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Republicans Smell Weakness In Obama
In the White House Fiscal Responsibility Summit the day before the speech, the bipartisan House and Senate members broke up into working groups assigned by the White House, and in the group on taxes, led by Secretary Geithner and Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer, there were many senior politicians. According to my source, the voice that pushed back hardest against Geithner’s facilitator remarks was Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel. This points to the possibility that the young administration is not just troubled by the rascally GOP House, but also by the crafty lions on its own side. “Nancy Pelosi has a problem that Harry Raid does not,” it was explained to me. “The Black Caucus and the big guys like [Jim] Clyburn and [Charlie] Rangel. Rangel lectured Geithner. Afterward there was joking that Geithner looks like he takes a Razor Scooter to work.”
Asked about the president’s soaring approval ratings, the senior Republican said, “Yeah, he’s really popular, like in the '70s, but it’s his personal approval rating. On his handling of the economy, he’s down around 60 and sinking. That’s why we won’t attack him. We praise him. Bipartisan this and that, bipartisan anything. Go to the meetings, listen closely, shake hands. The president is a star. His financial team isn’t. And he knows it. When he protested that his stimulus bill was going to create all these green jobs, he was told back, what’s that do for a machinist in the UAW who just got his job yanked? And the president smiled and laughed sympathetically and said, ‘I was just joking with you.’”
I reminded my source that once upon a time in the Great Depression, during the very month of March of FDR’s inauguration in 1933, Hollywood produced a wonderful fairy tale called Gabriel Over the White House, in which a pleasant, back-slapping, nonconfrontational President Jasper Hammond, played by the vivacious Walter Huston, piles up his car in a joy ride, and while recovering from the accident is visited by the Archangel Gabriel, who inspires the president to lead without fear. The reawakened Jasper Hammond fires the hack Cabinet, discards Congress and the courts, and assumes dictatorial powers to confront a million-man unemployed army march on the Capitol, face down machine-gun-toting gangsters who attack the White House, and challenge the war-mongering nations who owe the US war debts. He is a wunderkind on the new medium of the national radio broadcast, and the people are inspired by him so much they regain their pride and promise.
“No, no, no, that ain’t Obama,” said my best GOP House source. “Inspiration is not what you hear from the president. The one thing that comes across from being in the chamber with him is, that the thing you felt with Clinton, it’s not there, there’s no magic. The Democrats don’t feel it and we sure don’t. The president didn’t earn what he’s got, and no one’s afraid of him… Dictatorial power? Fascist. That’ll be the day. No one's worried about what he’s going to do. People applaud. What’s it mean? ”
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
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I'm a registered Independent and I've voted both ways, but if this is how Republican leadership feels, they won't have to worry about my support for a long time. This is the most pathetic response to the President's speech that I've heard or read.
Not to sound cruel, but is there an overall point to this article? You seem to swing back and forth from one anti-Obama point to the next.
And that last paragraph and quote, sheesh. Not only does it sound like a petulant child waiting to get back at the kid who cut in front him in line, and not only does it make so little sense at to be nearly illegible, it's just wrong.
The president didn't earn what he's got? How about what most consider to be a mandate from voters and consistent polling that people not only approve of him personally, but also of the stimulus and the job he's doing. You can argue on specifics, but it's hard to argue with nearly every single poll known to man.
I don't even think his economic actions have been perfect, but you're not only ignoring the public mood (and the polls that consistently show it), you're misleading and distorting it.
I agree with Connie, if this is how the Republican leadership feels and how they see America, they won't have my (or a majority of people's) support in a long, long time.
This is a comedy piece, right?
Wow...that just seemed like the biggest garb of crap ive read in a while. Nice un-named sources talking big against the most highly approved president in recent memory. And what do you get for it? One argument that simply states: Job A is created and Job B is lost, and Obama, apparently flummoxed by this hard logic just smiles. You think i believe this load of crap? Obama is by far one of the most intelligent presidents we have had in years, you think he doesnt know whats going on with the economy? You think that if Obama supported MORE tax cuts then you would write a better column?
To the daily beast: find a better, less biased, columnist please. He is now on my non-read list.
I second that this rebuttal is full of pathetic rhetoric. If all the GOP wants to do is argue and scrap for power and call the President "socialist" and "facist" while he's trying his best to help us overcome the 8 years of neglect left by THEM. They so despise government that I offer that they take a break from government and leave it to someone who cares about it.
Obama is going out of his way to be gracious to these ingrates and, according to Mr. Batchelor, will eventually be punished for extending his hand. I, for one, thinks he should push his agenda more aggressively. He should let the GOP rebut, filibuster, and generally stand in the way of the progress most Americans want and need right now. Let them be the party of "no" and let them base their reelection campaigns on "no." Basically, let them dig their own graves.
My advice to the GOP: sit this one out.
