“It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.” – President Bill Clinton
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON was on a mission and he was going to leave no fact unfurled. Coaxing the audience, “Now, listen to me now,” he continued to bring everyone ’round to hear his pitch. It was vintage Clinton.
The guy with “the brass” Clinton is talking about is Paul Ryan, and it was just one part of the speech he ad libbed.
The greatest communicator laid out the case for Democratic governance and did so by reminding seniors that Romney-Ryan want to cut Medicaid. As Paul Begala said on CNN, “he is appalled by the Ryan budget,” and Ryan’s Medicaid cuts is a big part of why. But Democrats have only been complaining about Medicare. What Ryan wants to do to seniors through Medicaid is the ballgame if explained, which Clinton did in detail.
But how do you get a surplus? “ARITHMETIC.” It’s really that simple. You cut taxes in the middle of a debt challenge and you’re going to get one thing: more debt.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can’t figure this out, because it’s been the plan of supply siders since Ronald Reagan tried it and twelve years later William Jefferson Clinton had to drag Republicans and our country out of the mess they left. Now Republicans are asking America to buy into it again and trust there will be a different outcome.
It was the most important speech Bill Clinton has delivered since the State of the Union during the bad old days of the late 1990s.
Clinton also dared to treat his audience like adults.
He broached the subject of Simpson-Bowles, because it’s coming, as I’ve been writing for months, laying hands on the policy, because one of his guys, Erskine Bowles, helped put it together. Clinton believes in it. It was a political pitch that told hard truths that will require deep rumination by activists, progressives and liberal Democrats, but the power of Clinton’s message and its importance no doubt grabbed people deeply.
Bill Clinton cannot be ignored.
What he’s offering will reach independents and soft supporters, especially in conservative Virginia where the debt and deficit matter to Democrats more than these things do in California, where ballot referendums long ago strangled the state.
In the new-media era, conventions mean a lot less. When you’re up against the first football game of the fall season it’s even tougher. But this talk will show up in YouTube snippets until November, with not a single issue Romney-Ryan has brought up left unpacked.
Obamacare was owned.
If Pres. Obama can deliver a speech tomorrow night that asks for people’s vote with an open, humble heart, this convention will prove why these things are held and what they can do when they work. It will also go down in history.
But if Barack Obama is reelected, with Michelle Obama starting the engines, the turn toward that victory took flight with Bill Clinton’s words last night.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON in Charlotte
We’re here to nominate a President, and I’ve got one in mind.
I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. A man who ran for President to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before the election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression. A man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs were created and saved, there were still millions more waiting, trying to feed their children and keep their hopes alive.
I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside. A man who believes we can build a new American Dream economy driven by innovation and creativity, education and cooperation. A man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.
I want Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States and I proudly nominate him as the standard bearer of the Democratic Party.
In Tampa, we heard a lot of talk about how the President and the Democrats don’t believe in free enterprise and individual initiative, how we want everyone to be dependent on the government, how bad we are for the economy.
The Republican narrative is that all of us who amount to anything are completely self-made. One of our greatest Democratic Chairmen, Bob Strauss, used to say that every politician wants you to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself, but it ain’t so.
We Democrats think the country works better with a strong middle class, real opportunities for poor people to work their way into it and a relentless focus on the future, with business and government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. We think “we’re all in this together” is a better philosophy than “you’re on your own.”
Who’s right? Well since 1961, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our economy produced 66 million private sector jobs. What’s the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million!
It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.
Though I often disagree with Republicans, I never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate President Obama and the Democrats. After all, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate Little Rock Central High and built the interstate highway system. And as governor, I worked with President Reagan on welfare reform and with President George H.W. Bush on national education goals. I am grateful to President George W. Bush for PEPFAR, which is saving the lives of millions of people in poor countries and to both Presidents Bush for the work we’ve done together after the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake.
Through my foundation, in America and around the world, I work with Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are focused on solving problems and seizing opportunities, not fighting each other.
When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation works better. After all, nobody’s right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. All of us are destined to live our lives between those two extremes. Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way. They think government is the enemy, and compromise is weakness.
One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to cooperation. He appointed Republican Secretaries of Defense, the Army and Transportation. He appointed a Vice President who ran against him in 2008, and trusted him to oversee the successful end of the war in Iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. And Joe Biden did a great job with both. He appointed Cabinet members who supported Hillary in the primaries. Heck, he even appointed Hillary! I’m so proud of her and grateful to our entire national security team for all they’ve done to make us safer and stronger and to build a world with more partners and fewer enemies. I’m also grateful to the young men and women who serve our country in the military and to Michelle Obama and Jill Biden for supporting military families when their loved ones are overseas and for helping our veterans, when they come home bearing the wounds of war, or needing help with education, housing, and jobs.
