Obama has dinner with George Will and the 'Gang that couldn't shoot straight.'
By John Amato Wednesday Jan 14, 2009 12:45pmI'm working on a new blues tune. It's called "I've Got the Bi-Partisan Blues." I know all about the keep your enemies close bit from the Godfather, but how does this actually help Obama?
The president-elect tonight is having dinner with some ideological adversaries: four of the most widely-read conservative columnists.
I remember when we were up in arms because George Bush invited the right wing radio buffoons at his place once again.
For the second year in a row, President Bush called some of his closest radio friends to the White House for an off-the-record briefing and discussion.
Mark Levin and Sean Hannity of WABC (770 AM) were among the 10 conservative talk-radio hosts who met with Bush in the West Wing yesterday, according to Talkers magazine. The others were Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Hugh Hewitt, Scott Hennen, Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Lars Larsen and Janet Parshall.
Bush met with five hosts last fall, including Boortz, Hannity and Medved, Talkers noted, "to discuss issues and gauge the conservative talk-radio audience's feelings about issues and policies." None of the hosts told their audiences about the meeting prior to its occurrence.
I'm not sure what Obama's end game is with this move. Is he expecting them to give him a break during his first year in office? At least that made sense for Bush. They were being rewarded for spreading conservative propaganda throughout the land and they did it well, reaching millions of listeners a week. And make no mistake about it. These talk show hosts embody conservative philosophy entirely. They are not mere comics, clowns and wingnuts. They are the true face of the Republican party. I wonder why they haven't had to explain themselves to their listeners since they sold them down the river along with Bush, Cheney and his merry band of Neocons.
I will always remind the media of this fact. Too often the conservative party is not held accountable for the association they have with right wing radio. So here's a news flash: They are one and the same.
UPDATE I am organizing a request for a meeting with Obama and left wing bloggers that supported his effort and were on the front lines during the general election---beating back all that nasty conservative misinformation. It's all in the name of bi-partisanship after all.
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And shoving yet another shit-encrusted thumb in the eye of his 'liberal' supporters...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aA2HliA1KE
was when it was announced that when one of the villages in which a gaggle of these blond devils were born the wise, non white parents killed them off immediately.
I never figured out why Mom took me to see it when I was so young.
One of the reasons Bush was so horrible as President was his inability to deal with those who did not agree with him or his policies and made sure everybody knew about it. Obama can defuse many of the misconceptions, whether they go along or not, by dealing with these people as individuals, not necessarily adversaries.
But it would be nice to see Obama show the same level of concern for the sensitivities of liberals.
Scroll down to the comment titled Give me a Break. He did just that this morning.
I am actually looking forward to see what develops in the upcoming months.
I am a bit leery by his cabinet choices, so I am hoping to be proven wrong.
Is this about the Rick Warren thing?
Maybe it's good that Obama showed them he isn't afraid of them. Obama can't be everything to everyone (including dems) and that's good. Maybe he's just being his self here. I think it's good that he isn't circling the wagons so close.
Much as I hated Ronald Reagan, I always thought he handled 'the villagers' very smartly. They did make fun of him a great deal, but basically theirs is a culture of brown-nosers and Reagan (or his advisers) knew that. If Obama meets with these guys a couple of times a year, pretends to respect them and value their opinions and lets them kiss his ass, then they will be far kinder to him in their columns then otherwise might be. It doesn't take much effort from Obama, and in return he might just avoid a lot of bad press.
Reagan let Will hang out with him and kiss his keister and Will basically spent the 80s as Reagan's lapdog, although more accurately he was like a lapdog who lived in Reagan's ass. He emerged in 1985 to proudly yap his 'independence' from the Gipper over the Bitburg visit, then he crawled back inside.
Nice way of describing it. This isn't any "keep-your-enemies-closer" bullshit, it's a declaration of intended complicity.
If a Republican wants to jump ship and work with Obama; I see this as a good thing. Better with us than against us. We have a country to fix and I would much rather see a rational GOP that wants to work with as opposed to an obstructionist GOP that wants to make an ass of itself.
and my guess is that Obama's team will be saying something to the effect of "We had to try, and now that they've given us the middle finger..."
