Saturday, October 15, 2011

Obama the Underdog

Just wondering when he is going to start fighting all that rob or plunder.

"Obama says Americans not better off 4 years later

Then your administration has failed, sir.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said yesterday that Americans are not better off than they were four years ago as the struggling economy and high unemployment have taken a toll.

Looking ahead to next year’s election, the incumbent called himself the underdog in the 2012 presidential campaign, though he said he does not mind the label.

The Democrat said it’s a role that he is used to.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama was asked how he planned to persuade people they are better off now than they were four years ago - the formulation Ronald Reagan famously used to defeat President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

“I don’t think that they’re better off than they were four years ago,’’ Obama said. “They’re not better off than they were before Lehman’s collapse, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we’re going through. I think that what we’ve seen is that we’ve been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy.’’  

Please stop it with the s***-shoveling. 

Btw, we were told the recession has been over for two years now so WTF?

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And the answer is half-a-stimuloot?

"Obama urges bold steps by Congress on jobs" October 07, 2011|By David Nakamura and Scott Wilson, Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The president urged passage of the $447 billion American Jobs Act and warned Republicans who oppose the measure that they will have to explain their opposition “to me, and more importantly, to their constituencies’’ at a time of mounting economic uncertainty.  

Where did they come up with that number? $500 billion would look like too much?

He also endorsed a proposal from Senate Democrats for a surtax on incomes of more than $1 million a year to fund the jobs package, an idea that has already drawn opposition from the GOP.

This from the party that allegedly had a filibuster-proof majority that didn't even repeal the Bush tax cuts. Then, three years later just before the election they suddenly rediscover the theme? 

Related: Obama's Reelection Pitch

Shoveling s*** is a campaign strategy?

Since unveiling the jobs package last month in a speech to Congress, Obama has touted provisions of it in appearances at schools, bridges, and factories in eight states, most of them electoral swing states and some in GOP territory. On Tuesday, the president spent most of the 1-hour, 13-minute news conference, just four minutes shy of the longest of his tenure, promoting the plan from a lectern in the august East Room.

As he has in his more feisty and partisan appearances outside the Beltway, Obama sought to highlight what he believes is Republican recalcitrance and the GOP’s role in the slowness of the economic recovery. He emphasized the support that elements of the proposal have received from both parties in the past. But the president also issued an explicit warning to Republicans that he would make any “no’’ vote a political issue in the emerging 2012 campaign.

“It’s fair to say that I have gone out of my way in every instance, sometimes at my own political peril and to the frustration of Democrats, to work with Republicans to find common ground to move this country forward,’’ Obama said. “Each time, what we’ve seen is games-playing, a preference to try to score political points rather than actually get something done.’’

Despite Obama’s populist calls on the road for Congress to “pass this bill,’’ neither the Democrat-led Senate nor the Republican-controlled House has held a vote on the legislation.

The president vowed that if Congress does not approve the legislation as a package, he would seek to present the elements individually and demand an explanation for Republican opposition to each.

The warning represented one aspect of Obama’s emerging reelection message: That while he has worked to improve the economy, the Republican opposition has chosen a strategy focused on denying him a second term rather than putting the country back to work.

Republicans have countered that Obama’s government-centric approach to stimulating the economy is the wrong one during difficult economic times. The jobs proposal includes investments in education and transportation infrastructure, as well as tax cuts for small business owners that Republicans have said they might consider independently of the new spending provisions.

As Obama spoke, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, accused him of using the jobs plan as a campaign vehicle, telling an audience in Washington that “nothing has disappointed me more than what has happened in the last five weeks.’’

“To watch the president of the United States give up on governing, give up on leading and just spend time campaigning,’’ Boehner said. “We’re legislating. He’s campaigning. ’’

Obama spoke of “the dings and bruises’’ he has suffered as a result of some of the steps he has taken since taking office in the hopes of pulling the country from a deep recession.  

Aww, don't you feel sympathy for him?

A Washington Post-ABC News poll published this week found that four in 10 Americans “strongly’’ disapprove of the way Obama has managed the presidency. The poll also found that only 58 percent of Democrats believe Obama will be reelected....