President Obama’s record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship.
He also tried to work with Congressional Republicans on Health Care, debt reduction, and jobs, but that didn’t work out so well. Probably because, as the Senate Republican leader, in a remarkable moment of candor, said two years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work, but to put President Obama out of work.
Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to keep President Obama on the job!
In Tampa, the Republican argument against the President’s re-election was pretty simple: we left him a total mess, he hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.
In order to look like an acceptable alternative to President Obama, they couldn’t say much about the ideas they have offered over the last two years. You see they want to go back to the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place: to cut taxes for high income Americans even more than President Bush did; to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit future bailouts; to increase defense spending two trillion dollars more than the Pentagon has requested without saying what they’ll spend the money on; to make enormous cuts in the rest of the budget, especially programs that help the middle class and poor kids. As another President once said – there they go again.
I like the argument for President Obama’s re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.
Are we where we want to be? No. Is the President satisfied? No. Are we better off than we were when he took office, with an economy in free fall, losing 750,000 jobs a month. The answer is YES.
I understand the challenge we face. I know many Americans are still angry and frustrated with the economy. Though employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend and even housing prices are picking up a bit, too many people don’t feel it.
I experienced the same thing in 1994 and early 1995. Our policies were working and the economy was growing but most people didn’t feel it yet. By 1996, the economy was roaring, halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in American history.
President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No President – not me or any of my predecessors could have repaired all the damage in just four years. But conditions are improving and if you’ll renew the President’s contract you will feel it.
I believe that with all my heart.
President Obama’s approach embodies the values, the ideas, and the direction America must take to build a 21st century version of the American Dream in a nation of shared opportunities, shared prosperity and shared responsibilities.
So back to the story. In 2010, as the President’s recovery program kicked in, the job losses stopped and things began to turn around.
The Recovery Act saved and created millions of jobs and cut taxes for 95% of the American people. In the last 29 months the economy has produced about 4.5 million private sector jobs. But last year, the Republicans blocked the President’s jobs plan costing the economy more than a million new jobs. So here’s another jobs score: President Obama plus 4.5 million, Congressional Republicans zero.
Over that same period, more than more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under President Obama – the first time manufacturing jobs have increased since the 1990s.
The auto industry restructuring worked. It saved more than a million jobs, not just at GM, Chrysler and their dealerships, but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country. That’s why even auto-makers that weren’t part of the deal supported it. They needed to save the suppliers too. Like I said, we’re all in this together.
Now there are 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than the day the companies were restructured. Governor Romney opposed the plan to save GM and Chrysler. So here’s another jobs score: Obama two hundred and fifty thousand, Romney, zero.
The agreement the administration made with management, labor and environmental groups to double car mileage over the next few years is another good deal: it will cut your gas bill in half, make us more energy independent, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and add another 500,000 good jobs.
President Obama’s “all of the above” energy plan is helping too – the boom in oil and gas production combined with greater energy efficiency has driven oil imports to a near 20 year low and natural gas production to an all time high. Renewable energy production has also doubled.
We do need more new jobs, lots of them, but there are already more than three million jobs open and unfilled in America today, mostly because the applicants don’t have the required skills. We have to prepare more Americans for the new jobs that are being created in a world fueled by new technology. That’s why investments in our people are more important than ever. The President has supported community colleges and employers in working together to train people for open jobs in their communities. And, after a decade in which exploding college costs have increased the drop-out rate so much that we’ve fallen to 16th in the world in the percentage of our young adults with college degrees, his student loan reform lowers the cost of federal student loans and even more important, gives students the right to repay the loans as a fixed percentage of their incomes for up to 20 years. That means no one will have to drop-out of college for fear they can’t repay their debt, and no one will have to turn down a job, as a teacher, a police officer or a small town doctor because it doesn’t pay enough to make the debt payments. This will change the future for young Americans.
I know we’re better off because President Obama made these decisions.
That brings me to health care.
The Republicans call it Obamacare and say it’s a government takeover of health care that they’ll repeal. Are they right? Let’s look at what’s happened so far. Individuals and businesses have secured more than a billion dollars in refunds from their insurance premiums because the new law requires 80% to 85% of your premiums to be spent on health care, not profits or promotion. Other insurance companies have lowered their rates to meet the requirement. More than 3 million young people between 19 and 25 are insured for the first time because their parents can now carry them on family policies. Millions of seniors are receiving preventive care including breast cancer screenings and tests for heart problems. Soon the insurance companies, not the government, will have millions of new customers many of them middle class people with pre-existing conditions. And for the last two years, health care spending has grown under 4%, for the first time in 50 years.
So are we all better off because President Obama fought for it and passed it? You bet we are.
