The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Radio silence

Re: Radio silence

dkan71 — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:57:58 -0000

Give 'em hell Barack!!!

Re: Radio silence

gwangung — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:17:35 -0000

Lindsay Grahm, while being interviewed by Chris Mathews last night on MSNBC, said that the Republicans will not be "intimidated" by Obama. Huh?

Mr. Grahm, Obama led an election tidal wave that pretty much swamped McCain and an election landslide that pretty much buried Republican Congressional candidates.

Why AREN'T you intimidated by that? Y'all just stupid?

Re: Radio silence

mistress_scorpio — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:30:24 -0000

Feel better TNC!

Enjoy this in the meantime:

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-this.aspx

Re: Radio silence

storm — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:02:15 -0000

Lindsay Grahm, while being interviewed by Chris Mathews last night on MSNBC, said that the Republicans will not be "intimidated" by Obama. Huh? Am I sensing some angry-black man stereotypical rhetoric being unleashed against Obama by the Reps?

Re: Radio silence

Paula — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:00:49 -0000

I should set up a blog documenting all Obamasnark(TM). It's embarrassing to admit that this may be all the reason I needed to finally decide to vote for the guy. Gonna be an entertaining 4 years.

Re: Radio silence

deva — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:33:13 -0000

I missed this Obama. I was so pleased to watch him let 'em have it last night.

It's important for him to make everyone remember that he's not just a mild mannered, post-partisan professor, but also a died in the wool organizer and once in a generation orator. It was time for a little flossing.

Hope you feel better soon TNC!

Re: Radio silence

wiredog — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:49:24 -0000

Look on the bright side. Friend of mine came back from Dominican Republic with cholera. Turns out the cholera weight loss program is pretty effective.

So you've got that going for you.

Re: Radio silence

Randy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:53:36 -0000

Tel @ 11:25 gets it. I find it amazing that so many people still don't understand Obama's method after watching him for the past couple of years. It's called, "Give 'em enough rope." Either that or rope-a dope. He's very consistent. He let's his opponents undermine themselves.

Re: Radio silence

Tel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:42:01 -0000

CitizenE, I'd say he's going for the verse right before that one -

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

Re: Radio silence

KarenZ — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:03:04 -0000

T-NC: Take care and feel better. You don't want to miss a minute of the Pro Bowl, do you?

Re: Radio silence

Ivan Ivanovich Renko — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:49:04 -0000

Message to Republicans: "Better get on the bus, boys, or you're gonna get run over by it."

Re: Radio silence

CitizenE — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:58:22 -0000

He has to continue to take it to the people. The Republicans and conservatives need to own their failure and begin to lend a hand here. It's one thing to tweak something, but the Republicans are rapidly becoming the do nothing party.

Obama is being partisan? What would an employer say to a worker in a garage, who kept another worker from fixing an engine that was brought in for repair? The Republican party--the party of "we can't." What a bunch of whiners.

The Republicans and conservatives who have looked down their noses and excluded the left from every discussion, dismissing it with a haughtiness and hubris that is the stuff a great falls, are lucky to have a President from the other side of the aisle so willing to still listen to their counsel after their abysmal showing for the past 8 years. Get out of the way if you can't lend a hand, busters; the times, they are a changing.

Re: Radio silence

Pesto — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:54:03 -0000

2 reactions to this speech:

1) I've mentioned for a number of weeks that Obama's bipartisanship strategy might be aimed directly at Congressional Dems: he needs to be able to lead them, and making a big gesture of working with the GOP could make the Congressional Dems more willing to follow him into a fight. This speech reinforces my inference about Obama's strategy.

2) It's all well and good to give this speech -- and for the audience to cheer it -- but there needs to be a strategic plan to follow and a willingness to engage in and win a fight behind it. It's no good giving a speech about heading to the barricades if you're not willing to fight. And my guess is that any plan or willingness to fight is going to have to come from a combination of the Obama Administration and the small rump of populists in the Dem caucus.

Re: Radio silence

AfroVII — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:45:35 -0000

I love that he watched 'The Wire' nice reference to the bowl of deficit waiting for him. Reminded me of Carccetti.

He needed a wake up call, the Republicans are like wounded animals right now and they have the bit between their teeth and they unwilling to let go. Maybe now O can let go of all this Bi-partisan kumbaya nonsense and do what needs to be done.

