So Obama walks into a car dealership...

[bluefrog]

LINK

 

[Denny Crane]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chevy-volt-still-not-selling_581956.html

Chevy Volt: Still Not Selling

The July sales numbers are out and the Chevy Volt continues to electrify (get it?) the country. GM sold … 125 Volts last month!

 

[BrianFromWA]

Thanks for the link, but I have to admit that that opinion piece struck me as idiotic on a few different levels.

Even though Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, GOP demagoguery proved effective enough that in the end a watered-down health-care bill barely made it over the finish line.

Am I mis-comprehending, or did Ms. Ball just say that "GOP Demagoguery" caused the "negotiation" that watered-down the health-care bill?

As Paul Krugman pointed out at the time, Obama indicated that he did not include a debt-ceiling increase as part of the deal because he takes "John Boehner at his word -- that nobody, Democrat or Republican, is willing to see the full faith and credit of the United States government collapse, that that would not be a good thing to happen."

I didn't remember this, but Krugman did use a quote from the President in December that said this. But I can't find anything about Boehner saying this.

The next hostage situation arrived when it was time to pass a budget or face a government shutdown. The impasse was broken when the president agreed to what he called "the biggest annual spending cut in history." At $38.5 billion, it was actually a larger cut than Republicans had originally asked for

Ms Ball goes out of her way to proclaim that the Tea Party contingent is the "bomb-throwing" segment of the R party (again borrowing from Krugman), but then neglects to say that "even though it was bigger than the R's had originally asked for, it wasn't close to what the Tea Partiers were proposing (and willing to fight for).

You can probably make a pretty good guess as to what the outcome of Round Two of the debt ceiling fight will be just by finding out what the Republicans want and then tacking to the right by about 10 or 20 percent

And if that happens, we'll still be overrunning our budget by trillions a year. If the President is such a horrible negotiator with the bomb-throwers, why did the Balanced Budget part not get put into the final bill?

Here's a blurb from the NYT:

But Mr. McConnell sees it differently. By his way of thinking, the risk of default was a clarifying kind of moment for lawmakers, who too often refuse to tackle hard problems. (Mr. Obama is often known to agree that lawmakers are too apt to “kick the can down the road” rather than confront difficult issues.)

Mr. McConnell said the just-ended debate in Washington created “an entirely new template” for future attempts to raise the debt ceiling.

“This kind of discussion isn’t something to dread; it’s something to welcome,” Mr. McConnell said. “And while the president may not have particularly enjoyed this debate, it was a debate that Washington needed to have.”

Self-proclaimed liberal analysts like Ms. Ball may not like the "negotiation" that went on, but it's intellectually ignorant to think that this was the R's fault for "bomb throwing" and "hostage taking", and the reason that the President's policies suck are becuase he caved to the R's out of some liberal idealism.

 

[Denny Crane]

Voting on a balanced budget amendment is part of the Bill.

On health care, it looked to me like the Dems desperately wanted at least one Republican vote so they could proclaim it as bipartisan. Political cover for later on when it outright sucks.

Oddly, when 5 Democrats vote against a debt ceiling increase, it's not bipartisan.

 

[BrianFromWA]

"voting" on one is, "having" one is not.

The Balanced Budget amendment is not going to be popular, but it needs to be done. And I have zero faith that this congress will vote for it. There's no need for them to stick their necks out for it. Hell, old people put commercials out on CNN when there was a projected cut of $100B from Medicare. No one put out a commercial saying that even with that $100B cut Medicare was still $500+B overrun.

 

[Eastoff]

As I understand it, when the Democrats had a chance to raise the debt ceiling with a larger majority in office, they waited because they didn't want to look bad for the next election. Then they lost the election anyway. With that said, I don't think the democrats got anything they wanted out of the debt ceiling raise.

 

[Denny Crane]

"voting" on one is, "having" one is not.

The Balanced Budget amendment is not going to be popular, but it needs to be done. And I have zero faith that this congress will vote for it. There's no need for them to stick their necks out for it. Hell, old people put commercials out on CNN when there was a projected cut of $100B from Medicare. No one put out a commercial saying that even with that $100B cut Medicare was still $500+B overrun.

They could vote for a BBA that requires some future congress to deal with the issue. Likely how it would get done!

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Damn, I was expecting a great joke and punchline with that thread title. That was kind of weak . . .

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Damn, I was expecting a great joke and punchline with that thread title. That was kind of weak . . .

That's what I was thinking.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

yadda, yadda, yadda.....and he says, "hey, I never got my oil change".

 

[PapaG]

Damn, I was expecting a great joke and punchline with that thread title. That was kind of weak . . .

