Obama's Right-Wing Dinner Friends Blast Stimulus Plan

Several days before taking office, President Obama traveled to George Will's home to dine with a handful of conservative media elites. The beltway conventional wisdom suggested that Obama's aim was to "neutralize potential adversaries" by way of a "charm offensive." After the dinner, Bill Kristol explained on Fox and Friends that while "no one's mind was changed," he would "end up supporting [Obama] on some things." Charles Krauthammer joked about Obama's apparent goals, "I am brainwashed entirely. I'm in the tank."

Just one week later, Obama's right-wing acquaintances have already shown the futility of engaging in a good-faith dialogue with them. While Obama pushes his vision for the economic recovery package -- his first real battle against the conservative establishment -- the dinner's attendees are on a no-holds-barred offensive against it.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Pharos]

I don't think it is futile to open a dialog with the Republicans. Obama demonstrated he was willing to listen and compromise. The Republicans, even after Obama modified the package, voted 100% against it. Obama gave them a chance to be bipartisan. He looks in control and very presidential, they look petty and uncaring. I can't wait for elections in 2010.

[SailFree]

Conservatives blast stimulus plan? Indeed! They should. It's based on a more nebulous and discredited theory than global warming!

"The stimulus bill is also a time machine in the sense that it's based on an old, and largely discredited, economic theory. As Harvard economist Robert Barro pointed out on these pages last Thursday, the "stimulus" claim is based on something called the Keynesian "multiplier," which is that each $1 of spending the government "injects" into the economy yields 1.5 times that in greater output. There's little evidence to support this theory, but you have to admire its beauty because it assumes the government can create wealth out of thin air. If it were true, the government should spend $10 trillion and we'd all live in paradise."
--Ed WSJ.com

[jdw1981]

You talk about "creating wealth out of thin air"? Is that anything like disappearing wealth into thin air, which is what Bush did with the stimulus funds that he "allocated"? 2 months down the road and we have NO idea what happened to any of that money... except that the Republican CEO's at Citigroup are buying a really neat $50 million corporate jet.

People like you are all for government intervention when it means tax cuts and corporate loopholes... ie, Welfare for the Rich and to hell with everyone else.

[Pharos]

Well if it's based on a theory anywhere close to being as well established as global warming then we are in for one heck of a quick and spectacular recovery.

Thank you Mr. President

[sueinmn]

It's simply time to end tying to be a nice guy with these neocons. They are not about change and they are not about the American people. They have always, will always be only about themselves and the destruction of America. President Obama, cut ties with them and let them feel the consequences of continued by-partisan politics.

[comacoma]

Republicans continue to demonstrate their irrelevance and complete lack of regard for our nation as they whine, cry and attempt to derail everything the American public has voted for: Obamam and teh Democratic agenda.

Republicans remain the enemy of our nation.

[Sweetie4Obama]

OT-Has anyone heard about the r a cist cookies in the NY bakery?

[nolalily]

Now the Republicans are standing in the way of someone fixing the mess they've gotten us into. They practically bankrupt the country. I think they should hang their heads in shame and shut the f up. They've proven they know absolutely nothing about benefitting the country.

[Mike4Obama]

I guess Obama's Jedi mind trick didn't work.

The dark side is strong in those ones. Continue complaining they will.

[logic63]

One comment I heard on the news this weekend was that someone said they didn't want to take a job building roads & bridges. If they think they are too good to do blue collar work, there will be plenty of jobs in the service industry. Thankfully the majority of people want jobs that will keep themselves & their families housed & fed and status is their lowest priority. As a single parent with three children I worked a full time job M-F and cleaned motel room on weekend just to get by when I had to. We survived and that was the goal at the time.

[jdw1981]

You can do a lot of things, President Obama. But you CAN'T reason with or trust the GOP in their post-Bush configuration. With a couple of exceptions, they're all a bunch of self-serving, back-stabbing thugs who would rather see the entire country go down the tubes than see you succeed.

You need to keep in mind Aesop's fable about the Farmer and the Viper (or the "Natural Born Killers" version):

A farmer finds a viper freezing in the snow. He takes pity on it and picks it up and places it within his coat. The viper, revived by the warmth, strikes and bites the farmer. The dying farmer asks the snake, "Why did you bite me?" The snake stares at him with his cold Republican eyes, and said, "What did you expect me to do? I'm a viper, after all."

