• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PoliGAF 2011: Of Weiners, Boehners, Santorum, and Teabags

Status
Not open for further replies.

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
ToxicAdam said:
6a00d83451c45669e20153912d0521970b-550wi


I would love to see all opinion polls broken down this way.

Agreed--I have a feeling they'll all break down in an identical manner.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
RustyNails said:
0901Cartoon.jpg

It's been a crazy year for poor 'ol Earth indeed.

Why is there a nuclear bomb fallout in the upper left? Or is that representative of some other bomb smoke?
 

HylianTom

Banned
RustyNails said:
0901Cartoon.jpg

It's been a crazy year for poor 'ol Earth indeed.

Here's another aspect I wonder about for the election..

I honestly wonder if voters will look at things like this and say to themselves:
"This Obama fellow.. he's been dealt an absolutely lousy hand. A crazy-bad economy when he walked in the door, a notable number of natural disasters, suicidal political opponents who are willing to kamikaze the economy in order to take him down. And this Perry/Romney guy sounds a lot like he's pushing a return to Bush's policies. True, we're not getting the economic results that we want as fast as we'd like, but Obama is a nice guy, and I like a lot of what he says. We gave that ass Bush two terms, and it feels wrong to kick this nice guy out."

edit: I always say that we're about to enter a fascinating period in human history, but comics like this make me realize that we're already in that period. Incredible.
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
Its also on opening night of NFL, so a ton of people will be home in front of the TV. And if he times it just right and she speech is not terribly long and convoluted, he will get a lot of people watching.
 

gcubed

Member
AndyD said:
Its also on opening night of NFL, so a ton of people will be home in front of the TV. And if he times it just right and she speech is not terribly long and convoluted, he will get a lot of people watching.

Sept 7th is not the first day of NFL, Sept 8th, the day boehner wants it moved to, is the first day of the NFL
 

Chichikov

Member
PhoenixDark said:
Who wants to bet Obama gives the speech on the 8th? What a stupid way to embarrass yourself even further
No way.
I'm certain Obama picked that date because it's the same day as the GOP debate.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
PhoenixDark said:
Outside of his dismissal of the healthcare bill and the ridiculous "I might vote for Chris Christie cuz he's tuff" shit, this is spot on. The second half of Obama's first term has been nothing but a giant disaster. To call him a weak leader is an understatement, because to be perfectly honest he simply is not a leader. He's a negotiator in chief during regular hours and a counselor in chief during tragedies. Which makes him more of a university president than a president of the United States.

I hold no illusions that with a mere speech, Obama can get legislation passed or shame his enemies into civility. But it's shocking that someone who propelled and even saved his candidacy through speeches has been such an ineffective, hesitant speaker as president. He doesn't use the bully pulpit outside of the series of weak "come on guys" appeals after the polls show his latest initiative has been rejected by the American people, thanks to an uncontested, disciplined noise machine on the right.

His presidency has been a series of final straws, with each concession and cave worse than the previous one. There is no excuse for what happened with the debt ceiling, where he gave a nationally televised speech staking out a position before caving immediately afterward. How can anyone respect that type of behavior? You're going to tell me that if Obama completely pulled out of the discussion, Boehner would allow a default? Both him and McConnell said there would be no default, it wasn't possible. Obama was willing to give them a 70-30 deal and call it even, but settled for 98-2 because of what, fear of them nuking the economy? It was not going to happen. There were more democrats and moderate republicans in the house than tea partiers, by a significant margin in fact.

He wanted a bad deal, and got one even worse. And now OFA wants me to go around explaining to people the good things Obama got for them with this deal? Fuck that. Maybe we need four years of Perry, but most likely Romney.


And with all that said the writer constantly sounds like he's just pissed and wants to rant out all kinds of craziness. For instanance.....

At a time when the Republicans are accelerating their plans for dismantling the meager social safety net we have and redistributing wealth upwards, Obama seems to have no interest at all in articulating an alternative vision for America's future. He has been acting like the Republican caricature of a Democrat: spineless, lacking conviction, and sticking his finger in the political wind. I haven't the faintest idea what he thinks should be done on much of anything

Like Jay-Z says, "do you listen to the music or just skim through it?" Does he listens to what Obama says in speechs? Does he read articles to update himself on these things? To not know where he stands on anything says more about the writer than it does of Obama. Hell he already know the basic tenets of the jobs speech that he wants to give on 9/7/11.



And so it goes. The health care bill? Even leaving aside the fact that the Supreme Court will almost certainly find the bill unconstitutional, it could only be defended on the grounds that it was, at least, an improvement over the complete disaster we currently have, and might perhaps serve as the basis for future reforms. It was the product of horribly inept tactics on the part of the President, in which he spent months in his trademark pointless negotiations, allowed his opponents to frame the issue entirely in their terms, and made his opening position far to the right of where he should have been? The Dodd-Frank bill, meanwhile, has already been gutted to pointlessness.