Like we don't already know what these rightwingnuts are going to say and do.
with the likes of rush, hannity or levine
so he meets with will...big deal
if he has a sit down with rush...then you can get upset
When I heard that this dinner had happened last night, I knew the sites would be all about it today. Obama said the night he won that he would be the president of those who voted for him as well as those who did not.
He's America's president. If he wants to hear what these guys have to say, I see nothing wrong with it. I don't want him to do what bush did and surround himself with only those who agree with his every word. That's not healthy.
and what you are saying. However, part of me wishes that he is at least going to give a head-nod to the people that worked their butts off to get him into office.
I don't see what Obama has to lose by engaging these people. Treating them like implacable enemies or ignoring them is not useful in the lomg run and by adopting that methodology, we become the enemy we supposedly despise. Obama has made it clear that he intends to engage everyone in a consensus based leadership model. And I do like John's idea about having reps from the progressive sites having a conversation with him also.
Back with boosh did they do each other's hair, while listening to 45's, and giggling and gossiping about their dream boys?
For some reason, this schmoozing with the enemy bothers me on a very basic level. It's less important than even Warren's involvement in the inauguration, but the general tendency of lending credibility to these anti-citizen a-holes is disturbing.
...my next blog Op/Ed tomorrow.
(click my name for the link.)
Obama was bored to death. He finally got up to leave and told Will, "THE game is basketball, George." Don't look for any favorable columns from Will. Fortunately, Will had locked Kristol in the bathroom before Obama arrived.
did they stab Obama with their steely knives? And Did Obama say: Et tu, Brute?
My point is will Obama be surprised when these guys stab him in the back?
And why isn't he meeting with liberal pundits?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAM1g0oX4OE
you'd understand.
bring to mind the reaction to Roosevelt having dinner with a black man in the White House?
It doesn't bring that to my mind.
...Obama will be taking bubble baths with Ahmadinejad.
This is no surprise to me. Obama always does this. remember how bad Obama and Hillary trashed each other? and what does Obama do? ...appoints her sec of state.
Obama ....way too nice of a guy. I think he needs to learn how to hold a grudge.
I'm writing about this issue for my blog, Mugsy's Rap Sheet, tomorrow, that so many of Obama's first decisions are really ticking me off.
He seems to be desperate for Republican approval, making some bad picks/choices/decisions that are exactly what we DON'T need as we dig ourselves out of this mess. :(
gonna get you for blog-whoring. UMMM!!! LOL
Next thing you know... New
Wed, 01/14/2009 - 13:03 — Milquetoast
...Obama will be taking bubble baths with Ahmadinejad.
________________________________________________________
Now you know this just ain't so
Ahmadinejad just farted in the tub.
when they talk about Iran's desire to develop WMDs?
is an aluminum tube?
Crooks & Liars hasn't posted about Israel's continuing attack on Gaza since Monday (unless I missed something, which is always possible).
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/joe-pl...
Just saying.
Maybe Joe the Plumber will speak to the press again.
...C&L says nothing. If it was important, Obama would comment.
Yeah. I have come to understand this.
After a year of reading C&L's complaints about right-wingnuts slavishly following GOP talking points, it's disappointing to see C&L apparently doing the same thing on the mainstream centrist-slightly-liberal end of the abbreviated US political spectrum.
If Obama or Joe the Plumber isn't speaking about it, I guess it just isn't important. Sad.
...and Gaza is completely off the front page of today's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/01/14/pag...
As Harold Pinter said in his Nobel Prize lecture about the sins and atrocities committed in the name of US imperial policy, "they never happened... even as they were happening, they never happened."
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature...
I'd like to think he's figuratively saying, "I'm not afraid of you clowns, and no matter what vile invectives you hurl my way, I'm still gonna bury your neocon bullshit. The train's leaving the station; get on now or wave good-bye."
*Sigh* wishful thinking......
