Barack Obama

Obama – Teetering But Still Standing

August 7, 2011 By mario piperni

The President has taken quite a beating over the last while from both conservatives and liberals. Yet his approval ratings are not as bad as one would expect, especially compared to the dismal numbers being posted by Congress, Republicans and teabaggers. Jonathan Capehart reminds us of what this President has been through over the first two and a half years of his term.

Ever since Obama walked through the doors of the Oval Office for the first time as president, he has been beset by one crisis after another that would sap his support or raise doubts about him and his leadership. There was the imploding economy in early 2009 and the actions taken to prevent another Depression; the politically debilitating health-care debate and the law that helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party and the loss of the House; the response to the gulf oil spill and the swine flu epidemic; the struggling economic recovery and frustration over the lack of jobs; the debt-ceiling fiasco; the delegitimizing birther nonsense that gained traction; and a Republican minority in the Senate and then a Republican majority in the House that see their sole purpose as thwarting anything that might be viewed as a success for the president, even if it might do right by the country.

Given all that, a 48 percent approval rating is damned impressive.

Compare the number in the latest NYT-CBS poll.

Obama: 48% approval
Boeher: 30% approval
Republicans in Congress: 21%
Democrats in Congress: 28%

When asked about who they would trust more to make the right decisions about the economy, the President or Republicans in Congress, Obama wins it hands down 47 to 33 percent. And despite the endless lies and spin put out by Republicans and conservative media over the economy and debt, 44% of respondents rightly put the blame for the budget deficit on Bush while only 15% place it on Obama. Nice. Teabaggers might be loud and boisterous and are the ones getting the headlines, but it is good to be reminded that they are nothing more than a minority.

It’s still too early to give up on this guy, especially given the alternatives available. There is much to criticize in the President’s handling of Republicans and one hopes that he’s finally come to the realization that there is no hope of bipartisanship with this gang of thugs and teabagging terrorists. Clearly, there is no reasoning with insanity. Republicans understand that their only chance for victory in 2012 is to continue with their mission to slow down economic recovery. On that front, they’re winning but polling indicates that Americans, for now, are still willing to put their money on this President.

Through the wreckage of the last month emerges Obama. Battered and bruised, for sure. But still standing.

Standing but teetering. Has the debt ceiling craziness taught him anything?

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, numbers Tagged With: economy, polls

Debt Default: T minus 9 and Counting…

July 23, 2011 By mario piperni

A little over a week left before the August 2nd deadline to reach a deal and the Tea Party and Grover Norquist still have a stranglehold on Republicans in Congress.

Debt-reduction negotiations between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner collapsed Friday, derailing an effort to reach a landmark agreement to cut spending, overhaul the tax code and avert a government default.

In subsequent statements, both sides blamed the other for an impasse that threatens to plunge the nation into a fiscal crisis if the government fails to meet a looming deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling.

Barack Obama offered Republicans a deal which was slanted further to the right than anything a Ronald Reagan could have imagined in his wildest dreams. And John Boehner said no. Boehner walked away from a deal which had over $1 trillion in cuts in domestic and defense spending as well as $650 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Make no mistake about it, Republicans have broken government. Their refusal to compromise even when presented with a proposal which could easily have been written by the most staunch of conservatives a few years back, is a grim reminder of their ultimate goal – take down this president at any cost. Republicans have made the conscience decision to sacrifice the economic welfare of their country in pursuit of that goal.

Andrew Sullivan:

Coming from abroad, this country seems as if it is beyond dysfunctional. It looks like a banana republic on the verge of economic collapse. Now that Nixon’s dream has come true and the GOP is fundamentally the party of the Confederacy, it was perhaps naive to think they could ever accept the legitimacy of this president, or treat him with respect or act as adults in the governing process.

But this is who they are. I longed for Obama to bridge this gulf in ideology. But he cannot bridge it alone, especially when the GOP is determined to burn the bridge entirely, even when presented with a deal so tilted to the right only true fanatics could possibly walk away from it. And so the very republic is being plunged into crisis and possible depression by a single, implacable, fanatical faction. Until they are defeated, the country remains in more peril than we know.

In a perfect world, the consequences of Republican’s indefensible actions would be isolated to the fools who empower the madmen at the voting booth – the Ailes’ zombies who have turned over all responsibility to reason for themselves to a right-wing lying, noise machine they pay allegiance to. The actions of a few has put into jeopardy the economic welfare of the U.S. and, in large measure, an entire world.

In this imperfect world, a minority of lunatics have taken over the asylum.
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Filed Under: Barack Obama, congress Tagged With: debt ceiling, government, john boehner

Quelling The Screechings Of Wingnuts

May 5, 2011 By mario piperni

For every idiot still clinging on to the memory of George W. Bush and whatever role they imagine he had in the death of Osama bin Laden, Andrew Sullivan has a message for you.

What’s staggering to me is how the right insisted, immediately after Obama’s inauguration, that all responsibility in the war on terror was now his, just as responsibility for the debt was now his, and the near-depression was now his. Any errors, even minor ones, were plastered on his face.

But more than two years later, the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden is primarily George W. Bush’s doing.

Unfuckingbelievable. Except, of course, it isn’t.