How in the hell does he "KNOW" the SC will find it unconstitutional? The whole bill? Really? And did he forget that Obama was also negotiating with his own party (ie the blue dogs)? But I get it's all Obama's fault. Congress doesn't exist.




Westen was widely pilloried for this in the blogosphere, mostly by the same people now trying to convince us that Obama's apparent weakness and fecklessness is somehow a sign of his great political savvy. But Westen is right and his critics are wrong. Obama has failed utterly at reminding people that it was Republican policies that got us into this mess, and Republican intransigence that prevents us from doing anything serious about fixing our problems. His failure has been so complete that people have already forgotten the cataclysm of the Bush years, and he has now been reduced to implementing slightly watered-down forms of the same policies.

This simply isn't true. Poll after poll constantly shows that the public at large still blame Bush for the economy. And poll after poll shows that they trust Obama more than they do the GOP in Congress. So why is that? Is it that Americans are now so smart that 3 year removed they still remember who to blame? Or is it that Obama and the DEMs haven't done as horrible of a job explaining this to people as the writer makes it out to be?



That's how Obama looks to me. He's like some Republican contrivance put in office specifically to make progressives look foolish. Republicans will be running against him for decades in precisely the same way they ran against Carter. If Obama is really as helpless in the face of Republican intransigence as people like Drum and Alter suggest, then why should I care if he gets reelected at all? And if people have already forgotten the disaster of the Bush years, then maybe they need a few more years of Republican rule to remind them


This last paragraph of his is so terrible there's no explanation needed. Literally every sentence is terrible. Now there's some things that he said that I agree with, but he like most TV anchors on cable news today do, took it way too for just for the hits.

Sadly exaggeration is the only way to get attention these days. :(
 
'Washington is broken"

DC councilman Marion Barry making an illegal left turn over a cycling path with his bumper scraping against Pennsylvania Ave

6a00d8345198c369e2014e8b1d0947970d-300wi.jpg
 
Chichikov said:
No way.
I'm certain Obama picked that date because it's the same day as the GOP debate.

Of course he picked it because it was debate day. And it looks like a stupid, petty move to stir up bullshit. Paul or Bachman can object, scuttling the whole thing. I just don't see the point.

Obama will pick a fight over a joint session of Congress, but not over the debt ceiling?
 
I cant believe this Boehner thing. According to HuffPo there is no known record of either House ever refusing a joint session request by the president, at least since 1913 when this sort of thing began.
 

Clevinger

Member
worldrunover said:
I cant believe this Boehner thing. According to HuffPo there is no known record of either House ever refusing a joint session request by the president, at least since 1913 when this sort of thing began.

This Congress is all about setting the bar to new lows.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
If Obama has a jobs plan why wait all the way until September 7th to announce it? What's so special about that day? Announce that thing now and let's get going. Oval office address or bust!
 

Chichikov

Member
ReBurn said:
If Obama has a jobs plan why wait all the way until September 7th to announce it? What's so special about that day? Announce that thing now and let's get going. Oval office address or bust!
It's political theater.
Obama knows he has no chance to get anything past congress, so he's trying to make the GOP look bad.

And in my mind, it's waaaaaaaaaaay too early to focus on such bullshit, especially given the economy.
 
Keep letting 'em shit all over you Obama. You'll show them with your pussy ass legislation and dick wanking pushing back. Can we just get a real Republican in there so this twat can go away?
 

Piecake

Member
Chichikov said:
It's political theater.
Obama knows he has no chance to get anything past congress, so he's trying to make the GOP look bad.

And in my mind, it's waaaaaaaaaaay too early to focus on such bullshit, especially given the economy.

Well, you might as well try to make them look bad since the only way to stimulate this economy is through some of the proposals that Obama wants. Make them look bad enough and they might cave (.001 chance, but still a chance!). And if all it is is political theater, then, well, we really havent lost anything since nothing was going to get done anyway
 

Chichikov

Member
Gonaria said:
Well, you might as well try to make them look bad since the only way to stimulate this economy is through some of the proposals that Obama wants. Make them look bad enough and they might cave (.001 chance, but still a chance!). And if all it is is political theater, then, well, we really havent lost anything since nothing was going to get done anyway
I'll reserve judgment until I actually hear his plan, but I think we'll be wasting precious time if we were trying to peruse a course of action that has no chance of passing just so we can make the other side look bad.
And it wouldn't work anyway, right or wrong, the president own the economy in this country.
 