When Obama had the nerve to say that there would be "no earmarks in the stimulus bill," I was stunned. Why does he keep lying? If he had to "pay to play" in order to get elected, why can't he just acknowledge that fact--or at the very least stop acting like we don't know what's going on?
Keep moving to the right Republicans. It pleases me so much to see you fade into irrelevance and obscurity.
Let the Republicans try to play hardball. The whole "weak" bit went out with the results of last year's Democratic primary. The American people believe in President Obama because he has earned our trust and confidence. And there is nothing Republicans can do to change that. Obama himself will ultimately be responsible for any lost confidence or trust. His results are the only thing that matter now. Politics is on pause...
Oh no! A long list of anonymous GOP sources has adopted Alfred E. Nueman's motto: "What, me worry?" You'd think that with all their confidence these "senior" Republicans would want to go on-the-record so that they can later say "I told you so."
Really, what did you expect? Their hubris (combined with the arrogance and ignorance of the neo-cons who were so thoroughly rejected in November) prevents them from admitting that it was precisely their ideas that got us into this mess. Did we really expect Hanity and Rush and all the rest of the boys to say "you know, the Lib has a couple good ideas there"?
Loyal opposition is one thing. But let's face it, the republicans are feeling very threatened right now, so some good old-fashioned bully bravado is just the ticket. Like a rabid animal backed into a corner they are in full fight-or-flight mode, cringing and viciously lashing out at the same time. Look at Bobby Jindal - exhibit A.
Listen to David Brooks at Huff Po and you'll see what sane republicans think.
The right wing of the republican party should be taken to a dog shelter and put down.
John Batchelor is smelling the stink of his own sweat.
Quit bitching, get some work done - I've been waiting my entire adult life for Washington to organize our country so we can progress but the only accomplishment that occurs is advancement for the DC hub.
It is time for term limits. States should sponsor the reps by providing housing too. A few simple changes and the ridiculous game playing at our expense would end. While we're "cleaning up" banking, why not DC?
Batchelor, what you're smelling is your own FEAR! Fear that the plan will work and then you guys are even more screwed then you are now, and Souther Swamps, which is the only place in the country where you are still relevant.
This whole thing is wishful thinking. Obama is a formidable opponent and they don't know what to do. I heard that only 10% of a polling group liked the tax cut for business talk. Americans not only want, but expect, government to step up. This leaves the republicans with nothing to offer.
This stuff is senseless nonsense. I just see the GOP being completely out of touch with reality. If they think the American people are going to sit around while a handful of power hungry politicians bicker about 1 % of the stimulus package- lordy. Get to work , everyone up there. We need more representation of the people, not the power.
Sahas24
When Obama had the nerve to say that there would be "no earmarks in the stimulus bill," I was stunned. Why does he keep lying? If he had to "pay to play" in order to get elected, why can't he just acknowledge that fact--or at the very least stop acting like we don't know what's going on?
You should probably look up the definition of 'earmark'. There were none.
fraking idiots
Oh yea....poor little Obama is cowering on the floor before the massed financial intellects of Boehner, El Rushbo and Cantor. Meanwhile back at the ranch financial and economic neophytes Larry Summers, Sheila Bair, Tim Geithner, Romer, Orzag, are still looking for their calculators. Personally I believe the aforementioned Boner, Rushbo and Cantor would have a hard time telling you the difference between a CDS and a CDO....as would most American experts in the media on this crisis. I'd love to know who the senior house Republican was....Darrell Issa. This is hilarious.
"Inspiration is not what you hear from the president."
Is this guy living on the same planet as the rest of us? Probably the same planet where monitoring volcanoes is a waste of money....
Sweet jeebus.
I'm disappointed in this article--it presents its own argument as fact. There's no evidence to support it. It's just more obtuse and irrelevant Republican rant, twisting of facts, and misunderstanding of events.
So let me get this straight. The GOP's strategy is just to wait for O to fail, without offering up any solutions of their own? fiddle while Rome burns.. incredible
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The phrase is "rearing up to fight" (as a horse or other four-legged animal might). Rarin(g) up to fight is hillbilly talk.
"... the senior Republican said, "Yeah, he's really popular, like in the 70s, but it's his personal approval rating. On his handling of the economy, he's down around 60 ..."
Oh, that must be the same 60% approval rating that, when applied to GOP darling Sarah Palin, indicates her formidable popularity with Alaskan voters.
Oh, no, sorry - it's the 60% that when remarked upon by 'senior Republicans' with respect to a Democratic President, of course means he's hated by virtually every American.
Sheesh. This Batchelor guy and everyone he quotes is just too venal for words.
The GOP can go to hell and eat s*** if this is the attitude they perpetuate.
The entire country, better yet, the world is in debt and this is what they think. Dumb! But yet and still Bush was a great President. Idiots. Keep talking Republicans because the general populace is like the Federal Reserve...losing interest.
Thank you.
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