Obama Mocks GOP Critics

[WilliamPitt]

President Obama yesterday challenged his Republican critics to do more than just say no. "Opposition is always easy. Saying no to something is easy. Saying yes to something and figuring out how to solve problems and governing, that's hard," he said in a roundtable interview with regional newspaper reporters. "On this budget debate, for example, if you've got people who on the one hand say, 'We want to bring down the long-term deficit, but we don't want to cut certain programs that are important -- oh, and by the way we don't want to raise taxes' -- well, sounds good, you know, and I'd like to make sure that the Chicago Bulls win the championship every year and the White Sox win the Series. But you know, show me how you're going to do it."

And disputing the growing chatter in Washington that he is trying to do too much at once -- and should concentrate solely on short-term measures to turn the economy around -- Obama said his ambitious goals in such areas as health care and energy policy are essential to laying the foundations for long-term growth. "I think that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures," he said. "Yes, they require some uncomfortable votes. If it was easy, I'm assuming it would have been done 20 years ago or 30 years ago. It's not easy, but it's the right thing to do.....

"The days of growing the economy through an overheated housing market or through people running up exorbitant credit cards bills are over," he said. "We've got to put our growth model on a different footing....

"There are no shortcuts to long-term economic growth, and we can't just keep on doing the same things we were doing before and somehow expect that all of our problems will be solved....

Obama seems well aware that even if the pundit class is quickly growing disillusioned with him, the public is taking a longer view. "We've been in office all of seven weeks so far. This is a crisis that was eight years in the making, maybe longer in certain aspects of it," he said. "And the buck stops with me and we're responsible, but it's going to take some time, and the truth of the matter is the American people, I think, understand that it's going to take some time," he said. "If you look at the public polling, they recognize that it's going to take awhile to dig ourselves out of the hole."

More from Dan Froomkin: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/2009/03/obama_mocks_gop_critics.html

[Cha]

1. Thanks, Will..

The Pundit Class wanted Wright and Ayers to take a solid hit against Obama and bring him down but that didn't happen so the "turd mining" continues.

[tom_paine]

2. Good. That's as it should be.

Can Obama make himself heard over the Rushpublican Noise Machine, Lie Laundry, and False-Reality Generator, or will the pervasive Bushiganda eventually wear people down, as it did during Clinton's 8 years?

[Roy]

26. The echo machine only works with complicity of the MSM...

Specifically the "cable chatter class"

Obama mentions them occasionally, keeping them off balance.

They are being careful for the most part, I believe, aware of consequences of him turning his guns their way.

[firedupdem]

3. They hate they can't razzle this President. He says it plainly and

clearly. It takes time and he's going to get it done. I appreciate that he's not backing off from his campaign promises.

[Moonwalk]

9. Gawd. I love this president.

I mean it. Every time he opens his mouth, and says something so clear and plain, yet so right and smart, I just fall for him all over again. I know it's going to take time to see if he can get us out of this mess, but at least he makes people feel like he in control of the car and has a map. I wish the asshats in the passenger's seat would stop yammering and let him drive.

[yodermon]

21. would love to see an Amy goodman interview

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[yellowdogintexas]

59. and he isn't doing or saying things to up his poll numbers. He does them because

they are the right thing to do or say.


Love this man.

[polichick]

4. Thankfully, he's smarter than most of those writing or talking about him.

[gratuitous]

5. Hey, watch that talkin' like an adult there, "Mister" President!

You're going to alienate entire swaths of the country saying things like if fixing the economy was easy, it would have been done 20 or 30 years ago, or that we have to do the right thing, which might take some time. You're going to piss off a whole crowd of idiots, impatient imbeciles and television talking chuckleheads who like their solutions quick, easy and completely wrong.

Oh sure, the majority of the American people are on board, and have a pretty good grasp of what it's going to take, but are you reckoning on teh awwwsum power of Falafel Bill and Drug-Addict Rush? And the folks who listen to them? Arrest my case!

[Beetwasher]

6. Damn, That's Some Good Obama!

MORE!

Like a long, tall drink of coolness.

[LeftHander]

7. Doing anything is too much for the GOP....

Conservative....means doing little. That is what they do. That is what they have done.