There were two other attacks on the President in Tampa that deserve an answer. Both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the President for allegedly robbing Medicare of 716 billion dollars. Here’s what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits. None. What the President did was save money by cutting unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies that weren’t making people any healthier. He used the saving to close the donut hole in the Medicare drug program, and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare Trust Fund. It’s now solvent until 2024. So President Obama and the Democrats didn’t weaken Medicare, they strengthened it.
When Congressman Ryan looked into the TV camera and attacked President Obama’s “biggest coldest power play” in raiding Medicare, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. You see, that 716 billion dollars is exactly the same amount of Medicare savings Congressman Ryan had in his own budget.
At least on this one, Governor Romney’s been consistent. He wants to repeal the savings and give the money back to the insurance companies, re-open the donut hole and force seniors to pay more for drugs, and reduce the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by eight years. So now if he’s elected and does what he promised Medicare will go broke by 2016. If that happens, you won’t have to wait until their voucher program to begins in 2023 to see the end Medicare as we know it.
But it gets worse. They also want to block grant Medicaid and cut it by a third over the coming decade. Of course, that will hurt poor kids, but that’s not all. Almost two-thirds of Medicaid is spent on nursing home care for seniors and on people with disabilities, including kids from middle class families, with special needs like, Downs syndrome or Autism. I don’t know how those families are going to deal with it. We can’t let it happen
Now let’s look at the Republican charge that President Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill I signed that moved millions of people from welfare to work.
Here’s what happened. When some Republican governors asked to try new ways to put people on welfare back to work, the Obama Administration said they would only do it if they had a credible plan to increase employment by 20%. You hear that? More work. So the claim that President Obama weakened welfare reform’s work requirement is just not true. But they keep running ads on it. As their campaign pollster said “we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” Now that is true. I couldn’t have said it better myself – I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad.
Let’s talk about the debt. We have to deal with it or it will deal with us. President Obama has offered a plan with 4 trillion dollars in debt reduction over a decade, with two and a half dollars of spending reductions for every one dollar of revenue increases, and tight controls on future spending. It’s the kind of balanced approach proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.
I think the President’s plan is better than the Romney plan, because the Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility: The numbers don’t add up.
It’s supposed to be a debt reduction plan but it begins with five trillion dollars in tax cuts over a ten-year period. That makes the debt hole bigger before they even start to dig out. They say they’ll make it up by eliminating loopholes in the tax code. When you ask “which loopholes and how much?,” they say “See me after the election on that.”
People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets. What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic. If they stay with a 5 trillion dollar tax cut in a debt reduction plan – the – arithmetic tells us that one of three things will happen: 1) they’ll have to eliminate so many deductions like the ones for home mortgages and charitable giving that middle class families will see their tax bill go up two thousand dollars year while people making over 3 million dollars a year get will still get a 250,000 dollar tax cut; or 2) they’ll have to cut so much spending that they’ll obliterate the budget for our national parks, for ensuring clean air, clean water, safe food, safe air travel; or they’ll cut way back on Pell Grants, college loans, early childhood education and other programs that help middle class families and poor children, not to mention cutting investments in roads, bridges, science, technology and medical research; or 3) they’ll do what they’ve been doing for thirty plus years now – cut taxes more than they cut spending, explode the debt, and weaken the economy. Remember, Republican economic policies quadrupled the debt before I took office and doubled it after I left. We simply can’t afford to double-down on trickle-down.
President Obama’s plan cuts the debt, honors our values, and brightens the future for our children, our families and our nation.
My fellow Americans, you have to decide what kind of country you want to live in. If you want a you’re on your own, winner take all society you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibilities – a “we’re all in it together” society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. If you want every American to vote and you think its wrong to change voting procedures just to reduce the turnout of younger, poorer, minority and disabled voters, you should support Barack Obama. If you think the President was right to open the doors of American opportunity to young immigrants brought here as children who want to go to college or serve in the military, you should vote for Barack Obama. If you want a future of shared prosperity, where the middle class is growing and poverty is declining, where the American Dream is alive and well, and where the United States remains the leading force for peace and prosperity in a highly competitive world, you should vote for Barack Obama.
I love our country – and I know we’re coming back. For more than 200 years, through every crisis, we’ve always come out stronger than we went in. And we will again as long as we do it together. We champion the cause for which our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor – to form a more perfect union.
If that’s what you believe, if that’s what you want, we have to re-elect President Barack Obama.
God Bless You – God Bless America.
photo: via Twitter
I agree. The man is simply unrivaled in politics. As I noted the audience went silence on Simpson Bowles, not one clap for that thing. But then Clinton put Medicaid for once front and center not for ridicule but as something to fight to save. Ryan cuts it 1/3 and block grant s it. 2/3 of Mediciaid goes to nursing care. 2/3. Do the math and Medicare goes broke in 2016 and Medicaid dies as well.
