dagblog - Comments for "Run, Donald, Run"

Seriously, it looked like a

Ramona — Sun, 01 May 2011 11:51:41 +0000

In reply to Of course, but seriously,

Seriously, it looked like a Viking helmet.

There is a method to this

Resistance — Sun, 01 May 2011 06:06:14 +0000

In reply to Run, Donald, Run

There is a method to this madness.

Obama can say “mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the fairest of them all”

Obama’s team will fight, to disallow anyone to the left of Obama to run.

Making him the fairest of them all.

Reminds me of the episode Mirror, Mirror (Star Trek)

Spock: (Explaining to Kirk how the mirror versions were so quickly spotted)

“ It was far easier for you as civilized men to behave like barbarians than it was for them as barbarians to behave like civilized men.”

Obama is so reasonable, he IS the fairest of them all.

I am not saying that he is vain, he just knows how to win.

But what are WE the People winning? Win The Future, but forget about the present?

HOPE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PzL8aL6jtI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhzbzwPNgXA

I overheard someone say; when

Resistance — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:13:29 +0000

In reply to Too complicated.Rule 1.

I overheard someone say; when you look closely at the long form certificate

You can make out the imprinted name "Jason Bourne"

Is Obama the victim of the rightwing; making him one of us?

You slapped yer paw in the

quinn esq — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:59:23 +0000

In reply to I see what you're saying now.

You slapped yer paw in the honey jar in that 3rd paragraph.

The Republicans trot out madmen and maniacs, and let em run to the right. The Dems then get to shout about how crazy the Republicans are. The "Sensible" Republicans move just the one step to the Right, and suck uop more funding, media time, and usually the nomination. Win or lose, they get some power, and the sensible Democrats then decide to move one step to the right to compromise. And thus, the whole dance moves right with them. And so, even though we all end up in the warm embrace of crazy, the sensible people, the rational people, have seemingly done nothing but what rational, sensible, people would do.

He apparently is so taken

jollyroger — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:16:31 +0000

In reply to Of course, but seriously,

He apparently is so taken with himself he thinks people should pretend to believe the comb.

his pouting he was grim

jollyroger — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:14:38 +0000

In reply to I'm pretty sure Trump's glory

his pouting

he was grim

Of course, but seriously,

bwakfat — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:42:59 +0000

In reply to I'm pretty sure Trump's glory

Of course, but seriously, what's with the hair?

I'm pretty sure Trump's glory

Ramona — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:31:13 +0000

In reply to Run, Donald, Run

I'm pretty sure Trump's glory days are over. He just got chomped and stomped by the prez and Seth Meyers over at the WH Correspondents Dinner. It was hilarious! Especially his pouting during the whole thing. I heard he got booed as he came in. And at the end he hurried out, scowling, and nobody talked to him.

I see what you're saying now.

Michael Wolraich — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:49:58 +0000

In reply to Hi Genghis. I wasn't saying

I see what you're saying now. Fair point.

One caveat: character perceptions are global, so it's the sum of the actions that count. Overall, I would say that Obama comes off as being more reasonable than the Republicans.

A caveat to my caveat: The Republicans are not monolithic. Though Obama certainly comes off as more reasonable than Donald Trump and the Tea Party hardliners, Boehner does too. (Heck, even Charlie Manson might.)

Another caveat to my caveat (the original caveat, not the second-level caveat): One man's "reasonable" is another man's "patsy."

Hi Genghis. I wasn't saying

Obey — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:29:47 +0000

In reply to Obey, I don't think that the

Hi Genghis. I wasn't saying the media presents him as UNreasonable. Rather he just gets no special credit from them for his "reasonable" overtures to the GOP.

In my thinking, I was refering to this bit of Doc's argument:

Obama's deepest political instinct is to pose as the reasonable centrist, so that the other side has to either make a deal with him or risk looking crazy. This can be frustrating because it leads him to make deals again, and again, in order to perform his "reasonableness," even when the question should be out of doubt. Releasing yet another form of his birth certificate is like his various compromises over health care and the budget: splitting a difference that he long ago split. But where this should pay dividends is when the other side refuses to take the deal.

So it might well be a smart strategy when - like with the birther issue - he goes the extra mile and his opponents still refuse the gesture. Then it is hard to see the situation otherwise than Obama being reasonable and his critics being unreasonable. But it is a strategy that fails in all the other instances where his opponents ... accept the gesture. The budget cuts, the HCR bill, Finreg, tax cuts for the rich, tight monetary policy, judicial activism - in all these fields he has bent over backwards to accept the GOP framing if not their actual policies. And then the objective real-world effect of these policies on voters matters much more than any ephemeral impression that he was at the time sounding "reasonable".

That, in any case, was my objection to Doc's general point. Like I said, I think the strategy works well in specific cases - like his present birther boosterism.