President Obama’s Epiphany: ‘New Tone’ Airbrushes Bush Legacy Away
14 March 2009 2:03 pm by Taylor Marsh
No connection all morning long… but at last, I’ve got connection. So, without further ado, what’s happening in your world this fine Saturday?
Reader and most astute contrarian, secularh, asks: Why is it that so many of the repug spokspeople are pudgy to fat, white, male etc….
Dave Letterman’s top 10 has an answer through a question posed. How can the GOP become hipper? Answer: #1 Fewer reactionary old white guys
Reader icemama’s dad has another reaction to those “reactionary old white guys” who run the GOP.
But the biggest news for me today is that President Obama has awakened from the naive position on which candidate Obama opined relentlessly. That is to say that on the question of “bipartisanship,” it’s now dawned on the new President that this “new tone” cuts off a critical avenue by which he can make his case. His campaign strategy has come back to bite him in the political posterior as president, because the mantra of “bipartisanship” and “new tone” comes at the expense of airbrushing of all things Bush-Cheney. Because if you don’t criticize the abject incompetence of the Bush administration people don’t understand what’s been handed off. If not done now, in the early days, pointing to Bush later will simply sound like an excuse.
But since Obama has touted Ronald Reagan at different points, mostly in a good way, once again his “bipartisan” “new tone” helped box him in.
The epiphany does seem to have come, however. Better late than never. But Obama’s airbrushing on the altar of “bipartisanship and a new tone in Washington” has cost him strong talking points early on, which was a terrible political calculation.
Always be attacking. Just do it with a smile. ..and to do this you must also make the case that Republicans don’t know how to utilize government to help citizens, because they don’t respect government’s role in people’s lives. The question is how strongly Obama believes in this Democratic tenet. The difference between Democrats and Republicans matters, especially when seen in the crisis of our economy, which was helped along by the Republican standard bearer Ronald Reagan’s deregulation mania back in the 1980’s. It’s long past time to drive this point home.
AP: President Barack Obama is joking that Republicans would like to see him get lost in the Amazon. Obama made the crack Saturday in the Oval Office after a meeting with Brazil’s president. Obama said he would like to visit Brazil and thinks he should visit Rio de Janeiro, where he understands the beaches are nice.Then he said he would love a trip to the Amazon. He joked that he suspects the Republican Party would like to see him travel through the Amazon and maybe get lost for while.
This guy is HILARIOUS …
We all know how brilliant Obama’s campaign strategies paid off. I see his presidency cloaked in these same political maneuvering. He’s slowly peeling the layers of the Republican “better than thou” onion — exposing and discrediting them.
There will come a time soon when bipartisanship will not play into his decisions and America will be much better for it. Give it time….
I go back and forth all the time wondering if Obama has a sly intelligence about partisanship that I just don’t get or is he overconfident in his own ability to win people over? I try to be patient and take heart in the things he is doing so well,like beefing up food protection,lifting the ban on stem cell research (even though that battle goes on)hiring on some serious science people,sending Hillary out to the world.
My gut instinct is that he should be as partisan as all hell and point out the distinctions between the ruinious rethugs and good government policy that is Democratic.
Part of his problem appears to be that he has to chose between the elites and the people. I’m talking all the finance guys who have led us down a rabbit hole.I’m not sure he has chosen yet.
There you go LL. You said it way better than me. I see it like you see it.
Thanks icemama….I just don’t know what to think.I keep thinking that it had to touch him when he campaigned and people told him their problems. He knows how bad it is. There are many forces against him,probably among his own advisors.
What I keep asking myself …. is he like the dog who caught the car?Now what? or is he as smart as his true believers think he is? We really need smart right now.
“White Male Supremacy” is not a joke. It is a very *real* belief born out by such entities as the KKK, Nazi Germany, and even South Africa not that many years ago.
Today – the banner is gleefully carried by the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. If it was only these ‘entertainers’ we could just shrug it off as quickly as we do a Black comedian talking about ‘Whitey’.
Unfortunately, there is WAY too much serious affiliation with that concept even today – within the Republican Party.
You know, I get a little edgy when I think Obama is being snowed by the damn repugs, but I don’t think he is at all. And I was really worried about the “Bush” budget that he signed. But you know what, after really reading about some of the earmarks, they weren’t bad ideas at all.
I read specifically about the honey bee, and being married to a hobby beekeeper I have to tell you that it’s no laughing matter that the honey bee is disappearing and the need for research is dire. Remember they pollinate so we can eat.
Anyway, got off the subject, sorry.
Betsy…as a gardener I am aware of the honeybee problem. I think many extremely worthwhile research projects can be characterized this way. Science has been so marginilized over the last eight years that I am sure earmarks was a way to get some money to it.
The honey bee problem is a huge problem that effects life as we know it. Along with the bees goes flowering plants, if one goes so does the other. This along with climate change are the real dangers that effect my grand children and the future of humans on this planet.
Exactly LL. My complaint about it is that the repubs are all complaining about earmarks, yet they almost all have them in the bill. I hate hypocrisy, and they are the biggest hypocrits of them all.
And I really believe that Obama knows this. Hopefully my theory of him just letting them hang themselves and then saying, “sorry guys, you don’t want anything bipartisan so from now on it’s all my way.”:-)Or I hope that’s the way it will be, because if it’s not, they’ll kill him. And, he’ll be a one term President.
Obama, like Bill Clinton is a small “d” democrat. Ideology is not the main driving force in what he does. Obama will move all over the political map to get done what he thinks is right. Obama is a pragmatist and a realist, he will use and go wherever he thinks is the right way to get things done. This is why he can use Raygun when he feels it gets the point across. Party lines are blurred with Obama. The results are what is important to him.
pmichael says:
14 March 2009 at 7:30 pm
“White Male Supremacy” is not a joke. It is a very *real* belief born out by such entities as the KKK, Nazi Germany, and even South Africa not that many years ago.
Today – the banner is gleefully carried by the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.
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I’m beginning to see these types, Hannity and Limbaugh at the head of the class as OVER compensating for their own shortcomings by having to constantly berate others: Limbaugh with his constant misogyny and Hannity on his one man crusade to expose Obama…. If you look closely you’ll see the insecurity…
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Lake Lady says:
14 March 2009 at 8:16 pm
Betsy…as a gardener I am aware of the honeybee problem. I think many extremely worthwhile research projects can be characterized this way. Science has been so marginilized over the last eight years that I am sure earmarks was a way to get some money to it.’
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Hopefully Science is on the rebound with renewed respect and financial backing.
I really like to think you are right angels.I am not comfortable with his economic team. I don’t pretend to understand ecnomics but it seems to me that like foreign policy there are two different world views and I am not sure of Obama’s economic world view.
Yeah Geo it is clear Obama believes in science.
Hey GeoT do not forget Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. They are just as bad if not worse. Then we have my local radio station that I b***h about because it’s strictly right wing. And we have an idiot locally who claims to be an attorney, but I have wonder if he lost his brain because he no longer practices, just has a one hour talk show every day except Sunday. Today was the limit when he again injected into the conversation about the birth certificate. What an idiot.
Does it ever just blow your minds how this country has gone down? Sometimes it does mine. I can remember growing up and feeling so confident that America was full of smart people who would solve all of our problems.
Anyone watch “The Situation Room” today. He had Arne Duncan on about education. That guy is so enthusiastic. He talked about the excitement of seeing that our children of today, he said that Obama loves kids and it’s very important to him that each child reaches his potential.
Betsy can you get NPR. That’s what I listen to. On weekdays we have a great local program on NPR. Dianne Rehm is great and so is Terry ? (mind freeze).
Lake Lady, Obama’s economic team seems to be a little of both worlds. He has part of his team which is very progressive and geared to the little people, and the other part is the corporate wall street types. Like you I’m not comfortable with the mix, but this is the new politics.
I have not had television on all day….bliss! I have been listening to NPR.
angels who are the progressives?
Lake Lady, I even did you one better. I sat down with the grand kids and the little red head and watched, The Parent Trap. We watched both versions, the original with Hayley Mills and then the one with Lindsey Lohan.
I haven’t seen the one with Lindsay Lohan but I loved the original. Which one did the grandkids like the best?
You still have quite a wait for spring huh?
It is supposed to be 70 here tomorrow. I plan to spend it outside,in the garden.I know what you would do with a day in the 70s.Ha!
Terry Gross!!
Lake Lady, The kids liked the one with Lindsay Lohan better. Its to bad that her career went right down the tubes. She was one hell of an actor at 11 years old. I grew up with Hayley Mills but, The remake is a much better movie.
Lake Lady,close to 60 here tomorrow. Almost time to fire up the bike.
There’s a warrant out for Lindsay Lohan’s arrest.
Well~ I have been at it all day. I take all my decorating apart;pillows,hanging art,slipcovers,afgans,dishes,bedclothes etc. and change seasons.I do it five times a year.I always love the new season when I put it up.
Betsy, its to bad when someone who had the world in her hands just self destructs and throws away everything.
Sad..sad..sad it seems that poor girl just has no one looking out for her.
angels…if nobody ever put good stuff into her she would not be able to recognize that she had the world in her hands.I really do not keep up with popular culture,way to stark for me. It seems that what little I know about her she is that she has some very self involved adolescent parents.
It is truly sad. But her parents really haven’t been much of a role model for her.
Betsy says:
14 March 2009 at 8:58 pm
Hey GeoT do not forget Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. They are just as bad if not worse. Then we have my local radio station that I b***h about because it’s strictly right wing. And we have an idiot locally who claims to be an attorney, but I have wonder if he lost his brain because he no longer practices
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I know Betsy, especially Beck. And cosidering his life story he really should be compassionate and grateful but he’s just the opposite.
And BTW I live in one of the most progressive areas (Santa Cruz) in an arguably progressive state, California and the local AM station is conservative talk with Limbaugh at the helm… I can’t find a station with Steph. Miller, Thom Hartman and the liberal talk lineup. I’m bummed.
Lake Lady says:
14 March 2009 at 9:25 pm
Well~ I have been at it all day. I take all my decorating apart;pillows,hanging art,slipcovers,afgans,dishes,bedclothes etc. and change seasons.I do it five times a year.I always love the new season when I put it up.
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My wife does basically the same thing but kind of on a holiday theme…we’re very green around here right now
Lake Lady, I don’t keep up with the lives of stars either. I will say that asI watched the Parent Trap, here was an 11 year old that had a load of talent. If Walt Disney had still been alive, she might have had a chance.
By the way, D.L. Hughley is having Ron Reagan on tonight to talk about health care. That should be pretty good. I’m a fan of Ron Reagan.
Betsy says:
14 March 2009 at 9:24 pm
There’s a warrant out for Lindsay Lohan’s arrest.
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for assaulting her boyfriend/girlfriend in Vegas?
Betsy says:
14 March 2009 at 9:40 pm
By the way, D.L. Hughley is having Ron Reagan on tonight to talk about health care. That should be pretty good. I’m a fan of Ron Reagan.
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me three… I love that guy’s demeanor, he handles the wingnuts well. They have a hard time arguing with someone named Ronald Reagan, it goes against their DNA
this is juicy over at ABC: (Jake Tapper)
Palin v. Political Punch
March 13, 2009 6:43 PM
A very irate aide to Gov. Sarah Palin contacted ABC News today to explain why his boss’s 31 requests for earmarks in the fiscal year 2009 budget, totaling $197 million, represent a victory for fiscally conservative values.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/palin-v-politic.html
I like Ron Reagan too.Poor guy,what a cross to bear!
Geo~ I am in the process of going green and yellow…I kind of need to wait until outside matches inside. Things are just starting to barely green up and the daffodils are popping.I saw a pair of bluebirds looking for their box today…gotta get it back up.
They nest right outside my bedroom window. A common morning sight is a bluebird plucking a spider from it’s web in my big window.
O Lord…save us all from the contradictions of Sarah Palin!!
Night all~
Lake Lady says:
14 March 2009 at 9:50 pm
They nest right outside my bedroom window. A common morning sight is a bluebird plucking a spider from it’s web in my big window.
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Nice! BTW In our new place I drive by a salt marsh in the morning when I take the dog for exercise and I see all sort of egrets and water birds. I like it here
OH DL & Ron Jr. are on now out west here… back later.
goodnight LL.
night LL. I’m going to get off here too. Hubby just got out of bed to eat some soup. He’s still hacking away. Tuesday we go and see if he’s better or ends up in the hospital. Pneumonia is nothing to fool with. He wanted to go to church tonight and breakfast tomorrow. I told him, no way. Believe it or not our Lutheran Church has saturday night services which we enjoy going to because it’s a small group. But not tonight.
Cya tomorrow.
Had to leave this last gem:
Battle brews over Bush library
“The former president and first lady have already begun holding small private dinners to persuade wealthy friends to invest in a monument and incubator based on the values and events of his presidency.” (good luck with that)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19996.html
Great post, Taylor.
14 March 2009 2:03 pm by Taylor Marsh
That is to say that on the question of “bipartisanship,” it’s now dawned on the new President that this “new tone” cuts off a critical avenue by which he can make his case.
But since Obama has touted Ronald Reagan at different points, mostly in a good way, once again his “bipartisan” “new tone” helped box him in.
(I never thought there was anything ever to tout about Ronald Reagan. He just was a good “B” actor – acted his way into the Presidency. And I agree with you about cutting off a critical avenue to make the case. I think sometimes you just have to take a strong stand and fight for it.)
Lake Lady says:
14 March 2009 at 6:38 pm
I go back and forth all the time wondering if Obama has a sly intelligence about partisanship that I just don’t get or is he overconfident in his own ability to win people over? …. Part of his problem appears to be that he has to chose between the elites and the people. I’m talking all the finance guys who have led us down a rabbit hole.I’m not sure he has chosen yet.