…the audience went silence on Simpson Bowles, not one clap for that thing.
For good reason. It’s time for progressives to decide the deal they want & bargain for it.
If Romney wins the Senate will likely turn, too.
Beautiful words indeed; but they are not Obama’s words, or his thoughts. Clinton is a man with a thankless task; defending what does not deserve to be defended.
Same mantra from your last post, and I’m still amazed that you think you know what is in the Presidents heart and mind. I guess what you are really saying is that Clinton is being dishonest when he told the people of this country that he really supports the President and gladly came to nominate the President for a second term.
I have to wonder what your motive is behind your hatred for Obama? Is it that you feel he has not done enough or does it have to do with the pigment of his skin? I wouldn’t pretend to see into your heart and mind like you have with the President or Bill Clinton, so instead I can only ask and wonder.
angels81 – wouldn’t it be great if we could discuss policies and platforms without the ensuing hate and, at times, name calling? There is an ugliness in politics that just turns me off these days. I don’t remember it ever being so virulent when I was young but maybe it was and I just wasn’t aware of it because we didn’t have news coverage 24/7. What I saw Bill Clinton delivering last night was a speech which included all the people. And I honestly believe as you do that whatever rancor that existed between Obama and Clinton has disappeared. I don’t think either of these men hold grudges.
Why, angels, did you need to even hint that fangio dislikes Obama based upon race?
Taylor — I am still awaiting moderation… I thought that was not the case any more?
No, you’re not in moderation and haven’t been for a few weeks.
This current comment wasn’t moderated… Let me check asap!
Update: whitepaw, you are not in moderation.
Thanks Taylor.. The initial post stated I was in moderation… Looks like it is working without moderation now.
Looking forward to a great speech tonight!
Yep Ol’ Bill did his thing and did it well. Reading what fangio said about Clinton’s words not being Obama’s word’s or thoughts, I disagree to a point. He’s married to a woman who clearly will tell him how she feels about things. And Michelle Obama would definitely resonate louder with progressives. So President Obama hears “it”. I think why President Obama has disappointed progressives is that he has a delegate and compromise nature (not weakness) many times. And a sizable amount of progressives didn’t want that and the times maybe didn’t warrant that.
Let me inject some race for flavor here. Barack Obama is a black dude. Regardless of his name, parental lineage, etc, he worked around and latched on to the American black identity which features a heavily Democratic slant. Regardless of his ruthless tactics in Chicago with other black politicians, he’s a black dude married to a regular “sista” (her upbringing, city worker father and homemaker mother is classic regular American). So those roots of black “Democraticism” is all in him. Barack Obama is a DEMOCRAT plain and simple. But how he applies it is the issue with many progressives.
As I mentioned awhile ago, President Obama may have been better served being the “angry black man” as some conservatives have portrayed him now (he’s HARDLY that which shows how out-of-touch some conservatives are with that character). Now don’t get it twisted. Not “angry black man” focused on black people only. But the angry black man championing the progressive platform. The angry black man character doesn’t give a *BLEEP* and is going to break you off and make you GET IT. But Obama’s demeanor and general approach doesn’t allow that. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, can produce his own version of the “angry black man” (which is funny since he was called jokingly in black circles “America’s first black president”).
The Tea Party used anger to their advantage and still using it. And I have respect for The Tea Party because they don’t give a damn. They will keep saying what they want to say and you can kiss their collective butts. Also why I like Jill Stein.
And was there ANYTHING more predictable in life than the fact that the day after Bill Clinton gives a great speech, Joe Scarborough will devote his three hour ego-fest on MSNBC to petty, pathetic, jealous snarking on both the Clintons for their “love of the spotlight,” pull out his horrible, unfunny Clinton impersonation, and suggest that this was all in the service of Hillary 2016? That he would mock the former President (like an ant mocking a giant) for loving the attention (this from Joe Scarborough, mind you) and snigger at his motivation for making the speech?
Was there anything more predictable than Lawrence O’Donnell and the other bobbleheads who populate that awful show joining in on the snark? That Mika would respond with one of her patented “Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh”s in setting Joe up for yet another Bill Clinton Is All About Bill Clinton rant?
I just wish someone would interrupt one of these gigglefests to remind the people yukking it up at the former President’s expense that none of them are more than little asterisks, if that, on the great, unrolling parchment of history. Joe Scarborough is a nobody who served in congress for a few terms and would be working for an insurance company today if MSNBC didn’t commit the crime on the viewing public by giving him his own show. Mika is someone’s daughter. O’Donnell is a pompous windbag who, along with everyone else on the show, suffers from unjustified delusions of grandeur. And they are all jealous little people bleating from the sidelines as Bill Clinton, the guy they simply cannot knock down no matter how lamely they try, just keeps marching on.
