If he’s thinking that and acting on that, does that mean he’s already a lame duck? The Republicans seem to be acting like it to boost November. They’re watching out for themselves even more than usual — if that’s even possible for a politician — no matter what it does to the country.
There is, I think, an amazing political fact right now that is hiding in plain sight and is rich with implications. It was there in President Obama’s Jan. 25, pre-State of the Union interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who was pressing him about his political predicaments. “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” he said. “And I—and I believe that.”
Now this is the sort of thing presidents say, and often believe they believe, but at the end of the day they all want two terms. Except that Mr. Obama shows every sign of meaning it, and if he does, it explains a lot about his recent decisions and actions.
A week after the Sawyer interview, the president had a stunning and revealing exchange with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the Arkansas Democrat likely to lose her 2010 re-election campaign. He was meeting with Senate Democrats to urge them to continue with his legislative agenda. Mrs. Lincoln took the opportunity to beseech him to change it. She urged him to distance his administration from “people who want extremes,” and to find “common ground” with Republicans in producing legislation that would give those in business the “certainty” they need to create jobs.
While answering, Mr. Obama raised his voice slightly and quickened his cadence. “If the price of certainty is essentially for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place leading up to the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression . . . the result is going to be the same. I don’t know why we would expect a different outcome pursuing the exact same policy that got us in this fix in the first place.” He continued: “If our response ends up being, you know . . . we don’t want to stir things up here,” then “I don’t know why people would say, ‘Boy, we really want to make sure those Democrats are in Washington fighting for us.'”
More about the Pharma issue from the video above here. Change you can believe in!
Dvorak,
Who ever thought Obama would win against Hillary? Obama wasn’t a figure to be considered presidential material 3 years ago. It’s still 2+ years until the election for the next president. There wasn’t a “leader” of the Dems back when Bush was finished with his 1st year of his 2nd term. There never is. Someone will emerge but it’s too early to try and pin a person as a leader at this stage. And believe me, if Obama continues to sputter and have his own members of his party start to publicly question him, you can bet there will be Dems out to unseat him. And just as an observation, notice how Hillary has been quite distant and quiet? Don’t be surprised to see her run against him should he continue to show his inherent weakness in being a leader and president
If Obama runs for a second term, he will not be able to dodge the birth certificate issue. He will be required to prove he is a natural born citizen. Something he seems adverse to doing this time.
#25 Dr. Dodd, it is truly amazing how many people in your party heap so much blame on Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who during the entire inflation of the financial bubble didn’t have so much as a committee chairmanship between them. They were both in the minority until Jan 2007. And no matter what statements you can dig up from either of them, they simply didn’t have the POWER to destroy America. The minority can sometimes obstruct action, but they cannot take action against the will of the majority. Feel free to raise your hand if you don’t understand.
On the other hand, your little Republican club controlled both houses of Congress from Jan 1995 through Dec 2006. Your attempts at blame shifting cannot change the congressional party margins that existed during that period. Integrity really doesn’t seem to be your strong suit.
“We can’t forget that Obama is the guy in charge.”
Nor can we forget who was “in charge” before Obama, much as we’d like to. And if being “in charge” makes such a difference, then “the Decider” has a helluva lot to answer for in the inflation of the financial bubble during his own presidency. Knowing how strongly you supported Bush during the creation of the bubble, are you sure you want to emphasize that the guy in charge bears such a high level of responsibility?
Maybe you could reserve a little blame for Phil Gramm, Jim Leach, and Thomas Bliley, the three Republicans who sponsored the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which removed many Depression-era restrictions separating banking, insurance and brokerage activities. Phil Gramm now works for one of the banks that wanted that banking law changed, the same Swiss bank that recently got in trouble for actively assisting some of their American clients to evade lawful taxes.
Has Phil Gramm ever been the target of your outrage, or do you reserve it all for those who had much less power than he had?
#32: You birthers are insane.
#16 Dvorak
Newt Gingrich, Alan Huntsman, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, even Ron Paul and Joe Liberman are looking better than ever.
The age of great scams. Political success is measured in how successfully you pull off your scam.
So many are used to backing their sporting teams that it is only natural to chant for their politicians in the same way, with as little thought involved.
Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah!
I consider Demoncraps and Republitards two items that you need to wipe after experiencing, but they just will not flush away.
# 22 Dr Dodd:
“Obama is the first president who is purposely trying to destroy the nation.”[Citation needed]
[…]
“When his oppressive tax increases fully hit an already angry public he’ll be lucky to finish this term. […]”
I haven’t read today’s paper yet — is there a new plan? Which “oppressive tax increases” are you talking about? His plan to let Bush II’s tax cuts for the rich expire won’t hurt me or anyone I know (or ever met) even a little bit.
