"Regression toward a phony mean"

Contrary to you assertion (0.00 / 0)

about "outrageous and false claims"  Politifact found a measure of truth:  http://politifact.com/truth-o-...

Obama constantly parses words to create misdirection on healthcare.  For example his voodoo economics to pay for healthcare.  

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by: Craig Moore @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 20:42:25 PM CDT

what? (0.00 / 0)

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're getting at. You can't demonstrate that Tea Baggers have been feeding off of, and promoting, bogus info because one claim made by Boehner yesterday about Obama's campaign promises is true. I mean, doesn't that kind of argument underscore my point?

What's worse about this example, is that Obama explicitly said during his recent speech abortions weren't going to be funded by subsidized care? So, yeah, what Boehner said was true...but also completely irrelevant and grossly misleading.

What's your point?

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by: Jay Stevens @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 21:04:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Why point is exactly how Fact Check (0.00 / 0)

puts it:  http://factcheck.org/2009/09/o...

See the part beginning "Choosing Words Carefully."  

Reminds me of this joke.  Two people are floating in a hot air balloon in the fog.  Suddenly they rise above the fog and come close to a mountain ridge.  A hiker is below.  One of the balloonists ask the hiker where they were.  He responded, "You're in a hot air balloon."  The hiker, like Obama, was a lawyer.

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by: Craig Moore @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 21:24:39 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

"parses words"??? (0.00 / 0)

He's a politician. What do you expect him to do? Tell you what's on his mind--speak stream of thought? lol. Why do I always feel like you are trying to hold Obama to a higher standard? Because he's a "different" president?

Which one of the tea bagger leaders do you think would be more honest? Beck? Palin? Limbaugh? Armey?

Or do you have another impeccably pure model of politician that Obama should aspire to rise to? Which politician have you heard that does not "parse words" about health care?

Politics is the art of parsing words. So yeah, what Jay said. What's your point?

Lot of ?marks there. Sorry. They're mostly rhetorical.

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by: JC @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 21:18:51 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

JC, he promised to bring (0.00 / 0)

a new politics to Washington. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/101...

===========
What a difference a year can make. A year ago Barack Obama was on the campaign trail, promising an American electorate disheartened and disgusted by eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that he was going to change everything if he was elected President.

He would be the new broom, sweeping out the dirt, collecting the trash, and fixing everything that was broken and tarnished and perverted in our government, in our nation's capital, in our White House.

He swept into office on a high tide of good will and anticipation. He was going to fix Wall Street. He was going to end the war in Iraq. He was going to bring a new era of transparency to government. He was going to stimulate a faltering economy and give new hope to a shrinking, frightened middle class. He was going to close the prison at Guantanamo and end the torture policies of his predecessors. There was even a hope that we would investigate how we went wrong and who ordered it.

He came to town on a white horse, riding a staggering wave of popular approval in the polls, a golden leader in a golden moment with a golden opportunity, and then he did what? Nothing much. Nothing different.
=================================

Politifact documents 12 broken promises:  http://politifact.com/truth-o-...   #'s 234 and 240 are major whoopers.  

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by: Craig Moore @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 21:32:35 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You expect (0.00 / 0)

the party of NO to change because a new dem president is in town? That's laughable.

It takes two to tango. And if one side is continually sitting on the sidelines throwing dirt, then how do you expect politics to be anything different?

The only way there will be change is for the dems to go at it unilaterally. And what are the chances of that?

Promises, shmomises. All politicians master the art of breaking promises. That's part of the "parsing words" thing.

Why do you expect perfection out of Obama, I ask you again?

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by: JC @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 23:41:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

JC...I don't expect "perfection" (0.00 / 0)

but I do expect him to CHANGE many of the policies of the Bush admenistration regarding torture, Gitmo, my privacy, NOMA...etc.

The Democrats have no clue how to act as a majority party...an article in The Nation says they have mastered the political moonwalk....they look like they are moving forward but in reality they are slipping backward...

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by: bigsage @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 06:20:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Very good image! (0.00 / 0)

I struggle to find too many words to describe this pointless partty.

The moonwalk image nails it.

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by: Mark Tokarski @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 08:57:18 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

JC, that is total rubbish (0.00 / 0)

Obama knew the landscape BEFORE he even ran for office.  He made his promises with full knowledge of the environment.  The progressive OpEdNews doesn't let him off the hook just 'cuz there are meanies out there:  http://www.opednews.com/articl...

Did the meanies make Obama hire lobbyists????

Did the meanies make Obama not post legislation for review prior to votes????

And now the coy parsing to be completely accurate but totally misleading.  IF you are enchanted by leadership that misleads, you will be continually impressed by Obama's speeches.  

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by: Craig Moore @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 09:14:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

And JC, politicians will only perform (0.00 / 0)

to the level of our expectations and the bar or accountability.  David Sirota nails it:  http://www.salon.com/opinion/f...

=================
But, then, behavior by President Obama suggests a more systemic assault on the campaign promise is underway.

