There's a killer web graphic that was created back in the post-Republican Convention days while everyone was writing spasmodic, breathless "Obama should [fill in the blank]" blog entries and "Oh crap! We're gonna lose!" newspaper columns. Not that there's anything wrong with that, really. The Obama campaign slipped in the polls during Sarah Palin's very brief golden age -- an era of roughly two weeks following the Alaska governor's successful recitation of a convention speech without, you know, choking on her own vomit.
Very few of us were confident of an Obama victory at the time. After all, previous Democratic nominees had been riding bullet trains to victory in the polls, only to gradually and utterly bonk as the summer segued into autumn. Even candidate Obama was warning us about the Democratic habit of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." Yeah. Anyone who claims to have been absolutely 100 confident of a Barack Obama victory in the first week of September 2008 is either lying or lying.
However, some people were more confident (hopeful, perhaps) than others.
The web graphic is actually a photograph of Barack Obama from his Invesco Field acceptance speech. In it, he's looking directly into the camera with an expression of fierce determination on his face -- his teeth gnashed in an Eastwood snarl, his left hand gesturing as though he's kung fu fighting his way through an oversized cinderblock made of SlapChop-minced Republican skulls.
The large, white text superimposed at the top reads: "Everyone chill the fuck out." The text at the bottom exclaims: "I got this!"
Sure enough, two months later, we watched as this liberal African American man with the noble yet politically unusual name "Barack Hussein Obama" defied the odds and won red states like Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Indiana and the commonwealth of Virginia.
Fade out the roaring crowds at Grant Park. Dissolve to late January.
The economy continues to creep nearer to the crumbling ledge of yet another Depression -- if it isn't there already. And yet the Republicans who very nearly shoved us over the ledge are prancing around as if their collective Reaganomics don't stink.
Republicans on the Hill, on the radio and on cable news seemed to have forgotten how ridiculous George W. Bush looked when he performed his pee-pants-dance in public; acting like a petulant, entitled twerp who could, at any moment, very nearly regress into an actual terrible-twos tantrum, only to pull himself back at the last second and find some restraint just before reflexively dropping to the ground in a raging tempest of elbows, fists and teeth. The Republicans seemed to have forgotten about the inefficacy of this routine because it's precisely the behavior they're exhibiting this week. They're acting like Bush Republicans.
Their political audacity, while never surprising, always seems to confound expectations and defy logic. Having relegated themselves to the status of a regional, minor party due to their unserious, fear-mongering wedge politics and well-documented record of disastrous policy-making, they remain so hubristic as to crap their cages and demand a seat at the Big Boy Table, as if they're the majority party in Congress -- as if they somehow earned an equal voice in this thing by way of their awesome record on the economy.
They haven't. It's only due to the magnanimity of the president that they haven't been completely steamrolled on this recovery bill. Magnanimity which, by the way, isn't nearly as plentiful or renewable as the Republicans might think. Especially when the Republicans are doing what they're doing right now.
For instance.
Prompted by Drudge and Limbaugh, the Republicans are lurching around like less-cool, less-serious Beavis & Butthead knockoffs, snickering at the mere mention of birth control; their suit jackets slung over their heads Cornholio-style as they cackle, "He said rubbers! Mmm-heh-heh. Uhhh-huh-huh. But take us seriously or else."
Earlier in the week, it was birth control and by Wednesday morning the birth control headlines had been replaced with a new Drudge screamer about an STD prevention and education section of the bill. "Heh-heheh-heh. Crabs." But it goes without saying that the doofish snickering has less to do with a debate about whether or not poor people can afford necessary medical treatment, and everything to do with the Republicans getting to say "STDs" and "contraceptives" on television and thus making the bill appear silly, salacious and borderline immoral.
Then there's the mysterious Congressional Budget Office report which, the Republicans said, proved that most of the spending in the recovery bill wouldn't hit the road until 2011. Of course the cable news media and the conservative press were once again complicit in fluffing unsourced Republican evidence (see also: WMD).
