Ben Smith at Politico June 14, 2008:
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said in Philadelphia last night....
.... Obama never paid much of a price for his willingness to go negative. He also, to be fair, never promised that he wouldn't attack, and indeed often promised to be tougher than past Democrats, and bragged of his Chicago training. He disavowed nasty character attacks, but then everybody disavows nasty character attacks.
What's left of course, is to speculate on what form of political change Obama promises: It's not some sort of disarmament; it's not any large deviation from traditional Democratic policy; it's more a vaguer — and harder to control, and deliver — promise to lead the country past the deep cultural divisions around race, religion and even Vietnam that have dominated national politics for decades.
No, that's not the quote of the day, just some background.
This is His Presidency's Quote of the Day:
(al Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama told Republicans at the conclusion of a stormy budget meeting on Wednesday...
"I have reached the point where I say enough," Obama said, according to the aide. "Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."
The red ink he so generously contributed to our national debt may yet bring down the country -- but the way Obama sees it, it's his presidency that's at stake.
A reader reminds me in an email:
You know how the left demeaned Bush - they mocked how he sat in the elementary room, staying calm, but pensive, till arrangements were made when 9/11 happened. Late, he spoke about it saying how he learned as governor that you must stay calm, instill confidence in people when a crisis occurs.
Obama CREATES crisis... then runs around making threats and scaring people....then walks out!!!!!!! (obamacare rerun tactics)
President Barack Obama feigns a punch
while talking about health care reform
with
Nancy Ann DeParle [whose husband works for the New York Times],
Peter Orszag [now Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup],
Phil Schiliro ["the unidentified aide in the background of most photos taken of important people in Washington"]
and Larry Summers [now dabbling in the private sector]
in the Outer Oval Office, July 13, 2008.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
See also today's Wall Street Journal:
Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
.... Didn't the health-care fiasco teach us anything about the importance of transparent and responsible legislative process?
Wise or foolish, this budgetary game of chicken is contrary to law. In 1974, Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which sets specific deadlines and procedures for raising revenue, setting spending priorities, and adjusting the debt limit—all in the sunshine of public scrutiny, with objective evaluation of all plans by the CBO.
The president must submit a proposed budget "on or before" the first Monday in February. The CBO then has until Feb. 15 to score the proposal in accordance with criteria set by the statute. Those criteria are somewhat arbitrary, but their virtue is to apply the same metric to all competing proposals.
President Obama met the deadline, but his proposed budget was so out of touch with economic and political realities that the Senate rejected it by a vote of 97-0. In April, the president changed course and made a speech in which he proposed a new "plan" he claimed would decrease the deficit. The terms were so vague that CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told Congress he could not score it. In effect, then, the process started off without the presidential budget required by law. . . .
Posted by: Mannie Sherberg | Thursday, 14 July 2011 at 10:15 AM