I just gotta keep reminding myself that Obama is a very good poker player. He must be sitting on a full house and setting a trap. It's pretty well established that the right wing media is full of bluster and bluff, nothing in the hole to defend their position. Do you really think they could outplay him?
that's it. Obama is clever most of us realize that. he has a hstory of bringing people together of oposing views together. he will soften them up to his advantage. the endgame is avoid gridlock and quiet the negative/over the top criticism. so we can go forward.
I think I would rather have a private brunch with Helen Thomas, with Strawberry Crepe Suzette with a nice split each of a good Chardonnay Blanc.
Heh, heh - I could go for a nice "split" with Jenna and not-Jenna.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFF1uKlsEY0
actually listens to these people for advice or whatever, his administration is doomed to be nothing but total disaster and rethugs will get swept right back in 2012 ... the merry go round of the destruction of the US will continue unabated.
Maybe the reason he went was because he was invited by Geo Will. I'm pretty sure if some big shot liberals had invited him to dinner, he would have gone.
I doubt he got any serious conservative "taint" on him.
Suggestive comments focusing on the word "taint" in 3.....2.....1....
poontaint?
and pissant poontaints. Hope they serve up wimpy burgers when he dines with the bloggers of the peoples.
puissance?
Methinks many Palin putdowns passed in the parlor making Kristol cringe.
It allows Will's guest to say some of my best friends are half black.
but never misunderestimate the power of repuglican taints.
Do you really think having dinner with these guys would change your mind about anything? I would have dinner with them, be polite, listen to them and then leave with my mind pretty much where is was when I went in the door. After all, he was invited to have dinner not be brainwashed. For all we know, maybe he gave them something to think about.
He might even invite Bin Laden over for dinner and discuss "moving forward" and not dwelling on the past.
then he should be willing to meet with liberals, too.
Well, first they would have to invite him.
Why are so many of you hyperventilating about this?
First of all, there is nothing wrong with him trying to charm these people. It can't possibly make things worse than they would have been, and might possibly make things better. It's not like Obama is stupid enough to actually be convinced that tax cuts for the wealthy or continuing Iraq are good ideas. And who knows? These egotistical mouth breathers always enjoy having access to the powerful, and Obama is definitely very politically powerful. He might be able to play on their egos by doing this.
And second, those of you complaining about how he won't meet with liberals, he *did* meet with liberal journalists. That meeting happened this morning.
You guys need to chill out about this stuff before you start bursting your capillaries.
Thank you so much for what you said and even more so for providing that link.
Steve Benen is the blogger I always visit first, and he definitely deserves more exposure. He is good at catching stories, and his analysis is generally quite good.
is still more than a little shell-shocked after eight years of neocon misrule.
Obama is doing something in a different manner.
After Emporer Chimpy McNumbnutz claimed to be a uniter and promised to "bring honor and integrity back to the Office of the President"
wouldn't it be a hoot if Obama did just that.
I am watching this highly intelligent PE with great interest!
In the end, bush did manage to unite about 80% of the country against him.
You're just an Obama cheerleader. :)
Why Kristol?
Seriously. Has that chucklehead EVER been right about ANYTHING?
Don't be stupid! Obama is asking Kristol's advice, and then doing the exact opposite.
That way, Obama will ALWAYS do the right thing.
That one bugged me too, initially.
For those who didn't read the original story, Obama met with Will, Brooks, Krauthammer, and Kristol.
At first I thought, I guess he's meeting with the deans of the conservative movement, but why did he have to meet with that prick Kristol.
Then I thought, maybe he's saying there's no difference between Will, Brooks, Krauthammer, and Kristol. Maybe he should have brought Glenn Beck along too.
No Joe the Plumber, no Jeff Gannon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltps17if3t8
There was the medieval cast to the video, but no latin and no exploding grenades. I can't give it more than a three.
No breakfast cereals, no fruit bats, no orangatans?
It was your video. If I said I wanted them you would cleverly belittle me. If I said I saw them you'd know I was smokin and missed dinner with George, Bill and Barry.
Then you'll probably like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqL2AJgkrUQ
Pythons. A Trifecta even our President should appreciate.