None of these very serious news organizations bothered to discover that the CBO report didn't even exist. The Huffington Post reported last Friday that it didn't exist, yet there were the usual suspects on Meet the Press and the other Sunday shows talking about it as if it were real. All told, more than 81 different mentions of the totally unreal report. As recently as Monday night on CNN, Ed Henry was still parroting this Republican myth.
This bears repeating: the people who got everything wrong for at least the last eight years and then spent the better part of a week spreading misinformation about the most important economic debate since the New Deal are demanding to be taken seriously? That's rich. As recently as October, the Republican nominee for president and the Republican White House were repeating the laughable "fundamentals of the economy are strong" line. This week, the economy section of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) website read:
Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong. Republican tax cuts are creating jobs and continuing to strengthen the economy, yet there is still more to do so that every American who wants a job can find one.
Right. They deserve to have a say in vital economic legislation. But the ridiculousness doesn't end there.
Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) was on Hardball Tuesday night banging on his pots and pans about the recovery bill. There he was: demanding to be taken seriously by the president. Demanding a seat at the Big Boy Table. He and his colleagues insisting that they be included in the authoring of the bill. Insisting that his ideas have merit. Insisting that they be heard. And then, ostensibly to prove how serious and worthy of respect he is, he used the deliberately pejorative "Democrat bill" mispronunciation. You know the trick. Emphasize the "rat" syllable at the end. Get it? By the way, we're not talking about just the fringe wingnuts using this. Most of the congressional Republicans say it that way. You know, because they're very serious people who ought to be taken very seriously.
Altogether, it might appear as if the Republicans are using their ridiculousness as a means of duping the president -- hectoring him into capitulation and therefore allowing the recovery bill to be sabotaged with their taint. And when the sabotaged bill fails to help the economy, they'll blame the president. David Sirota outlined this strategy the other day, and while events might seem to point in this direction from time to time, there isn't much evidence to indicate that President Obama is naïve enough to be flimflammed by these very obvious Republican political tricks. Put another way, if you and I can spot the scams, I'm sure he can too. Though, it's important that the Republicans think they can sucker punch the president the same way they've sucker punched Senator Reid over and over.
The president's "I won" remark indicates that there's a limit to both his benevolence and his tolerance for Republican silly season hackery. "I won" means that he won't be played and he won't be taken advantage of. But the Republicans have miscalculated and misinterpreted the president, believing that "bipartisanship" means Democratic capitulation. Save for a few concessions in an otherwise massive spending bill, President Obama isn't calling for any half-and-half bipartisan compromise on this or anything else so far. His process with the Republicans is all about attaining some civility in the tone of the debate -- not caving. There's a difference. And in that process, the president is looking increasingly presidential as his style is contrasted against the smallness of the Republicans.
Recent history has proved that the president's Chess Match style will require a little more patience than we're accustomed to in order to see the endgame -- to see how this all plays out. And while it's crucial to keep a clear eye and critical mind, there's a lot of comfort in that web graphic from last September. Chances are: he's got this.
Order my book: One Nation Under Fear, with a foreword by Arianna Huffington. Also available in stores.
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Obama To GOP: "I Won"
President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt...
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Obama Stimulus: More Than $600 Billion In Next 18 Months
Aides to Barack Obama said the president is likely to spend more than $600 billion in stimulus cash in the next year and a half...
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Clyburn On GOP Stimulus Opposition: We Won, Now Move On
Barack Obama and his team of advisers have framed the process of crafting a stimulus package as one that will be inclusive and bipartisan in...
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Controversial CBO Report On Stimulus Turns Out Not To Exist
Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent...
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Obama Pitches His Plan To Reverse Economic Slide
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met with his economic advisers Saturday after he asked Americans to support his economic package as a way to better...
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House Stimulus Bill (FULL TEXT) UPDATED
The 647-page House stimulus package scored the coveted designation of H.R. 1, which the Speaker reserves for her highest legislative or symbolic priority. The bill...