Anytime Joe opens his pie hole spewing snark someone should ask him about the dead woman found in his congressional office….that will shut him up quick.
Well put jjamele!
A hundred years from now, Bill Clinton will be remembered, and students will be studying him in school. Scarborough, et al won’t even get a mention because no one will remember any of them except maybe if someone studied early 21st century media. They’d still be asterisks.
Clinton rocked last night, like only he could rock. Say what you want about the man, but he had people eating out of his hand.
I agree with Clinton that no president could have brought this country back into full swing economically. The best analogy I can give is if you have a massive heart attack. It’s going to take time to get back to 100%. Unfortunately, we live in a country where people want it now.
My gripe with Obama is and always has been that he didn’t act like a Democrat. He didn’t fight for what he believed in or said he believed in. At times it seemed he lacked the courage of his convictions. Example, the Public Option.
I was kind of eavesdropping on my 22 year old granddaughter and her friends the other day. For the record my granddaughter has a huge medical problem which requires some pretty expensive medicine. She’s also got another 3-4 years of school before she finishes her graduate degrees. She is terrified that she is going to lose her medical coverage if Romney takes the wrecking ball to it. There is no way she could afford her own health care insurance. And as a side note, in talking about Ann Romney and Michelle Obama the young women in that room all identified with Michelle Obama. They thought Ann Romney was a nice lady but it’s Mrs. Obama who inspires them and who they want to emulate.
The only thing Scarborough will be remembered for is that poor girls mysterious death in his office.
There is not much to say really. Bill Clinton delivered and some more… As I was watching him yesterday I could not help being impressed by the integrity of the Clintons and their steadfast commitment to the democrats and progressive ideals. They are great team players, and despite 2008, both Hilary and Bill continue to go beyond the call of duty in their service to the Obama administration and his reelection bid. Amazing people.
I am absolutely convinced that the Obamas are extremely grateful and aware that if Obama gets reelected they will have played a significant role. I still have in mind Michelle’s words of support towards Hilary Clinton in February “I will be wherever she wants me to be whenever she needs me to be there”. Anybody trying to manufacture controversy, resentment, backstabbing or anything negative between these four amazing people is just making stuff up. Bill Clinton proved it again yesterday, I hope his speech was a very very very very very very very bitter pill to all the Pumas and RomneyRyanclintonites.
Well said.
I hope his speech was a very very very very very very very bitter pill to all the Pumas and RomneyRyanclintonites.
YES. YES. YES.
I say that 3 times, because when people in these groups attack it’s with animosity & vitriol, instead of simple policy problems or ideological questions surrounding Pres. Obama.
The hate Bill Clinton talked about from people, and that he just couldn’t relate, rang like a bell.
Hearing Pres. Clinton last night was THE best birthday present I could have gotten. To hear him again, at the top of the mountaintop again, which I never doubted he would be… At the top of his game again, if in a completely different way than I saw him 20 years ago… do what NO other Democrat has done in 4 years. I know the man’s a neoliberal, never thought otherwise, but the music he sings when he speaks about service and what the Democratic Party means makes my heart explode with gratitude.
Going through some race in here again to make a point: all Black Democrats love the Clintons. Including Barack and Michelle Obama. ‘Nuff said.
I butchered that last comment I made. Here it is, non-butchered:
Going to throw some race in here again to make a point: all Black Democrats love the Clintons. Including Barack and Michelle Obama. ‘Nuff said.
Love the headline at Huffington Post this morning…”BILL KILLS”.
“Corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters, because we don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for people.” Elizabeth Warren
I loved this line from Elizabeth Warren. This is what our country should be all about.
Elizabeth Warren is a star… (she also reminds me of my mum).
He mentioned how he worked with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. I wonder why he did not mention Newt Gingrich? He was up there taking credit for some of the great things Speaker Gingrich accomplished, he could at least gave him a shout out too. I felt he was on a roll until he started talking about Joe Biden. I think that Bill Clinton gave the best case for re-electing President Obama as possibly can be made. I do not think many Independant voters are going to buy into the whole “I am going to reach out across aisle in order to get things done” schtick again. He did not do it during his first term and he will not do it again. He did not get a budget passed for 3 years and one of those years his political party had a very strong majority in both Houses. His own party was not 100% behind him on his crazy health insurance tax bill either. It saddened me when Obama said to McCain “John, the election is over.” The chance to work together to really get things done in regards to health insurance and health care reform was destroyed that moment on live television.
What are the great things speaker Gingrich accomplished?
Yeah, what did Newt accomplish except close the government down because he felt slighted?
