Associated Press
Around 2 a.m. on Election Night, President Obama delivered a stirring victory speech in Chicago, and one of the very first things he did after leaving the stage was call House Democratic leaders Steve Israel and Nancy Pelosi. Why? Because Obama wanted to stress his interest in the 2014 midterms.
It wasn't a fleeting moment. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the president is heavily focused on taking a direct, hands-on role in helping elect a Democratic House majority in 2014. The article noted, "This approach marks a significant shift in the way Obama has worked with a divided Congress. He has compromised and badgered, but rarely -- and never so early -- campaigned to change its composition."
Putting aside the electoral conditions -- Steve Kornacki makes a persuasive case that the numbers probably aren't there for Democrats -- Obama's ambitions are understandable. The clock is ticking on his presidency, and meaningful progress on his top priorities is extremely difficult so long as radicalized congressional Republicans dominate the House of Representatives.
It's difficult, in other words, to blame Obama for focusing his attention on the last election cycle of his presidency. Then again, some Republicans don't find it difficult at all.
Washington continues careening from crisis to crisis because President Obama is too focused on restoring Democratic control of the House, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. [...]
McConnell said Obama and Democrats have "expended enormous amounts of energy to advance that goal – rebooting his political organization, provoking manufactured crises with Congress, engineering show votes in the Senate, and traveling around the country to campaign relentlessly against his opponents. That's why the Sequester went into effect in its current form. That's why Washington continues to careen needlessly from crisis to crisis. And that's why we find ourselves in a situation where more than 1,400 days have passed since Senate Democrats last passed a budget. What a sad state of affairs for our country, and for the notion of governance in general."
At almost the exact same moment this morning, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) complained to reporters, "America believes the election is over, that the roadshow president should stop and we should start an agenda that puts people back to work. That's the difference and the frustration that the House has with the White House."
That sound you hear are Irony-O-Meters everywhere spontaneously combusting.
Look, I can appreciate why Republicans aren't happy about Obama wanting to defeat them in congressional elections. Their futures would be more secure if a relatively popular president weren't focusing some of his energies on electoral considerations.
But hearing McConnell and McCarthy whine about this to the media this morning may be one of the single most hilarious things I've ever heard.
Remember learning about the meeting Republican leaders held on Inauguration Day 2009 -- the one in which the party committed "unyielding opposition" to everything Obama sought? McCarthy, the guy who now thinks "the election is over," helped lead the meeting.
McConnell, meanwhile, spent the president's first term saying that defeating Obama, not helping Americans, was his top "priority," and deliberately refusing to consider bipartisan proposals, even ones that he liked and approved of, in order to advance his larger partisan cause.
In other words, for four years, GOP leaders like McConnell and McCarthy have run a scorched-earth campaign against the Obama presidency, refusing to compromise, refusing to accept concessions, refusing at times to even support their own proposals, all in the hopes of tearing the president down. It's against this backdrop that Obama has concluded helping elect a Democratic Congress is worth his time.
And now the same folks who've tried to destroy the president are outraged that he wants to help replace them? Please.
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It's amazing, how every day these scum manage to remind me of the truth of the statement, "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
Ummmmmm....OK, maybe a bit too harsh......
Depends on how you interpret it. If he's saying, "The only good one is a dead one", then yes, too harsh.
I, on the other hand, interpreted it as saying "All the good ones are already dead" - like Lincoln, for example.
lets suppose someone FIRES a repuber in defence of life support. a pimped out repuber who withholds jobs from people or fires them or repos their home after loan fraud or price fraud.
then lets suppose that person is charged with a crime. i wonder if god or jesus would find them guilty in defence of life liberty and pursuit of happiness.
interesting how repubes are managing to privitize life (support), liberty (of speech and transport) and happiness (of use of public property)
Or maybe something a bit more prosaic like..."They should all give up politics and take up gardening"...
Think about it...all the senior GOP leadership working together to make the world a more beautiful place...
