President Obama plans combative turn - No “era of Big Government is over” proclamations (Politico)

[jefferson_dem]

President Barack Obama plans a combative response if, as White House aides fear, Democrats lose Tuesday’s special Senate election in Massachusetts, close advisers say.

“This is not a moment that causes the president or anybody who works for him to express any doubt,” a senior administration official said. “It more reinforces the conviction to fight hard.”

A defeat by Martha Coakley for the seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy would be embarrassing for the party — and potentially debilitating, since Democrats will lose their filibuster-proof, 60-vote hold on the Senate.

A potential casualty: the health care bill that was to be the crowning achievement of the president’s first year in office.

The health care backdrop has given the White House a strong incentive to strike a defiant posture, at least rhetorically, in response to what would be an undeniable embarrassment for the president and his party.

There won’t be any grand proclamation that “the era of Big Government is over” — the words President Bill Clinton uttered after Republicans won the Congress in the 1990s and he was forced to trim a once-ambitious agenda.

“The response will not be to do incremental things and try to salvage a few seats in the fall,” a presidential adviser said. “The best political route also happens to be the boldest rhetorical route, which is to go out and fight and let the chips fall where they may. We can say, ‘At least we fought for these things, and the Republicans said no.’”

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31629.html#ixzz0d1ud00Lx

[Clio the Leo]

1. Should be fun. NT

[mvd]

2. K&R - I'd love to see that change

You can compromise a little while still fighting for progressive values.

[BP2]

7. But the problem with compromise is you compromise your Base right down the drain.

Look at the Senate HCR Bill as evidence as what compromise can do for Progressives.

[mvd]

26. In politics, there's always a little compromise

But my compromise, if we couldn't get single payer, would be to insist on a strong public option.

[BP2]

28. Perhaps, but would you call the

Senate's HCR Bill compromise?

Gingrich couldn't have done a finer job getting payoffs for the Pharmaceutical and Health Insurance companies!

Shouldn't we hold the Progressives we elect accountable?

Nancy has kept things together with almost no compromise, thank you very much.

As for the rest, they compromise to the point of corruption.

[mvd]

33. As for the HCR bill compromise, I'm not a fan of it

And think the President should have least put up more of a fight. But if we don't pass HCR, I wonder if we would even get something that we can improve later.

[tularetom]

3. A lot of what appears in politico is bullshit

I really hope this is not.

[Juche]

4. The phrase 'rhetorical' comes up a lot in that article

That is a big part of what got the dems in trouble. They talked a big game then went out and did the opposite of what they said they were going to do.

[IndianaGreen]

9. We are still waiting for universal health care

which HCR is definitely not.

[dkf]

5. Well finally. Geez.

[amborin]

8. wish he'd been combative for the PO

[IndianaGreen]

10. He sold us out to Big Pharma and Big Insurance

I still think Coakley will put a rabbit out of the hat, and I find it counterproductive for the White House to start waiving the white flag before a single vote is cast.

[amborin]

12. cerainly did sell out hard working Americans to Big Pharma!

[HughMoran]

11. I heard that if you say " I wish" about something 100 times, the past will change

[girl gone mad]

14. I guess it beats promising "hope" a thousand times..

then delivering despair.

[jefferson_dem]

20. You're kind of the reason I posted this "story".

Thought you would enjoy the opportunity to snarkily mock the President's efforts.

[HughMoran]

22. Yeah, that one is mad

What's the point huh?

[dionysus]

30. proves that no. matter. what. they'll wail and cry. fuck it, let em be miserable for 7 more years.

it's been quite obvious for a long time their hatred for him is permanent.

[Kdillard]

6. Let us hope Martha wins and he can save that speech for another time.

[geek tragedy]

13. Ugh. All downhill from here.

Climate change legislation: dead.

EFCA: Dead

all judicial appointments: dead

America as a nation is not serious about solving it's own problems

[Unvanguard]

17. Judicial appointments are doable with the help of more moderate Republicans.

The problem so far has been holds, not successful filibusters, and individual Republican Senators can do that whether they have forty seats or forty-one.

EFCA was quite possibly not doable in the Senate anyway.

Health care reform and climate change legislation are my biggest worries.

[dkf]

18. No judicial appointments?

Aren't we going to run out of judges?

[DFLforever]

15. I knew he'd get a little meaner and tougher.

whether Coakley wins or loses. He'll make needed corrections but keep tacking toward his goals.

Unhappily his enemies will be bolder too, from Boehner to Ailes to Netanyahu.

[DumpDavisHogg]

16. If he supports school uniforms, I'll just vomit (n/t)

[krkaufman]

19. If it weren't so god-daXXed sad, it would be funny.

“The best political route also happens to be the boldest rhetorical route, which is to go out and fight and let the chips fall where they may."

I really don't know if they're simply corrupt, or incompetent.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. I hope this means that he will start championing what is "right" and not

centrist and damn the torpedos.

I hope it means a return of Candidate Obama who won the election. The first thing he can do to regain trust and rebuild some momentum is clean house - get a new economic team.

I personally wish he would scrap the horrific compromise HCR reform that is no reform and start over. He should keep the National High Risk pool as an interim measure to cover the uninsured. Enough work was done in phase 1 that I think a lot of people have a pretty good idea of what would actually work.

Let's have a REAL fight for REAL reform.

[RandomKoolzip]

23. Oh wonderful.

Great timing, Obama. Now that the Dems won't be able to get anything done, he'll start "fighting." If one still believes politics isn't pure theater, the next two years should eradicate any doubt.

[depakid]

24. Actually- if true- it is excellent timing

The whole pandering for 60 votes thing was an ill conceived strategy- for a lot of reasons, and thankfully there's still plenty of time to turn it around before November.

[high density]

25. Where was the defiant posture back in August?

Or even in December when the powers that be in the Senate were bending over backwards for LIEberman and Nelson?

‘At least we fought for these things, and the Republicans said no.’

These guys in the WH are quite politically savvy, or at least we're supposed to believe that since they did win in 2008. Why did it take them so long to figure this out? There is no compromise with the Republicans. We've known that clearly since the stimulus vote.

[Kitsune]

27. Only took him a year to notice he needed to be involved, huh?

And now, only because it's an election year and his rep is on the line.

Christ, what a goddamned mess.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

29. Good. I applaud that.

[Arugula Latte]

31. People who hate government intervention should move to Haiti or Somalia.

Very little governance there --> veritable paradises.

[Armstead]

32. Well, yeah...I can go with that -- but only if he means it