1.”He mentioned how he worked with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. I wonder why he did not mention Newt Gingrich?”
M<aybe because Newt was a boil on the ass of Democracy that was finally lanced?
2. He was up there taking credit for some of the great things Speaker Gingrich accomplished, he could at least gave him a shout out too."
What? Like shutting down the Federal Government because he had to leave by the back door of the plane? By basically luanching the hatefest that is American politics today? By pioneering lies as standard campaign form?
3." I felt he was on a roll until he started talking about Joe Biden."
?
4" I think that Bill Clinton gave the best case for re-electing President Obama as possibly can be made."
Yes, he did very convincingly.
5." I do not think many Independant voters are going to buy into the whole “I am going to reach out across aisle in order to get things done” schtick again."
And what would you know about undecided voters?!!!!!
6" He did not do it during his first term and he will not do it again."
He had to deal with dishonest, disingenuous repugnantklan/teabagging/UBERChristian liars whose stated purpose was to block everything he or the Dems proposed.
7." He did not get a budget passed for 3 years and one of those years his political party had a very strong majority in both Houses."
Here's a news flash for you because apparently you have NO idea how our form of Government works…the President doesn't write the Budget…CONGRESS does. And when you have one party acting as obstructionists with the help of a few disgusting screw you dog Dems it is impossible to get anything done. See?
8." His own party was not 100% behind him on his crazy health insurance tax bill either."
Well 100% of the Dems weren't behind the ACA because some of them thought, along with the majority of the public, that it didn't go far enough.
9." It saddened me when Obama said to McCain “John, the election is over.”
The truth saddens you when Obama points out the repugnantklan is being obstructionist and they lost?!!!!
10"The chance to work together to really get things done in regards to health insurance and health care reform was destroyed that moment on live television."
Are you seriously dim enough to think ANYONE with a functioning brain believes that bilge?!!!!! The repugnantklan said NO to any and everything.
Sigh,
Clean up on aisle 3. As Sec has already provided a point by point deconstruction of this missive let me do an overview. MJ, you really do need to up your game here. Vomiting up the talking points from Bill O’Liely or Mush Limbaugh is not going to work on this site.
BHO bent over backwards to satisfy a reactionary, obstructionist opposition that was bound and determined to undermine his administration no matter what the cost to the nation as a whole.
He had to sail into a headwind of epic lies, distortion, bad will and pettifoggery. The calamity coming out from Wrong Wing radio and other media was unprecedented. No other President of the US was ever forced to produce his long form birth certificate to “prove” his legitimacy to hold the office. Even now, Republican stand bys are accusing the President of being a secret Communist! The accusation is beyond absurd.
Also beyond absurd is the accusation that BHO has some weird anti-colonialist Jones going on; that he inherited this viewpoint from the dear old dad that only once met once.
The onus for excessive partisanship lies on the door with Republicans, no other group. They are the people who went Birther crazy. They are the one who spread the vicious lie about Death Panels. They are the ones who keep bringing up the non sequiturs of Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayres, and Saul Alinski. They are the ones who have taken on the personality and prerogatives of a spoiled toddler who keeps repeating “no” to any question or comment.
BHO should be a Republican dream; a center-right politician that begins from a classical Country Club Republican view point and then compromises rightward from there. But no, he’s a Democrat, and thus must be opposed at every step. Worse, he is a black man and thus be the spawn of the Devil incarnate– so show us your papers nig-CLANG.
BHO’s biggest error was to keep on trying to compromise with the Republicans. His second biggest error was not to coddle Blue Dog Dems with more ego stroking. His last error was not to understand, as he does now, that Policy requires the President to be in permanent campaign mode. He did a hideous job selling both the Stim and even worse job selling AHCA. But since he did not realize both were essential to his reelection, that he had to bring out the big guns on both to ensure a smooth reelection, he tried to play the inside game and got beat up like a rented mule. You don’t bring a pea-shooter to gun fight unless you want to get pistol-whipped.
spincitysd – I was talking about Bill Clinton’s speech, what are you talking about?
If you call a bunch of people ganging up on me a “gunfight”, I do not need anything other than a keyboard.
If you are accusing me of plagarism, prove it or shut the hell up. I do not need to copy anything from anyone.
secularhumanizinevoluter – It is impossible to discredit the truth with lies. You lose, again.
Sen. McCain is not an “obstructionist” and his record proves it.
Spoken like thew little kid who gets there patooty beat in a ball game at the playground who then shuffles away and yells back over their shoulder “I WON” pathetic doesn’t even come CLOSE to discribing it. Remember, politics….it’s a full contact sport….anybody can play…don’t bring no weak shit! You Madam brought particularly weak feces.
