Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph

[Clip-Clop]

Originally Posted by Danzig

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/op...pagewanted=all

What Happened to Obama?By DREW WESTEN
Published: August 6, 2011
Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”



an excerpt:

Like most Americans, at this point, I have no idea what Barack Obama — and by extension the party he leads — believes on virtually any issue. The president tells us he prefers a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction, one that weds “revenue enhancements” (a weak way of describing popular taxes on the rich and big corporations that are evading them) with “entitlement cuts” (an equally poor choice of words that implies that people who’ve worked their whole lives are looking for handouts). But the law he just signed includes only the cuts. This pattern of presenting inconsistent positions with no apparent recognition of their incoherence is another hallmark of this president’s storytelling. He announces in a speech on energy and climate change that we need to expand offshore oil drilling and coal production — two methods of obtaining fuels that contribute to the extreme weather Americans are now seeing. He supports a health care law that will use Medicaid to insure about 15 million more Americans and then endorses a budget plan that, through cuts to state budgets, will most likely decimate Medicaid and other essential programs for children, senior citizens and people who are vulnerable by virtue of disabilities or an economy that is getting weaker by the day. He gives a major speech on immigration reform after deporting a million immigrants in two years, breaking up families at a pace George W. Bush could never rival in all his years as president.

THE real conundrum is why the president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him, and hoping they won’t realize which hand is holding the rabbit. That a large section of the country views him as a socialist while many in his own party are concluding that he does not share their values speaks volumes — but not the volumes his advisers are selling: that if you make both the right and left mad, you must be doing something right.

There are certain types of people in the world with a personality defect that need everyone to like them. President Obama is such a person. These people can never be leaders.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Clip-Clop

There are certain types of people in the world with a personality defect that need everyone to like them. President Obama is such a person. These people can never be leaders.

I don't think that's it. I think it's just that he truly views himself as a conciliator. That's why he's such a poor negotiator.

[alysheba4]

Originally Posted by Riot

I don't think that's it. I think it's just that he truly views himself as a conciliator. That's why he's such a poor negotiator.

explain please.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by alysheba4

explain please.

I disagree with the assessment that he's insecure and needy. I think that's laughable and ridiculously wrong, based upon how he's acted his adult life, and how he acts now.

I think he views himself as a conciliator mediating between parties, "the adult in the room", and obviously puts that before being partisan. Which infuriates his base.

[Clip-Clop]

Originally Posted by Riot

I disagree with the assessment that he's insecure and needy. I think that's laughable and ridiculously wrong, based upon how he's acted his adult life, and how he acts now.

I think he views himself as a conciliator mediating between parties, "the adult in the room", and obviously puts that before being partisan. Which infuriates his base.

The "adult in the room" is supposed to be commanding and make the calls. How someone views themselves and how you view them and how I view them are all very different.

Insecure and needy are excessive descriptions of the truth.

[Riot]

The "adult in the room" is supposed to be commanding and make the calls. How someone views themselves and how you view them and how I view them are all very different.

Yep. We just see it differently.

[Danzig]

that's the problem, conciliation hasn't gotten us anywhere...
one way he tried to make everyone happy was by agreeing to extend the bush tax cuts-a huge mistake.
plus, if you keep showing you're willing to bend, guess what the opposition is going to keep trying? they certainly aren't going to reciprocate in kind.

we all have heard the adage about what happens if you try to please everyone. the republicans have been wrong about many things, the dems as well. giving in on a wrong thing does not suddenly make that wrong become right.


i think they should offer to take obamacare off the books in return for a tax increase. the problem i see with obamacare is that it still has too many questions-especially for potential employers. they are hesitant to hire, as they aren't quite sure what the cost of employing people will be here in the next couple years. if that is a hiring inhibitor, it needs to go. anything that will grow jobs needs to be the #1 priority, as it supposedly was a couple years ago. more employment, and all the other dominoes fall. medicaire costs decrease, the deficit because more taxes are coming in, etc, etc, etc.