It’s Official: Obama Isn’t Post-Partisan President
Politico is reporting what conservatives knew since President Obama started claiming that he’d be a postpartisan, post-racial president: President Obama is a bitter partisan. Conservative activists tried telling the public that his radical associations indicated that a President Obama would be the most radical, partisan president in our nation’s history. Here’s what Politico is reporting:
White House aides say they have concluded that Obama too frequently lost control of the debate and his own image during the stimulus battle. By this reckoning, the story became too much about failed efforts at bipartisanship and Washington deal-making, and not enough about the president’s public salesmanship.
For Obama’s next act, the program is the same as he has been planning for months: New Deal-style plans to rescue struggling homeowners and rewrite regulations on the financial markets, plus a budget proposal that lays the groundwork for sweeping health care reform.
But the strategy to promote these items is getting an emergency overhaul. Obama plans to travel more and campaign more in an effort to pressure lawmakers with public support, rather than worrying about whether he can win over Republican votes in Congress. Officials suggested that the new, more partisan tone Obama embraced last week in his speech before House Democrats at their retreat and continued at his news conference Monday was what he should have been doing all along.
This isn’t shocking. In fact, it’d be a shock if President Obama, much like Sen. Obama, kept a single promise he’s ever made.
Remember the transformation he made on drilling? During a three day period, he first told Missouri audiences that drilling was a Republican scheme, then telling them that America could save as much oil as we’d get from drilling simply if they got regular tuneups and kept their tires inflated.
By the time his jet touched down in Florida, where polls showed that 60% of Floridians supported drilling on the OCS, then-candidate Obama said that he’d support drilling if it was part of a comprehensive energy package. Now that he’s elected, his administration is taking steps to prevent drilling on the OCS.
Remember then-Sen. Obama promising the Nutroots that he’d filibuster the Patriot Act if it included blanket amnesty for telecommunication companies that assisted in preventing further terrorist attacks? He kept his promise until it was time to vote.
This week, President Obama claimed that nearly all economists from across the political spectrum agreed with his stimulus package. Except that they didn’t:
It’s been a rough week for President Obama in the truth-telling category, especially considering his telling an audience at a Caterpillar plant that their CEO told him that passing the Porkulus bill would mean Caterpillar would start hiring people back soon. Except that Jim Owens didn’t tell Pesident Obama that. In fact, he issued a statement saying that there’d likely be more layoffs before they started hiring people again.
It appears as though President Obama’s promises come with sunset dates.
There’s ample proof that trusting President Obama, whether it’s about the Patriot Act, the stimulus bill or being a postpartisan president. President Obama is providing us with proof that he’s really a ruthless Chicago-style politician who’ll do whatever it takes to get his radical agenda passed.
President Obama will use his popularity to get EFCA passed. It doesn’t matter to him that EFCA would eliminate a person’s right to cast a secret ballot, something that the American people hold as sacred.
President Obama will attempt to use his popularity to get government-run health care ‘reform’ passed.
The good news is that, while President Obama is popular, he doesn’t have clout within his party. If you think he’s got clout, then I’ll ask a simple question:
Why did more House Democrats vote against President Obama’s ‘Let’s Waste Hundreds of Billions of Dollars’ Bill than Senate Republican turncoats voted for the legislation in the Senate?
President Obama’s ‘Let’s Waste Hundreds of Billions of Dollars’ Bill does more harm than good. It’s undeniable that the legislation will cause inflation to spike. Every good economist will tell you that sharp spikes in inflation has the same effect as a tax increase. In fact, it’s undeniable that that hidden tax increase is a terribly regressive tax.
The minute that President Obama signs the bill, the economy officially becomes his. If it succeeds, which is doubtful, he’ll rightly be get credit for it. If it fails, which seems highly possible, his presidency will be weakened.
Technorati Tags: Pork, Stimulus, Economy, Inflation, President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, EFCA, Job Growth, Partisanship, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
February 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am
One wonders long it will be before he goes down to Venezuela to hug and kiss Comrad Ugo.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Partisan? Gosh, ya think?
Without being partisan the Thief-in-Chief won’t be able to bootjack anyone.
February 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I never understood why Obama tried being partisan with this stimulus package. It’s like he wanted to go for Italian for dinner and Republicans wanted a shit sandwich. There really isn’t room for a good compromise.
February 15th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Italian for dinner? Wow, I didn’t know that was Newspeak for barnyard dung on the people! I shoulda guessed, though, it’s typical donk/ lib language revisionism.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Oh I see! NOW we need bi-partisanship.
Take a flying leap, Liem.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
It has occurred to me that maybe I should back off on our current Thief-in-Chief. Our last one, a pretend Republican, over a period of 8 years, spent more than the current one is about to approve by signature, and our grandchildren’s grandchildren will be paying for that, too.
And every supposed Republican over that period of time that stuck pork into any of the bills, then voted for any of them, is just as guilty of thievery as the sitting Thief-in-Chief of the theft of birthright.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Dirty little secret Carlos. They are scared shitless, because socialism cant survive without money. Think about it, if no one has money, they cant collect taxes, revenues go down, they cant buy their way into our lives, the dragon that is big governemnt starves and finally dies a horrible death. Society goes back to survival of the fittest and capitalism revives itself, like it always has.
Thys why we havent got time to debate, eveything is now, now, now! They cretaed this goddam mess and they want us spend them out of it.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Yes, Democrats are scared shitless because they have the presidency and both houses of Congress. Little do they know, Republicans are still the ones with real power.
And it’s because they know what’s best for this country. Just look at the last 8 years for proof of how great Republicans are when they run the government.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Just ’cause you didn’t agree with his wars doesn’t mean he wasn’t a jackass, too, Liem. On nearly every domestic issue except taxes he was straight donkey.
And speaking of taxes, when’s the last time you applied for a job from a welfare recipient? Seems to me that if the Thief-in-Chief wants to kickstart the economy he’d find a way to make it profitable for businesses to hire more employees. Kinda sounds like a “tax cut for the rich” to me!
February 18th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Right Liem, we all know what an economic power house Russia and China were before they both loosened the reins on private industry. And lets not forget Eastern Europe, and Sean Penn’s dear friends in Cuba. Now thats the way to run a country.
Funny stuff Liem.