Walking slowly in the sun alongside a strip of highway somewhere tending patches of wild flowers...and picking up litter and putting it in bags...maybe in some nice color coordinates orange jumpsuits...
And your driving down that road...with a front seat stocked with 64 oz Cherry Slurpees...
Yeah that puts a smile on your face and brightens your day
The Washington Post pointed out that Dems lost 15 house seats in districts that Obama won. But the Obama campaign had zero interest in reminding Obama supporters in those districts how important it was to take back the House and elect their DEM house candidate.
Zero. Blake Zeff chronicles this in his Salon article yesterday.
Pelosi told Obama over and over what the GOP would do. With threatened loss of his Senate supermajority when Kennedy died, what did the White House do to help Coakley? "Nothing" is what Suskind reports in his book. With the clear signal of the TParty backlash in the coming what did the White House do in the midterms? Nothing.
Does Obama finally understands that Pelosi was right and he was wrong about the GOP? Has he categorically rejected his prior practice of ignoring congressional elections, in favor of an aggressive effort? In pop culture terms will he dial this up to 11, or is he simply tweaking his volume from a 1 to a 3? The key question is whether Obama intends to remain spinning his wheels with powder puff politics or whether he is willing to use the power of his office to bring decisive aid to candidates in these districts, and punish the incumbents who support policies of obstruction.
The executive has the authority to target particular districts to bear the brunt of the sequestration cuts. The question is whether Obama is shy about spanking the misbehaving representatives. Take for example a budget account for JROTC programs. Well- why can't he not focus the entirety of the cuts on institutions in districts electing GOP obstructionists?
While it is true that LBJ's situation was quite different than Obama's, it seems to me that Johnson had few inhibitions about employing such tactics involving the raw exercise of power to bend reluctant House or Senate members to go along with this civil rights legislation.
Suskind quotes an unnamed aide to the president, who from the language is more than likely Emmanuel:
If Obama is serious, he can do this. He must commit OFA, and use sequestration as a bludgeon against obstructionist districts. They must feel the consequences for behaving like children and subjecting the country to a multi year temper tantrum.
It's time for the Belt.
Not harsh enough, and save the Ms. Manners horseshet! The American experience now requires an infusion of sanity. The languishing era of foolishly forgiving the actions of sociopaths and in the same breath chiding fellows for "harsh language" boots what again? Equipoise?
How's that working for you and how has it worked for the President?
Sorry, I meant to say a marrow transplant of sanity..
Not harsh enough in my book. The GOP is a treasonous, anti-American institution. I support its destruction by any means short of violence, and the way things are going, I might rethink my hesitation about that exception.
Alan,
Boy, do I understand your sentiments at this moment. Paul Ryan is literally in heaven over the sequester and is plotting and planning, along with the base of the House GOP, to institute MORE cuts to the poor and vulnerable. He has a new lease on life and a new Ayn Randian spring in his step! He got his cuts without his name being attached to them! It just reinvigorated him no end. He's now ready to declare war on social security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
His new health inurance plan will be, "Don't get sick if you make under $250,000.00 a year."
The red states voting for small government should be given what they are asking for:
The lunatic Right says they want small government. Fine. Give them what they are asking for. Cut them severely and localize the economic hit to red districts. Then shift the surplus funds from severely cutting expenditures in those districts, and spend heavily in DEM districts.
.
If they don't like Keynesian stimulus, don't give it to them.
.
Why not. If they think big gubmint and stimulus spending is wrong, take them at their word.
And yet with this Republican scorched earth strategy, Harry Reid won't even pass filibuster reform.
And I am definitely with Alan at 1.8.
As long as the Democrats listen to people like Steve Kornacki, who tell them that winning a majority in the House in 2014 is impossible, they'll be guaranteed to fail. Obama will then be the lamest of lame ducks, knowing that he can't get anything through that chamber.
Around this time in 2011, many "pundits" were saying that the Dems had little chance of holding onto the Senate. Fortunately, some people didn't listen to them.
