Hoffmania!

The White House Has Heard Enough BS

After hearing the screams of "failure" from the wingnuts and the rest of the GOP base for an entire year, the Obama administration is fed up and is now trying to school these nimrods. Good luck with that. Seriously.

By the way, as predicted, the GOP isn't handling last Friday very well. Now they're obstructing against their own ideas that the Dems are offering to try. Is America paying attention?

You Have To Watch This

President Obama walked into the lions' den today and looked for a fight. He was a guest at the GOP retreat in Baltimore where he addressed the GOP leadership (sharing the stage with John Boehner and Eric Cantor), then asked them to give him their best shots to his face. He responded as a real president. No snarkiness. No anger. No stupid giggling. No nicknames.

And no, Sean Hannity...no teleprompters.

He gave them nothing but straight answers and, most of all, respect.

If that respect doesn't get returned, America will know, and America must demand he proceed without their obstruction or their infantile threats. We'll know by the Sunday morning yapfests. Here he is - the President Obama we were waiting for.

Example: 38 minutes in, he confronts their fear of working with him because of their fear that their base will turn against them. Kind of a Pandora's Box moment. How he handles the following question about the GOP's health care proposal is also a clinic on skillfully turning their own words into reality, and effectively throwing it back into their laps. And after that, he goes after their abosolutism.

He made the first step to turning around the all-or-nothing mindset in the GOP. We'll see if they get the message.

UPDATE: Chris Hayes from The Nation: "This Q&A really should be a regular thing. I'd like to see him have to answer tough questions from progressive caucus members as well." Amen.

Sometimes, Great Minds DO Think Alike

Frank Rich:

Obama might look at another pivotal moment in the Kennedy presidency — and this time heed the example.

The incident unfolded in April 1962 — some 15 months into the new president’s term — when J.F.K. was infuriated by the U.S. Steel chairman’s decision to break a White House-brokered labor-management contract agreement and raise the price of steel (but not wages). Kennedy was no radical. He hailed from the American elite — like Obama, a product of Harvard, but, unlike Obama, the patrician scion of a wealthy family. And yet he, like that other Harvard patrician, F.D.R., had no hang-ups about battling his own class.

Kennedy didn’t settle for the generic populist rhetoric of Obama’s latest threats to “fight” unspecified bankers some indeterminate day. He instead took the strong action of dressing down U.S. Steel by name. As Richard Reeves writes in his book “President Kennedy,” reporters were left “literally gasping.” The young president called out big steel for threatening “economic recovery and stability” while Americans risked their lives in Southeast Asia. J.F.K. threatened to sic his brother’s Justice Department on corporate records and then held firm as his opponents likened his flex of muscle to the power grabs of Hitler and Mussolini. (Sound familiar?) U.S. Steel capitulated in two days. The Times soon reported on its front page that Kennedy was at “a high point in popular support.”

Can anyone picture Obama exerting such take-no-prisoners leadership to challenge those who threaten our own economic recovery and stability at a time of deep recession and war? That we can’t is a powerful indicator of why what happened in Massachusetts will not stay in Massachusetts if this White House fails to reboot.

Well, Frank...looks like they're finally hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del. Hopefully, that will include naming names and not fearing the tiny but vocal opposition.

Obama Comes Out With Guns Blazing

This is pretty breathtaking. Looks like trying to work with the corporate douchebags is now off the table if this morning's fireside chat is any indication.

Checking gut. Oh yeah. It's there.

The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo. They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people.

Of course, like clockwork, we’ve seen folks on cable television who know better, waving these industry-funded studies in the air. We’ve seen industry insiders –- and their apologists -– citing these studies as proof of claims that just aren’t true…Even the authors of one of these studies have now admitted publicly that the insurance companies actually asked them to do an incomplete job.

It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, “Take one of these, and call us in a decade.” Well, not this time.

The Official Announcement

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

McCain Shows the Right Stuff

We criticize, we'll also praise. At least one GOP heavyweight has class in this discussion.

JOHN KING: The president of the United States, who a year ago this weekend was your campaign rival heading into the final month of the campaign, is the Nobel Peace laureate for 2009. Deserved?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I’m sure that the president is very honored to receive this award. And Nobel Committee, I can’t divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations. And I’m sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to. But as Americans, we’re proud when our president receives an award of that prestigious category.

KING: Did it surprise you, a little more than eight months into office, at a time when, yes, he has set some lofty goals around the world, but he has not won more NATO troops for Afghanistan, he has not convinced the Israelis to do what he says is necessary to sit down with the Palestinians? Were you surprised?

MCCAIN: Well, I think all of us were surprised at — at the decision. But I — I think Americans are always pleased when their president is recognized by something on this order.

No dig there. Even the White House was surprised.

Watching the Wheels Turn

TPM has a live reaction wire to the president's Nobel Prize. It's fascinating to see the evolution of it all.

So...The Nobel Peace Prize is "a Political Liability" Now?

I don't understand why the childish bitterness of the GOP even finds a scintilla of ink in this story, which is how the world is breathing a collective sigh of relief because America advanced from eight years of neanderthal pugilism to an era of mature diplomacy.

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after Mr. Obama made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president.

The award, announced here by the Nobel Committee while much of official Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.

For Mr. Obama, one of the nation’s youngest presidents, the award is an extraordinary recognition that puts him in the company of world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, who won for helping to bring an end to the cold war, and Nelson Mandela, who sought an end to apartheid. But it is also a potential political liability at home; already, Republicans are criticizing the president, contending he won more for his “star power” than his actual achievements.

Yes. Seeking diplomacy on a scorched earth left by the worst president this country has ever had forced upon it - and being recognized as someone trying to mop the mess up - is now a liability.

What are they saying? Start the ball rolling, RNC Chairdork Michael Steele.

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights,” Mr. Steele said in a statement. “One thing is certain — President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”

And...that's it. The human sock puppet is the only Republican they cite in the story. Now, that's not to say the real leaders of the GOP, the pasty-faced radio and teevee jowl-jigglers, won't pick up on that talking point.

But it's just another example of whenever something good happens to the United States of America under the Obama presidency, the official response by the Republican Party is to hate their country and destroy its leader by trashing the victories and cheering the failures.

They know their crying will be picked up and launched into the stratosphere by their media lapdogs - all in the name of scoring political points and crashing the stage as Obama succeeds. (How close are we to Boehner jumping in front of Obama as he accepts the Nobel while shouting, "George Bush had the best video ever made?")

Fucking infants.

Our rage aside, congratulations, President Obama. At least some people in the world understand what you're trying to do while facing enormous obstruction from a lot of your own people.

Happy Anniversary, Barack and Michelle

Jack and Jill Politics has a great photo gallery which should set the cheaters and philanderers in the GOP off even more.

NYT Poll: Burying the Lead

Here's what you'll be hearing all damned day.

At 56 percent, Mr. Obama’s job approval rating is similar to what President Ronald Reagan’s was at this point in his first term (53 percent); President Bill Clinton’s was at 43 percent. Still, Mr. Obama’s approval is down from 68 percent in the spring.

Here's the bigger story.

Most Americans trust Mr. Obama more than Republicans to make the right decisions on the issue; 76 percent said Republicans had not even laid out a clear health care plan.

And by a lopsided margin, respondents said that Mr. Obama and not Republicans had made an effort to cross party lines and strike a deal that has the support of both parties.

What We're Up Against

A reader to Sullivan:

Millions marched against the war. They were ignored.
70,000 marched against Obama. They got wall-to-wall coverage.

People showed up with t-shirts at a Bush speech and got arrested.
People showed up with guns to an Obama speech and got interviewed.

Whispers of criticism against Bush's policies were shut down and branded as America-hating.
Republican leaders and media giants openly pray for Obama's failure and they're asked to elaborate.

Bush was given eight years and earned the hatred against him
"Obama has not had that luxury."

Can I get an Amen?

#HealthCare - We Really Need To Clear This Up, #TeaParty People...

When a president comes to the opposing party to ask for their ideas and input for an important piece of legislation that affects the health of American children, adults and seniors...

...and their ideas and input consist solely of:

"You're a socialist."
"You're a fascist."
"You're a nazi."
"You're Goebbels."
"You're trying to kill Grandma."
"You're turning terrorists loose on our streets."

...but not a scintilla of help other than leaving everything to the corrupt and greedy GOP-enabled status quo...

That's not a dictatorship. That's a president trying to be the grownup in the room because he's trying to negotiate with infants and bullies.

They'll continue stamping their feet in the corner until they can come to the grownup table. Until then, they cried and bullied their way out of the discussion, and they'll just have to live with that.

They had no problem letting the previous vice president throw their entire collective tax dollars away on a war that made billions for his company, Haliburton/KBR and killed thousands of our soldiers (and hundreds of thousands of the people we were supposed to be saving from Saddam Hussein). But they're up in arms to spend a lot less on the health of fellow Americans? That's not a tea party. That's not patriotism. That's just abject insanity.

Any questions? I don't want to hear them. I've heard enough.

Getting to the Roots: The #Racism Runs Rampant

No, these are NOT from the Free Republic. These are just a few of the dozens of racially-charged comments at the Washington Post website covering the Van Jones resignation.