Chichikov said:
I'll reserve judgment until I actually hear his plan, but I think we'll be wasting precious time if we were trying to peruse a course of action that has no chance of passing just so we can make the other side look bad.
And it wouldn't work anyway, right or wrong, the president own the economy in this country.
I believe a major pro of the proposed Obama plan (at least the one I read about a few days ago) was that it did not need congressional approval.
 

Clevinger

Member
balladofwindfishes said:
I believe a major pro of the proposed Obama plan (at least the one I read about a few days ago) was that it did not need congressional approval.

Are you thinking of the turning foreclosures into rents thing? That's separate from any jobs plan.
 

Piecake

Member
Clevinger said:
Are you thinking of the turning foreclosures into rents thing? That's separate from any jobs plan.

yea, The jobs plan, from what ive read, is basically invest in green energy/infrastructure (good), invest in job programs (good), give tax breaks to businesses that actually hire workers (meh).

Overall, I think its a decent plan. Investing in infrastructure is definitely the most important, but because its the best part and we will be actually spending money I don't think the republicans will allow that to pass. So we will be probably left with a pretty worthless bill that might include job programs and/or tax breaks to businesses. Personally, if infrastructure investment is not included in the final bill, I'd rather not have anything pass.

And while that refinancing the mortgage interest rate plan isnt a part of it, I really hope that happens because that would help out a lot
 
I don't understand why Obama needs Boehner's permission talk about the economy. He should just show up in Congress at the appointed hour. They are in session. If the Republicans want to leave let them. Bad publicity for them. Also, this is one debate of many for an election that won't happen till next year. I hate the new age of the constant campaign. Can't get anything done.
 

thefro

Member
Dr. Pangloss said:
I don't understand why Obama needs Boehner's permission talk about the economy. He should just show up in Congress at the appointed hour. They are in session. If the Republicans want to leave let them. Bad publicity for them. Also, this is one debate of many for an election that won't happen till next year. I hate the new age of the constant campaign. Can't get anything done.

"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield the balance of my time to President Barack Obama"
 

HylianTom

Banned
Dr. Pangloss said:
I don't understand why Obama needs Boehner's permission talk about the economy. He should just show up in Congress at the appointed hour. They are in session. If the Republicans want to leave let them. Bad publicity for them. Also, this is one debate of many for an election that won't happen till next year. I hate the new age of the constant campaign. Can't get anything done.

That's my take. If they wanna be dicks about holding-up his appointees by technically keeping Congress "in session," then he should be able to show-up to a joint session of Congress.
 

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the date of the speech announced a week or two ago? Why is this suddenly a big deal today?
 

Chichikov

Member
Gonaria said:
yea, The jobs plan, from what ive read, is basically invest in green energy/infrastructure (good), invest in job programs (good), give tax breaks to businesses that actually hire workers (meh).

Overall, I think its a decent plan. Investing in infrastructure is definitely the most important, but because its the best part and we will be actually spending money I don't think the republicans will allow that to pass. So we will be probably left with a pretty worthless bill that might include job programs and/or tax breaks to businesses. Personally, if infrastructure investment is not included in the final bill, I'd rather not have anything pass.

And while that refinancing the mortgage interest rate plan isnt a part of it, I really hope that happens because that would help out a lot
Don't all of those things require congress though?
Edit: oh, you're not balladofwindfishes.
 
thefro said:
"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield the balance of my time to President Barack Obama"

"What up bitches? Let's talk jobs."

(edit) Never mind. More like:

"Hey guys. I was wondering if it was okay if we talked about the economy. I'd understand if you don't want to. It's quite alright. Ummm. Yes we can?"
 
Keith Olbermann said:
Breaking News on Countdown: TPM's @BrianBeutler says Speaker's office just didn't notice what was scheduled for next Weds when WH gave date

...not sure if serious

also, not sure a Jobs speech qualifies as an 'extraordinary measure', but
US Constitution said:
he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them

art 2 sec 3 does say he can force them to convene. once again, dont think this qualifies, but yeah.

edit: lame

chuck todd said:
The WH has accepted Boehner's invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress on Thursday.
 

HylianTom

Banned
NihonTiger90 said:
I think that says everything.

Wow. Color me surprised.

The White House has to be aware that there's this perception of the President having a testicular deficit, right?
Is this how they address this perception?
 
AP NEWSBREAK 9:20 PM 8/31/2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama agrees to Boehner's wishes, will deliver speech to joint session of Congress on Sept. 8

Unreal. That football game better start on time on CNBC or something.
 
HylianTom said:
Wow. Color me surprised.

The White House has to be aware that there's this perception of the President having a testicular deficit, right?
Is this how they address this perception?
but teh independent voters!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom