Republicans Smacked Down By President Obama

I think the stunning arrogance of the Republicans, who have been reading their own talking points far too much, came back to bite them in the ass in Baltimore last week. The Republicans welcomed President Obama to their annual retreat last week in Baltimore (maybe with the thought they could make him look bad on national television). It was a big mistake. One has to imagine the Republicans never knew what hit them by the time everything was said, done and written (unless you watch Fox News which still tried to spin it negatively for the president). President Obama went onto Republican turf, handled all the partisan attacks, misleading information, fear mongering and falsehoods with dignity, class and intelligence.

With relative ease, the president smacked down most, if not all, of the Republican falsehoods and misleading attacks with charm, poise and intelligence. In all honesty, President Obama made the Republicans looked like a bunch of angry obstructionists using fear, misleading information, false information and hatred as weapons of attack. The president came off looking like a good guy trying to do the right thing while the Republicans came off looking angry and politically hateful.

This is from Think Progress:

House Republicans were fired up and ready to go for their conversation with President Obama at their annual retreat today. According to the New York Times, members of the conservative Republican House Conference said they were “itching to quiz the president and present their policy ideas rather than listen to another lofty presidential address.” Although such sessions generally occur behind closed doors, Republicans agreed to open it up after the White House said it was willing to do so. However, after Obama’s strong performance, some Republicans are now regretting that decision. As Luke Russert reported on MSNBC:

RUSSERT: Tom Cole — former head of the NRCC, congressman from Oklahoma — said, “He scored many points. He did really well.” Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day. In essence, it was almost like a debate where he was front and center for the majority of it. … One Republican said to me, off the record, behind closed doors: “It was a mistake that we allowed the cameras to roll like that. We should not have done that.”

Here is the bottom line: The Republicans believed all of that garbage about teleprompters and questioned the president’s intelligence. They underestimated him (mainly his intelligence) and ended up looking REALLY bad as  he handled all of their questions and attacks as if he knew what they were going to say (because he did know what they were going to say).

President Obama was right about how vulnerable these Republicans become with their own base because of how hateful the rhetoric from the far right has become. He turned on the charm and used reason to expose the anger of the far right in attacking his administration. As the president asked how can the far right work with the president when they’re buying into (initiating or advancing) the garbage that he is a fascist, a socialist, he’s trying to harm old people, he is trying to take over government and so on and so forth? They can’t unless they are willing to risk the wrath of people who hated Barack Obama from the moment they first saw him.

But, back to my main point: Republicans made a mistake.

They underestimated Barack Obama and he made them look really bad on a national stage (unless you watch Fox News in which case you would not have seen the entire exchange as they turned away to begin bashing him with right-wing talking points … disguised as fair and balanced).

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/29/russert-gop-obama/
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/29/obama-gop-retreat/

Sarah Palin Quits As Alaska Governor

Sarah Palin quitting as governor of Alaska is probably not a really big surprise. The timing, however, is a little surprising to me.

Think Progress reads:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) announced this morning from her home in Wasilla that she will not be seeking re-election and that she will be stepping down in a few weeks. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated as Alaska’s governor on July 25.

So, there are some questions we’re left to ponder: 1. Is Sarah Palin gearing up to make a run for the presidency in 2012? 2. Is there some scandal forcing her out? 3. Is she simply tired of politics and the media? Time will answer those questions and others. Indeed, there are probably a lot more questions, but those are some that come to mind at first thought.

Here’s another question: Is Palin a serious candidate for the presidency?

Personally, I just can’t see how she can be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Republicans would be unbelievably stupid to nominate her for the presidency in 2012 (unless they want to put her up as a sacrificial lamb thinking President Obama could be unbeatable).

This is from Fox News right-wing (I know, it’s kind of redundant)contributor Charles Krauthammer as quoted by POLITICO:

Now, as to Palin, I agree entirely with what Mara said. She is — she has star power without any doubt. She has an extremely devoted following. But she is not a serious candidate for the presidency. 

She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn’t. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes. It won’t work. 

It could work for eight weeks if you’re the number two candidate, as she was last year. But even so, she got singed a lot in that campaign. You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you’re running for the presidency.

Palin can’t be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidency. If she was even going to attempt to be taken more seriously she would be better advised to take on a role as a senator or congresswoman. She was severely lacking on the national stage beyond one-dimensional popularity among hardcore right wingers who were pleased to see someone other than an old white guy become popular with the big “R” by their name.

Sarah Palin went out on the Alaskan stage the way she stepped onto (and off of) the national stage: Crying relentlessly about the media (an easy target), singing her own praises (the ones she could muster) and vomiting one-dimensional Republican talking points.

Palin would be best served to go home and chill out since “only dead fish go with the flow.”

It’s better than sleeping with the political fishes in 2012.