Re: Radio silence

Tel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:25:43 -0000

"Being nice to the Republicans isn't going to persuade them to vote for a package that they don't like.

That said, I'm not sure what will. If they haven't gotten the message that tax cuts don't stimulate the economy after the last eight years, they aren't going to just take Obama's word for it."

I don't think Obama's aiming for the Republicans in Congress. I think he's aiming for the 30-40% of voters who aren't registered Democrats or Republicans. He keeps it cool, makes like he wants to compromise, even gives in to a few of their demands - and some of those demands actually will make it a better bill. After that, they're boxed in. Either the Republicans vote against it and look like a bunch of partisans who won't compromise even when they get what they want; or they vote for it and the Democrats are insulated against later blame if things go haywire anyway.

Re: Radio silence

SeanH — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:22:34 -0000

Ugh. Relax and get well, dude. Toss us a NFL draft/free agency thread and most of us will be happy all day.

Re: Radio silence

Persia — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:21:33 -0000

It's nice to see people called out on their bullshit, isn't it?

And feel better.

Re: Radio silence

Amari — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:16:22 -0000

I'm just glad Obama's helping the Dems -- finally -- to grow a pair of big brass ones.

Re: Radio silence

LH — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:52:47 -0000

I think Obama is right to present his case in this manner. Being nice to the Republicans isn't going to persuade them to vote for a package that they don't like.

That said, I'm not sure what will. If they haven't gotten the message that tax cuts don't stimulate the economy after the last eight years, they aren't going to just take Obama's word for it.

Re: Radio silence

Antoine Larotre — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:27:07 -0000

Love him when he go angry! Barack Hussein was going at it, and it was great. He needs to let them(repubs and media) know that he is in charge. Forget the "bipartisnaship" crap. You were elected by the american people as their leader, show the repubs who's the boss.

Re: Radio silence

sansouci — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:12:31 -0000

I can't believe that Obama was under any illusions about House and Senate Republicans. I think his calls for bi-partisanship were sincere but baited. He gave them enough rope to hang themselves. As he twists the rope (last night's speech to House Dems and the network interviews) they yell he didn't talk to them and nobody but the idiotic Limbaugh listeners believes them. Touche Obama. After seeing him put in work in the primary and general elections, you wonder who do the Republicans think they are f*****' with?

Re: Radio silence

Jingo Killah — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:06:24 -0000

I think the Republicans WILL take very specific lines in this speech very personally - a Repub strategist on Campbell Brown last night called it spiteful, sarcastic and partisan.

CNN singled out the line about 'stimulus vs spending' and Obama's response - "What do you think a stimulus is?" They called this sarcasm. In actuality it is not sarcasm. It is a rebuke. They're being told in direct, unambiguous terms that they're wrong. They're avoiding a reckoning by calling it things like sarcasm or spite.

Re: Radio silence

BabylonSista — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:01:53 -0000

"This deficit was here when I got here." Tell 'em why you mad, 'Rack.

Re: Radio silence

Pesto — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:00:05 -0000

About that stomach thing, Ta-Nehisi, I don't wanna go all Dr. Bill Frist on you, but you might want to call your doctor to tell them about your symptoms. I heard a report this morning about a shigella outbreak in Philly (shigellosis is the nice name for dysentery). My daughter caught this when she was in preschool 4 or 5 years ago and it was nasty (also inconvenient -- the Dept of Health made us keep her out of preschool for 2 weeks!). If it is shigellosis, it's definitely treatable with meds, and it's also really, really communicable if it's untreated.

Re: Radio silence

John — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:49:37 -0000

This is the best of Obama.

Because he's not being insulting - he's just calling them out. He's saying "Look at these people; they are clearly not serious about anything."

And because he's not being flatly insulting, and is instead just pointing out in plain language what the Republicans are doing, it will be difficult for the GOP to sell being offended. I suspect they will try, and then realize Obama's neatly locked them into a corner:

First, he made clear and honest adjustments to the bill in a bipartisan spirit.

When the GOP smelled blood, they pounced. Glutted, they strutted around preening.

And now, having constructed a false narrative (their favorite activity) of Obama being partisan, they are being forced by his straightforward challenge to moderate their tone or appear obstructionist.