I am watching Obama speak - right now

[Maggie]

I don't care if you hail from the left or right - he is lying. God help me if he is re-elcteed - I will turn off the national earphone and pray.

[ABC]

He is getting worse and worse.

I think he is also huring his cause.

[WuDrWu]

If I hadn't seen it before, my jaw would have fallen off.

Blatant lies. Scoldings...fear mongering.....lies, lies, and more lies.


Another embarrassing day for our federal government. I almost think Larry O'Donnell is less condescending. Almost.


My father, a conservative who, in a state of old school practicality, believes he, for one, should pay more in taxes (at least right now) was watching with me....shaking his head in total disbelief.

[SB Shock]

I think that democrats strategy is to not accept anything but a total cave-in by the Republicans. They have no plans for bipartisan deal/solution. They think if they accept nothing, offer no plan or deal and wait to the deadline that the Republicans will have to accept any plan.

I say call their bluff - if a train wreck happens so be it. The country elected these idiots so it time to reap what we have sown. Elections have consequences. I have faith in the Lord that I will do fine regardless.

[ISASO]

Didn't Japan default a few years ago and nothing happened? This is a rare opportunity to change the trajectory of the government power drunkenness, so let's not waste it. If we don't acheive some meaningful change this time, we probably never will.

[shockall]

Two more bumper sticker ideas came to mind during his sppech tonight..

Buck Farack

Opeach Imbama

[Maggie]

I didn’t watch the president’s address live last night (I value my sanity and my wife wanted to watch Season Two of The Wire – good show BTW; not as good as Homicide, but good), but before reading it I did take a look at the reaction, and there was a stunning lack of intensity in the response to it.

Many pundits have made the point that President Obama has effectively sidelined himself in this debate. He no longer matters. Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress effectively sent him to his room for a “timeout” (I don’t have children – isn’t that what some parents do when their kids get out of hand?). I think that point of view is slightly off-base – he is the President so he still “matters” but I also think he has marginalized himself. Not a brilliant negotiating strategy.

After reading the speech, I understand why there was a collective yawn. It wasn’t just a bad speech. It was a glaringly ineffectual speech. And it adds to a growing impression of the Obama White House that threatens the President’s reelection chances now more than anything else: The impression that he simply doesn’t know what he’s doing. In 2012, President Obama is going to be judged on the practical results of his policies. Right now that’s not looking too good for him. And one gets the sense that, in response, he and his team are improvising wildly, looking for political advantage. The problem with political improvisation is that it only works well when your instincts on how to sell the public on what you’re pitching are sound.

It is not a sound strategy for a president to deliver a speech bemoaning the chaos in the Washington over which he presides; such a speech is practically an open admission of impotence. Even people who believe every word he says about everything being the fault of the GOP can hardly think he’s come up with a message on the debt ceiling that has changed the course of the debate in his favor. Democrats have great cause for worry if this is the way he handles things in 2012.

[WuDrWu]

His comments yesterday at La Raza were also troubling, but not near as troubling as the audience's response to Obama hinting that he could make all the decisions on his own and bypass Congress.

His inability to effectively lead this country is surpassed only by his arrogance.