There he goes again. Obama just can’t seem to help himself. He just has to blame Republicans.
What happened to no blue states or red states? What happened to post-partisan? What about the guy who was “trying to break is a pattern in Washington where everybody is always looking for somebody else to blame“?
He’s not breaking the old pattern; he’s forging it anew and stronger than ever. In announcing yesterday 15 recess appointees, the president blamed Republicans:
But, if in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions… I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.
Why does he have to politicize? Why can’t he just announce the appointments without uttering such partisan recrimination?
It’s as if he’s still on the campaign trail.
Because then you’d accuse him of just ignoring the Republicans and not wanting any public attention drawn to a “partisan nominee” whose appoint is just a “clear payback” to organized labor (as John McCain did say).
I do think Barack Obama was naive when starting in this endeavour, as was I. We both thought the Republicans were reasonable at heart and getting their suggestions on legislation would make it more bipartisan and better than it would’ve otherwise been. A year later, the healthcare bill ends up weaker and worse than anyone wanted it to be, with more than 200 Republican amendments in it, and every single Republican is still against it.
So yes. Barack Obama thought it was possible to work with the Republicans, but found that no matter what he does, he’s still a Democratic president, and will still get exactly the same attacks. So figuring he would be attacked either way, he finally went on the offensive too, which seems to be the only tactic that can get anything done these days.
How do you know what we’d have done if he’d acted differently, Serenity?
To address you point unrelated to the post–If Obama thought it was possible to work with Republicans, he wouldn’t have delegated the drafting of the “stimulus” and health care to the most partisan Democrats. That was all window-dressing.
Obama promised us he’d be better than the partisanship you ascribe to Republicans. He didn’t need to blame Republicans. He could have used made the appointments and moved on.
Well he blames the GOP because he has to have an excuse for why he made the appointments when he thought they were so awful when Bush did them. Wonder if the mean old republicans were to blame for Bush’s recess appointments too, since the democrats are all nice and cooperative and all that?
Honestly this is really ridiculous. Recess appointments are constitutional and presidents have used them forever.
I can’t say are particularly thought them horrible in the past, and I don’t find them particularly horrible now, but Obama is well on record condemning them, so he had to blame somebody and the GOP was his target-although he probably would much rather blame Bush since that seems to be his favorite excuse.
And here I thought you’d be the ONE liberal who would provide a list of each and every one of those “200 Republican amendments”. As usual, I got my hopes up only to be let down by a liberal tool.
How do you know what we’d have done if he’d acted differently, Serenity?
To address you point unrelated to the post–If Obama thought it was possible to work with Republicans, he wouldn’t have delegated the drafting of the “stimulus” and health care to the most partisan Democrats. That was all window-dressing.
The partisan Democrats were more shut out of the process than the conservative Democrats. I know this because I am a fan of the partisan Democrats and I know that most of their ideas were gutted in favor of things like tax cuts. It wasn’t window-dressing at all, and Republicans and conservative Democrats had a huge influence on the final contents of the stimulus bill.
This is also true as it pertains to health care. The partisan Democratic faction wanted single-payer, they wanted public option, they wanted Medicare expansion, and none of those things were included. Those ideas did not get nearly as much attention as the Stupak amendment.
GayPatriotWest, you do not know what you’re talking about. The process Obama and the Democrats have used over their first year has been nothing but inviting and friendly to the Republicans, at every turn, Obama has sought their input, and at every turn, he has accommodated their ideas into his policies. Just look at his foreign policy – he’s committed more troops to Afghanistan and is largely keeping in place many of George Bush’s detention policies while promising over and over again to not investigate the previous administration’s wrongdoing. Now, given that almost everyone around the world believes that George Bush committed a number of war crimes and human rights violations, I would say that the guy who is preventing investigation and prosecution is being pretty damn cordial to the Republican party, wouldn’t you say?
Obama promised us he’d be better than the partisanship you ascribe to Republicans. He didn’t need to blame Republicans. He could have used made the appointments and moved on.
Bipartisanship is a two way street. You have to be just so totally disingenuous to believe that the Republicans have tried harder than Obama to be bipartisan. For the amount of seats that they control, the Republicans could have easily been steamrolled by any committed partisan (that’s certainly the way that I would have handled them), and you’re just a crazy person if you think that is what has happened. Obama does far more to court conservative Democrats and Republicans than he does progressives and liberals.