The difference between VAN JONES and 'the OBAMA' - one BLACK PUNK went to YALE LAW one wemt to HARVARD LAW. Ha.

Zyskandar A. Jaimot, Orlando, Fl., state of STOOPID FLORIDA TRANSPARENTLY FASCIST CORRUPT OBAMALAND

Posted by: ZyskandarAJaimot | September 6, 2009 2:59 PM

Installation of a socialist government will not be tolerated, and the evil facist administration currently destroying America, will learn that freedom loving citizens will not allow this "change". We will overcome this black period in history.

Obama's liberal supporters see that his base is shrinking and his approval keeps dropping, and we'll need to limit him to one term.

Posted by: spiris333 | September 6, 2009 12:33 PM

This racist black butthole should move to another more tolerant country like Venezuela, or Iran, or Cuba. He would be received like a hero...Hell, I'll even pay for his one way ticket if he promises to bring Obummer, Pelosi, and Reid with him.

Posted by: brooklynborn1 | September 6, 2009 12:21 PM

America has rejected the racist accusations that "Whitey" is out to keep the black man down. It's a great day for America, and equality! ¡Viva la Democracia!

Posted by: Superpower | September 6, 2009 11:46 AM

Libs, you need to investigate the angry black men that you choose to put in power in the future- oh, nevermind you Libs are on the way out.

Posted by: Superpower | September 6, 2009 11:30 AM

An the American Public is seeing more and more of who the real Obama is.
And they don't like what they are seeing.

Good Bye, Van Jones.
Go back to your Black Panther meetings.

Posted by: HawkSprings | September 6, 2009 11:28 AM

What part of "facts" don't you stupid liberals understand. The blacks posting on here that are defending this character are quite obviouly white haters that would defend a child rapist , as long as he was black! GOOD JOB GLENN BECK!

Posted by: algibbs | September 6, 2009 11:22 AM

Holy. Shit. They can deny they're afraid of a black president, but the evidence is really piling up out there.

Pollster.com: Obama Drops Below 50%

Gotta take the bad news with the good, kids. Here's the poll of polls:

Regarding this snapshot of a second in time (albeit a conglomerate of many snapshots), Greg Sargent wanted desperately to debunk Politico's assertion that the administration is supposedly deploying a strategy of standing up to the left to look like they're in control of things. It's not exactly the rope-a-dope tactic they used in last year's campaign, so why is this even being tossed around?

Sadly, Sargent reminds us of the Washington game.

Liberals will ask why unnamed advisers aren’t showing the same zeal for “staring down” Republicans and centrist Dems. After all, the GOP’s approval rating still languishes; GOP leaders have ruled out compromise unless Obama dramatically scales down his ambitions; and the GOP Senator leading negotiations is openly working to defeat “Obamacare.”

But the unbreakable rule is that when Dems confront the left, it’s the right kind of tough, and when they stand up to Republicans, it’s the bad, shrill kind. And of course party leaders can’t take on moderate Dems, because that would be showing disrespect for the “center.”

I just don't think this administration subscribes to that.

I do believe, however, that the very second the polls dropped below the percentage that gave Obama the victory in November, that should have been the clearest sign that they need to push hard for that centerpiece legislation and drop the whole bipartisan charade. Let's hope it's not too late.

UPDATE: Jane Hamsher is rallying the troops.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Pollster.com's graphic above tracks all polls in real time. Obviously, new information has been folded in and Obama's back above 50%. Still below the margin he won by. My assertion still stands.

"Public Choice," Not "Public Option"

Thom Hartmann has been telling the White House to make this slight marketing tweak to the health care debate, since the GOP has lyingly decided the public option takes away choice of coverage and/or doctors. Now that they're aggressively going after the GOP lies, this would be a good word choice. Not word option, but word choice.

#Obama's Latest Poll Numbers

The WaPo-ABC News poll:

Among all Americans, 49 percent now express confidence that Obama will make the right decisions for the country, down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark in his presidency. Forty-nine percent now say they think he will be able to spearhead significant improvements in the system, down nearly 20 percentage points from before he took office.

The president's overall approval rating stands at 57 percent, 12 points lower than its April peak, as disapproval has ticked up to 40 percent, its highest yet.

Let's put aside the fact that BushCheney would have KILLED for approval numbers that high (they did kill, but failed). That first part intrigues me.

60 percent of the country was confident in his leadership, now down to 49. The feeling is he's not showing enough leadership during this insane summer. Essentially the entire discussion's been dominated by the media's search for "good TV" aka the screamers with guns.

When the dust settles, the White House has to grab this discussion by the throat. Y'know. Lead. More than a majority of America is still believing.