It started in December when he was asked why he was making Hillary Clinton his chief diplomat after criticizing her qualifications and promising Democratic primary voters that his views on international relations were different than hers. He responded by telling the questioner "you're having fun" trying "to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign." The implicit assertion was that anyone expecting him to answer for campaign statements must just be "having fun" -- and certainly can't be serious.

A few months later, in reversing a five-year-old commitment to support ending the Cuban embargo, Obama offered no rationale for the U-turn other than saying he was "running for Senate" at a time that "seems just eons ago" -- again, as if everyone should know that previous campaign promises mean nothing.

At least that was a response. After the New York Times recently reported that "the administration has no present plans to reopen negotiations on NAFTA" as "Obama vowed to do during his campaign," there was no explanation offered whatsoever. We were left to recall Obama previously telling Fortune magazine that his NAFTA promises were too "overheated and amplified" to be taken literally.

It's true that politicians have always broken promises, but rarely so proudly and with such impunity.
====================

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by: Craig Moore @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 09:33:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Who said I was enchanted? (0.00 / 0)

I just happen to think that criticism from the left is different than criticism from the right. And who sid I was impressed by Obama's last speech? Didn't you read what I had to say about his speech last week? Not that I would blame you for not doing so.

Craig, you're trying to set some standards for Obama that neither you nor any other republicans or conservatives were willing to do for Bush, or Bush I or Reagan.

I just find it silly that you want to play mister accountability from the right, when it's obvious that your just trying to drag him down.

If you want to see Obama succeed and change policies, you'd ask why less than half of his appointees are yet to make it through congress. You'd ask why all of the embedded Bush/Cheney era lurkers are still around foiling change.

Policies don't just change because a president says they have. Policies change in D.C. when the culture of the Hill changes. And that, unfortunately, as we are coming to see, takes quite a while, if at all.

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by: JC @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 12:57:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

JC...you are right, (0.00 / 0)

criticism from the left is different than criticism from the right...and I agree, the radical right has totally forgotten the broken promises of Bush (compassionate conservative)...

I see the problem not so much coming from Obama as I do those who advise him....especially Rahm Emmanuel and his staff...having said that, if Obama did not agree with this course of action he could shit can his staff and get some progressive in the White House..

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by: bigsage @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 13:32:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I doubt that Rahm (0.00 / 0)

will be around when Obama runs in '12. And he needs to get some advisers who are more savvy with navigating D.C. Obama gets hammered by Dowd and Rich today in the NY Times for miscalculating his opposition and how to deal with it.

Both basically saying that his advisers aren't doing him any favors with their looking forward stances. Dowd quotes Rep Jim Clyburn:  "They're going to have to develop ways in this White House to deal with things and not let them fester out there. Otherwise, they'll see numbers moving in the wrong direction."

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by: JC @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 14:47:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Unless things change pretty radically pretty darn soon, JC (0.00 / 0)

Obama will not be nominated in "12.

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by: jed @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 17:42:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Primaries don't start (0.00 / 0)

for almost 28 months. Plenty of time for people to forget all about this year.

How long did it take people to forget about Bush's first year and renominate him?

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by: JC @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 21:45:41 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

certainly... (0.00 / 0)

...he's done that. The last administration was a doozy. Soon as Obama lies to get us into a war we have no business being in, or lies about torture, or lies about domestic spying programs, or lies about politicizing the Justice Dept, or...or...or...

Right now, you're upset about how the president "parses" things. From where I'm standing it's a vast improvement, and that's an understatement.

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by: Jay Stevens @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 09:46:29 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Didn't he say he wanted to bring the military home? (0.00 / 0)

I distinctly remember him not saying he would increase the scope of the war in Afghanistan.

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by: jed @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 17:48:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

goodbye norma rae..... (0.00 / 0)

http://goddamnindependents.wor...

two idiot montana senators woke me from my hibernation and i am furious...

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by: problembear @ Sat Sep 12, 2009 at 22:54:59 PM CDT

The mean has attraction for Pelosi and Reid (0.00 / 0)

Looks like Pelosi and Reid are backing off the public option... and their fund raising will be lucrative.  See David Sarota's take:  http://www.openleft.com/diary/...

Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist, is going to host a little party for Nancy.  Quid pro $$$$$$$ quo. Have y'all gotten your invites yet?

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by: Craig Moore @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 09:57:07 AM CDT

I agree... (0.00 / 0)

...it's awfully convenient for Pelosi et al. to use the phony mean the Tea Baggers and the media created for them to slip into. See what I mean? If the media had handled the protests for what they were, there'd be a lot more pressure on Congress to pass a bill with real, meaningful reform that isn't corporate friendly.

I'm glad you agree with me on this.

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by: Jay Stevens @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 10:03:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm glad we agree (0.00 / 0)

but I think it's limited to good whiskey.  It's a start!!!!

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by: Craig Moore @ Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 10:05:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]