I think the likelihood of President Obama being re-elected is greater than you think. The Tea Party people are five to ten percent of the vote, tops, and the percentage of them who will bother to vote will be far less than the percentage of liberals, blacks and their allies who still strongly support him. The moderates will be sick of the GOP’s unrelenting petty obstructiveness, such as legislators voting against bills they introduced, or getting over one hundred amendments added to one of the health care bills and then voting 100% against it, claiming they were shut out by the Dems. The more Senator McConnell’s smirking face appears on TV bragging about the latest thing he prevented President Obama from passing, the more moderates and independents will recoil in distaste and vote the other side.
#33-Gary, the dangerous infidel-they simply didn’t have the POWER to destroy America.
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd = Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac… what else needs to be said?
And no Bush doesn’t get a pass for allowing Pelosi and Reid to run amuck with the people’s checkbook nor should Obama.
The question is what is Obama doing to fix the present day problems? Sorry, but blaming Bush and bowing to the Saudi King does no good and only makes him look like the petty and clueless person he truly is.
As buyers remorse continues to set in across America, the fact remains that Obama is NOW in charge. If he didn’t want the job he should have stayed in Chicago.
Maybe someone should send him a note that says, “Resignation is always an option.”
#37-Uncle Patso-His plan to let Bush II’s tax cuts for the rich expire won’t hurt me or anyone I know (or ever met) even a little bit.
Reinstating the Bush tax cuts is just the tip of the iceberg. When a president and congress goes on a massive spending spree we are witnessing then prepare to suffer.
You may think it won’t effect you, but… never mind, what do you say we let it be a surprise. I’ll be more fun that way.
As far as Republicans being obstructive – when in comes to the Marxist ideas of this president if would be treasonous if they didn’t obstruct him at ever turn.
“Barney Frank and Chris Dodd = Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac… what else needs to be said?”
Are you even serious? What else needs to be said? Everything! You haven’t made any case whatsoever that shows how either one of these people forced legislation past the Republican majority to create the housing bubble.
You seem to live in a fact-free zone. Is that where you’ve been hiding that god that you’ve mentioned so often?
The birth certificate issue could save him in 2012. If he finally has to come clean about that, then the true story will generate sympathy, and make Republicans look like mean crazies.
#26,
AND NO ONE WANTS TO DEAL WITH MY COMMENTS..
Keep fighting..
I ELECT all of you idiots..
NOW make a decision..on 1 thing.
Lunch?? tuna on rye.
ECA,
I’d take it. Problem is im not part of the system. If your not an insider your not allowed to positions of corruption like that.
How dumb is Joe Biden?
Joe Biden is so dumb that while giving the eulogy at Kennedy’s wake he said, “Stand up Teddy, let the people see you!”
The mutability in the public councils arising from a rapid succession of new members, however qualified they may be, points out, in the strongest manner, the necessity of some stable institution in the government. Every new election in the States is found to change one half of the representatives. From this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a change of opinions, a change of measures. But a continual change even of good measures is inconsistent with every rule of prudence and every prospect of success. The remark is verified in private life, and becomes more just, as well as more important, in national transactions.
To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be perceived to be a source of innumerable others.
In the first place, it forfeits the respect and confidence of other nations, and all the advantages connected with national character. An individual who is observed to be inconstant to his plans, or perhaps to carry on his affairs without any plan at all, is marked at once, by all prudent people, as a speedy victim to his own unsteadiness and folly. His more friendly neighbors may pity him, but all will decline to connect their fortunes with his; and not a few will seize the opportunity of making their fortunes out of his. One nation is to another what one individual is to another; with this melancholy distinction perhaps, that the former, with fewer of the benevolent emotions than the latter, are under fewer restraints also from taking undue advantage from the indiscretions of each other. Every nation, consequently, whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability, may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of their wiser neighbors. But the best instruction on this subject is unhappily conveyed to America by the example of her own situation. She finds that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation which has an interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and embarrassed affairs.
The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?
Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few, not for the many.
In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.
But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.
MikeN, would you and your friend James Madison care for a spot of tea? I think we have enough for a party. A nice Tea Party shouldn’t be disruptive at all 😉
#46 Gary, the dangerous and funny infidel
It’s rather ironic that the United States has become a small nation dominated by a few special interests. See the Federalist #10.
>> Dr Dodd said, on February 13th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
>> How dumb is Joe Biden?
>> Joe Biden is so dumb that while giving the eulogy at Kennedy’s wake he said, “Stand up Teddy, let the people see you!”
Of course, you’re just making crap up — as usual.
The story of Bush waving at Stevie Wonder — true or not — was at last reported in the mainstream media.
>> Dr Dodd said, on February 13th, 2010 at 9:38 am
>> Obama is the first president who is purposely trying to destroy the nation.
What a load of crap thing to say, based in total irrationality.
>> emhodew said, on February 13th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
>> If Obama runs for a second term, he will not be able to dodge the birth certificate issue. He will be required to prove he is a natural born citizen. Something he seems adverse to doing this time.
He provided his birth certificate showing he was born in America.
Instead of spending a year spreading a lie, spend 1 minute Googling it. A copy of the birth certificate was posted on the internet when the issue was first raised.
If you have another 60 seconds, Google John McCain’s birth certificate and learn that he was, indeed, born ourside the USA. Yet this didn’t concern the conservatives whatsoever.
Why racism. What hypocrisy.
#47 You’re right as usual, qb. IMO Federalist Paper #10 seems to foresee a more equitable, self-correcting balance of influences in the republic that doesn’t seem to envision the exaggerated role that moneyed interests would come to play.
I had to laugh when I read, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” Gee, Madison must have had supernatural prescience! 😉
22,
prove it..
Corp tax is the LOWEST it has ever been.
Lets go back to the 70’s when the CORPS had to pay out OVER 30% TAX..
43,
YOU ARE STILL DRAFTED, sec. of interior.
45,
WHOLE first paragraph, WRONG..These are 6 year terms in congress.. and 90% are re-elected EVERY TIME.
and its NOT THEM that PUSH and PULL the reps and congress…its those NOT elected, that are doing the DEED.
let me say something STUPID..
the CHANGING of the GUARD, means you have an ALERT guard.
These folks should be KICKED OUT, and CHANGED every 6 years, for many good reasons.
NO-SENIORITY..
HARD to corrupt the NEW guy if you DONT know who its going to be.
The current CORRUPT person wont affect much if he AINT THERE LONG..
POLITICS ISNT/SHOULD NOT be a JOB. It should NEVEr be described as a SKILL.
You should NOT be allowed to RETIRE as a politician and EXPECT to be paid RETIREMENT and BENEFITS EQUAL to your last 10+ year.
ALL of government was SUPPOSED to be on CONTRACT BIDS.. it hasnt been for 30 years. and MOSt of the smart PEOPLE QUIT..
ON AND ON, we could go. But the OLD way meant that they WENT home 6 months out of the year to MAKE A LIVING..
For those that DONT understand..
LOOK at the lists over the past 30+ years of those working IN GOVERNMENT.. there are allot of names tha have been there TO LONG.
# 2 Quintin said, “Overall, Obama has been a pretty good President so far”
I just don’t understand statements like that. He has not succeeded at a single thing he wanted to do. The stimulus bill is seriously mismanaged. The jobs he promised are not appearing (except in government). Healthcare is a disaster. He’s so low in the polls he’s starting to claim credit for military actions Bush instituted. He has alienated voters and nations. He made a mockery of the Nobel Prize by accepting it when he knew he didn’t deserve it, had not done anything to earn it. He has managed to divide the Congress so severely that even with a super majority he can’t get anything done.
But you think he’s doing ok?
I think you need to go watch SpongeBob Square Pants some more.
51,
Enlightened??
most of those people IN office never worked a day in their lives, Outside of government.
The FIRST 125 years, MOST had worked Outside of the gov. THEN gotten the job, and went home to WORK.
#48-Greg Allen-Of course, you’re just making crap up — as usual.
I say this with all sincerity – You need to get out more.
And while you’re out you might consider buying yourself a new sense of humor. Clearly the one you have now is infected with the snotty virus.
Dodd, oh that was a joke. Got it now, and thank god you straightened that out. I thought you were saying that the thought of Joe Biden dressed up in teddy made you “stand up”, or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Heavens no. Each to their own, and more power to you sister.
#56-qb
Rough night, huhh?
Maybe you should cut back on the Rump Ranger Rum with a dingleberry twist.
Your mind is fading fast.
Obama’s popularity is waning. He hasn’t done anything he promised, and has turned out to be yet another politician.
Sad, but true.
I hope he gets booted out….but, the next guy wont’ be any different. Our system is broken…we are voiceless.
58,
YA, AGREE, but add 1 more thing..
THE POLITICIANS YOU ELECTED…didnt DO ANYTHING EITHER or TO HELP get it done…so get stuffed.
And since you must like BUSH jr. for all he DID. WHO had the LOWEST popularity EVER in history..WASNT BOOTED, even tho there was a group TRYING after his FIRST term. HOw can you get BELOW 30% with your OWN group, and still be President?
#58 NOTme: “He hasn’t done anything he promised, and has turned out to be yet another politician.”
Dead on correct.