Those are my sentiments exactly. I sometimes wonder, “Is he a real Democrat?” I always thought I was a moderate Democrat but I’m not so sure anymore. I think I am getting more progressive as time goes on. Or maybe it’s just a reaction to those Bush years.
angels81 says:
14 March 2009 at 8:47 pm
Obama, like Bill Clinton is a small “d” democrat. Ideology is not the main driving force in what he does.
Party lines are blurred with Obama. The results are what is important to him.
I think you are correct about this. I think blurring the party lines is what confuses me about Obama. I also think Bill Clinton, although a pragmatist, would have been more progressive had he not had a Republican congress for 3/4 of his term as President.
>I can’t find a station with Steph. Miller, Thom Hartman and the liberal talk lineup. I’m bummed.
Try
KXRA 540AM Monterey
KAZU 90.7FM (NPR/PRI/BBC) – Pacific Grove
KGO 810AM
“Reader and most astute contrarian, secularh,”
contrarian? CONTRARIAN?! MOI?!?!
“Party lines are blurred with Obama. The results are what is important to him.”
And what exactly ARE those results? Giving the repugs basically equal input on legeslation and SUPREMICY in the “air war”?! President Obama better have an ephiphany or he is going to see all the good will and optimisim bleed away from a thousand little cuts from the media and the repugnantklan. It is hard to believe from the drubbing the repugs got at the polls that they would actually be touting their “ideas” but they are, because President Obama has given them a podium to do it from.
They should be nonexistant as far as the goings on at the White House,the Senate and the House of Representatives is concerned.
secular, I think some of the results is just what we have seen the first 50 days. I also think that by Obama blurring the lines, we see the repugs turning in on themselves and becoming rudderless. Instead of spending all their time attacking Democrats, they are now eating themselves.
JimK says:
15 March 2009 at 2:34 am
>I can’t find a station with Steph. Miller, Thom Hartman and the liberal talk lineup. I’m bummed.
Try
KXRA 540AM Monterey
KAZU 90.7FM (NPR/PRI/BBC) – Pacific Grove
KGO 810AM
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mucho grass.
I stream Stephanie in the morning but I want to set my car radio for these three you gave me. thanks.
from Politico:
Unity ‘09
A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new coalition, “Unity ‘09,” aimed at helping President Barack Obama push his agenda through Congress.
Conceived at a New York meeting before the November election, two Democrats familiar with the planning said, Unity ‘09 will draw together money and grassroots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back White House legislation and other progressive causes.
The online-based MoveOn.org is a central player in the nascent organization, but other groups involved in planning Unity ‘09 span a broad spectrum of interests, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Council of La Raza to Planned Parenthood, as well as labor unions and environmental groups.
…
“When progressive activists are working in concert and the right is forming a circular firing squad, you know it’s a new day,” said consultant Paul Begala, who said he’s not involved in the new organization.
also from Politico
The White House’s new message plan:
Beginning Sunday, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery to defend President Obama’s budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.
A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats’ message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. “We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter,” the official said.
David Plouffe, manager of Obama’s presidential race, helped design the strategy, which includes the most extensive activation since November of the campaign’s grassroots network. The database—which includes information for at least 10 million donors, supporters and volunteers—will now be used as a unique tool for governing, with former canvassers now being enlisted to mobilize support for the president’s legislative agenda.
Others involved in the planning included White House senior adviser David Axelrod; the DNC chairman, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine; and DNC Executive Director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon.
Audiegrl says:
15 March 2009 at 11:42 am
also from Politico
The White House’s new message plan:
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“The party of NO” I heard Rep. Weener this morning playing that tired song about Obama creating an economy “like England in the 20’s and France in the 30’s”… aka “socialism” it’s getting really OLD.
Hey GeoT, think of it this way. It’s all the Wingnuts have.
“Always be attacking”? I certainly hope not. And why we are defining bipartisanship as precluding blaming Bush? I don’t think that’s what Obama means at all.
Here’s the problem with the deregulation talking point: it’s just not true. WJC fought for and signed NAFTA. More to the point, WJC signed repeal of Glass-Steagall, which had erected barriers between commercial banks, investment banks, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies. The consequence?: We bailed out AIG because its investment banking arm, AIG Financial Products, entered into a ton of derivatives and credit default swaps that went bad and threatened to take the whole company under. That could never have happened if Glass-Steagall was still on the books.
By the way, I supported WJC on the repeal of Glass-Steagall. And as WJC recently noted, he doesn’t think the repeal directly led to the crisis, because he thought the specific industry regulators would do their jobs. But they didn’t. And a lot of that has to do with Congress, including Democrats. Congressional Democrats resisted greater regulation of Fannie and Freddie, and sidelined efforts to regulate derivatives and hedge funds.
So there’s blame all the way round. Financial deregulation in the modern era may well have started under Reagan, but Democrats also proved to be quite adept at it.