Pres. Obama's July 25th speech

[Wonky]

Text of Mr. Obama's speech.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/the-compl...s-20110725

[cletus1]

Text of Mr. Obama's speech.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/the-compl...s-20110725

I listened to the speech and it made sence to me. Why don't those that disagree with the president's plan tell us why. Give specific reasons why you disagree and whether you support raising the debt ceiling regardless of where these negotiations lead.

You know, a real discussion, not just the Dems spend too much blah, blah, blah

[Scrapper]

Text of Mr. Obama's speech.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/the-compl...s-20110725

I listened to the speech and it made sence to me. Why don't those that disagree with the president's plan tell us why. Give specific reasons why you disagree and whether you support raising the debt ceiling regardless of where these negotiations lead.

You know, a real discussion, not just the Dems spend too much blah, blah, blah

Almost 12 hours and not a single answer. Surprise, surprise.

[broadzilla]

Text of Mr. Obama's speech.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/the-compl...s-20110725

I listened to the speech and it made sence to me. Why don't those that disagree with the president's plan tell us why. Give specific reasons why you disagree and whether you support raising the debt ceiling regardless of where these negotiations lead.

You know, a real discussion, not just the Dems spend too much blah, blah, blah

Almost 12 hours and not a single answer. Surprise, surprise.

Ya think maybe people were sleeping?

[rainylady]

I think it sounds like Obama is getting desperate by him asking people to come out and call their representative. He obviously cannot handle the republicans alone. They are being very difficult, inexcusably so. I cannot understand a group of people that want to leave the wealthy with their private jet discounts but want to cut and cap money to the elderly, disabled, and children. It makes absolutely no sense.

I know if I was rich I might get snobby and say "let them eat cake" but the majority of people will retaliate in one way or another. There are more poor and middle class than there are rich.

Now if it is true that the vast majority of money can come from the middle class why are they already paying into the system that we have to make them pay more and not the rich? Everyone should sacrifice as the people on Social Security have the last 3 years. There have been cuts already and they want to cut more?

I'm sorry, the Republicans are cruel people. They want everyone: no matter what age, disability, or mentality to be able to run a factory. They want everyone to be part of a corporation because the Republicans believe that it is onehappy working family. Well, some people are too old, broken down, or young to be part of the working corporations. Why can't they see that?

Just some rambling. Feel free to reply.

[Wonky]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

[Snowlover]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

Some of us need to get our sleep and to work.

Obama has always been a great speaker. Hands down one of the best. I am glad you got hope from that.

I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

[hillclimber]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

That is a subject I'd like to comment on. But the minute I do, all the vitriol you 2 or 3 can muster is spewed on me...
"Balanced approach" was the subject of a poll by the dem's to see how it would play... poll tested phrasing..

The sooner that horrible guy is gone the better..

[Wonky]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

Some of us need to get our sleep and to work.

Obama has always been a great speaker. Hands down one of the best. I am glad you got hope from that.

I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

Oh! Didn't realize you are a "rabid extremest Right wing" person.

The very nature of gaining political office requires a certain amount of general slipping around the truth. After all, one has to win Iowa, Florida and, eventually, Oregon.
Most don't give a damn about Mississippi .

We can't take politicians at face value. The nation is too complex, and speakers who want to move agendas must find a middle path if they are to appeal to a wide voter base. I have viewed the president's speech on video and read the printed transcript. I don't hear or see any outright lies, and only a couple of things that push the envelope. (For instance: He talked about "the two wars" being responsible for the drag on our economy. Yet, by any reasonable understanding, the war in Afghanistan is his, lock stock and barrel)

In the main, I thought he was direct, credible, and tough. His cry for "balance" in solving our problems seems to me to be right on point.

I wonder about many of his decisions in the past. On this one, I'm completely in his camp and feel comfortable about supporting his position.

Time will tell. We may want to be alert and attentive. It's our country these folks are talking about.

[rainylady]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

Some of us need to get our sleep and to work.

Obama has always been a great speaker. Hands down one of the best. I am glad you got hope from that.

I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

Oh! Didn't realize you are a "rabid extremest Right wing" person.

The very nature of gaining political office requires a certain amount of general slipping around the truth. After all, one has to win Iowa, Florida and, eventually, Oregon.
Most don't give a damn about Mississippi .

We can't take politicians at face value. The nation is too complex, and speakers who want to move agendas must find a middle path if they are to appeal to a wide voter base. I have viewed the president's speech on video and read the printed transcript. I don't hear or see any outright lies, and only a couple of things that push the envelope. (For instance: He talked about "the two wars" being responsible for the drag on our economy. Yet, by any reasonable understanding, the war in Afghanistan is his, lock stock and barrel)

In the main, I thought he was direct, credible, and tough. His cry for "balance" in solving our problems seems to me to be right on point.

I wonder about many of his decisions in the past. On this one, I'm completely in his camp and feel comfortable about supporting his position.

Time will tell. We may want to be alert and attentive. It's our country these folks are talking about.

I liked the president's discussion and found that he made a lot of sense whereas Boehner was completely irrational and finger pointing. I though Obama was just trying to tell people what exactly is happening whereas Boehner was attacking the president. Obama might of even been preparing the way for utter defeat but he nevertheless was honest.

[Wonky]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

Some of us need to get our sleep and to work.

Obama has always been a great speaker. Hands down one of the best. I am glad you got hope from that.

I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

Oh! Didn't realize you are a "rabid extremest Right wing" person.