Forget "the numbers." We're dealing with people. Get the right candidates on board, target enough money to winnable districts, and put lots of shoe leather on the ground. Steve Kornacki might be surprised at the results in 2014.
Agreed. Since the President is wildly more popular than Congressional Republicans, I would strongly suggest he take his message to the people in weekly addresses, (every Sunday night, prime time) highlighting each week’s incidents of House and Senate obstructionism.
The short term game is not whether the Democrats can win a majority in 2014, it is whether President Obama can make reelection uncertain for enough House Republicans to force them to pay attention to polls of the general electorate.
Until recently most House Republicans only paid attention to their right-wing fringe because they fear them. Since fear is all they seem to understand, instilling a little fear of the general public is a step forward.
Universal background checks, immigration reform that includes legalization, and combined spending cuts and tax reform to remove loopholes for the wealthy and corporations are all popular with the general electorate. GOP whining about the President talking to the public is a symptom of their anxiety about the next election.
There's an old saying in basketball, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
stevie always looks so nervous when he talks. maybe he has a split personality? he certainly does not advocate like he could or should. perhaps he has ABANDONED HIMSELF.
Timely reference given the conference championships and NCAA tournament are about to begin. Let's hope the President applies it to many issues, especially the job crisis, we face.
The most fertile areas where Dems can flip districts will be those with a large suburban population. It might help if Obama and the Dems could throw a bone or two at the rural areas. He could make a case for defending farm subsidies and loans to those in areas most affected by the drought at the same time he can endorse cutting subsidies to large agrofarms. I don't understand why Dems abandon the rural areas. You have to give the people in those areas a reason to vote for you if you want them to change their voting habits. So Dems need to put out some ideas for those rural areas.
Mike,
I understand the sentiment, but you mean in addition to rural roads, electrification, school program aid, water treatment plants, and emergency health care coverage?
I live in a large town/small city in a rural section of a more-rural-than-average state. Most of the counties and municipalities in the area receive a majority of their funds from either the state (meaning cities elsewhere in the state) or the feds. And they vote overwhelmingly for the GOP while having their Congressmen send pork back from Washington.
(or was that the Popular Front...?)
I think this is just a continuation of something I saw from time to time throughout 2012: that Obama is doing something unseemly by campaigning/politicking. The truth is, Obama is simply acting like any other office-holder, but Republicans are so consumed by hatred that they can't see straight.
I think the bigger point is that this is just another example of McConnell saying whatever will solidify him further with his extreme base. It helps him with this base to say "we'll shut the whole country down if that's what it takes to get this Muslim Community Organizer out of the White House!" (Cue cheering Rednecks). It also helps him with this base when he says "Look, the Foreign-Born, Muslim Community Organizer who lets illegal aliens out of prison would rather shut down the whole country than allow us poor Republicans maintain our voice in government!!!" (More cheering from the crowd...) This divide between the majority of the country and the extremists who control elections in rural, evangelical right wing areas of the country is at the heart of most of these issues, and will not be solved until we find a way to make their political clout irrelevant.
got that right. the inner core of pimped out repuber extortionists is being revealed for THE EVIL IT IS AND THEY ARE.
Does anyone give a tinkers damn what that ugly, immoral, lying, hateful, nasty, depressing old has-been says about anything?
I'm thinking, "Anyone but Mitch", Mitch. That includes Ashley Judd.
Chew on that little piece of hard tack before you crawl back under your rock....you parasite...
Well, we ought to care because they're ruining everything for everyone. If we don't care, why bother fighting them?
i know its a long shot, but the democrats may get help from where you'd least expect it. just consider what paul ryan is flogging today.
lol..... jerk chicken?
"America believes the election is over" Obama won, and the Republicans think they have a mandate, they can't come to terms with the fact that everything Republican was rejected by the American people, and they just don't get it.
