to get things done in Washington.

The tide is turning not because of healthcare. Populist anger will exist as long as people are not confident about the economy. Yea, the conservatives are going to be more mobilized than democrats but the independents are still up for grabs based on the economy. And thats the trick. The economy is going to have slow growth, but then again no economists seem to be understanding the unprecedented situation our economy is in.

Obama made it pretty clear that he hasn't ignored the conservatives. Yesterday he successfully painted himself as the one coming with the olive branch, again. Only a repub would think otherwise.
Independents have not seen such a friendship extended from a president, probably since the Vietnam war (which is when bitter partisanship took hold and strangled our government).

Like I said, you must be young. I finished US History in high school.

 

As B-Bob pointed out, some of us haven't hesitated to give the President a hard time over issues where we believe he's let us down. Unlike you, we can give praise where praise is deserved, and criticize when we find that needed. Unlike you. Want to know why I'm even more pissed off at you lately, basso, then I was before, when I went out of my way to defend some of your actions here? At the cost of at least a little redicule from some of my fellow liberal/progressive friends here? The Trip thing.

B-Bob thought it had gotten out of hand and started a thread simply about the care and treatment of those with his condition, and those who have similar problems. Your child came up and some very sincere comments were made by me and a few others, expressing sympathy and admiration for you and your family being able to deal with it. The thread was expressly created to avoid all the political crap, to show that we didn't have to drag politics into every discussion here worth having. The result? You hauled Palin into the thread. Wasted no time doing it, and it pissed me off. I saw then that what might have been described as simply your political views on her and the politics involved actually was an obsession, and that also made me realize that all the countless stupid threads you've been starting since the election were also the result of an obsession.

I'll spin my wheels for just so long, basso, and then I start looking for some new tires.

 

oh yea, IT'S A Q&A SESSION.

 

(1) Everyone here is shocked, shocked, I say, that thumbs is disappointed in an Obama action/appearance/gesture/breath/haircut.

(2) I'm not sure you watched it, but the gauntlet was dropped in the first question, which was incredibly negative and divisive. He replied, and yeah, it was on.

I actually am shocked at how well he thought on his feet. I can't truly imagine any other president in my lifetime doing that so effectively, with the opposition party surrounding him. Maybe Reagan, but not with such a mastery of the facts and policies, and maybe Clinton, but not with such a deep keel.

Whether or not this insistence on civility and honest conversation gets anywhere remains to be seen.

And Deckard, thanks for that nice post.

 

I hope that is a joke. Clinton would destroy in such an situation and the questions would have had some teeth.

He is incredibly smart and a quick thinker.

 

Yes, incredibly smart and quick, but he also showed annoyance pretty easily, in my memory. Not that it's a bad thing.

Maybe I've worsened his skillz in my recollection since I got so damned mad at him.

 

you'll have to point me to the thread, and highlight why invoking Palin was so offensive- i honestly don't recall. and it would be helpful to understand why that thread is relevant to this. i'm not sure i see the parallel.

but perhaps you're making a larger point about palin and politicization, one inferred by R2K in the thread linked in my sig, and i'll try and address it:

Sarah Palin touched a great many nerves in her speech to the RNC; many of my friends who are Obama supporters were appalled that someone of such little education, but realtively substantial accomplishment had the audacity to ridicule an opponent of such little accomplishment, but who was so "clearly" brilliant. others were simply moved by her manifest love for her son. where you see "pimpin'" i see pride, joy, and a complete lack of self-consciousness about Trig and his disability.

If love for your child, and an unwillingness to hide that child, and that love, are "political" simply because one holds political office, well...get used to it, because children with disabilities, whether on the spectrum or otherwise, are a growing segment of our population...and electorate. Palin had the audacity to hope they could one day speak for themselves, and in so doing, she spoke for all of us.

she does not deserve your approbation.

 

This seems like a good spot for this:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude, spotted a man in a boat below and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I'd meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me may be technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," she replied, "but how did you know?"

"Well," the man said, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problems. You're in exactly the same position you were before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

 

The idea that Obama could only read a teleprompter was always "silly". He is obviously a very bright man, with an exceptional ability to speak. The Republicans couldn't deny it, and cleverly decided to claim he was essentially an actor.

The Republicans would be wise to avoid direct dialogue and confrontation with Obama, they will lose. They have no one that can quarrel with him straight up.

Having said that... the Republicans are sitting pretty. They are FAR better politicians than the democrats and have momentum. They have stood up to the democrats and the democrats have high tailed it away.... cowards.

 

Yes... Clinton is smart like a fox... but 2 years into his presidency the right wing was calling him "Bubba" and "stupid".

 

How the hell can you know this? You are REALLY reaching... Her appeal was that she was easy to relate to for many middle and lower middle class Americans. However, I do not think her child had anything to do with it, and I fail to see how she loved her child any more than Obama loved his children, or Biden or McCain loved theirs...

 

Who called him stupid in 1994? Bubba comes from his Arkansas roots, beyond getting blowjobs from fat Jewish interns I am not sure where he got pegged for being stupid.

And why are you such a crybaby that you are still complaining about something that happened supposedly 16 years ago?

 

Crybaby? What the hell do I care? I simply pointed out that Bill Clinton's critics used to label him as something other than smart.

 

B-Bob -- I'm sorry that you were somehow electrified by my observation, and I'm unsure as to whether the "civility and honest conversation" refers to the Democrats and Republicans talking or to my outlook on political discussion -- I hope it's to both.

No, I did not see the whole discussion -- just the main points by both sides on newscasts. I was under the impression Obama addressed the GOP and then answered questions. I actually hoped that the two parties would start working together to solve this country's problems. This intransigence deepens my resolve to work for more moderate candidates in both parties.

However, you are correct in that Obama's policies have been distressing to me -- as were those of Bush the Younger in his second term. I lingered too long in his shadow of "compassionate conservatism" before I accepted the fact that he was screwing up the country.

 

uhm, because they're *my* impressions?