The very nature of gaining political office requires a certain amount of general slipping around the truth. After all, one has to win Iowa, Florida and, eventually, Oregon.
Most don't give a damn about Mississippi .

We can't take politicians at face value. The nation is too complex, and speakers who want to move agendas must find a middle path if they are to appeal to a wide voter base. I have viewed the president's speech on video and read the printed transcript. I don't hear or see any outright lies, and only a couple of things that push the envelope. (For instance: He talked about "the two wars" being responsible for the drag on our economy. Yet, by any reasonable understanding, the war in Afghanistan is his, lock stock and barrel)

In the main, I thought he was direct, credible, and tough. His cry for "balance" in solving our problems seems to me to be right on point.

I wonder about many of his decisions in the past. On this one, I'm completely in his camp and feel comfortable about supporting his position.

Time will tell. We may want to be alert and attentive. It's our country these folks are talking about.

I liked the president's discussion and found that he made a lot of sense whereas Boehner was completely irrational and finger pointing. I though Obama was just trying to tell people what exactly is happening whereas Boehner was attacking the president. Obama might of even been preparing the way for utter defeat but he nevertheless was honest.

Well ya...except for that "Afghanistan thing".
Mr. Obama will run for re-election in 2012.
Mr. Boehner does not want him to win.
And there-in lies the problem.
Both politicians first, statesmen last, they are doing battle in the ways it must be done.
They depend on an informed and alert public to parse the facts and try to find out who is lying the least.
We have had difficult and trying times before in our history. Again, we face a time when the stakes are high.
We must be alert.

[rainylady]

Yea, I thought he covered all the bases and explained the past. He seemed to have hope for the future, and I want very much for his "balanced approach" to work.

I notice the rabid extremists of the Right have not checked in yet. Curious.

Some of us need to get our sleep and to work.

Obama has always been a great speaker. Hands down one of the best. I am glad you got hope from that.

I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

Oh! Didn't realize you are a "rabid extremest Right wing" person.

The very nature of gaining political office requires a certain amount of general slipping around the truth. After all, one has to win Iowa, Florida and, eventually, Oregon.
Most don't give a damn about Mississippi .

We can't take politicians at face value. The nation is too complex, and speakers who want to move agendas must find a middle path if they are to appeal to a wide voter base. I have viewed the president's speech on video and read the printed transcript. I don't hear or see any outright lies, and only a couple of things that push the envelope. (For instance: He talked about "the two wars" being responsible for the drag on our economy. Yet, by any reasonable understanding, the war in Afghanistan is his, lock stock and barrel)

In the main, I thought he was direct, credible, and tough. His cry for "balance" in solving our problems seems to me to be right on point.

I wonder about many of his decisions in the past. On this one, I'm completely in his camp and feel comfortable about supporting his position.

Time will tell. We may want to be alert and attentive. It's our country these folks are talking about.

I liked the president's discussion and found that he made a lot of sense whereas Boehner was completely irrational and finger pointing. I though Obama was just trying to tell people what exactly is happening whereas Boehner was attacking the president. Obama might of even been preparing the way for utter defeat but he nevertheless was honest.

Well ya...except for that "Afghanistan thing".
Mr. Obama will run for re-election in 2012.
Mr. Boehner does not want him to win.
And there-in lies the problem.
Both politicians first, statesmen last, they are doing battle in the ways it must be done.
They depend on an informed and alert public to parse the facts and try to find out who is lying the least.
We have had difficult and trying times before in our history. Again, we face a time when the stakes are high.
We must be alert.

I tried calling Boehner to give him a piece of my mind and it had this horrible busy signal.

[PonderThis]

I have a horrible busy signal in my mind too or I would have called him myself.

[Crone]

In the main, I thought he was direct, credible, and tough. His cry for "balance" in solving our problems seems to me to be right on point.

'Snowlover'
I just don't believe our politicians have our best in minds. I still believe both sides are just postering for the cameras so at reelection time they can point to the other to lay blame. They are all to blame. I hope they make me eat my words and make a great compromise for the country. But I doubt it.

'Centrism': The Cult That Is Destroying America

by Paul Krugman

Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it’s increasingly obvious that what we’re looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system.

And no, I don’t mean the fanaticism of the right. Well, OK, that too. But my feeling about those people is that they are what they are; you might as well denounce wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what they are.

No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure is the cult of balance, of centrism.

Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent — because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship.

The reality, of course, is that we already have a centrist president — actually a moderate conservative president. Once again, health reform — his only major change to government — was modeled on Republican plans, indeed plans coming from the Heritage Foundation. And everything else — including the wrongheaded emphasis on austerity in the face of high unemployment — is according to the conservative playbook.

What all this means is that there is no penalty for extremism; no way for most voters, who get their information on the fly rather than doing careful study of the issues, to understand what’s really going on.

You have to ask, what would it take for these news organizations and pundits to actually break with the convention that both sides are equally at fault? This is the clearest, starkest situation one can imagine short of civil war. If this won’t do it, nothing will.

And yes, I think this is a moral issue. The “both sides are at fault” people have to know better; if they refuse to say it, it’s out of some combination of fear and ego, of being unwilling to sacrifice their treasured pose of being above the fray.

It’s a terrible thing to watch, and our nation will pay the price.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07...g-america/

[illcommandante]

How much do I really want to see this work? I'm comfortable with bankruptcy. Other than the fact that the last to lose their jobs are the cops. In fact, they never seem to lose theirs.