Obama: Move beyond "tired debates" on offshore drilling & "stale debates" on nuclear.

[Karmadillo]

Maybe Obama needs to stop moving beyond debates and start looking at the arguments underlying the debates. In the case of offshore drilling, he seems George W. Bush Mission Accomplished wrong in his efforts to draw equivalence between the right and the left. As it turns out, the left was right. In the case of nuclear, is his leadership any less suspect than it was on offshore drilling?

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/climate-change/obama-on-drilling-time-to-move-beyond-tired-debates-between-right-and-left/

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Obama also notes that some in the business community and on the right will say he didn’t go far enough. And he makes his now-familiar argument that his decision represents a pragmatic middle ground between opposing sides that are imprisoned by ideology:

Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.

The substance of Obama’s decision aside, drawing this equivalence between right and left — on climate change issues, no less — only risks antagonizing environmentalists and liberals. Full prepared remarks here.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/obama-says-safe-nuclear-power-plants-are-a-necessary-investment.html

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President Obama today said that safe, new nuclear power plants are a "necessity" as he announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in three decades.

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Playing up the bipartisan appeal of his announcement, the president said that the announcement today is not welcome by all, but called for all to put the “same, old stale debates” behind them.

[Bluebear]

1. 'Playing up the bipartisan appeal of his announcement' - Gee, that's new.

:silly:

[Karmadillo]

4. If the right wasn't wrong so often, it might make sense to preach bipartisanship, but

given reality, bipartisanship makes no sense whatsoever.

[msongs]

2. wishy washy is kinda tired too nt

[HillbillyBob]

3. Sell out is pragmatic?

I don't think so.
He sure as hell is screwin up by the numbers as far as Im concerned.

I plan to be off grid. Yea its going to cost, but not as much as on going fuel cost will cost our household. My personal income is SSD and my partners paycheck is ever lower.. Why should we pay out for fossil fuel month after month when we cannot afford it?

We have started growing food on our own yard and working out ways to heat the house via solar and other alternate means.

[pscot]

5. How does "moving beyond stale debates"

differ from "Drill, baby. Drill"?

[Moochy]

6. its a the same phrase...

but all dressed-up to be saleable to college-educated dupes.

[Zoeisright]

7. The truth is never stale.

Someone needs to tell him that.

[amborin]

8. "drawing this equivalence between right and left"

same as he did in his recent remarks about the liberal warren and burger supreme courts....saying the roberts court makes the same mistakes the liberal courts made....

what mistakes?! just incredible to hear this kind of nonsense from him, over and over

he legitimizes bogus conservative criticisms of leftists and liberals

time to admit it: Obama governs like a right wing conservative

[Bluebear]

9. 'the announcement today is not welcome by all'

:eyes:

[glowing]

11. Also, in the areas where "drill baby drill" would be applicable, many republicans don't want the

offshore drilling either.. Its bad for business if your business involves the Gulf.. and much of it does.. real estate, tourism, fishing industry/ recreation... even local govt need the tax revenue... Property rates will decline with oil off the coast.

Its actually bi-partisan that many don't want drilling.. want off oil.. want to use technology and people and attack a green energy sollution that takes us off coal and oil so we have a future for our planet, while putting people to work... We went to the moon, and we can't get away from oil?

[Mekki]

10. Iran is a stigma for me.

Iran is a stigma for me.

[MisterP]

14. Syria rippling beigeley into my eyes

Syria rippling beigeley into my eyes


see, I can write like JG Ballard too!

[Prometheus Bound]

12. President Obama is absolutely right (if he changes just 3 words).

Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our environment to be destroyed while we fight the same old battles over and over again.

[amborin]

13. yeah, except those crucial 3 words were missing

and always are missing, or their equivalent

[kristopher]

15. K&R

[Time for change]

16. I couldn't agree more

It seems to me that President Obama is imprisoned by ideology -- the ideology of the "center" -- as much as many ideological extremists. His first inclination, since being elected president, seems to be to move to the center and justify it by using such words or phrases as "bipartisan" or "move beyond stale debate", without giving much attention to the merits of the debate.

[glitch]

19. He is as captured by his ideology as any of them, and devoted to proving himself correct.

IOW, very impractical indeed.