When you comment with innacuarcies, as youalways do, than your schoolyard analogy would be that you are the kid who strikes out and think he hit a home run. Sir, I do not come here to “fight” anyone. I just express my views. It looks like they are too hard for you to handle. Sir, I am sorry for your anger.
SpinCitySD – I am still waiting for you to prove I am coping what others are saying. Looks like you can’t. Game over. I win, you lose. Sorry for your anger.
1″When you comment with innacuarcies, as youalways do, than your schoolyard analogy would be that you are the kid who strikes out and think he hit a home run.”
Really, is this your best? Remember the part about “don’t bring no weak shit”? Once again you are pushing out weak feces.
2.” Sir, I do not come here to “fight” anyone. I just express my views.”
No, you come here to spew lame, utterly divorced from reality talking points from the fever brained wingnutesphere.
3.” It looks like they are too hard for you to handle.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHA! More like to easy to ridicule and shred without even trying…but if it makes you feel good thinking your gibbering is “to hard to handle” BWAHAHAHA!
4.”Sir, I am sorry for your anger.”
Why ever would you think I am angre? I am entertained much like folks used to be entertained by paying to sit on a balcony at insane asylums. Watching the frantic and utterly divorced from reason, reality or logic flailing and gibbering of the wingnuts is pretty funny. I’m GLAD you and your cohorts show up. It is a constant reminder of just how pathetically inept and imbecilic the right is.
It is unquestionably heart-warming to read that liberals have made peace with, nay….come to adore……..the single most influential person in replacing liberalism with neo-liberalism as the mainstream Democratic Party philosophy. Liberals are certainly forgiving, if not in fact willing to sacrifice philosophical principle to latch onto to some morsel of fleeting partisan joy.
Nontheless, if we actually had any political analysts in the bunch, that person would be asking, “So, if you were not planning on voting for Obama before Clinton’s speech, are you now planning to do so?”……or, “if you were undecided before, are you now convinced Obama is the correct choice?”
Given that answers to those questions are not yet available (and certainly one cannot find those answers here by definition), the only thing to say is premature ejaculation has been never known to serve a useful purpose.
Well, casual, you clearly are not a political analyst. If you were, you would not need to ask the questions you posed. Of course significant numbers of people who were not that enthused about Obama are now thinking of voting for him – and because of the cavalcade of stirring speeches, one great one after one another, culminating in Clinton’s opus last night.
One more thing. Liberals are not willing to sacrifice philsophical principle. They are, however, willing to work with people of a different political persuasion but good intent to fashion solutions to the country’s thorny problems. If you are looking for craven political opportunists, look no further than the Republican Party which, in their unquenchable desire to defeat Obama, has nominated a man who variously has been to the left of Kennedy and to the right of Reagan. A man whose signature legislative accomplishment is the progenitor of a bill Republicans have sworn a blood oath to undo. Try as he might, Romney cannot bring himself to be a forceful advocate for Republican principles now ascendant; and try as they might, the custodians of said Republican principles cannot bring themselves to love Romney. And that enthusiasm gap will prove fatal come November.
I do get your frustration, though. You may have been convinced, by perusing the blogosphere, that the Democrats’ marriage was too riven by division (between progressives and centrists; between Clintonites and Obamazens) to survive. In retrospect, you realize that you were merely witnessing a lovers’ quarrel, and the whole making up process is making you ill. Especially when you compare it to y’alls marriage of convenience, which was revealed in Tampa for the loveless, lifesucking arrangement it really is. But take heart – this will all be over soon. After which, you can dream of Rubio in 2016. Talk about premature ejaculation!
Oh SNAP ogenec…..SNAP with a talk to the hand!!!
good to see you orgenec. You hit the nail on the head – liberals are willing “to work with people of a different political persuasion but good intent to fashion solutions to the country’s thorny problems.” I believe it’s called compromise. And that’s what I thought politics was all about.
It should be, JA, it should be. Great to see you too!
Ha! Great stuff Ogenec. But no, Rubio does not have a prayer in 2016, Ryan or Santorum have the inside track if Mittens goes flop. The Reactionaries are going to have one or two more flings before reality hands them their heads to them.
LOL – just having a little fun with Mr. Smug One Percenter
“Well, casual, you clearly are not a political analyst. If you were, you would not need to ask the questions you posed. Of course significant numbers of people who were not that enthused about Obama are now thinking of voting for him”
Unfortunately, the joke is on you if you suspect I got where I am by succumbing to facts not in evidence. Show me some support for this “thinking by significant numbers” because your dreams don’t cut it in my court of law.
While Rule #5 of Marquess of Queensbury should preclude my further engagement of you in a battle of wits, I will allow you to next Tuesday to find the post convention polls that show Obama significantly bettering his position relative to Romney in the head to head matchups.
