The President Negotiates With Himself - (AGAIN _B USA)

[Bill USA]

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/the-president-negotiates-with-himself/

We have seen this so many times in the past four years that I certainly hope President Obama is not falling for it again.

Take a problem, any problem—economic meltdown, debt ceiling, rising deficits, you name it—which Republicans and Democrats are supposed to resolve through negotiation. Mr. Obama says he is ready to talk, and makes an initial offer that includes concessions to right-wing demands. Then he offers more concessions.

Republicans also claim they’re ready to talk, and maybe in private they offer compromises (like we’re told John Boehner did over the debt ceiling in 2011). But in public they stand firm on their positions, stick to their rhetorical talking points and brush back whatever the president suggests as not enough.

[font size="+1"]Eventually they meet somewhere around the president’s 20-yard line.[/font]

It’s happening again, right now, in the fiscal cliff talks.

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[demokatgurrl]

1. Yes it is. I am almost getting used to it. nt

[Myrina]

2. I hate to say it but why do we think he's "caving"?

Maybe the positions he ends up taking are the positions he's wanted all along. IE - he's really not a Liberal, he just plays one on TV.

He said himself that he'd be considered a 'moderate republican' by 1980's standards ...

[Bill USA]

3. well, yes, you are right. It's just that a number of us still hold to the quaint notion that if he

said he wanted to be the leader of the Democrats, that that sort of - or should have - obligated him to BE a Democrat. I know, by now, we should have given up hope. But, well, I guess some of us can't help but keep hoping -- against hope it seems(sigh).

[Janspece]

4. Hold Your Water Mr. President

[stuffmatters]

5. Why don't the Dems get a Voice at the Table

Last edited Thu Dec 20, 2012, 03:02 AM - Edit history (1)

Obama is offering cuts to social security contrary to his campaign's and Biden's promise that Soc Sec "will flat out" not be on the table.
He's waffled around about the unimaginably cruel raising the medicare age. Now he's conceding the Bush tax cuts up to 400,000 after we voted for him based on 250,000. And he's talking about capping deductions at 26% of people's income, which would brutally decrease middle class parent/homeowners deductions, instead of giving everybody a flat ex 50,000 deduction.

This is not a Democrat bargaining with Boehner. We do not have anyone representing us. Obama has alreeady negotiated away the Democratic position with himself (and WAll Strrets Corporatists and Geithner) Somehow he's decided that he's reprenting them not us now. No one is protecting the middle class. Or representing the Democratic platform we just voted for.
Can we please have Obama replaced by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or Russ Feingold or Sherrod Brown?

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Obama & Bohner: