Mission Accomplished

No reason that I should stay....

_______

Robert Reich: Ransom Paid:

"Anyone who characterizes the deal between the president, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics."

_______

Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy:

"We probably need to start wondering why this keeps happening. Also, this: if the Democrats suck so bad at political combat, then how come they continue to be rewarded with such massive quantities of campaign contributions? When the final tally comes in for the 2012 presidential race, who among us wouldn't bet that Barack Obama is going to beat his Republican opponent in the fundraising column very handily? At the very least, he won't be out-funded, I can almost guarantee that.

And what does that mean? Who spends hundreds of millions of dollars for what looks, on the outside, like rank incompetence?

It strains the imagination to think that the country's smartest businessmen keep paying top dollar for such lousy performance. Is it possible that by 'surrendering' at the 11th hour and signing off on a deal that presages deep cuts in spending for the middle class, but avoids tax increases for the rich, Obama is doing exactly what was expected of him?"

_______

Daily Kos: White House: Republicans will 'recoil' from any future attempts at�gamesmanship:

"I want to know what planet this White House Official has been on where the Republicans would 'recoil at gamesmanship' or be 'unlikely' to stack a committee with ideologues.

I don't even have a decent response to this—it's just too silly. Once again, administration negotiators have given far-right Republicans nearly everything they demanded under the absolutely bizarre impression that next time around, they'll be more reasonable, or that next time around, the Republicans won't be able to take hostages that the Democrats find unpalatable.

It's a game of chess in which one player cannot look forward to more than one move at a time, steadfastly refusing to even contemplate what moves the other player might make in response."

_______

AMERICAblog News: Just stop already

The President is a lousy negotiator and doesn't have the stomach for any fight, to be sure, but he's also getting what he wants. It's the President who kept trying to one up the Republicans by adding more cuts to the deal (remember, he's the one who put Social Security and Medicare on the table), so spare us the "I would have preferred something better." No he wouldn't. The President is interested in one thing: not making waves. And whatever he can do to ensure that he makes now waves, he'll do it.

And now there's a second thing motivating the President. No, not the national interest. His own political self-interest. Somehow he's got it in his head that the only way he can win re-election is to massive cut spending in the middle of an anemic quasi-recovery on life support. He's not doing it because he thinks it's the right thing. He's doing it because he thinks it will get him re-elected. And even there, he's wrong.

Joe and I predicted this day. We saw it coming on how the President handled gay issues, how he handled the stimulus, and how he handled health care reform. Joe and I begged all the apologists to wake up and realize that the way the President handled HCR - not fighting for anything - was exactly what he'd done before, and would do in the future. But we were told by the smarty pants lobby that this was incremental politics at its best, and we were just silly idealists. Yeah, not so silly now.

_______

Daily Kos: Trojan Horse: The Obama Deception:

"If Obama were merely incompetent we could say that he's a disappointment. But he's not incompetent and he's not merely a disappointment – he's a willing traitor to the American people. He has betrayed the movement that brought him into office. It's as simple and awful as that.

Hope? Change? We were fools to ever believe it.

So don't call Obama a moderate. Don't call him a centrist. Don't call him a blue dog. Call him what he is...a Republican."

_______
_____
___