Is All The Teleprompter Talk About President Obama Simply Disguised Racism?

Like many people, I find it reasonable to have a little chuckle now and again when politicians stumble over their words or lose their space in a speech. Sometimes it is funny. Other times (most of the time) I find it little more than just simple human error in a pressure-packed situation.

Now, as many of you are well aware, a lot of people have taken shots at President Obama over and over again for his use of the much-talked-about Teleprompter (as if no other politician has ever used one).

Consider this exchange between White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and reporter Lois Romano:

MS. ROMANO: The teleprompter changed last night.

MR. GIBBS: Mm-hmm.

MS. ROMANO: What was that about that? It’s a big jumbotron now.

MR. GIBBS: You know can, I tell you this?

MS. ROMANO: Yes.

MR. GIBBS: I am absolutely amazed that anybody in America cares about who the President picks at a news conference or the mechanism by which he reads his prepared remarks. You know, I guess America is a wonderful country.

MS. ROMANO: You’re saying this is all Washington Beltway stuff?

MR. GIBBS: I don’t even know if it’s that. I don’t think I should implicate the many people that live in Washington.

MR. GIBBS: No, I you know, I don’t think the President … let me just say this: My historical research has demonstrated that the President is not the first to use prepared remarks nor the first to use a teleprompter.

I know that last statement from Gibbs will be shocking to so many people who have swallowed (whole) the far-right and anti-Obama talking points about the use of the Teleprompter. They must be thinking, “he can’t be smart … he has to be cheating somehow.” OK, I realize Barack Obama is considered the first black president of the United States of America. But, I can tell you this, he certainly is not the first president to make use of a Teleprompter or the first to make use of prepared speeches or statements. You know, there’s this profession some of you may have heard of, it’s called: presidential speechwriter.

Here are some famous speechwriters for famous people from Wikipedia:

• Judson T. Welliver wrote for President Calvin Coolidge and is considered the first official presidential speechwriter. However Alexander Hamilton may have written speeches for George Washington.^{[citation needed]}
• Theodore “Ted” Sorenson wrote for President John F. Kennedy.
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. wrote for President John F. Kennedy.
• Richard N. Goodwin wrote for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Pat Buchanan wrote for President Richard Nixon.
• Ben Stein wrote for President Richard Nixon.
• William Safire wrote for President Richard Nixon.
• Robert Hartmann wrote for President Gerald R. Ford.
• Chris Matthews wrote for President Jimmy Carter.
• James Fallows wrote for President Jimmy Carter.^[2]
• Peggy Noonan wrote for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
• Christopher Buckley for Presidents George H.W. Bush.
• Michael Waldman wrote for President Bill Clinton.
• David Frum wrote for President George W. Bush.
• Michael Gerson wrote for President George W. Bush.
• William McGurn (former Wall Street Journal editorial writer) replaced Michael Gerson recently as chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
• Jon Favreau has been named Director of Speechwriting for the administration of President Barack Obama.

Now, keep in mind, this is merely a partial list from a quick Internet search. Yet, people act as if President Obama is the first president in history to have prepared remarks, to read from a Teleprompter, or to read off a piece of paper. This, to me, is an orchestrated effort on the part of some people in the media to try and portray the president as less intelligent than he really is. It’s an effort to portray the president as some kind of puppet who is not really smart, but has to be guided by others around him because he is not capable of being as smart as we’ve all seen him to be with our own eyes and heard him to be with our own ears. Many people have fallen for the right-wing propaganda that could be based on a crusty foundation of racism. Why are we just now talking about President Obama reading prepared statements or reading from a Teleprompter? He’s not the first. Lets add another first to President Obama’s record. In addition to being this nation’s first black president, he also may be the first president so roundly criticized and ridiculed for something so weak – something numerous previous presidents and other politicians have done for centuries without so much as a peep from critics.

It makes me wonder why.

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/27/gibbs-pushes-back-on-tele_n_180209.html

Fox News’ Chris Wallace Strengthens His Conservative Credentials

Here is Chris Wallace opening Fox News Sunday in a way that will strengthen his conservative credentials. Wallace, who has been known to regurgitate Republican talking points to attack liberals, may have been doing just that with a line he used on Sunday.

WALLACE: Uncle Sam wants you driving one of his cars, writing checks at one of his banks, and using his health insurance. Are we saving the economy or headed toward socialism?

That is right from the Republican playbook (a book I am sure Wallace knows cover to cover).

Here is an interesting response from John Amato:

I’d like to remind Chris Wallace that Uncle Sam under George Bush gave us terrorist attacks, two wars, torture, illegal wiretapping, a stock market crash and almost destroyed the world’s global financial markets and much much more in eight years. I could think of many more, but you get the idea.

Crooks and Liars:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/chris-wallace-opens-fox-news-sunday-asking