“Unfortunately, the joke is on you if you suspect I got where I am by succumbing to facts not in evidence. Show me some support for this “thinking by significant numbers” because your dreams don’t cut it in my court of law.”
Yet another reference to your exalted station in life, my dear friend. Methinks thou dost protest too much. You may or may not have a ton of money but if you do, you’re awfully insecure about it.
Court of law? Proof? Sheesh, I thought we were playing political analyst, not lawyer. You’ll get your proof soon enough – in about two months or so. We can make a friendly wager in the meantime, as your standard bearer is wont to do.
Verily, verily he is a legend in his own mind……..exactly WHY is a question beyond the ability of rational minds to decipher.
Well, I for one thought all the speeches were great. I personally do think that Ann Romney speech was a nice speech and she was trying to show how in love she is with Mitt. But I don’t think it was a convincing speech, whereas Michelle Obama’s speech, I believe, touched peoples hearts and they identified with her.
I loved Clinton’s speech. He is absolutely wonderful, electrifying and totally convincing. If I were someone sitting on the fence I think his speech certainly would have convinced me to vote for Obama. He put things in perspective and in simple terms that people could really understand. He spoke to adults who understood exactly what he was saying.
I was mesmerized all night. Since Tuesday there have been so many heartwarming and great stories about why we can’t allow Romney to win because of his promise to get rid of the ACA. Also, the fear of women being pushed back. I think this is a very important election. And I’m looking forward to tonight.
I do have to add one thing. I really hope that Hillary is strongly thinking about 2016. I would be one of her “phone soldiers”, it’s difficult for me to walk long distances anymore. But I would love to be on the phones for her.
One thing I must say. I really get angry when our right wing friends send nothing but garbage around the net. Amazingly in one of our Bible study classes the man who runs it (he at one time was a Catholic Priest, then an Episcopal Priest and now belongs to the Lutheran church) made a statement before we started the meeting that Obama was forcing hospitals to perform abortions. I was the only one to pipe up and tell him that just wasn’t true. He mumbled that he read it on the net. I then proceeded to tell him that no federal funds were involved in paying for abortions. Later a woman came up to me and thanked me. LOL, there are only six of us progressives that belong in that church.
I find it infuriating that more people do not confront this sort of garbage when these pinheads spout it. I had a similar experiance with some moron who is a dittohead regarding Ms. Fluke. These imbecilic assmonkeys never even HEARD what she said in her testimony but just quote the impotent sack of pus and a couple of other repugnantklan/teabagger/UBERChristian liars. It was pure delight to loudly and forcefully state reality to this idiot.
Gosh this is just great to have Ogenec,angels, Betsy and Jane Austin all commenting on this thread…brings back some great discussions during the “08 run!! I would also love to hear from ddjl and geo.
I guess it took the master to bring everybody around. Bill Clinton also made my heart swell last night, the man’s sheer abilty to triumph over all the hatred thrown at him through the years and make the case for the Dems in his characteristic sunny, inclusive, intelligent way is just the best medicine for this old Dems soul.
The First Lady was spectacular, and the speeches leading up to her were like a symphony building to it’s climax…Elizabeth Warren kept it real and I expect Joe Biden and the President to top it all off tonight.
This has been like a World Series to me and my side is winning.I know like Taylor writes that we have serious problems with the two party system but just for this week I am just enjoying myself tremendously.
You are right, its good to hear from old friends, and I hope it continues. I also have good feelings this week and has fired that old flame.
So good to see you posting, Lake Lady. How can we ever forget the 2008 election? This blog was hopping. I, too, wish some of our other friends would come back, if for no other reason, than nostalgia. BTW – How’s Sammy (is that right)? He’s got to be starting school this fall, No?
Jane~Sammy is great…a totally robust little boy. He started preschool this fall. Just his energy level wears me out, having raised a girl I realize that a boy is a whole different thing…constant motion!
How are your little ones…still living with you? How is your husband? Is his health okay?
Heya Betsy. I so feel your pain. I recently was sent a RIDICULOUS email of some myth about Pres. Obama, over which I went off. It never ends. It’s not enough to disagree with Obama, you have to delegitimize him.
It’s okay to disagree about policy but when you get personal with all the garbage I get so angry Taylor. I have a friend who threatened a good friend of hers with the Secret Service if she didn’t stop sending garbage, some even threatening the President. Maybe that’s what we should do, threaten these people with the SS coming to their door.
As much as I disliked Bushes policies, I didn’t dislike the man nor want to even get involved with personal jabs and slanderous statements.
I don’t ever remember it ever being this ugly. Although I do remember the garbage that the GOP threw around about the Clintons.
And I have to say one more thing, even though Steve Schmidt is a Republican I think he gives a pretty honest commentary on MSNBC.