Obama On Republicans: 'I'm An Optimist, Not A Sap'

In an interview with columnists aboard Air Force One, President Obama talked about what he learned from the stimulus battle. Pronouncing himself impressed with his team for moving the legislation through Congress so quickly, he said the plan wasn't everything he wanted but was still a "very good start on moving things forward."

As for his experience with congressional Republicans, the president said, "I made every effort to reach out to Republicans early to get their input and to get their buy-in. I think that there were some senators and House members who have a sincere philosophical difference with the idea of any government role in boosting demand in the economy. They don't believe in [John Maynard] Keynes and they're still fighting FDR ... I think we can disagree without being disagreeable on that front."

He added that the GOP also made a "political and tactical" decision to oppose the stimulus as a way to rally their base. "Whether that's a smart strategy, I think you should ask them." He said that it was his impression that the House Republicans decided to vote party-line against the bill before he met with them. "I'm not sure that there was a whole host of things that we were going to do that was going to make a difference." (Republicans dispute that interpretation, claiming they were open to the stimulus when they met with Obama.)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said recently that Obama lost control of the stimulus debate by focusing too much on bipartisanship.

Asked if he would be so willing to reach out to Republicans in the future, the president responded, "You know, I am an eternal optimist. That doesn't mean I'm a sap."

Looking more forward, the president also outlined his priorities for the rest of the year:

My priorities for the rest of the year. Number one is to get the right structure for the successor to TARP; spending the $300-some billion that has already been authorized as wisely as possible, and injecting transparency and trust into the financial system. Having a housing program that provides relief to people who are at risk of losing their homes. Financial regulations that ensure that the crisis doesn't happen again. A innovative and aggressive push for health care reform that focuses not just on access but also on costs, and trying to just provide relief to working families. And a push for an energy policy that puts us on a path to sustainability.

Comments

[Shammie2000]

Apparently Obama nor his staff watch Fixed News where the ReThug's state daily how they want
him to fail, keeping seeking their approval and their wish is gonna come true.

[jobecky20]

Any one who wants Obama to fail wants America to fail. If Obama fails, we all fail. Guess who also wants Obama to fail? Osama Bin Laden and the terrorists. So I suppose the Republicans who want Obama to fail now have something in common with the thugs who flew planes into the WTC and the Pentagon.

Hey I am a Democrat but I never wanted Bush to fail because I am smart enough to know that his failure equals my failure. Republicans need to get a CLUE and stop terrorizing America.

[MarcInCA]

Well I wish he would have figured it out a little sooner, but good to know that President Obama has come to terms with reality. To hell with bipartisan­ship...let­'s fix this country!

[Just2stressed]

The President is practicing the phrase, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer".

The GOP is on life support, hopefully the new Administration and the American people can remove that life support and put them in the ground.

[mapleaforever]

"I know it was you Fredo"

[Msohio]

Thank you President Obama for drawing the line in the sand to the evil doers who are totally responsible for this scary economy. You are totally right to keep reminding them that you inherited this mess because they will spin it to where you created it. Never trust a snake. We all see how the fool from Ohio has said that President Roosevelt created the Great Depression. Not only are these people dumb, but they live in a cacoon. There is no republican shame; i.e. Evil Cheney, GW Bush, Rove, Coulter, Vittle, Cantor, McCain, Graham, McConnell, Phil (damn the poor and middle class people) Gramm and the bathroom king with the wide stance. Kick their butts and take it to the people. Let's get more of them out of office in 2010.

[scully05]

What I don't understand is that it is so easy to help our country when we are down with all of our tax paying dollars that we build up just for times like we are experiencing now. If the money just sits around and collects dust, then why don't we use it to help our people after Bush blundered most of it fighting a war that should have never been. Wake up people, if another Repub gets in there, then there goes the tax paying dollars again!!

[noamjunior]

why are people who voted for McCain and Bush twice suddenly posting about how we should be suspicious of Obama - you guys haven't picked winner the last 3 times maybe you shoud just stick to Nascar call in shows

[swo68]

What would you call someone who's out there promoting Pelosi's "stimulus" bill? If sap doesn't work, lets go with puppet.