Levi, you don’t know what you’re talking about; I have long since stopped using the moniker GayPatriotwest. As to the rest of your comment, well, it has a much basis in reality as poll numbers indicating the popularity of Obamacare.
Blame the Republicans? It’s the Chicago style of politics…just Mother’s milk to impressionable politicians-on-the-make like Obama and Rahm. Chicago Bipartisanship is, “…well, some if MY votes were also on those voting machines on the bottom of the Chicago River.“
Because he is an abject failure. He tore the country apart passing his number one agenda item, and he is more unpopular than ever because of it. He has destroyed everything he has touched and like the coward that he is, needs someone else to blame. Not to mention he needs to distract from the outright corruption of the appointments.
It’s very telling that the only “bipartisan” thing Congress has done since Obama was inaugurated is three-quarters of them signing a letter to Hillary expressing dismay about Obama’s recent tantrum and shameful treatment of Netanyahu. Apparently, one thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on is that the “highly publicized tensions” caused by Obama “will not advance the interests the US and Israel share.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171945
Obama apparently thinks he can engineer peace in the region by publicly bullying and scolding Israel, but that will do the opposite. If Hamas thinks the US is wavering in its support of Israel, it will embolden the Palestinians to ramp up the aggression since their objective is dead Jews, not peace.
Maybe Obama is thinking that Iran will get a warhead up and running and shortly thereafter the issue will be “moot.” Then Obama can finally focus on the real threat to national security–climate change.
Obama met with Republicans at the start of his administration in either January and February 2009. At the end of the meeting he said to them “I won”.
That said, why should Republicans work with him?
If he’s so damn great, Levi, why does he blame Bush for his failures and the failures of liberalism? And bipartisanship is a two-way street, but you can’t shut them out of meetings and only appear with them once a year and call it bipartisan.
Serenity, last time I checked the Democrats have 59 votes in the Senate. FIFTY-NINE. Obama’s blaming the Republicans for why he had to make recess appointments isn’t just absurd, it’s asinine to boot. Even if a Republican put a “hold” on a nominee the Democrats have enough muscle in the Senate to force a vote and confirm whomever the hell they wish regardless of what the GOP desires. The problem is not the GOP but instead a feckless and incompetent Democrat Party that cannot seem to do crap without whining about the minority of Republicans in Congress.
Oh one more thing, remember this talk of yours about “bipartisanship” when the GOP takes back one or both Houses of Congress this November…
This is beyond naive. It is political idiocy.
Obama did not get the health care he would have liked. Why? Because his own party fought him. The Republicans would have ripped even more out of the deficit growing, economy wrecking leviathan had they had greater power.
Bipartisanship is a process of compromise. “I won” is obvious in this process, but it does not automatically mean the opposition must compromise its principles.
The whole quote is a deep sigh over the disappointment that the Messiah has not broken out of the bush leagues.
What the Democrats have succeeded in doing is showing that the fringe leftists were successful at sticking it to the country. Forget bipartisanship now. The leftists have made their bed and now they get the opportunity to bring the country around entirely on their own. November 2010 will show how well they are doing.
Obama reached out, alright. He started with his middle finger. Every President “inherits” what he gets. It isn’t personal. It is where the President rolls up his sleeves and takes on life in the most powerful office in the world.
Obama chose to fly around the world whining and blaming and promising hope and change. Hallmark Cards could have done better for a lot cheaper.
And the administration’s hatred of free people continues.
Even if there were ‘200 republican amendments’ at the markup in the House and/or Senate, they were all stipped out by the Democrap leadership for the final bills. So the ‘bipartisanship’ was just a sham for the liberal democrap leadership to vaporize the original bills and substitute their preferences.
As for the recess appointments, when the republicans get back in power, they should do immediately what the democraps did under Bush, no adjournments that would allow any more recess appointments for Obama; defunding the staff of each recess appointee immediately (i doubt one could defund the salaries of these appointees, but their staffs would be fair game); defund the enforcement of all policies enacted by these recess appointees; hold hearings and call these persons to testify before Congress under oath.
No, dummy, all you need to be able to do is COUNT.
ZERO Republicans supported Obamacare, DOZENS of Democrats opposed it.
Over 300 congressmen signed a bipartisan letter scolding Obamas handling of foreign policy, namely relations with Israel.
On issue after issue after issue, as with everything Obama has done, the only bipartisan agreement has been OPPOSING his agenda.