Bush got so much more with so much less. Pull a "Don't tie my hands on this" if you must. Call the health care situation a smoking gun which will become a mushroom cloud. Say that insurance companies have stockpiled WMD. Do whatever it takes. But lead.

#Obama - The New Anti-BS Website is Up

I just checked. We'reSickOfThisRightWingBullshit.com is available. But you're right...it's a little unbecoming for the White House website. So here's what they came up with, just this minute released.

Click it to see it. To their credit, they're showing the rancor at the town halls and displaying where it's all coming from. A big step in the right direction.

Dems Going It Alone on #HealthCare - And The Problem Is...?

There is no downside to this. None. Go for it.

The GOP used America for its bitch for eight years...and they didn't even have a supermajority.

It's our turn to use that majority for good instead of evil. They created wars, a class divide, and shut the Dems out of not just their own discussions, but from even holding hearings on the house floor (They were relegated to basement meeting rooms).

All we're trying to do is make the weakest of us healthier, because, to use the old military motto, you're only as good as your weakest link.

And they're calling us the nazis.

Eight years of GOP mob rule, and we have absolutely cratered as a country.

The bottom line is, we can honestly say that Obama reached out to the GOP. In return, he got his ass kicked across the country, got Hitler mustaches painted on his face and has the smarmiest of them toting guns to his outreach.

Bluntly, we say fuck them. Fuck them hard and loud. We tried, but all they did was lie, lie and lie.

Rahm Emanuel, the White House Chief-of-Staff, threw this down yesterday, and it speaks volumes.

“The Republican leadership,” Mr. Emanuel said, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”

Someone in there gets it. We want to save lives in America, not end lives in Iraq.

Mr. President, go for it. You have the permission of the voters, resoundingly signed, sealed and delivered on November 4, 2008.

Shakedown the wafflers in our party and get this thing through. The GOP and the Blue Dogs only understand force, and this one's from the people. Nail them and ram this through.

Otherwise, you'll be facing consequences much greater than a few loudmouths at town halls in 2012.

#HealthCare - JUST DO WHAT THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR!

It's painfully obvious the smear campaigns of the right have utterly poisoned the health care debate. A new NBC News Poll shows people are now opposed to a government-run system, 47% to 43% for it - a complete turnaround from a month ago.

I'd rather we went with the poll that really mattered - the one from last November 4th. Come on, President Obama. Step off the curb, Congress. Do what we voted for in November. Slap around the blue dogs. Use the belt on 'em. Take the hill - literally AND figuratively. You're in charge. ACT like it. The GOP sure had no problem with that for eight years and that ended up with a fucking WAR with the wrong country and corporations run amok on our citizens.

Either regroup and get on the goddamn message, or just hand everything back over to the GOP in 2012.

But stop this horseshit waffling and forget reaching across the aisle to people who are trying to destroy you. Bipartisanship? Being wishy-washy? It. Isn't. Working. Stop doing it.

#HealthCare - Forget Whole Foods Boycotts - Write to Obama

Seriously, here's where you need to direct your efforts. Tell the White House to stop trying to capitulate to the 20 percenters and listen to the people who elected him.

Click here, and see how serious they are about hearing from us.

Death Threats Against Obama 400% Higher Than Bush

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage must be proud of their achievement.

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.

Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.

Most however, are kept under wraps because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts. Although most threats are not credible, each one has to be investigated meticulously.

Obama Not Running from DeMint's Asinine "Waterloo" Remark

They sent out this email just now...essentially a major "screw you" to the good senator and his clumsy attempt at partisan character assassination.

The GOP truly is the party of nothing.

Last week, Republican Senator Jim DeMint made it pretty clear why the opponents of health care reform are fighting so hard. As he told a special interest attack group, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." Here's how the President responded:

Think about that. This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy. And we can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake.

With Congress only days away from finalizing their plans for reform, it's time to stand up with the President and fight back against this disastrous brand of old-style politics. So we need as many people as possible to publicly support the President's principles for health care reform and call on Congress to act.

Before the first full votes in Congress, we'll publish the signatures in newspaper ads across the nation, to make sure your voice is heard.

Watch President Obama's full response, then add your name in support of reform. Or if you've already signed, please forward this message to every one of your friends and neighbors so they can join you.

The Cairo Speech

It's a bit of a change in tone from "Axis of Evil"...

Quote This

“We have a joke around the White House. We’re just going to keep on telling the truth until it stops working."

-President Obama

Imagine That

Right wingers having brain explosions over Justice Sotomayor. Yawn.

I'm dyin' to see how they really feel about demanding an up-or-down vote now.