Obama’s fight: ‘Go big or go home’

[Mr Deltoid]

By Jonathan Capehart

From just about every corner of the Democratic Party’s big tent, the complaints about President Obama are uniform. His administration is following the agenda of Tea Party freshmen in Congress. And he keeps getting rolled by those same Republicans as he searches for compromise on their terms. As Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said at a Congressional Black Caucus town hall forum in Detroit this month, “We’re getting tired, y’all.” But if you listen to the president lately, things appear to be changing. There’s fight in his voice. The only question is: Will he follow through? This time I think Obama will.

Everyone wants Obama to fight.

“Sometimes he needs to put his foot down and not be the nice guy,” Democrat Kathleen Salak, 44, of Omaha, Neb., said to Associated Press pollsters.

“Almost every African-American person I spoke to said he needs to fight, and fight harder,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union a few Sundays ago.

“We want the president to fight harder,”Teamsters union president James Hoffa Jr., told me on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last week. “He’s got to draw a line in the sand. He can’t get rolled over again.”



But if you notice in the chart, everyone wants the president to stand up more to congressional Republicans. And if you’ve been paying attention lately, Obama appears to be getting ready to do just that.


August 15: Cannon Falls, Minn.

What is needed is action on the part of Congress, a willingness to put the partisan games aside and say, we’re going to do what’s right for the country, not what we think is going to score some political points for the next election. (Applause.)

August 16: Peosta, Iowa

The only thing that is holding us back is our politics. The only thing that’s preventing us from passing the bills I just mentioned is the refusal of a faction in Congress to put country ahead of party. And that has to stop. Our economy cannot afford it. (Applause.) So I don’t care whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, independent, if you’re not registered with any party. I want to enlist your help. I need your help sending a message to Congress that it’s time to put the politics aside and get something done.

August 17: Atkinson, Illinois

I need you to send a message to folks in Washington: Stop drawing lines in the sand; stop engaging in rhetoric instead of actually getting things done. It’s time to put country ahead of party; it’s time to worry more about the next generation than the next election. (Applause.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/obamas-fight-go-big-or-go-home/2011/03/04/gIQAd7OBsJ_blog.html

Is Obama turning a corner here? I have my fingers crossed!

[Democat]

1. Timing

Was this published before or after he caved in and changed the date of his jobs speech.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. LOL, perfect question

which also says a lot about how we got to this place originally.

[dgibby]

6. Before,

according to the time/date at the link.

[tularetom]

3. I hope he is too but even the clips in the link show part of the problem

He keeps referring to "Congress" as the fly in the oatmeal. He knows perfectly well that "Congress" isn't the problem, it is "congressional republicans". So why the hell does he keep referring to congress? Because he still believes in his goddamn "bipartisanship".

He needs to know that if things continue to turn to shit, he'll be the one that gets blamed for it. And his opponents are sure as hell not going to be "bipartisan" about pointing fingers.

If he's gonna pick a fight, he needs to at least point out who the douchebags are.

Otherwise he's still fighting with one hand tied behind his back.

[MrTriumph]

4. The president has made himself irrelevant (it is a nice word for loser).

x

[Enrique]

5. i'm interested in the republicans that want him to fight the GOP more

what's up with that?