[blondeatlast]

8. Long-term thinking? I like the sound of that! Thank you, Mr. President! nt

[Roy]

27. Thinking?? are Presidents allowed to do that?? n/t

[Supersedeas]

10. The Party of NO IDEAMS will wilt, like they always do: Cry Boehner Cry

[annabanana]

11. It is just SO DAMN REFRESHING not to be talked down to by our President.

Give us the wonky nuts & bolts, Mr. President... we can handle it.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted sub-thread

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[krkaufman]

56. Seriously. I've found myself yelling out, at times, when listening to Obama ...

... because I can't contain the relief felt from feeling an adult with better than average reasoning skills in back in charge.

[treestar]

12. "We've got to get our growth model on a different footing"

So true - we have to base our economy on something real and not on bubbles.

[Career Prole]

16. And it thrills me to hear someone finally have the guts

to say it.

:applause:

The consumer-based economy was an obviously unsustainable "free-rein" capitalist joke which belongs on history's junk heap.

[treestar]

17. It is great having a President who likes reality

And lives in it.

:bounce:

[dansolo]

35. We could sustain a consumer based economy

The problem is that with stagnant wages and rapidly increasing energy and medical costs, consumer buying power was only maintained by acquiring more and more debt. That is what was unsustainable.

[Career Prole]

54. And debt is the only way a consumer-based economy

can grow at the 2-3% rate that most economists feel is necessary to hover in that sweet spot between inflation and recession. Ipso facto a consumer-based economy is unsustainable. The manufacturing-based economy which provided the wages to sustain the consumption is gone, leaving behind for the most part service-industry wages which afford us less consumption rather than more (barring the assuming of ever more debt). This makes that "ideal" 2-3% growth the economists want impossible to attain and recession the likely outcome.
:shrug:

[Mithreal]

13. Mocks or Educates and Persuades? Ok, fine, mocks. nt

[WilliamPitt]

14. Heh.

:toast:

[Mulehead]

15. Wow, the sound of Thoughful Leadership.

Haven't heard much o' that for the last eight years.

[Roland99]

18. If he could just get some good people in at Treasury and the Economic Council

Summers? Geithner?

Seriously?


And where's the transparency on TARP? Anyone even remotely aware that AIG is getting "full retail" for its toxic assets? Didn't think so.

[Hekate]

19. Every day this man gives me hope. Thanks for the latest, Will. nt

[TankLV]

20. Give 'em Hell Harry, er, Barack!!!

[upi402]

22. The pundits are all out to sink him asap

He could ridicule them everyday as far as I'm concerned - just like the daily Raygun and his press on bended knee.

[NancyBotwin]

23. Obama is the best CEO for America.

He makes the most valid points. I watched his speech at the business round table today and he seriously keeps me in awe. I feel like when people actually watch President Obama speak and listen to what he has to say, besides watching the news media cover clips of his speeches later, he truly shines and implements what he wants to do so very clear. He's probably the best manager USA has seen in a while.

[trickyguy]

24. Reality check. President Obama knows what it takes and he's telling us.

[HughMoran]

25. I feel confident knowing that this man is at the helm

He really seems to know the difference between what is real and what is Washington BS. He takes his fill of guff from the right and the left and just keeps on steaming ahead; kinda hard to fault him at this point.

[bridgit]

28. Yeah well, my husband is hanging art in a local winery, he wouldn't hang on a wall that had...

an Obama poster on it cause it would have covered part of the poster...the owner took the poster down to accommodate 3 extra pieces which shocked us both; moral to the short story?

"Get out of the one if you can't lend a hand for the times they are ah'changing" :hippie:

[GeorgeGist]

29. President Obama ought to consider ...

cutting profits which drag the economy DOWN.

[Shakespeare]

30. "If it was easy, I'm assuming it would have been done 20 years ago or 30 years ago."

The important things are never easy. THIS is why I voted for Obama.

[kentuck]

31. That is my President.

Maybe I should have said?

"That is my President!"

[burning rain]

32. I have to think...

that wherever we are two years from now, most Americans will realize that Obama and congressional Democrats, on balance, have tried to help bring us to a better place, whereas the Republicans have done nothing but try to preserve plutocracy.

[opihimoimoi]

33. THE ROCK sez it all....LONG TERM WITH GOOD GOALS and PATHS

Short Term GOP Band Aids..is not the answer....

[RBInMaine]

34. HE IS EXACTLY DAMN RIGHT !!! GOBAMA !!

These F-ING "conservatives" ! First, Americans VOTED for CHANGE, not more of the same! Second, Americans WANT something done, once and for all, about healthcare, energy, UNfair trade, UNfair taxation policy that rewards the rich and send jobs overseas, ... They VOTED for VISION and BIG MOVES to solved our BIG problems.
What to "conservatives" offer? SAME OLD HORSESHIT ! ZERO vision. ZERO ideas for the FUTURE. They are what they are: the party of, by, and for the PAST. This is NOT the time to piddle with just the "near term." It is EXACTLY the time to take the bull by the balls and CHANGE this country for the FUTURE once and for all. And it is what Americans VOTED for ! So SCREW the R's and their MOLDY, OUTDATED thinking and SUPPORT DEMS and PREZ OBAMA who want to CHANGE this nation for the LONG TERM which is what America NEEDS.

[ggould1]

36. The average American doesn't listen to the pundits

Thank goodness.

[Mrspeeker]

37. Obama Mocks GOP Critics

Then he has lunch with them and the bankers

[rucognizant]

38. The crisis has been in the making for 30 years NOT 8!

"There are no shortcuts to long-term economic growth, and we can't just keep on doing the same things we were doing before and somehow expect that all of our problems will be solved....
Do you at DU REALLY believe that giving GOVT control over Organic farming will solve the problem? It is way too groad, too m,any people profiting from it.
Delaurio's food bill??? What number is it.?

[ProfessorGAC]

42. Huh?

I honestly have no idea what the heck you're talking about. Calm down and type more clearly, please.

And who is "you at DU"? Go back in the archives and see what i think about how gov't should monitor and regulate the macroeconomy, and then decide who you really want to paint with that wide brush.
GAC

[Demeter]

39. The GOP Wants to Loot, Not Govern

and anybody who thinks otherwise is deluding himself.

And then there are those who want to loot and oppress.

[sellitman]

40. He sure kicks butt when he needs too.

Good for him.


Better yet.....good for us.

[Christa]

41. K & R nt

[Deep13]

43. Ha!

Right again, Mr. President!

[Name removed]

44. Deleted sub-thread

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[BlooInBloo]

45. Shorter Obama: FUCK YOU, whiners!

[Rebel Scum]

53. LOL how true! n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

47. Thank you, President Obama !

and thank you, Will.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Javaman]

48. Do you know who says "no" a lot?

2 year olds. the repukes need to grow up.

[pansypoo53219]

50. reaglikkkans only have a ice pick

in their tool box tho. tax cuts. and they don't work.

[Phoonzang]

51. Good. He needs to fight back some. nt

[indepat]

52. 'puke are going to have so many rockets shot up their assholes, most will likely be

permanently shell-shocked. :P

[krkaufman]

55. I like Mr. Froomkin a bit more, now, after receiving a reply

From Dan Froomkin, in response to my criticizing the WaPo's use of the word "mock"...

"thanks, that might not have been quite the right word.... "

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Froomkin
To: (me)
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:16 PM
Subject: RE: 'Obama Mocks GOP Critics'


thanks, that might not have been quite the right word....


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: (me)
Sent: Fri 3/13/2009 2:13 PM
To: Dan Froomkin
Subject: Re: 'Obama Mocks GOP Critics'


Just a simple comment re: your Obama Mocks GOP Critics article...

You're the journalist, here, and I'm sure it passed through an editor or two... but was "mocks" really the best word to describe Obama's comments, or was it a sensationalist choice? Obama's comments, to me, seemed like reasoned, tempered criticism of those who appear to be taking opposing positions based on pure partisanship rather than constructive dabate(sic).

It's not like Obama said he felt like the Monty Python character who walked into a room looking for an argument (debate) and all he's got was contradiction. *That* would border on mocking.... but probably still wouldn't be crossing the line since it's not too much of an exaggeration relative to what is happening.

Regards,
Karl Kaufman
Schaumburg, IL

(article found through Democratic Underground)

[WilliamPitt]

57. He writes back a lot

By far and away my favorite blogger. He and TPM are daily requirements.

[krkaufman]

58. Yes, I think I really need to get and tweak an RSS reader ...

... to sift through what's available and focus on the more reliable sources.