Obama: GOP Just "Against Whatever The Other Side Is For"

President Obama has gotten more aggressive in his criticism of Republicans in advance of the upcoming budget fight. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Obama suggested the opposition party wasn't for anything beyond opposition:

"I do think that the Republican Party right now hasn't sort of figured out what it's for," Obama said in a White House interview with The Courier-Journal and reporters from five other newspapers. "And so, as a proxy, they've just decided 'we're going to be against whatever the other side is for.' That's not what's needed in an economic crisis."

He added that "you could play that game maybe in the early '90s, when basically we were pretty prosperous. Right now, everybody's got to pull together."

Read more from the interview here.

Comments

[RatgurlSD]

Glad to see SOMEBODY has the b*lls to call it as they see it. Obstructionism will get us nowhere. Thank goodness we have Obama trying to actually DO something (unlike the last guy).

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Well, it looks like Obama has NOT been paying attention.

Teleprompters Unite!
http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/teleprompters-unite/

[crat4ever]

SERIOUSLY!!!! That's the best thing you wing nutjobs can come up with? That means OUR President is kicking your collective @$$e$. Go team!

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Well then, maybe he will like our new song...
http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/official-tea-party-anthem/

[bigbluenat4]

I believe that means YOU HAVE NOTHING!!! poor you....:-p

[eden4barack08]

I'm so sorry Mr President, that initially you actually had high hopes in reasoning with the losers, but I'm glad you see the reality now. Forget them!

[Digeeedad]

That "Opposition Party" will continue to be against ANYTHING the Obama administration attempts, for one simple reason.... the party base as lead by Limbaugh, Hannity, and their legion of followers simply cannot tolerate allowing a black President (or his First Lady) to succeed.

WAY to many centuries old racial/cultural stereotypes at stake....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

BTW, I'm a 50ish white male, who is appalled at the palpable hatred shown towards the Obamas, on sites like Hannity's website forum "Washington Politics". The degree of hatred shown there and other places seems to indicate that its origins are WAY beyond anything having to do with policies or politics!

[ColumbusMike]

Actually, their primary agenda is to make the country fail, so they can blame Democrats and regain power. It's stunningly unpatriotic for a party that claims to wave the flag. But you're right in the sense that if they can recruit soldiers in their battle to ruin our country by appealing to bias and narrow-mindedness, that's fine with them.

[Digeeedad]

"You're a GREAT American Sean"..... sure takes on a whole new nauseating meaning now!

[TechGirl]

I agree with Obama. It seems as though everyweek and everyday it's just..."Let's get ourselves into the headlines any means possible to create chaos". I mean seriously, it's everyweek. I'm over it and over them.

[JustaVermonter]

I am so sick and tired of these Rebublicans and their VALUES. What values? Hate, bigotry, ignorance and illiteracy ? Divorced three times but speak of Catholic Values? Pregnant out of wedlock and speak of family values? Inciting armed violence but speak of national values?

These people are such hypocrites! They thump the Bible as if they are the only ones who know What Is Written. And I dare say, I have more reasons to BELIEVE in The Word than they will every dream of having. And yet, because of them and their kind, I change from Christianity to Atheism to Christianity to Agnosticism to Christianity to BEWILDERMENT.

One thing I know for certain. I don't want to go to heaven if any ONE of the following people will be there: Dick Cheney, Carl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, et al. George Bush? Strangely, I like the guy and like a child, I do not hold him responsible for his errors.

So I would have the honey and beer (don't like milk) with him. No question.
But my dilemma is this. Where will I go? Because at least one of them will go to Hell. And I don't want to be in Hell with them either. One hell (here on earth that they created) is enough.
And what the hell ( no pun intended ) is Purgatory? Is that the same as the Limbo the country is now in?

Next post: Oh! Lou. What happened to

[ColumbusMike]

Have no fear, Vermonter--everyone has their own room in the mansion of Heaven. You only have to invite in those you want to.

[dontpanic1]

Just a friendly reminder that Jesus said, "Not everyone who keeps saying to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will get into the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven."-Matthew 7:21.
The Bible also says, "Such people are false apostles, dishonest workers who are masquerading as apostles of the Messiah. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."- 2 Cor 11:13,14.
And the BEST one: "They claim to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified to do anything good." - Titus 1:16.

So dont be bewildered. Fakeness is nothing new.

[TonyOnly]

Times have changed. Consensual sex now means you need conservative consent. And it no longer applies only to sex. Conservative supremacists believe they have a devine right to control almost every aspect of our lives, from who our friends are, to how we spend our money. They want to replace big government with big conservatism. But of course, that would be worse. At least governments are elected by a conscensus of voters. Which is something conservatives seem to forget.

[Cye]

"Consensual sex now means you need conservative consent. And it no longer applies only to sex. Conservative supremacists believe they have a devine right to control almost every aspect of our lives, from who our friends are, to how we spend our money".

Exactly right. Then they rave on about how spending public money on education or health care is *communism* because it is too invasive.

[freedomitchy]

When you're for dramatically increasing the size and power of the state and for economic fascism the correct answer is no.

[Mikecoatl]

Sounds like a pretty apt description of the Bush administration.

[ZimboChick]

ditto that

[Eris23Skidoo]

Why weren't they protesting the last 8 years, then? This has absolutely NOTHING to do with principle. For the GOP this is all about power and whether or not they're willing to allow a black man to wield it.

George Bush increased the size of the govt tenfold. He ended habeaus corpus. He tortured in our name. He started two wars. Fascism is his game, not Obama's. If anything, you could criticize Obama for being too socialist. Socialism & fascism are opposites. Obama is no fascist. Bush is.

[IndependentBadger]

It's interesting how you pick on democratically elected governments powers, instead of the unaccountable, undemocratic corporate systems that have spent decades using and abusing our government to its own ends. Makes me wonder whose side youre on. You sure as hell aren't on the people's side. If you were, you'd be suspicious of CEO's who steal our money and then blame it on our elected leaders. You wouldn't be picking on our elected leaders, and giving corporations yet another right wing pass....

[ManwithaParachute]

When all you can answer is NO then the questioner starts to believe NO really means YES.

Now I can't remember the joke but the punch line compared successful Republican dating to date rape. It wasn't funny at the time but NOW I GET IT. What a knee slapper.

[crat4ever]

It is always a mystery how you NeoNuts can be so easily tricked into believing in ultra fringe ideology that is not in your best interest. When corporate power goes unchecked and destroys the economy and people like you and me are going broke, losing our jobs and our homes the government (us) needs to reign them in and make them accountable to the government (us). What is not to like about that?

[denicci1977]

I absolutely agree with the President. Even in the next couple of years, I think if the country was doing well, people weren't losing jobs, economy is booming, no war etc, they would still find something in that to disagree about. The GOP will never be happy...Momma always said some people will never be pleased. I say let them wallow, be angry and continue to dwindle away...

[jbhtx]

GOP has to decide if it wants to be relevant political party, or the bully pulpit of the religious right lunatic fringe. Look at the election map from Nov '08, the GOP primarily won in states with high percentage of Mormons and Southern Baptists, both of which are nativist historically racist denominations which despise each other as both claim to be literal defenders of the "true faith". It's fair to ask which god they represent now, the original one who supported slavery and segregation or a new one. The GOP's high indexing group are lower income and less educated rural residents.
The populace is finally waking up to the basic schizophrenia of the GOP platform. They want to regulate private behavior yet are proponents of no regulation of business. Now the entire country and global economy is paying the price of following the phony religion of business self-regulation and small government. The current mess is this country's fault for following fools. Let's put the blame where it belongs, starting with the GOP finally accepting responsibility and expressing wilingness to give up their phony idols.

[Eris23Skidoo]

They won't accept responsibility or give up their phony idols. For the last few decades there were two major camps in the GOP: the conservatives and the libertarians. In the future, the two major camps will be: the mormons and the southern baptists.

I'm perfectly fine with this development. The GOP needs crushing. A new party will arise to take the GOP's place. Maybe they'll stop calling themselves "fiscally conservative" and start calling themselves "fiscally responsible". Because conservative no longer means responsible, not after the GOP ducked responsibility all these years. Remember Ronald "I do not recall" Reagan ducking responsibility for his illegal drug-running war where he gave weapons to terrorists? That is their hero, that is their model for responsibility.

[Actionman]

It's not just the redumblicans it's some dems also...

Check this web site... group trying to get the dems to get their act together and support Obama's program or work to make it better and not play politics.

you can contribute there also.

http://www.ourfuture.org/

[jdwoman]

Rodell Mollineau, a spokesman for Harry Reid, chimes in:

If Republicans would have done a little planning of their own over the last eight years, perhaps we still wouldn’t have 138,000 troops in Iraq. Perhaps with a little planning they wouldn’t have stranded countless Americans in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps a little planning would have helped stave off the collapse of the housing sector. I know it must be hard for them to comprehend, but one day they’ll come to realize that competent proactive planning isn’t such a bad thing.

[Eris23Skidoo]

But it is antithetical if your only core philosophy is that government isn't worth a damn. Then when you hold office if you take care and are responsible all that does is make it appear that government is actually worth a damn. No, they'd rather America fail than actually take care of it. That is why we are in the mess we are in. The GOP doesn't just want America to fail when Obama is in charge, they always wanted America to fail. Anything else would violate their only core principle.

[Scarllatti]

As expected, all GOP stands for is NOTHING. They can only make noises but are very ineffective.

[JustaVermonter]

SPLAT! (That's the sound of my fly swatter). There go another two Republicants! LOL

[jackson1015]

I'm glad Obama's finally stating the obvious. It's all well and good to try and reach across the aisle, but when you're dealing with people who'd rather see the country self-destruct rather than work with their President in improving things, you're in a no-win situation.

I've never had respect for the GOP and since Obama became President, my opinion of them has only gotten worst.

[JustaVermonter]

You know, the Republicans have strayed far from the principles of their founders. Just read Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals", and you will get what I mean. If they could keep the tradition of Sewell and Lincoln alive, I wouldn't be a Democrat today. Now I understand why our beloved President Obama aligns himself with Lincoln!

[samilli3]

and i know President Obama is open to suggestions, ideas but you now the G.O.P doesn't want to see his succeed......

[JustaVermonter]

I love Quebec.