It goes without saying that Liberals have for at least the last 8 years been almost completely disenfranchised and under represented in the media and in Washington.Naturally Obama--who is NOT a Liberal-- must first look to appease and work with the Right,who have generated a lot of power and connections during the Bush reign.He also needs to gain the trust of those Dems who have more times than not,voted with the Pugs.Hopefully once he's safely installed in office,he will turn his attention to Liberal concerns and tone down all this uni-directional "bipartisanship".
I was pleased to learn today that Obama met with liberal pundits including C&L favorite Rachel Maddow. Keeping the enemy close must be his strategy with all this conservative attention.
to break bread with any conservative women writers? Huh. Malkin.
Coulter. Ayn Rand? Huh? Just sayin.
that won't happen. that's the "B" squad
and not a gender one. And what about the married, transgendered press?
How about the Born-Again transgendered crowd?
the unborn transgendered scriveners which will piss off the snowflake scribes and then where does it all end.
Gotta fetch a crumbgrabbers. Silence is short.
That's B as in bi...
He probably won't because he's against any sort of torture, including torturing himself. ;)
lol! too funny.
It would take one hell of a constitution to eat while watching and conversing with Andy and Michelle.
I don't think that it is required by the articles of the constitution.
Just to look at either of them, especially Malkin, would totally make me unable to eat a thing. After two martinis maybe I would have a better chance.
And a s**t-load of oysters.
The Obama conspiracy theorists have been going wild all day.
Yeah, but just because he's meeting with the right wing nut squad doesn't mean he ISN'T actually siding with them........... (sarcasm off)
Yeah, was he sitting on the right side of the table or the left? And don't mess with me by telling me it was a round table.
it was square? :) I mean, considering the company?
straight.
As soon as I heard about it this morning, I told my husband, "This is going to burn up the internet today." I swear, it's kind of funny or something. So many so eager to rip off some of Obama skin and for the life of me, I just don't understand it. Over the next four years he'll probably make some decisions that I don't agree with, but hey, I'm not always right either.
Do you ever admit that to hubby?
Yep, I sure do.
How refreshing. My wife does the same thing - she will readily admit when pissed off patricia is wrong!
what happened to Obama having dinner with Mama and the little obamettes? Why can't he just dine alone and keep us from rendering our locks in a knot?
I got "Rodney Kinged" earlier at another thread simply for standing up for the guy.
Had you written a bunch of non-confrontational, softball posts, you would've gotten "Larry Kinged."
You could have been "B.B.Kinged."
If you gotten all ghoulishly silly, you'd have been steven kinged.
The atmosphere lately has been strange. Lotta negative vibes around here for the past couple of weeks. I thought everyone would be happy with the outcome of the election and things might get a little less tense. I know my life sure has been less tense since Nov 4 and it will be even less so when bush's ass is flying off to Texas.
I hear ya. A lot of the folks here would make great Philadelphia fans - they always find a way to complain!
it is because some of us have been less than thrilled with some of Obama's decisions for his cabinet.
And I think some of the criticism is justified...
I haven't been thrilled over some of his picks but I'm not going to make myself miserable over it. What am I going to do? Pick up the phone and tell him what he's doing isn't pleasing me and I want him to choose someone else? It's his cabinet and he knows these people a hell of a lot better than I do.
I disagree strongly with your "what are we going to do" as a justification for not saying anything about Obama... unless it is a glowing endorsement. I don't believe the executive branch to be Obama's private playground for him to do as he pleases, period. So he may know his choices a whole better than us, still that does not mean I have to like some of the people he has picked. In fact, the possibility that he knew some of these characters so intimately is what made me less trusting of his decisions.
When Obama does things which I agree with, I express that. In fact I got plenty of flack during the primaries for supporting Obama.
When he does something that I don't agree with, I will also express my opinion.
This is still a free society. And as citizens it is our duty to hold our leaders responsible. Regardless of their political affiliation.
and about to chunk their Birkenstocks at the guy.
If they ate meat and smoked cigars afterward I am gonna die. G. Will will probably save that tidbit for This Week so he can piss off Jake Tapper with the scoop.
