Can the Obama Presidency be saved?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I dunno, Bill - it sounds like that's what you are hoping for - for Obama to throw his arms up and say, screw what the American people elected me for, I'm gonna listen the Right because they deserve a second chance.

Now this has got to get the "Odealistic award" in this tread.

Jeez Louis, Stephen do you really believe the majority of people who voted for Barry could even name 3 things obama wanted to get done?

People were tired and voted for something new...... and you can't get "newer" than a Black president.

Now this is not to bust on Obamer, most often people vote the guy with the best hair or who looks better on camera.

Sure Obamer won but seriously don't kid yourself into thinking he had some "mandate", with those election results....in fact if another strong third party had run he might still be the JR. senator from IL.

When are you gonna LEARN? He's to invested!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I dunno, Bill - it sounds like that's what you are hoping for - for Obama to throw his arms up and say, screw what the American people elected me for, I'm gonna listen the Right because they deserve a second chance.

Now this has got to get the "Odealistic award" in this tread.

Jeez Louis, Stephen do you really believe the majority of people who voted for Barry could even name 3 things obama wanted to get done?

People were tired and voted for something new...... and you can't get "newer" than a Black president.

Now this is not to bust on Obamer, most often people vote the guy with the best hair or who looks better on camera.

Sure Obamer won but seriously don't kid yourself into thinking he had some "mandate", with those election results....in fact if another strong third party had run he might still be the JR. senator from IL.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Saving the Obama Presidency

On this day in 1994, Bill Clinton's presidency was saved.

The day to save Obama's presidency, then, would appear to be another year away.

After threatening to keep Congress in session until a health-care bill was passed, then Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell gave up and let members return home for their recess. The legislative push for universal health care never recovered,...

And this is the lesson to be learned. Major reform isn't going to happen in an election year. If it isn't tackled this year, there will be no reform. That is the most expensive, the most economically and fiscally irresponsible option of all - do nothing.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Mr. Big Dog

[nowhereman 1]

You seriously haven't realized yet, that when Obama is criticized, either the topic is changed or they attack the poster?

Now come on J&A you can't seriously take the high road. First of all the VJ Right has been all over Obama even before he got into office, so to act like he's treated with kid gloves on VJ is not even remotely true. Secondly when Obama steps on it (for example when he said the MA police department "acted stupidly" about the black Professor being arrested for disorderly conduct before Obama knew the facts) a number of left leaning VJers denounced Obama's premature comments. Moreover when someone from the right says something stupid (e.g. the Glenn Beck thread) the vast majority of the VJ Right condones the remarks.

As for changing the topic I'm guilty of that in this thread, but it had nothing to do with protecting Obama... another poster used the Lockerbie bomber as an example & I threw in my 2 cents disagreeing with her. Trust me it's by no means a left wing conspiracy.

I definitely wasn't taking any road - but I think this is the best response to anything i've ever said. Thanks.

Funny no mention of the VJ Left. You might try pullin your head out of his a$$ then possibly you might be able to see. Trying to pretend your a fence sitter is funny as he!!.

You chose the name NOWHERE for a reason!

I've said the BS & rhetoric goes both ways, but the facts speak for themselves. Check the Pelosi thread & see how many left leaning VJers denounced her remarks, then take a look at the Glenn Beck thread & see how many right leaning VJers denounced his remarks (I counted exactly one). I've seen this double standard again & again on VJ... you don't see it because you're part of it. I am admittedly left of the VJ center (and there are a lot more right leaning VJers than left IMO) but I am also one of the few VJers that calls BS no matter which side of the fence it comes from.

[HAL 9000 96]

Saving the Obama Presidency

On this day in 1994, Bill Clinton's presidency was saved.

It didn't look that way at the time. After threatening to keep Congress in session until a health-care bill was passed, then Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell gave up and let members return home for their recess. The legislative push for universal health care never recovered, and scarcely 11 weeks later Republicans led by Newt Gingrich woke up to find that they had just won control of both houses of Congress...

Today the lesson that President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress take from that 1994 defeat is that they need to avoid Mr. Clinton's "mistakes." Avoiding mistakes, however, is not a winning strategy. A far more productive strategy would be to embrace Mr. Clinton's success, which was freeing himself from his party's left and returning to the centrist themes he had campaigned on.

No doubt that would be a bitter pill for Mr. Obama, given how he has made health care his signature issue. Still, a wiser West Wing ought to have seen this train wreck coming. For months polls have shown a huge gap between the popularity of the president and the unpopularity of his policies. Sooner or later, one of these had to give...

Public skepticism increased when the Congressional Budget Office issued findings contradicting Mr. Obama's claims that his health-care reform would lower costs. And the more Americans have learned about the specifics, the more they dislike the plans. The president understands that he loses when he talks about substantive issues, which is why he's been fudging on the public option. He may not understand that he is closing the gap between his unpopular policies and his personal popularity in the worst way a president can: by reducing his own credibility.

Back in 1994, Mr. Clinton faced pretty much the same problem. Though he too had won the White House promising to be a new kind of Democrat, his first two years had a distinctly liberal tenor: battling over gays in the military, promoting a new energy tax, turning a promised middle-class tax cut into a huge tax hike, and trying to push through universal health care. Though he continues to deny GOP contributions to his success, after his 1994 health-care defeat, Mr. Clinton did what all smart pols do: He appropriated the most appealing parts of his opponents' agenda.

The result was a new Bill Clinton, embracing everything from deregulation and welfare reform to the Defense of Marriage Act. In his 1996 State of the Union, he even struck a Reaganite chord by announcing that "the era of Big Government is over." From this newly held center, Mr. Clinton advanced his presidency and pushed, both successfully and unfairly, to demonize Mr. Gingrich. Mostly he got away with it...

Even in the midst of a Republican resurgence, Mr. Clinton would go on from the defeat to become the first Democrat since FDR to be elected to two terms. By contrast, Mr. Obama's handling of the health-care debate—making villains out of cable television and insurance companies, questioning the motives of those who disagree, imposing artificial deadlines—suggests a rigidity typically associated with a lack of executive experience and responsibility.

At the moment, Mr. Obama plainly remains wedded to the view that the 1994 failure to get a health-care bill through Congress marked a catastrophe for the Clinton presidency rather than its liberation. On Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said his boss was "quite comfortable" with the idea that sticking to his agenda may well mean "he only lives in this house" for one term. Sounds like a man who appreciates the limits of a president's personal popularity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...2806338544.html

His presidency was never in doubt. Some folks just have a different view re Health Care. I listened to a Town Hall meeting that the president spoke at approx 2 weeks ago and came away feeling more educated and less ignorant. The #1 question on everyone's mind was "how was he going to foot the cost of health care reform" He suggested several ways and I do think it will work if given the chance to.

** LOGIC ALERT **