The Obama strategy is suddenly popular

[Willinois]

I rarely watch MSNBC but I caught Lawrence 'O and Rachel tonight. They're both celebrating because they believe Republicans capitulated on the debt ceiling and Obama won a huge political/PR victory.

I'll wait until something actually passes before celebrating. Part of the problem for Democrats these last three years comes from pundits who think winning a PR victory is a real victory and pay little attention to actual, substantive victories.

What I notice is that Obama is using his usual go-to strategy. He's acting like a reasonable adult and offering compromise while strongly stating his principles. His calm demeanor and willingness to publicly offer compromise (while maintaining his commitment to keep pushing for progressive goals) makes it even more obvious to the public that Republican leaders are being partisan, petulant children.

Now Republicans will be forced to raise the debt ceiling after Obama let them make fools of themselves. Suddenly, everyone loves the Obama approach.

But do they realize that this is nothing new? It's the same strategy he used against Clinton and McCain during the campaign. It's the same strategy he has used repeatedly during battles with Congress. It's the same strategy that the chicken little pundits have described as capitulation and third way politics without acknowledging that Obama was still fighting for progressive ideals.

This strategy hasn't worked every time. But, it appears to be working right now and it's beating Republicans. Will the usual suspects remember this next time? Will they recognize that this strategy is sometimes more effective than giving endless red meat speeches to the base? Will they admit that Obama sounding like an adult doesn't mean he's sacrificing progressive goals?
Or will they go right back to knee-jerk outrage? I'm afraid I know the answer.

[jaxx]

O'Donnell said last night that PBO had them on the run, I didn't see Rachel. Just caught the beginning tonight.

I'm waiting to see if PBO accepts this, it's not all pretty. He may to keep the country running, but with every dollar having to be offset with cuts and no revenue......looks like the balanced budget deal kinda sorta.


edit to add>>> the eat your peas bit has the PL's in a frothing fit. They took that personally.

[Still a Democrat]

(07-12-2011 07:49 PM)jaxx Wrote:  O'Donnell said last night that PBO had them on the run, I didn't see Rachel. Just caught the beginning tonight.

I'm waiting to see if PBO accepts this, it's not all pretty. He may to keep the country running, but with every dollar having to be offset with cuts and no revenue......looks like the balanced budget deal kinda sorta.


edit to add>>> the eat your peas bit has the PL's in a frothing fit. They took that personally.

Here is Ezra Klein writing in the WaPo:

The debt deal Mitch McConnell is offering is confusing a lot of people, so here’s the core of it: Until now, Republicans have wanted a policy payoff for permitting President Obama and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling. McConnell is proposing to replace that with a political payoff. That’s it. That’s the deal. The question is why House Republicans would go for it.

The process McConnell is proposing would go like this: First, Obama would submit a request for a $700 billion increase in the debt ceiling, along with a nonbinding proposal to cut spending. That would automatically trigger a $100 billion increase in the debt ceiling to give Congress time to consider the request. Congress could then vote to either approve or disapprove of the president’s request. If they disapprove of it, however, Obama could veto their disapproval, and unless two-thirds of both chambers voted to overturn his veto — a virtually unthinkable outcome given that Democrats control the Senate — he could raise the debt ceiling anyway…

My guess is McConnell is about to suffer a serious backlash from his base. As much as the Senate minority leader’s political incentives might differ from those of the speaker of the House, his ideological incentives are supposed to be the same. And if you believe, as most Republicans do, that the debt ceiling offers a generational opportunity to extract huge concessions from the Democrats, then walking away from that leverage simply isn’t an option, and any member of the Republican leadership who proposes to do so has to be seen as intensely suspect.

Notice the wording in proposed cuts - nonbinding.

[jaxx]

Thanks SaD, the nonbinding makes a difference.

[Cha]

Gives me hope..thanks, Will.

I call them treasonous Koch sucking assholes.

[NJMaverick]

let your opponent wail away at you until they wear themselves out and then pound them into submission. It worked for Mohammed Ali and it's working well for the President. I could see the PL yelling at Ali (in his prime) calling him stupid for not fighting back.

[Ikonoklast]

The Teabagger Caucus put all its eggs in one basket using the debt ceiling as their ace in the hole to exact political extortion, while the Monied Interests were calling McConnell on a daily basis screaming at him to raise the debt ceiling, and it didn't matter how it got done.

Lemme see, Billionaires seeing their dollars essentially worthlesss and physical holdings unsaleable in a frozen-credit market, or raising the debt ceiling and not crashing the economy of this nation by supporting the full faith and credit of this government.

The Teabaggers live in a fantasy world.