Part of of the negativity is probably due to the fact that BO hasn't been able to actually DO much at all yet, so there's a lot of anticipatory nit-picking. On the other hand, Obama is a centrist and many here are firmly entrenched leftists, so you might as well get used to the continuing chorus from both sides.
Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with critiquing any politician from any angle.
The experiences of the last eight years has made us gun shy, every time we get good news there is a sucker punch of really bad news that leaves us reeling for a while. We got conditioned for it but I hope we can get over it eventually. In the mean time I’m trying to have at least a few happy thoughts but I am really out of practice.
You're serious?
I really hope he takes you up on this venture. You KNOW we'll all have something to suggest you talk with him about!
The conservatives are going to try to discredit Obama by painting him as a hostage of the DFHs. The more he meets with them and insist he's the president of ALL Americans the harder it's going to be for them to make that particular point. Their idiot fans will believe it but the independents won't. It's very very smart politics. Truly, Obama is the man.
Move the center baby. After 28 straight years of right-wing and right of center policy, politics, and media, America's independent middle is (not surprisingly) right-of-center. Obama knows this, and he recognizes (unlike Pelosi and Reid) that his and the Democrat's ascendancy is a result of the utter failure of the right, not any political jujitsu from the left. He was credible enough to be an alternative to more of the same, hence "Change You Can Believe In" was believable.
He and the Dems still have a lot of work to do to move the political center back to the, uh, center, let alone to the left. He's playing long-term strategy.
because without question, i feel the man is about 10 times smarter than me.
i never had that issue with bush.
I'm right there with you. It scares me to know that I am without a doubt smarter than the president. I want someone in that office that knows a hell of a lot more than I do. I'll feel much better after noon, next Tuesday.
....and I'll be there on the Mall, waving Georgie a good fuckin' riddance!
You are going to go? Wow, good for you!
Yep, I took off work next week to go. Didn't get tickets to the "close" seats, so I'll be back in the pack with the masses. But they've got Jumbotrons mounted in many places, and by getting to the Mall in the early a.m. (i.e. 3:00 a.m.) I can get a spot on 4th street immediately behind the ticket holders. (I lived in DC for a few years, so I know a few tricks.)
I'm considering carrying a "Good riddance, Bush, and F*** You Cheney" sign out of pure relief.
If you see a tv camera pointed at you, wave to me. Okay?
Will do. Hey, I might even write "crooksandliars.com" on the bottom of the sign!
Or just write "Crooks and Liars" That covers the way you feel about bush and cheney and will also let us know where you are.
I'll be waving back from the comfort of my kitchen in Florida while you are freezing your Texas behind off.
One thing I've found in all my moves between north and south is that once your blood thins out it never thickens back up again. So I'll be in polypro, fleece and goose down, while my friends up there will probably be in a sweater and moderately-thick jacket.
More like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V641NxMSRNw
That right there is the whole difference. You view people like George Will as the enemy whereas Obama views them as people with opposing viewpoints.
What you just said reminds me of the Sean Hannities who went out and questioned the patriotism of those who didn't agree with them.
And when has Kristol been right about *ANYTHING*?
Their combined batting average is 0.01
The people, who you pal Hannity el al were trying to squash with the whole "antipatriotic" innuendo, have been proven correct over and over again.
So you can stick you false analogy up where the sun don't shine. So now we get to be equated with the same morons who have been running this country into the ground... just because we no longer give a rat's ass about what said morons have to say. Ain't that a bitch...
Actually I meant to reply to someone up at the top, not the origional poster, but the commenting system here is ass.
I click reply to someone's thread, it logs me in and shows no comments, then when I add mine it gets added to the general tab and not in response to the person I meant.
PS. George Will is actually respectable. David Brooks isn't my favorite but at least he has a few objective bones in his body. Krauthammer and Kristol aren't journalists but cheerleaders.
Watching George Will vs Krugman made painfuly obvious that George Will was somewhat of a mental midget.
In all fairness, Mr. Will only seemed to come to his senses only after the McCain campaign became such a clustef*ck that no amount of shilling was going to salvage it. So as a good shark, he smelt the blood, and voila... found his spine, after decades of literally shilling for the right.