Keep having them for dinner, and they'll continue to have YOU for dinner.

[jeanrenoir]

You guys just can't give it up, can you? You're as bad, and anti-Obama, as Rush.
, and as irrelevant now. Obama is WAY too popular and thus powerful to worry about the neocons having him FOR dinner. And way too smart for them, too. Like Reagan, Obama is a political genius at manufacturing raw political popularity, which is what democratic power is all about. And Obama knows that the American public at large wants unity now in the midst of the worst crises since Dec. 7, 1941. The public is sick of the posturings of the left as much as the right; it's sick of the 1968 childishness of it all. The public wants an adult leading them, and that's what Obama is. As opposed to the "forever young" (read: "forever childish") Boomers, Bill Clinton and W, Obama is an adult pragmatist and realist. The 60's completely END with him, thank God. The culture wars are now over. We don't have the luxury of such nonsense anymore. It's time to build a consensus for all the very tough decisions adults in politics, led by Obama, must now make.

[jdw1981]

I'd love to be proven wrong, but unfortunately you are the one who is completely wrong at this point. And what is this BS about the "left"? Who exactly do you imagine the "left" to be? Do you think we're all a bunch of pot-smoking beatniks who sit around playing the bongo drums all day and worshipping Chairman Mao?

AMERICA wants out of Iraq. AMERICA wants accessible and affordable health care. AMERICA wants the wealthiest 1.5% to pay their fair share. These are not "left" issues, these are American issues. You and your kind will keep giving to the Republicans, and giving, until PRESTO: You're Republican-lites (and the NeoCons STILL hate and walk all over you).

[Kassandra]

Reminds me of that old story about a sow's ear and a silk purse. Know that one?

[comacoma]

Doesn't it end with something about it being impossible to make a compassionate, intelligent citizen out of a republican?

[cayuse]

There is allot to bitch about Left and Right.

Obama had it right during the campaign

He wanted to fix the roads and bridges. A construction work making $1000 a week the first week is the NEW DEAL for Roosevelt. They immediately go to work spending on houses and cars, create rating go up. The whole economy get's going.

Building schools does not create 1 job, cash to state does not create 1 job. Unemployment support to states and construction cash in their hand should be sufficient too.

[gotovt]

Looks like there was not enough money for the GOP's rich friends and corporations.

[springsm]

I just listened to Eric Cantor tell what they wanted the stimulus for....remake of the first failed bailout. Save the rich, to hell with the rest. I am sick and tired of these pouting adolescents ...Obama needs to get down and dirty. Meanwhile the country flounders. Just keep the names out ther of these republicans...so when re-election comes around, people KNOW their part of childish bully type behavior.

[castlerider]

Channel surfing, I saw Rush Limpbone on FOX last night talking crap about Obama, saying we shouldn't have to "Grab our ankles for this guy just because he's black."

Grab our ankles??

Limpbone, we don't "grab our ankles" for anyone....
Question is, who is it that YOU LIKE to grab your ankles for?

I'd love to see Letterman or Keith get a hold of that one.

[springsm]

That was a very offensive rant Rush was giving us all. My gosh, how does he manage to stay on air with his offensive thoughts and words.

[jdw1981]

Then you'll probably like Cenk Uygur's take on Limbaugh's bending-over fantasies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXFAOK08NL4

(If you don't know who Cenk is, you might soon, as he's being considered for a slot on MSNBC).

[Paisano]

We seem to be shocked at these stories...­remember..­.They're republican­t's...They only care about winning...They don't care what the issue is! If you say up...They'll say down!!! If you say Black...They'll say white!

[ravencalling]

To come out as obstructionist in this current environment is quite a gamble McCain. Another gamble .. hmmm perhaps this time you will win? What do you see as the end game playing those politics? Do you even care that it is the American people's lives represented in those dice you so callously throw on the table? After all of the banking thieves dirty laundry comes to light, in fact after so much dirty laundry that many are wishing for the days of the French Revolution - you still think the American people want to continue supplementing the rich. Sorry but that is a shot that is so long you are going to wish you could take those dice back. Obama's move is brilliant. Give them rope and they inevitably hang themselves.