So Obama walks into a car dealer and says, hey, give me a car!

Nope. Still needs work...

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

.....and he steals a car from the dealer and gives it to an unemployed, able-bodied person draining the system! then tells the owner of the car dealer to fuck off! true story! :MARIS61:

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

....and he wins a Noble Peace Prize!

 

[The_Lillard_King]

with a priest, and a duck. Obama learns from a salesman that no one is buying cars these days. Obama says he will personally buy two cars and asks if he can make payments based on the gov'ts credit. The priest, upon hearing this, starts to pray for the salesman to accept Obama's gov't as good credit. The duck, needing a ride home, rolled his eyes, looked at the salesman and said "no worries, I've got the bill."



???????

 

[jlprk]

The opening post captures how we liberals think of Obama, who is to the right of even Clinton. Republicans are killing capitalism permanently, and I'd rather have a Republican president take the blame. I'll probably vote for a Republican in 2012. I'll be dying about when the catastrophes hit in the 2020s, so what do I care.

 

[Denny Crane]

....and he wins a Noble Peace Prize!

We have a winner!

 

[Denny Crane]

with a priest, and a duck. Obama learns from a salesman that no one is buying cars these days. Obama says he will personally buy two cars and asks if he can make payments based on the gov'ts credit. The priest, upon hearing this, starts to pray for the salesman to accept Obama's gov't as good credit. The duck, needing a ride home, rolled his eyes, looked at the salesman and said "no worries, I've got the bill."



???????

It was a Peking duck, of course.

 

[bluefrog]

Self-proclaimed liberal analysts like Ms. Ball may not like the "negotiation" that went on, but it's intellectually ignorant to think that this was the R's fault for "bomb throwing" and "hostage taking", and the reason that the President's policies suck are becuase he caved to the R's out of some liberal idealism.

I agree with Ball that Obama has sucked at negotiating. It's hard to make a case that the R's have conceded more than Obama on the big issues.

I disagree on the reasoning why he sucks at negotiating though. He talks like a liberal but acts like a neo-con. He's had numerous opportunities to act on the issues important to liberals, yet time and time again he has taken the right's side (Gitmo, patriot act, tax cuts, etc...). Cash for clunkers and minority judge appointees. That's all the liberals get from Obama.

He's just another politician. He doesn't care about his base, he just cares about reelection. That's why he sucks at negotiating.

 

[bluefrog]

Damn, I was expecting a great joke and punchline with that thread title. That was kind of weak . . .

C'mon, the lady voice thing at the end didn't get you. Comedic Gold!

It would have beeh funnier if let's say Obama didn't buy the car, the entire country would have to walk to work. And also the salesman potentially could lose his job if that happened. And the other dealer didn't actually have any cars

 

[jlprk]

I agree with Ball that Obama has sucked at negotiating. It's hard to make a case that the R's have conceded more than Obama on the big issues.

I disagree on the reasoning why he sucks at negotiating though. He talks like a liberal but acts like a neo-con. He's had numerous opportunities to act on the issues important to liberals, yet time and time again he has taken the right's side (Gitmo, patriot act, tax cuts, etc...). Cash for clunkers and minority judge appointees. That's all the liberals get from Obama.

He's just another politician. He doesn't care about his base, he just cares about reelection. That's why he sucks at negotiating.

He's a fraud. He sides with the conservatives on everything. If he can't take their side, he pretends to be with the other side, buying time till he can supposedly cave in to what he wanted in the first place.

 

[Denny Crane]

So he bought a used car...

A 1992 Accord with 392K miles.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I agree with Ball that Obama has sucked at negotiating. It's hard to make a case that the R's have conceded more than Obama on the big issues.

I disagree on the reasoning why he sucks at negotiating though. He talks like a liberal but acts like a neo-con. He's had numerous opportunities to act on the issues important to liberals, yet time and time again he has taken the right's side (Gitmo, patriot act, tax cuts, etc...). Cash for clunkers and minority judge appointees. That's all the liberals get from Obama.

He's just another politician. He doesn't care about his base, he just cares about reelection. That's why he sucks at negotiating.

I think he's a poor negotiator because he only seems to have two ways of doing so- when he had the majority in Congress, it was the zero compromise 'my way or the highway' approach; but now that he's lost his majority, it's 'screw me, but respect me in the morning' approach. He seems to lack skills for forging a good compromise.

 

[bluefrog]

So he bought a used car...

A 1992 Accord with 392K miles.

I believe it had 340k miles, no radio or ashtray and the interior had a light "meth" smell to it.