"America believes the election is over". The republicans have bashed Obama for continuing the "permanent campaign"-which is rich with projection as that is their M.O. What I see Obama doing is exhorting us to exercise our citizenship. He spoke of this at the DNC convention and at his inaugural. My favorite part.
If we don't stay engaged, we lose. Rust never sleeps and neither does the GOP with their heavy financial advantage.
And they wonder why they are despised or are they creating so much havoc that people are tuning out no longer paying attention so people will blame both parties. I have to be honest it is hard to listen to day in & day out. I'm beginning to believe the latter.
LOSER PIMPED OUT REPOOPS now believe they were elected to oppose the winners. but the thieving pimped out repubes are devious - they want you to take their opposition to President Obama at face value. but the pimped out repoop con artists extortion and hostage actions are RESULTING in trashing out American and Americans lives.
The pimped out repoops want you to believe that the trashing of America is just a consequence of actions which they try to pin on President Obama as they attack him.
UNDERSTAND THIS.... the trashing of America and American lives as a result of the actions of the pimped out repoops is not the result of their actions, IT IS THEIR OBJECTIVE! Opposing President Obama is just their cover story.
They're treating the election like the Super Bowl. Done, and of importance only to the like of historians and statisticians.
Right now the GOTP is angry at Americans, why because WE voted President Obama back in office! Even after their shallow distractions, attempted voter fraud, and their guy was the archetypal 1% - which was all soundly rejected. This is really what bothers them. The fact that the President is using the bully pulpit the same way that George W, Darth Chaney, Condaleeza et.al all went out selling that failure that was Iraq, "tax cuts" skewered toward the rich - the fact that the black guy has the nerve to go out and speak to WE the PEOPLE and the PEOPLE are listening - that's what else is ticking them off. The fact that their base is shrinking down to the rabid, reich-wing, evangelical thumping crazies means that they must move ever more rightward and full speed on to insanity.
Hopefully, they will implode soon, and enough of what's left of republicans/moderates/independents of good conscious will step forward and vote in a saner bunch that are more willing to work for America's and working Americans best interests!
And you shouldn't overlook the claim that Obama is "provoking manufactured crises with Congress."
Congressional Republicans manufactured all these crises, from the three (!) shutdown threats in the spring of 2011, to the debt ceiling crisis that summer, to the "fiscal cliff" at the end of 2012, to the debt ceiling threat earlier this year, to the sequester just now, to the upcoming CR expiration, to the resumption of the debt ceiling in May.
That's a lot of manufactured crises, dudes. Calling attention to them probably isn't your winning card.
in a good normal society, the pimped out repoopers game of hostage taking and extortion would land them 25 to life in prison.
While I understand why Obama seems to be continuing on the campaign trail, hoping public pressure will eventually get to the radical GOP, I have little hope that the people will actually be able to sway the Right. The Right has demonstrated nothing but disdain for those they perceived to have voted for Obama, based on the assumption that Obama's supporters were largely in it for the "free government benefits". Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they will go down in flames before they release that particular belief. To suddenly see the light and agree that it was the message not the messanger that is the issue, seems to me to be nearly impossible. Obama is currently preaching to the choir but it's the boys in the parking lot he needs to reach and they are too busy jousting at windmills.
President Obama is NOT trying to sway the right. He is instead going about setting an example of what is good and acceptable and how to deal with sociopathic bullies and their pimped out anything-for-money ways. He knows very well how evil minded they are and he just wants to wake people up.
It just drives Republicans nuts that they can obstruct every policy initiative Obama proposes, buy they can't keep Obama from talking to the people of the country, doesn't it?
lol... yes it does. and as the pimped out repoops are already nuts, i guess they are going to have to get desparate (they are desparados) and panic and call upon their non-leaders like romney to lead a coupe.
they suffer from a tragic inferiority complex along with selfishness and greed and like bashar al-assad - cannot live as equals.