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Obama Offers Proposals In Stimulus Plan That "Appear Designed Specifically To Attract Republicans"
President Obama ramped up his personal lobbying campaign for an economic recovery package that would cost at least $820 billion, holding his first bipartisan gathering...
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Warren Buffett: "Nobody Knows" If Stimulus Package Will Work
SG: But there is debate about whether there should be fiscal stimulus, whether tax cuts work or not. There is all of this academic debate...
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McCain Not Satisfied With Stimulus, Wants "Major" Rewrite (VIDEO)
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on "Fox News Sunday" that he would not support the $825 billion stimulus package as written. He argued that the...
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Rush Limbaugh Opposes Stimulus Package Because Success Could Hurt GOP's Electoral Chances
On Friday, when President Obama met with congressional leaders from both parties to discuss his economic recovery and reinvestment program, he told GOP leaders, "You...
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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...
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GOP Leaders, Including McCain, Reject Stimulus Plan
Leading Republicans Sunday indicated that they would oppose passage of the stimulus package as it is currently written. While there is bi-partisan acknowledgment that some...
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Businesses Lobby For Their Cut Of Stimulus Pie
WASHINGTON -- Business groups are ramping up lobbying efforts to expand tax credits and incentives in President Barack Obama's $825 billion economic-stimulus bill slated for...
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Obama's Fifth Day: GOP Signals Opposition To Stimulus, Obama Announces New Environmental Policy
President Obama on January 25th, his fifth day in office, received strong signals from leading Republican politicians and intellectuals that they would oppose his stimulus...
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Krugman: Obama Should Ignore "Huffing And Puffing" Stimulus Opponents
Economist Paul Krugman has been somewhat critical of President Obama's stimulus plan. But today in the New York Times he defends the proposal: As the...
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Stimulus Includes Tax Cuts That Obama Economists Panned As Ineffective
At least $23.8 billion in corporate tax breaks have been included in the $825 billion economic recovery package in order to win backing from key...
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Stimulus: Dems May Drop Family Planning After GOP Attacks
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday,...
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Obama open to compromise on $825B stimulus bill
WASHINGTON — On the eve of a key vote, President Barack Obama privately promised Republicans he stands ready to accept changes in the $825 billion...
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Boehner To GOP: Oppose The Stimulus
WASHINGTON — On the eve of a key vote, President Barack Obama privately promised Republicans he stands ready to accept changes in the $825 billion...
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Not So Fast: GOP Might Back Stimulus Bill With Changes
Republicans are still open to supporting a stimulus package in the House, a GOP leadership aide tells the Huffington Post, despite reports that they will...
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House GOP: Stimulus Plan Has Too Much Spending
WASHINGTON — In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with spending...
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It's Show Time for Obama
When it comes to the stimulus plan, the bipartisan honeymoon is unlikely to last, and I'd say good riddance.
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Will the Environmental Movement be a Job Creator at Last?
It's possible that no economic stimulus will work. Each one will prop up the economy for a while, but the underlying structure has to melt down completely before it can grow back correctly.
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The 200 Million Dollar Question
Republicans staged a temper tantrum last week over spending $200 million on contraceptive coverage. It turns out such a request wasn't even included in the stimulus.
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Making Sense of CBO's Stimulus Projections
While CBO is certainly "where the action is in federal budgeting," as it boasts on its website, I am not convinced that they have met the standard for analysis that should be expected of them.
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Now Is the Time to Bail Our Poor Children and Families Out of Poverty
Isn't it time to end the lottery of geography on child survival and provide every child a national safety net of decency?
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Where's A Good Earmark When You Need It?
If the drafts of the stimulus bill are any indication, a world without earmarks also may be a world without accountability and transparency.
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So Now They're Fiscal Conservatives
The government is the only economic player right now. Yet -- according to Republican economic philosophy -- this is the time to become fiscal conservatives. Please.
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A Rush to Bad Judgment
If Rush Limbaugh and Republicans who dare not criticize him get their way, and the president actually fails -- it means the national economy turns into a Depression and America is crushed
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Dropping Family Planning Funding Is the Right Move
Ready access to contraceptives for low-income citizens is an essential part of creating a stable, informed and healthy population. There should be a bill aimed at openly supporting this policy.
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Economic Stimulus Bill: Sound Policy vs. D.C. "Bipartisanship"
Why do Democrats seem more interested in attracting majority Republican support they clearly do not need than in passing a bill that uses taxpayer money most effectively to stimulate the economy?
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Rush Limbaugh Is Hot Under the Collar
Right now Rush is being played. The Obama dinner with conservative columnists, shortly before his inauguration, was as much about excluding Rush as coddling the columnists.
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Stimulus and Energy
We have the capacity to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 50% overall and reduce to zero the amount of oil we import from the Middle East, Africa and Venezuela. We don't have to be at the mercy of OPEC.
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Retro-Hooverites All
The Republicans voted against their country today. Their fellow citizens needed them to act on their behalf and instead they chose to abandon them. Theirs is an ersatz patriotism.
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What Obama's Nixing Family Planning Money Tells Us
Today we have learned something about the administration's priorities. And appeasing Republicans ranks appears to be a higher priority than family planning.
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Obama's Economic Recovery Plan Is Almost As Pure As Ivory Soap
This is the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in 40 years. By all means, register your complaints against the business tax cuts. But don't let that dampen your enthusiasm for this historic measure.
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Republicans In Congress Get Behind Limbaugh's Call For Obstructionism & Failure
Over the last few days I reached out to a few dozen Democratic members of Congress to ask them what they made out of Limbaugh's poisonous rant on the radio last week.
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Taking Responsibility: Republicans Continue Recovery Obstruction
There appears to be no factoid or morsel of misinformation Republicans are unwilling to utilize to make the case to do nothing other than provide still more tax cuts to their business friends.
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Et tu, Barack?
The ideology-plagued Republicans, and their media enablers, couldn't seem to figure out why unemployed Americans without health insurance would possibly want, or need, to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
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Do Contraceptives Stimulate the Economy?
There has been a lot of damage done to family planning funding over the past eight years. However, this may not be the right issue around which to have the battle.
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A Hole Worth Digging?
Injured and wayward, the Republican leadership has geared up for a fight it cannot win, against a president who, both in mandate and in institutional advantage, enjoys unmatched power.
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The Truth About Contraceptives Stimulating the Economy
Democrats are still not committed to the new abortion politics, while the Republicans first impulse was to massively exaggerate.
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The Audacity of Rush Limbaugh's Hope: Standing Up to the Hubris of a Bully
Rush Limbaugh wants Obama to fail. Why? Because people might stop paying attention to Rush Limbaugh.
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Ignore Limbaugh
Obama should not have referred to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in his recent remarks directed to Republican Congressional leaders.
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Condoms and Art are Stimulating (to the Economy); Corporate Tax Cuts Not So Much
If we want more stimulus, economic and otherwise, we need more funding for the arts and for family planning/safe sex, and less tax cuts for corporations.
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Well, let's look at the last few "recessions" this country has enjoyed.
You have your late '70's recession - Who was in office then? Oh yeah a democrat by the name of Jimmy Carter who believed mass spending would pull us out of the tailspin. Wrong. When did it end? When Reagan took over. For the next ten years America enjoyed unparrelled prosperity.
Let's not forget that pesky "recession" during the 1930's. Some people have the audacity to call it the great depression. I believe that one belonged to the dems as well. FDR anyone.
. Of course the cable news media and the conservative press were once again complicit in fluffing unsourced Republican evidence (see also: WMD).
Maybe you should have googled yellowcake before you wrote this article. If you would have, you would have seen that the military found tons of the stuff in Iraq. If you don't know what it's used for, here's a hint; It's not for baking cakes!
Thanks Bob!
I must say I always enjoy your forthright blog and critique.
To the naysayers, find-faulters, talking loud and saying nothing set...and especially the OOO Repubs, (outmoded, obstructive and opposing) I say.......YE OF Little Faith!
P.S it almost feels like he has been in the WH for a good while as opposed to merely 2 weeks. Good Lord, he has managed to start the ball arolling immediately if not before.
Go, Mr Cesca..go!
This IS GDAMN INSANE!!!!! How have the Democrats allowed the Republican Party and National Press define the "stimulus package this way?
Dems need to say:
1) The American people elected Dems to control Congress and Presidency because they didn't like nor trust Republican solutions for our economy.
2) The Republicans are trying to institute "George Bush type" economic solutions and WE are NOT going to let them do it.
3) Getting the Economy moving again is MORE important than getting Republican support and that is what the AMERICAN PEOPLE trusts US to do - " Get the economy moving again".
4) If the Republicans want to stand in the way of this Stimulus package then they are risking our nation's future for partisan reasons. This is unacceptable!
What are Pelosi and Reid doing?
A. This is over 50% welfare programs which have "NO" effect on stimulating.
B. The CHIP program has no age or income limits?
C. Once this is killed, the Market will respond once the uncertainty is gone.
If the Dems are so sure this is the perfect answer for Americans than they should welcome 'transparency'... Right? So why are they not?
They would have spent the final two months of the campaign calling him a secret Muslim and promising that the terrorists will kill your children if you vote for "that one," and that would have been that.
Instead, the market crashed and McCain proved in a span of 48 hours that he wasn't remotely up to the task with his bat$h!t crazy fundamentals remark and suspending his campaign to have dinner with Lieberman. That was that. Obama didn't have to do anything. He just had to get out of the way, let the old man make a fool of himself and not do something even crazier than what McCain was doing, like praise Allah.
With this stimulus bill -- they're defining the debate and setting themselves up as the opposition. If things aren't better by 2010, and no on thinks they will be, they will hang him with this in the midterms and his final two years will be spent fighting off an impeachment over something even more ridiculous that what they got Clinton on..
Also, by 2010 there will be more to worry about. We will be getting the results of all the investigations that have/will start. The DoJ is already investigating the politicization of the department.
And the only way the Republicans look bad on this is if Mr. 80 percent or whatever he is decides to use some of that political capital he's got and calls them out as the liars and crooks that they are. He needs to be out there loud and clear that Reaganomics doesn't work and there isn't going to be anymore of this trickle-down B.S.
They've already set the debate. Fiscally responsible conservatives opposing reckless tax and spend liberals who want to give your kids condoms and spend $400 million on STDs. The more they repeat those lies the more people will believe them. It's what they did with the war. It's what they always do.
the stim bill is just pork and payback.. he's going to waste alot more money than any CEO's
coming for Chicago politics just means your dirty...
I think he has shown us he can take his shrewd political skills that were honed in Chicago and translate it nationwide.
Take note: Obama won. Repugs lost.
And if coming from Chicago means you're dirty, then coming from Alaska (home of former Sen. Ted Stevens) also means you're dirty, Sarah Palin.
Everytime during the campaign he would amke amove and the blogosphere would go crazy, only to find out later on that it was very calculalted.....President Obama is always a few steps ahead.
You got it right: He's got it.
"The GOP sabotaging the recovery bill with their taint"?!
Ewwwwww!!!!! I would not want to touch THAT bill! LOL
Just today, Michael Steele, the newly elected GOP party chair, laughed at the idea of bipartisanship and said he didn't believe in it. Our country is going through the worst time in our history since the depression and this guy is boasting that he doesn't believe in getting along with the other party. Again, it makes Obama look like the adult in this relationship and Americans and people around the world are taking note.
Obama will bring out the knives when he needs to. I trust his judgment. He's nobody's fool.