[Hawkowl]

22. The ideology of "there is no right or wrong"

Obama is a clueless equivocator who simply can't make any decisions based on the net good or net detriment to society. He has no cost benefit analysis in dollars or morality.

[rudy23]

17. We got conned. Obama only has one more accountability moment in 2012.

It's obvious now that his game is to equate the Teabagger crazies with traditional working class Democrats, and always come down in the "center"---far enough from the crazies to seem sensible, but not far enough from W and Reagonomics to rock the boat.

We who are on to this are LIGHT YEARS ahead of the population, and if Obama can talk a good game in 2012, it really won't matter. We'll be on the outside looking in as our lo-info friends cheer Reagan in a better looking costume, right until the death of true Progressivism.

[Smashcut]

18. No, we need to HAVE the debate. NOW.

[lostnfound]

20. This is really upsetting. n/t

[Bluebear]

21. .

[northernlights]

23. omggih

So surgeon one, who went to Harvard Med, says do not touch the spleen -- that thing over there.
And surgeon two, who went to Wingnut Prayer Med, says no, we need to take the spleen...and the liver too -- that thing over there.
And Obama, who went to Harward law, says we'll meet in the middle -- take a chunk'o spleen, a chunk o'liver, and everything in between. There, that oughta do it. Now my announcement today is not welcome by all....

Especially the poor sucker on the operating table...

[Dr Morbius]

24. This debate is not stale.

It hasn't happened. Both sides make points; neither side answers. That's not debate.

I'm for allowing drilling where it is safe to drill. I'm sorry, a mile beneath the ocean is not one of these places. I'm OK with nuclear plants, too, provided we have a viable plan to deal with the waste... and I don't think dumping grounds count as viable.

I need answers for these points before I can get behind drilling or nuclear plants, Mr. President. My friends and I have been waiting many years for answers to these points, so if there's any "staleness" here it comes from waiting for conservatives to answer.

[WinkyDink]

25. Not-so-clever phrases to shut up the people, as in of, for, and by.

[Vattel]

26. I suspect that Obama despises the left.

It's not just bipartisan politics. He despises the left. Still, he's doing a pretty good job in many areas. Just don't expect him to oppose militarism, to really care about poor immigrants, to think the well-being of animals matters much, to support gay marriage, to seriously address climate change, to end the war on drugs, to prosecute war criminals, etc.

[rug]

27. He trotted out that same old tired, stale language during the campaign on all sorts of issues.

I suppose we're all idiots to consistently oppose wrong policies. Thank God he's here to set us right.

[QC]

28. Every vital debate that the monied interests are certain to lose

is, in Obama's eyes, something "tired" that must be "gotten beyond."

Has anyone else noticed that?

It's a way to seem all transformational and above it all and everything while actually preserving the status quo.

[ipaint]

29. Wait until he starts on social security and medicare.

Social security is a most favored target of goldman sachs.

Goldman Sachs' IOUs and Social Security

By Dean Baker - March 23, 2010, 10:55AM

The drumbeat is building on Social Security again. The Wall Street crew that wrecked the economy and already destroyed much of the home equity and savings of those near retirement is building up for another attack on Social Security. The newspapers are again filled with news stories warning that if we don't fix Social Security it will face a shortfall in just 34 years according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Actually, the stories usually don't point out the length of time (8 and a half presidential terms) until Social Security is first projected to face a shortfall. Rather they use ominous terms like "looming bankruptcy" or "insolvency."

The promulgators of the scare campaign often refer to the "IOUs" held by the Social Security trust fund when referring to the Treasury bonds held by the fund. Of course all bonds can be called "IOUs," but they almost never are. This term is clearly meant to disparage the trust fund and imply there is something improper in its accounting.

That sort of language is fine, albeit still childish, if it appears on the opinion page. It has no place in a straight news story. The use of the term IOU in reference to the bonds held by the trust fund is an effort to undermine confidence in Social Security, not report the news.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/23/goldman_sachs_ious_and_social_security/

The nightmare continues.

[QC]

30. Don't worry.

The message discipline and loyalty enforcement teams be along momentarily to explain why that is actually the best thing that could happen and he campaigned on it anyway and you need to stop whining etc.