As recently as a couple of months ago, Mr. Will was basically saying there was no recession at all. A person can't be *that* wrong and oblivious to reality and still be taken seriously.
I won't even go into discussing David Brooks. The idiot was still trying to revive the whole meme that "GOPers are the guys you want to have a beer with" as his reason for why voters should endorse the GOP... I don't tend to give any credibility to any pundit that has to reduce a candidate viability to whether or not he frequents the salad bar of Applebees. Ironically, I believe that there are no salad bars on Applebees. I guess I am too elitist, since I have never been in one... and there is also a distinct possibility that neither has Mr. Brooks.
Non of those pundits are fit to manage the newsletter of their home owner's association, so it boggles my mind why they all have platforms to put forth their inane views. There should be a ranking system, like baseball, in which when on pundit appears on TeeVee... his "stats" are also shown. That would go a long way towards enable people to make their own opinion by allowing them the mechanisms to take the things some of these morons at their face value: i.e. not that much.
If Obama invites Rush to the White House, then we should worry.
The "Barack the Magic Negro" song, one of Rush's more disgusting "songs", is not something you can say "we can disagree without being disagreeable" about.
If this dinner with Kristol and Will is just PR, then fine. If the new president seriously thinks that the right wing is going to work with him and help him, he's terribly naive, and he's going to have to learn it the hard way.
It won't be long before Obama will learn he can't play "nicey-nicey" with these guys. It's "fool's gold."
All one has to do is turn on C-SPAN right now, and listen to the GOP talk about how everything that is wrong with this nation's economy is purely the fault of the Democrats, as if they've had control of the entire government for the last eight years.
Bipartisanship is way overrated. If Obama doesn't have the guts to smash these Republicans, then he can make sure that they are at least held accountable for their disasterous policies that have caused so much pain for most of America. It's only that way that the policies will be discredited.
You can't seriously think that Obama is engaging in anything more than political theater. He's deliberately stirring up the left and catering to right-wing egos PUBLICLY, so Americans will perceive that he really is "post partisan" - most Americans do not monitor the daily goings on of the politics. This will be important as his increasingly progressive agenda rolls out over time. The progressive agenda will be perceived, and easily sold, as mainstream.
Genius, really.
I certainly hope you're right about that. If so Obama may turn out to be one the all time greats.
Even if you're right about it, it's at best a dishonest strategy. If one truly believes in one's own principles, he goes out and sells them for what they are. He persuades and convinces through example. Great leaders rarely gain respect and trust through crass manipulation.
But suppose you're wrong. Suppose it's the left that he is trying to convince that he is really "post partisan" and then goes on to implement a totally, un-progressive, right-leaning agenda over time? That would be the kick-in-the-head of all time, and certainly beats the GWB line: "I'm a uniter, not a divider."
... if you think he's really going against his principles. I don't.
Keep in mind, he's a politician not a saint, so we gotta stop pretending he's wearing a halo or sent from God. Besides, its not like Kristol is going to talk him into a nuclear strike on Iran, right?
... if you think he's really going against his principles. I don't.
Keep in mind, he's a politician not a saint, so we gotta stop pretending he's wearing a halo or sent from God. Besides, its not like Kristol is going to talk him into a nuclear strike on Iran, right?
He also met with liberal commentators today, so I don't see what the big deal is. It splits it 50/50 at this point.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/14/obama-mee...
This "outrage" kind of seems many hours too late... if not an entire day. The word of him meeting these liberal pundits was online at least since last night.
a squishy moderate apologist and butter substitute could be expected to do.
I imagine it would be like the movie ‘My Dinner with Andre”, with the columnist talking over each other as they try to get their speaking points through and Obama saying during the infrequent pauses, ‘Please tell me more.”
Then he goes home shots some hoops, showers, reads some correspondence, calls his chief of staff for a final update, kisses his kids good night, takes care of his husbandly duties and goes to sleep.
Being There.
He's meeting liberal and CONservative PUNDITS. Not real people in the real world, but pundits. Shock jocks. Talking heads. This is bi-partisan? No, this is sucking up to the media heads.
Of course the French ones are not included.
