No doubt he'll be trying for a last push to support the Reid bill. Harry Reid is moving ahead with his bill. Here's an idea for Congress, once the Senate bill comes to Congress, actually before it comes to Congress, say "it's dead on arrival." Tit for tat - Reid's ignored a number of Congressional bills and even called them dead before he's seen them.
The GOP may have to compromise, but there is no reason they have to be bullied. If they allow themselves to be bullied, they might as well not be a party because ideas don't matter if they aren't backed up.
How on earth was that a deficit reduction speech? It was vitriolic, partisan, filled with numbers pulled out of the air, and farcical accounting tricks. But he wants to go back to killing the Bush tax cuts for the 'rich'. And he doesn't want to give up spending money.
He's a progressive. He's a tax and spend liberal. I know, I've gone beyond 3 words. I refer you back to the first three words. That's more words than that speech deserved. And to go even further, Charles Krauthammer did it in one word:
Disgrace.
Kudos to Krauthammer for such accurate brevity. And he did it faster than me too.
I keep meaning to move on from the Tucson shooting because the whole thing has descended into foolishness, but there are things about it that keep coming up that require comment. Luckily for me, most of the points have been made elsewhere and I can provide links to some excellent posts on the points. I'd also like to add a couple of points of my own that I haven't yet seen discussed anywhere else yet.
I watched the Memorial Service last night for as long as I could before tuning out in disgust. Why was there applause? As I commented on An Ol' Broad's blog, maybe I’m guilty of politicizing the crowd in my mind, but it seems to me, there is nothing to cheer about at a memorial service. This was like a pep rally. Don't believe it, watch this video, and pay close attention from 1:34 onwards. It's not very somber. Remember, people died.
A standing ovation at a memorial is disrespectful to the victims of the tragedy. Still don't think it was a pep rally? They brought T-shirts to give out (HT Pat Dollard). There's more at Protein Wisdom on the orchestration that was behind the speech. A pep rally speech is the President's forte. Indeed, it's about the only style of speech he knows how to give. A pep rally? That's exactly what this was.
And Fox News seems to be a little too eager to give the President credit for being post partisan in his speech. True, he wasn't bombastic but he didn't need to be - the sheriff and others like Paul Krugman took the low road for him in getting the Tea Party and Sarah Palin bashing/accusations out there. They set him up to be the shining knight as the closing act. Their attacks make him look better by contrast and Fox is either eating it up or trying really hard to be Fair and Balanced because Roger Ailes got scared. Intellectual arguments are good, but you can't fight by Marquess of Queensberry Rules when your opponent is using brass knuckles. Did President Obama come across as more Presidential last night? Watch that video above again. He came across as a campaigner. I'm not ready to give him that credit. Apparently Fox News is.
Now we have to keep an eye on Fox news. Thankfully, some already are. This morning Fox have had person after person on who were drooling all over the President. One going so far as to say the President's approval will go up 5 to 10 points this week. Really? Hey Fox, where is Chris Matthews when you need him?
Speaking of Sarah Palin, she's still being blamed in some quarters and apparently, getting death threats. Why isn't this in the headlines too?
Meanwhile, Ann Coulter points out that Democrats are looking to ban metaphors. Double plus ungood. Brush up on your newspeak if you want to survive. Remember the Orwell point about removing words from the language - a simpler language means it's easier to control the population. Despite the midterm losses, they still want full control. In that light, the Obama speech seems all the more sinister, and the ill-conceived timing of a pep rally style speech is almost secondary.
Lastly, for all of those ready to jump all over the Tea Party and conservatives like Sarah Palin, where were you when the movie about assassinating President Bush came out? I'm just asking. I don't want to look it up though I suspect I may have to do so. I really would rather be talking about the budget deficit.
