Did you get a chance to watch President Obamas attendance at the House Republicans retreat today? He spoke for a bit then to my surprise the cameras stayed on and he took QUESTIONS from the repubs, are ya shocked?? I mean with the cameras? The White House asked if the cameras could stay on and the repubs agreed, BUT... afterwards, according to Luke Russert, GOP aides said it was a mistake to allow cameras into Obama's QA with GOP members. It allowed Obama to refute GOP talking points for 1.5 hours on TV. I think it was a great idea! I hope you will try and watch it on C-Span, it was a good showing of Obama and his defending his agenda while also letting the American people know he IS listening to the GOP even if they cry he isn't. He let them know just because they offer up suggestions does not mean they will be included in policy making if they don't work. The right and left have goals in common but also differ greatly on some policy. President Obama will not pander to the right when he feels their ideas are WRONG for the country.
Obama said a GOP-driven "politics of NO" was blocking action on bills that could help Americans obtain jobs and health care. He accused Republicans of portraying health care overhaul legislation as a "Bolshevik plot," saying that strategy, when they talk to their constituents, doesn't give them any room to negotiate. There were moans and groans from the repubs after that remark! But it's the truth, don't they remember last summer and the death panels discussions?? How quickly they forget!
During the sometimes-barbed exchange, he said some in the audience have attended ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects funded by the stimulus package they voted against. Obama also questioned why Republicans have overwhelmingly opposed his tax-cut policies, which he said have benefited 95 percent of American families. One repub asked Obama if he would agree to an across the board tax cut. It's always about taxes for them isn't it! I don't get it! Anyway, Obama said he could not see giving a tax cut to those like Warren Buffet, the billionaires don't need tax cuts! (you will NEVER convince a repub of that though!)
Afterwards an Arizona republican spoke, he said last year President Obama promised to work in a bipartisan way but he has not kept his promise. Total bullshit again from the whiny repubs. Obama has tried and will continue to try to work with the GOP. It's time for them to realize they are the minority. It can't always be about them.
Great job Mr. President!!
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39 comments:
I love this president! Again, and at the risk of repeating myself, I have always stood by him. I understand the hell he inherited and the hellions he has to deal with. I am confident that he will go down in history as one of our best presidents.
YAY!! I think me and you will go down in blogland history as the most enthusiastic! LOL
The Republicans have been bitching about lack of transparency and open meetings and then suddenly it's a mistake to have cameras at this meeting.
To accuse the President of NOT working for bipartisanship is the most hypocritical bullshit I've heard from them yet. What a bunch of Yahoos - including Snowe. I used to think she was more honorable than that.
I think I just dedicated a blog to defending Obama against fair weather friends. : )
a stratagist was on TV and said Bush was bipartisan because he threatened dems with their cabinet positions and they fell lockstep in line after that. HE THREATENED, get it. Obama can be more forceful, I hope he will try. BUT I STILL LOVE HIM.
I love it! Obama taking on the republicans on their territory with cameras running. Can you imagine Bush, or any republican president, doing something like that?
republicans -- What a bunch of whiny little girls.
As I said in my post.. The President is not going to stop reaching out to them... Even if they keep slapping him away... But this is a classic example of the way it is looking.. if people watch this and see them lying about things and him standing up there face to face with them calling them out for the lies... that has to be something. Of course, I see some will never see it... but there are those who will realize the truth.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/29-11
I didn't see it, but just from the premise of what this does for transparency, it should be done often like once a week and with the biggest obstructionists...on BOTH sides.
This is more like it. Too bad Hillary isn't Chief of Staff though so she could be here in the states giving republicans hell also.
watching it now, and it's a thing of beauty. the dumbest thing the rethugs ever did was to allow cameras. the rethugs look and sound like a bunch of whiny chumps. you know that obama came out on top, because faux news didn't televise it.
nonnie It was masterful! The rethugs were expecting to fluster and intimidate Obama, but alas they could NOT! When I looked at BONER and CANTOR up on the stage while their members were asking questions, I thought they must be saying to themselves "damn we're stupid"!! LOL
It was GREAT!!!
Truth, Hillary would do a great job in this kind of Q and A too!
C, try to catch it on C-Span, you'll love it!
Jerry and Annette, no I can not imagine Bush doing this, he would NEVER be able to answer questions that were not scripted. Obama was on his game today, I loved every single minute of it!
Leslie I watched it in it's entirety on MSNBC. They are on now showing parts of it and said FOX aired bits and pieces of it, I guess they couldn't handle Obama taking over and showing up the rethugs, so they didn't show the whole 90 minutes.
It was a thing of beauty. Too bad those FOX watchers will be told a completely different version, since I'm sure they weren't watching it.
Too bad: they could have learned a lot.
You can also watch it at the White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/29/president-holds-open-discussion-across-aisle/?e=29&ref=text
Judi you're right, but I would think the right watched after all it was their party asking the questions. Maybe after they saw Obama hold his own they turned it off! LOL
Actually, this was a smart PR move on Obama's part. The Republicans wouldn't look too great to their constituents if they don't want to work for the people of America.
exactly Leslie. This showed the GOP talking points and one by one Obama disputed all the misconceptions and lies. Fabulous!!
Rethugs are so deep in their delusion, they didn't even realize their own vulnerability.
Their lies are easily refuted, they don't get that, because their delusion is complete.
MAN, it is refreshing to have an intelligent, well spoken President!
Good post!