[noamjunior]

Obama is a great president- deal with it Bush voter

[swo68]

If he's a great president, he'll veto the "stimulus" package and send it back to the house to be stripped of the garbage.

[Girl28]

Hey we should make up a song and dedicate it to the t.rolls. That way we can just sing our little "diddy" everytime we catch one talking c.razy on this website, instead of wasting our breath trying to reason with them. You know you can't argue with s.tupid, right?

How about, " Here are the t.rolls, they just be t.rolling along..." or something like that, I have to work out the kinks.

[ThirdSection]

We could just borrow a line from xkcd whenever the trolls pop up and reply with:

"I'm not really into Pokémon."

(http://xkcd.com/178/)

[Tim303]

Or maybe the Smurf song.

[mapleaforever]

"There'll be no mutant enemy we shall certify..."

(Yes - "You and I")

[Jazzcomedian]

"Heat not a furnace for your foe, so hot that do singe yourself".

..........­........Wi­lliam Shakespeare


The GOP Congressional leadership forgot to heed those words in the stimulus battle, and as a result they look more blatantly out of touch with the American people, and reality than ever.

[protagonia]

Arrogance is exactly where every great tyranny stumbles.

[lincheryl]

It is interesting to see what happens when people underestimate Obama. He is brilliantly analytical and thinks ahead more than the Republicans ever will. They just repeat and repeat and are so clueless they don't think we will notice.

[JZ735]

Obama is Hamlet...we have seen that brilliance doesn't always bode well for the less than frequent Presidents who have been labeled by admirers as such...brilliant men tend to dither, dally and sweat the details way too much, wasting valuable time on minutiae and trivia...

[weatherwaxx]

Bee Ess.

We've seen enough of a so-called President who goes to war on a lie and then can't admit a mistake. In one month, President Obama has done more good than Bush did in eight long and gruesome years.

[PJBroughton]

We have also seen that idiocy doesn't bode well either.
Less than brilliant voters led by the Pied Pipers of conservatism for the last eight years saw to the legacy we will leave our grandchildren.

What you view as trivia may be of paramount significance to someone else. I for one, am sick to death of elected officials running amok making a mockery of us all.

[filo]

A lot of people have and will underestimate him. See Hillary Clinton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WsPmZ1zDeA&NR=1

[InLosAngeles]

President Obama, please stop playing the Bush/ Cheney fear card every chance you can. You claim to be an optimist, stop it already. We get it, the country is in a rough patch, but quit acting like we are on the verge. This country needs a leader. It hasn't had one for awhile, and that sadly still appears to be the case.

The Wall Street Journal says it best,

"President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package. In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover."

"This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s."

[4akinderworld]

Someone who isn't ready to go to bed, please respond to this. Bring this poor person up to speed. I'm not articulate enough after midnight. Thanks in advance.

[djgonebad]

First, we must establish REAL FEAR and that of the Neo-Cons; that should be obvious, based upon the use of the "FEAR THEM" angle of the GOP. The new administration is FEARING the troubles we have at home, that are REAL and in front of us; not in a cave on a dialysis machine.

OBAMA ISN'T FEAR-MONGERING!!! HE'S BRINGING IT FROM A LOGICAL BASE, ONE THAT EVERYONE CAN FEEL; UNLESS YOUR THE TOP 5% ON THE INCOME LADDER.

It's as simple as that; now I'm going to bed.

[Nancy84]

Obviously you still have your job. To those who don't, this is not fear mongering........ this is action to help them.

[one4obama]

Oh, so no problem that for 8 years Bush/Cheney played the voters like saps by using fear and loathing, but now that things truly ARE desperate, Obama should not be laying it out on the table and telling it like it is?

Times ARE as bad as Obama is saying - he is not playing this up. It is here and it is real.