And leave it to another Brit to get it just right. Matthew Norman of The Independent:

But Obama did more than quell the screechings of the wingnuts, chat-show rabble-rousers, the Birthers and those we should term the Placentas (the After-Birthers who have now progressed to post-certificate conspiracy theories to question his legitimacy). He reminded the world why it fell in love with him in the first place.

[...]

People have criticised him for being “professorial” as well as arrogant. They will do so no longer. He pondered for months, studied the research, weighed up the evidence, and reached the right conclusion. This is one cool, tough prof, and the lesson he has taught by example won’t quickly be unlearnt. [...]

If that sounds childishly simple, it defeated the simpleton Bush and his brutish cabal as they confused two-bit fake patriotism with American self-interest, and indiscriminate crusader cruelty with military wisdom. Let no one hear attempts to share Obama’s credit with Dubya without revulsion. He failed pitifully in this, as in almost every thing else, and even if waterboarding a key al-Qa’ida operative helped to identify the courier, it cannot begin to justify holding boys of 14 and senile 89-year-olds at Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo remains open. Obama hasn’t honoured on every promise, nor will. He is not the Messiah, although if the Kool Aid truck has redelivered at last, make mine an octuple. For tempering vengeance with mercy, by refusing to reckon countless civilian lives a price worth paying to safeguard himself, he deserves to sleep easy in his bed, and leave all the sweaty 3am angst to Donald Trump and the other malevolent midgets who will never trouble him again.

Perfect…and lest we forget…
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President Bush Reacts to Osama Bin Laden’s Death with Will Ferrell from Will Ferrell

Filed Under: Barack Obama Tagged With: Bush, Osama bin Laden, terrorism

Is This Black President Bad At Politics?

April 16, 2011 By mario piperni

Political statements don’t get too much more ridiculous than this one by Mickey Kaus. Commenting on a post by Jay Cost over at the Weekly Standard titled “Obama is just plain bad at politics“, Kaus writes:

“I think Cost’s on to something…”

[...]

“Cost doesn’t go into why Obama managed to get to the top of politics without being all that good at it. The answer is distressingly obvious: Obama’s the biggest affirmative action baby in history. When other pols are trying, failing, learning, while climbing up the middle rungs of the ladder, he got a pass;”

In a single paragraph, Kaus makes the claim that not only is President Obama bad at politics but that his climb to the White House is due to his blackness. Dumb. Not only does that statement negate the intellectual and oratorical skills which makes Obama a formidable political figure but it ignores the amazing accomplishments of the current administration in a span of two years. In fact, the argument can be made that no other president has done so much in so little time.

The man, who according to Kaus is not “all that good” at playing the political game, (defeating the Clintons to win the Democratic nomination I imagine was a matter of pure luck and skin color) has in the first 24 months of his presidency:

Passed an $8 billion economic stimulus package.
Passed the most comprehensive health care reform bill of the last 50 years.
Introduced major financial regulations affecting Wall Street, banks and credit card companies.
Repealed DADT.
Rescued GM and Chrysler from total collapse.
Appointed two women to the Supreme Court.
Has brought about the gradual withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

And those are just some of the biggies. Add to this the fact that these measures were done in an environment of bitter divisiveness and venom-spewing hate by the right-wing noise machine. It has become impossible to count the number of lies and distortions put out by conscienceless conservative politicians and media types in their effort to take down this president. Death panels, terrorist sympathizer, Nazi, Kenyan born…we’ve heard it all a hundred thousand times from the likes of Beck and Fox and teabaggers and Republicans in Congress. And yet, Obama’s accomplishments are remarkable.

If you’re interested in a more comprehensive list, check out President Obama’s 244 Accomplishments.

The bottom line is this: President Obama is open to criticism and some of it is definitely justified. Both liberals and conservatives can rattle off dozens (hundreds?) of policy measures which they disagree with in some measure. Fine and good. That’s how democracy functions. But to suggest that Obama sucks at politics or that the color of his skin is the determining factor for he being the President of the United States, is delusional thinking at its highest level. You can throw in a hint of racism for good measure. Get real.

Filed Under: Barack Obama Tagged With: obama derangement syndrome, presidency

The State of the Union

January 26, 2011 By mario piperni

Ezra Klein proposes that presidents present the following pie chart at all future SOTU addresses.

Quickies…

In the aftermath of the Tucson shooting, the tone was overly sober. The mixed seating had its effect too. Battles resume tomorrow.
Where was the President on gun control?
Where was the President on the failing state of mental health care?
Where was the President on climate change?
The ‘I’ll veto any bill coming to my desk which contains earmarks‘ line sounded way too John McCainish for my liking.
Only six of the nine Supremes showed up. Missing were conservatives Scalia (hasn’t been to one of these in the last 15 years), Alito and Thomas. Roberts might not show up for the next one.
John Boehner (“working class hero”) held back his tears. Nice.
There was a little bit of something for everyone – e.g. affirmation of DADT for the left and talk of malpractice reform for the right.
Paul Ryan’s speech was what you’d expect from Republicans: stimulus bad, obamacare bad, lower taxes good, fewer regulations good, limited government good, Obama bad, we good. Thank you and good night.
As for Michele Bachmann’s teabag speech, same as above with one added bonus: Constitution very, very good.