(Everybody duck!)
We're Obama's first foreign trip! I gots my super duper Super Obama tights, with my Yes We Can lined mittens, ready for the arrival! We're gonna go "oh, and ah" and cry at his superiorness! Then he'll go home, and we'll all get together at the local Timmies and go "that was great, how much did that just cost us?" Then we'll see the price tag and send Rick Mercer back down to "Talk With Americans" and truly get a laugh.
a rest stop on the way up to Alaska, home of energy for a hungry market doesn't count as foreign. Especially because of the language difference.
Hannity and all the other buffoons were invited by Dumbya for one more blow job from them.
YES! YESERIEBOB! THATS it obummers just playing these bums for suckers! kinda like he did us!
Remember after GWB'd stolen his second election how we all got pissed off when said he'd earned capital with the election and now he intended to spend it? He basically said screw you guys and your opposing viewpoints, I'm going to rule as a dictator and screw half the electorate.
I'm frankly glad Obama is holding true to his word and listening to all sides. I'm not going soft. I still think these guys are a cancer, but seriously, I'm glad "our guy" is doing the decent thing and making good on his promise to be the president of the whole country.
I'm hoping this in fact does earn Obama capital with the other side, get his views heard by the people who listen and read these guys and perhaps allow us to get a more progressive agenda accomplished.
Still Naive
I'm shocked, simply shocked, to see there are dinner parties going on here!
Your h'orderves, sir.
Thank you.
Hey guess what, my paranoid friends, last night, Obama broke bread with Rachel Maddow and the guys who always show up on Keith Olbermann's show. Oh the horror, newspaper columnists! No bloggers!
Here's what was on Huffington:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/14/obam...
The group included the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, the Wall Street Journal's Gerry Seib, National Journal's Ron Brownstein, the New York Times Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, among others.
By all means though, do try and set up the meeting with bloggers. You guys have done mostly a great job and I'm often in agreement with you. God knows he needs to be pressed more on Gitmo and, especially, Iran (and Afghanistan, and tax cuts, and energy efficiency, and…)
I just don't understand the whole "how dare he eat with them" mentality. I get the Warren thing (although balancing him by choosing a gay bishop to invoke the prayer was a nice touch), but simply eating dinner at George Will's house (an old school Republican who about twice a year has an idea that I can actually agree with and whom I'm sure is a gracious host), talking with David Brooks (who is now, for all intents and purposes, a middle-right Democrat) and suffering the presence of Charles Krauthammer (whom I can't think of anything good to say about but such is life – I'm sure he's a good relative/friend to someone – he used to work for Vice President Mondale before he swung neo-con right so maybe he can swing back).
Really, while I appreciate the fact that you think his bi-partisan push will fail, not all Republicans are inflexible. Also, a sizable number of people who voted for Obama have in the past supported Republican candidates. I think on this matter you sound like the more intolerant Republican crowd than anything else.
Furthermore, it's not like Obama didn't tell everyone that this was the way he intended to try and do things. I understand that many people are surprised a politician is doing what he said he would do, but he's been talking like this since the keynote address in 2004.
Couldn’t you have made up a more believable name than Timothy Finney?
Perhaps I should change it to Otis P. Driftwood.
I wonder how many know that one.
In the words of the man himself, "We're all born alike, except for Republicans and Democrats."
Oh one more thing, the whole "bi-partisan blues" thing really sounds so very "high school."
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=hPbUPRxAo-I&fea...
I don't necessarily take issue with Obama having dinner with these conservatives. First, I do believe he met with liberal columnists today, such as Maureen Dowd.
Second, while I strongly disagree with the views of the conservatives he had dinner with, I'd take them any day over those idiots and jerks that Bush has met with....Beck, Hewitt, Insanity, Levin, Boortz???? Give me a break, Bush.....these guys not only are conservatives; they are hate mongers! Although I do have to admit that I am wondering why William the Bloody was at that dinner, and I don't care at all for Krauthammer.
Lastly, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Bush met with his liberal foes.
I share your opinion of the hate crowd, but, really, is doing things differently from W. such a bad thing?
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