Any time Mitch McConnell opens his mouth to speak on any issue whatsoever, he needs to fess up with an opening utterance as follows:
"Now that I have forced the august institution known as The Senate to operate at a minimum with a super majority of 60.1% or better, I'd like to take this time to speak on behalf of the American people (of whom I know nothing about) regarding the inability of this current Congress to do anything important for the United States Middle Class! Oh, and while I'm at it, President Obama is a meany!"
Anything short of uttering such a disclaimer, Mitch risks being laughed out of the room by the sober, thoughtful, serious folk in attendance! -Kevo
Who is the 0.1 Senator? Rand Paul?
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
The Republican party is trying to Akinize future candidates from spewing uglyspeak and it will be as successful as those unnecessary chin reductions Mitch gets.
OK, I'm a bad person but I can't stop looking at that photo.
it is difficult to discern whether he comes from a line of turkeys or turtles. i dont mind making fun of him, he earned his ugliness.
His demeanor and mien are pure, distilled Cecil Turtle, of Looney Tunes. It's not just his gross physical traits.
Every charge republican leaders (sic) hurl at Obama is a mirror image of their own behavior.
right. it really is all they know how to do. like dickless cheney said in an interview with frank gafney in some fony award thing... "When we ruled..."
Let's not forget that roughly 40% of Americans are stupid enough to vote Republican. So, before anyone gets their hopes up, they might consider educating some of those stupid people.
Unfortunately, Democrats are unwilling to spotlight the sophistry, false propaganda and unscrupulous character flaws of Republican politicians to the American people.
Sad, but true.
scary!
Steve I know it's to late for all that's happened, or in this case hasn't happened but maybe you should consider starting another chronicle, but this time instead of Mitt's Mendacity, you could do one on republican obstructionism.
Republican Logic and Language - Lesson 32
When Obama gives speeches on his agenda, this is called "campaigning".
If Obama gives a speech supporting the Republican agenda, this is called "leadership".
I know that in 2009, Obama had a majority in the House...
And I know hindsight i always 20/20...
But I firmly believe we'd all have been a lot better off if Obama had been as partisan in his first term as he seems to be becoming in his second. Enough of the bipartisan horsecrap. If you believe on side has a better agenda, a better view on the future of the nation, stop diluting it with naysayers who not only want you to fail but plot to assist that happening.
I need Obama to say something along the lines of "I firmly believe Republicans in Congress are capable of working with Democrats and my Administration to create and enact meaningful legislation that will improve the lives of all Americans. But until they're willing to ACTUALLY DO THAT, I urge voters to pay attention to what Democrats are trying to accomplish, as opposed to what Republicans are trying to prevent."
Mitch McConnell is a poor excuse for a human being which is why he looks so much like a turtle.
You could learn a little from McConnell as evolution has allowed the snake to evolve a number of times, just so that it could slither under a rock.
"Washington continues careening from crisis to crisis because President Obama is too focused on restoring Democratic control of the House, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday."
Ummmm, no, Washington continues to careen from crisis to crisis because THAT'S THE WAY MITCH MCCONNELL AND HIS REPUB COHORTS WANT IT!
I just wish more news outlets would challenge the republicans and call them out on their bull. it's so painfully obvious to anyone with a computer that the crap you say and do are much easier to remember now than it used to be. Hell Romney was pretty much lying and flip flopping every week and he's surprised that he lost?! Liberals own the young and informed vote because of social issues and for the fact that we can spot a liar a mile away.
why do you think the gop is trying so hard to pin the sequester on the prez. because they know they are in trouble. deep trouble. when tens of thousands of defense jobs are lost, most will be in gop states, the gop will whine and cry like babies. they never thought that these 'government' jobs could disappear. when the gop and mr bush created all these jobs for gop states, during the bs wars, they never thought they would be touched. we have lost thousands of moms, dads, brothers and sisters all done to fuel jobs in gop states. how disgusting! and the war in iraq was a complete lie! the gop knows that as long as they protect their rich friends and business owners they will continue to get tons of money. so the old saying goes; its not what you know, but who you know!