One of the more amazing stories we’ve read regarding the President’s current “thinking” can be found in an AP article called Obama admits health care overhaul may die on the Hill. Two items struck us:
1 – ‘”I think it’s very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let’s go ahead and make a decision,” Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.’
Note how this contrasts with his previous combativeness: “Hit ‘em twice as hard.” You’re finding out Mr. President that the phrase “Don’t tread on me” has a real meaning. You and that evil Witch of the West, Pelosi can’t “hit” the American people as though we’re children to be put in our places. You work for us – not the other way around.
2 – “I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We’re going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that’s the thing that’s most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country.”
If you had thought this way back in March of last year; had you called for a truly civil discussion – and not tried to ram the health care boondoggle that we all came to know and hate down our collective (not collectivist) throats, the tea party movement and the awakened sleeping giant at the town hall meetings might never have happened.
One of us had a sit-down with a local director for her U.S. Senator. As this director took notes based on what she was saying, she could see the director nodding his head in agreement. Things like: you can’t insult the intelligence of the people paying the bills. We’re not astroturf, Mr. President. We’re not Nazis, and for the Wicked Witch of the West to call us that, and for you to not tell her to knock it off – well that spoke volumes. Treat us with the respect you want to have visited upon you, Mr. President, and we can have a real discussion/debate. If you can’t manage that, we’re going to hit you twice as hard come November.
- Off-the-cliff.com
We watched a little bit of the meeting between the President and the Republican House members today. We suppose it could be a start of sorts, but there is much to be done BY PRESIDENT OBAMA before we would accept it as any kind of “meeting of the minds.”
Let’s start with a word fraught with danger: compromise.
In the minds of liberals, compromise almost always means that conservatives move closer to their points of view. The idea of liberals moving toward conservative positions is considered a non-starter, and dead on arrival. This is poppycock pure and simple. It is no compromise at all, and we urge Republicans to tell liberals flat out that there will be no meeting of the minds if this is their definition of compromise.
So, for example, the health care deformation efforts that Nancy “The Off-the-Rails LOCOmotive” Pelosi tried to strong-arm through the House last year involved no compromise that we saw. Indeed, all opponents were cast by her as astroturf and Nazis. If there is any one person who poisoned the well last year, it was the Witch of California (with all due apologies to other witches – if apologies are due). This dingbat of a woman should be nowhere near the legislative process, let alone running it.
Mr. President, if you would have CONSERVATIVES talking civilly with you; looking for ways to compromise on legislation that for whatever reason you consider important, we urge you start calling on your own supporters to tone down the rhetoric. It would go a long way if you said something like this in your next speech to the American public.
“As you know, I have wanted to change the tone in Washington. I inherited very intense partisanship from the last admini — wait – no, I’m not going to go there again. This is on my watch now. OK – let me start over. I want – right now – I want to change the tone in Washington. I can’t control anyone else, so I will begin with myself. I will no longer demonize the prior administration which I acknowledge had to deal with some very tough challenges – challenges that I didn’t realize were as difficult as they were until I took office. So let me begin by apologizing to George W. Bush and his administration. You were patriots, doing the best you could. And while I disagree with some of the things you did, I will no longer second guess you, just as I would not appreciate the next administration second guessing me.
“But let me go beyond this. I cannot control anyone but myself. But I can call on everyone who supports me to start right now – today – to tone it down. Stop calling Republicans and Conservatives astro-turf or Nazis. They are neither. They are sincere; we happen to believe they are wrong. It is our job to persuade them to our point of view if we can, and to be civil regardless. If we can lead by example, maybe the Republicans and conservatives will respond in kind. God knows that there are many conservatives out there who have said as much. Maybe we can begin setting a new tone by leading by example. So, Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Biden and Senator Reid, please do what you can to tone down your language and the language of those who work for you. We are no longer at war with FoxNews. We are no longer at war with Corporate America’s boardrooms. You are all Americans, same as me, and I will no longer demonize you. I call on those who support me now to do likewise. Think Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who practiced civility under intense provocations. Can we do less? I call on our side of the debate to live more nobly and by our examples, perhaps the Republicans and conservatives will see that we are sincere in our desire to change things for the better.”
Will you do this, Mr. President?
- Off-the-cliff.com
Here is a story about some people of darker complexion being denied entrance into a popular Chicago bar.
We personally find the facts of this story very disturbing. There is no indication that the people asking to be admitted were unruly in any way; and the bar owner’s alleged criteria seems to have been unevenly applied. But as we were not there, we move from reality and enter into a hypothetical evaluation.
—-
Supposing you are with a group of 5 friends and all of you want to attend a concert. All of you have done the wonderfully American thing and put away your hyphens. You are simply Americans. You are all cut from the same cloth; have similar values – as one might expect among friends.
The person manning the ticket office has not, however, put away her hyphen. She views the world through hyphenated lensing, which, while not illegal, is dumber than dumb, and is certainly unamerican. She says some of you that you can enter, but not the others. (Sort of like in Star Wars, where the barkeep is willing to let Luke come in, but not the droids: “We don’t serve their kind here.” Just stupid and evil.)
There is nothing in our hypothetical to suggest that the ones denied entry are different behaviorally from those who are admitted. In fact, let’s stipulate that this is the case: behaviorally, you are all cordial; perhaps a bit rowdy, but nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly nothing to say that one of you is OK but the other of you is not.
Can there be any extenuating circumstances that would justify such behavior on the part of the person manning the ticket office?
We can’t think of any.
We leave it to you to agree and/or to connect it back to the original story or not.
- Off-the-cliff.com
President Obama has called what happened between Officer Crowly and Mr. Gates and between Mr. Obama, Mr. Crowley, and the entire Cambridge Police Force “a teaching moment.” And he has called for a beer-fest between himself, Crowley and Gates to learn from this moment.
We have said that Crowley has nothing to learn because he did nothing wrong.
So here’s what we’d like to see at this loser photo opp set up by the President to make his own problems go away. Imagine:
Cameras are on as the three men come out of the White House. Mr. Zeleny, enchanted as always, is Read more
America
Failing
Day 187
Some of us here, at Off-the-cliff.com, have kids. We were all kids too, once upon a time.
When our kids do something wrong to someone else, or when we do it ourselves, we find it relatively easy to say 3 little words:
“I am sorry.”
President Obama has maligned two professions this last week. Read more