[JZ735]

Of course they don't...he knows it, but it wouldn't suit him politically to put anything but the most negative spin as possible on this...if Obama was the optimist as he claims he is, he would be saying how with this specific tactic he would see to it that the country is set on a course of recovery..­.constantl­y harping on all the horror stories, like the press, perpetuates and continues it.

[weatherwaxx]

Do you have any notion at all of the mess your boy Bush created? You don't, do you? You sound like someone whose dog was locked in the house for a month and is blaming the cleaning lady because the place isn't clean in three minutes.

Educate yourself, please.

[janinius]

fearmongering or truth? check back in a few years

[jazzycafe]

I love it. I have always thought that you can be optimistic without being naive. You can think of the goodness around you, think of the best that could happen, without being a total Pollyana.

The same goes with being assertive. You can assert yourself, without coming across as agressive.
Often, we try to pigeon hole others. He is completely this way. She is completely that way. Type A personality or type B. President Obama has many good qualities and we are so lucky to have him.
I feel reassured and hopeful when he speaks.

[JZ735]

I don't...he is playing a shell game..he is exceedlingly clever at it, but too many see through it and have from the beginning.

[weatherwaxx]

You're judging Obama by the Bush standard.

[golferman]

Their are a lot of trolls out there. And they see what they want to see.

[makemusicnotwar]

You have been lied to so much, you now do not see an honorable, intelligent leader when you see him.. that's what happens when the emperor wears no clothes and you a naive enough to believe the spin you were fed and continue to be fed by this Republican party. They are only worried about staying in power and will do anything and say anything to continue. Watch out for your wallet.

[djgonebad]

"very good start on moving things forward."

He isn't bragging or pointing fingers at the GOP; he's just going about being the President of the United States.

Even if the country is in a mess; "HAPPY TIMES ARE HERE AGAIN."

[JZ735]

That remains to be seen...Obama has six months max to start righting the economy...any longer, and the people will begin to get restless and anxious...­.America's attention span is short, as is ther desire to sit back and wait for the paint to dry.

[Eris23Skidoo]

So the GOP plan is to try to run out the clock for the next 6 months and hope that the American people will reject him the way they rejected Bush? Won't happen. Not unless Obama starts more wars or authorizes torture.

[weatherwaxx]

He has started righting the economy, sunshine.

[djgonebad]

Six months to fix 30+ years of Neo-Con mess; I DON'T THINK SO!!!!

I don't believe most readers would agree with that; let alone most of the NATION.

JZ do you listen to JAZZ?

[Tim303]

So sure are you? Six months? You didn't give the Iraq war that short of a timeline.

[golferman]

A lot of Americans got dumbed down the last 8 years. The ones that were dumb to begin with will take longer to recover if they ever recover. Take your medicine JZ.

[Indie2008]

I've never seen so many Republicans, tripping over each other to talk to the media, with their "Ideas" on how NOT to handle the economy. Strangely, you didn't hear a peep from them during the waning weeks of Bush's term.

[djgonebad]

Their "IDEAS" are a bag of beans; you can soak them, cook them with smoked neck-bones and add the best of seasonings; but, your still going to get GAAA$$$$$$!!!!

[clausenheimer]

And they'd still charge you $4 / gallon for that GAAA$$$$$$ if they could!

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

I think that Republicans have already seen Obama best effort to reach out to them. From here on, I am sure they will see a different approach, one that will be to their misfortune. I think time will show that they made a big mistake on this one. Those people can not be reformed. The one and only cure is to vote them out of office.

[weatherwaxx]

That's our job.

[makemusicnotwar]

Remember that in 4 years. This economy will not recover for more years than we imagine. Let's remember the reason we are in this fix. War, no oversight, and the words of GWBush after 9/11: Go out and spend. Greed won and we now suffer the consequences. Also, we were not even witnessing the realities of the war: the dead, the injured. Our deficit spending and the American ability to party while Rome (Iraq) burned. We must be more vigilant, more involved and more moderate in our lives.

[makemusicnotwar]

I meant deregulations (no oversight).