When The One Stood Against Many -
Obama the Kensei dispatching the Republicans one after another...
Awesome!
Maybe they didn't realize how stupid they really are....Great essay.
It's strange how perception colors what one sees on television.
What I saw was an unpresidential, angry Barack Obama, not courteously listening to republican questions, but rather interrupting as they tried to ask their questions.
When they did manage to ask a complete question, he did not answer, but used choppy, stumbling, liberal talking points to accuse the republicans of some sort of duplicity.
It was a complete waste of everyone's time. Obama had no intention of really LISTENING to what republicans had to say, he was only interested in trying to bully them into submission to his economy-stifling agenda. (This was PLANNED so that Obama could look "committed" to his rapidly dissipating base.)
At least, to their credit, the republicans were respectful but firm in their disagreement with this president's policies.
LINDA, Oh how delusional you are in your perception of our masterful president. I did not expect to hear one positive word from you. But then again you never cease to amaze me.
Obama could not have been more patient and respectful of the thugs and their questions. They sure tried their damnedest to trip him up but you can't trip up a man who has the knowledge and intelligence of our president.
If your party did so well then why isn't FOX talking about it? Try watching it again with an open mind and an open heart. I think yesterday opened many eyes and minds, we truely have a wonderful president, FINALLY!!
Obamas base is SOLIDLY behind him and yesterday brought back the independents too. Sorry Linda. Come join us!
Correction: In a response to nonnie I said CNN instead of C-Span. Baid hair night.
Come on, Linda. It seems like when you cannot criticize the message, you have to go after the messenger. Let's assume that all the things you said about him are true. So what? You are simply talking about his style, his delivery.
Let's talk about what he was saying, not how he was saying it. What did he say that was not true? He spoke the truth to people who did not want to hear the truth. Doesn't matter. Facts are facts. They don't change just because you don't believe them. Tell me what he said that was not true.
I don't think you can. That is why you just complain about HOW he says it instead of WHAT he says.
Angry? Disrespectful? Sounds like Obama is communicating on the repubs own terms.
Seems linda's voice is the same as faux news. Oddly enough, they're the only ones expressing such a viewpoint, odd. I wonder how many conservative boards she had to visit in order to put that little display together.
I thought his style and delivery were absolutely presidential. The comments coming from the Obama haters around blogland are hilarious, it's pure jealousy and hate!
C, I haven't seen anything reported about this on FOX, I better check it out, with my barf bag!! The website has a teeny little article, you can barely find it! Pure jealousy. But the sad thing is we won't be seeing anymore of this kind of transparency. They only like transparency when it doesn't put them in a bad light. Hypocrites!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/30-0
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/30-0
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/30
sounds like you wrote that RZ! This is one of the comments from The letter....
If I could have written the SOTU for Obama it would look like this: I refuse to be disingenuious with the American people so tonight I am announcing that the military budget is no longer off the table, also I am reining in the CIA and they will no longer have a covert budget, so I am proposing a 50% reduction and with that substantial savings we will have universal healthcare for all with $ to spare. We will end the conflicts and the military spending for nefarious and offensive purposes around the world. I need to look backward at the war crimes and torture of the previous administration, so am proposing an independent commission with subpeona powers for that purpose. I am well aware that these decisions put my life in danger, but in the spirit of Martin Luther King jr. that doesn't matter to me now
LMAO, Ya, don't I wish I would have written that. But of course I whole heartadly agree. LOL.
Did you happen to read the articles about the NUKES, and the justice dept. on the TORTURE MEMOS? They are both on the front page of commondreams.org
To one and all.
Please do not allow one speech, or a Q&A session blind you from what is going on.
All is not what it seems.
The pressure must be kept on this administration.
It might be the last one you will ever have.
I agree with RZ. If something like this is going to be a growing trend for Obama, there does need to be more accountability and tougher questions asked on both sides.
From Linda:
What I saw was an unpresidential, angry Barack Obama, not courteously listening to republican questions...
Of course, you saw that Linda, because to you Obama needs to bow, scrape and genuflect to the Republicans. He needs to know his place, correct?
Obama took on the entire "elite" of the Republican Party and slaughtered them. Without so much as a 3"x 5" note card or Bush earpiece...
Grung: "Obama needs to bow, scrape and genuflect to the Republicans."
You forgot "shuffle and jive."
Actually, I think Republicans can't deal with the fact that here's an African American with more intelligence in his little finger than that entire room put together. Because they can't challenge him intellectually, they have to stoop to using petty, insignificant innuendo and distortion.
Face it, if they were interested in brains, they never would have hired Steele.
"Actually, I think Republicans can't deal with the fact that here's an African American with more intelligence in his little finger than that entire room put together."
tnlib, this is one of the reasons why kit bond is leaving the Senate, afterall, he is from rush limbaugh's district.
Quote "to you Obama needs to bow, scrape and genuflect to the Republicans. He needs to know his place, correct?"
No, he just needs to recognize that not everyone shares his "vision" for America, and that temper tantrums don't make one more Presidential.
Quote "You forgot "shuffle and jive."
Actually, I think Republicans can't deal with the fact that here's an African American with more intelligence in his little finger than that entire room put together. Because they can't challenge him intellectually, they have to stoop to using petty, insignificant innuendo and distortion."
His intelligence is not in question. It is his policies which are suspect. As far as your "shuffle and jive" comment...I think that that is really low, even for a lib. Trying to attach some racial element onto republican disagreement with the President's policies is really despicable.
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