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Enjoy the position while it lasts, Obomber:

"HAIL TO THE BEARS -- President Obama gave members of the 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears their overdue day at the White House yesterday. The original event had been canceled because of the space shuttle Challenger explosion (Boston Globe October 8 2011)."

And what is the wife up to? 

"MASS MOVEMENT -- Michelle Obama led schoolchildren in a bid to break the Guinness World Records mark for the most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period at a "Let's Move!" event on the White House south lawn yesterday(Boston Globe October 12 2011)." 

She has turned into just as big a disappointment as her husband. 

And Obama didn't get the job done:

"Senate Republicans scuttle Obama’s jobs bill" October 12, 2011|By Andrew Taylor and Ben Feller, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - United against President Obama, Senate Republicans voted last night to kill the jobs package the president had spent weeks campaigning for across the country, a stinging loss at the hands of lawmakers opposed to stimulus-style spending and a tax increase on the very wealthy.

Forty-six Republicans joined with two Democrats to filibuster the $447 billion plan. Fifty Democrats had voted for it, but the vote was not final. The roll call was kept open to allow Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, to vote. The probable 51-48 eventual tally would be far short of the 60 votes needed to keep the bill alive in the 100-member Senate.

The demise of Obama’s $447 billion jobs package was expected, despite his campaign-style efforts to get the public behind it....

And all that air and print that was sucked up by the AmeriKan media over the doomed piece of s***.  Pfffffffft!

Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana - both up for reelection next year in states where Obama is likely to lose - broke with their party on last night’s vote....

Earlier in the day, Obama capped his weekslong campaign for the measure in an appearance typical of the effort - a tough-talking speech in a swing state crucial to his reelection. It seemed aimed more at rallying his core political supporters heading into the election than changing minds on Capitol Hill....  

I am SO SICK of the POLITICAL FOOLEYS!!

Democrats were not wholly united behind the measure. In addition to Nelson and Tester, Senators Jim Webb of Virginia, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who aligns with Democrats, said they oppose the underlying measure despite voting to choke off the filibuster....  

So much for the false left-right, Democrat-Republican paradigm of AmeriKan politics.

The White House and Democratic leaders, however, were pleased that the great majority of Democrats voted for the plan....

Public relations and politic fooley mission accomplished then!

Obama said that the plan - more than half the size of his two-year economic stimulus measure in 2009 - would be an insurance policy against a double-dip recession and that continued economic intervention was essential given slower-than-hoped job growth.  

The BILLION-DOLLAR BORROWED STIMULOOT didn't work so what makes him think half-a-stimuloot will?

INSANITY -- or POLITICAL BULLSHIT, take your pick!

“Right now, our economy needs a jolt,’’ Obama said....  

Or at least his campaign does.

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Yeah, his reelection campaign isn't hurting for cash even if you are, American:

"Obama campaign hauls in $70m" October 14, 2011

WASHINGTON - President Obama’s campaign raised more than $70 million combined for his reelection and the Democratic Party during the summer, an amount that gives him a clear financial advantage over his Republican rivals even as faces economic and political headwinds.

Then he is no underdog.

The total announced yesterday exceeds a goal set by the campaign of $55 million combined for the July-September fund-raising period but is about $16 million less than Obama raised during the April-June quarter.

Obama has dealt with declining poll numbers and a weakened economy during the summer, prompting the president to recently call himself the underdog in the presidential race. Campaign officials had said they would raise less because of canceled fund-raisers during the summer’s debt ceiling negotiations and a typical summertime lull in raising cash.



Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, said in an e-mail to supporters that more than 600,000 people donated to the campaign in the most recent quarter, more than the previous three months. He said that more than 980,000 people have given money to the campaign, and that in the most recent quarter, 98 percent of the donors gave $250 or less, with an average donation of $56.

Looks like it will be Obama against Ron Paul then -- in a fair election, that is.

“Getting to a million grassroots donors isn’t just a huge accomplishment this early in the campaign,’’ Messina said. “It’s our answer to our opponents, the press, and anyone who wants to know whether the president’s supporters have his back.’’ 

The numbers include $42.8 million for Obama’s campaign and $27.3 million for the Democratic National Committee, which will help Obama’s reelection effort next year. Obama raised $86 million combined during the April-June quarter.

Obama leads his Republican rivals in fund-raising by tens of millions and can save most of it for next year because he does not face a primary opponent.

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