In perhaps his touchiest press conference yet, President Obama reiterated his opposition to the extension of current tax rates on top-earners, while defending a deal he brokered with Republicans that would do just that.
A prickly Obama, at times raising his voice, called Senate Republicans “hostage-takers” and “bomb-throwers” for opposing his agenda, and said critics on the Left who portray him as weak on core issues are “sanctimonious.”
Obama maintained that while he remains “as opposed to the high-income tax cuts today as I was four years ago,” he knows that he “can’t win in the Senate.”
“I have not been able to budge [Republicans],” Obama said. “I haven’t persuaded Mitch McConnell and I haven’t persuaded John Boehner.”
“If this were just a matter of being able to persuade the American people to my side, then I would just stick to my guns,” he said, but added that “this isn’t an abstract debate. This is real money, for real people.”
Obama had harsh words for the same congressional Republicans with whom he brokered the tax deal, saying that cuts for the rich are the GOP’s “holy grail” and “central economic doctrine.” Echoing comments by Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Obama blamed Republicans for holding middle-class tax cuts “hostage,” and said it was “tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers.”
But while he acknowledged the necessity of striking a bargain this time around, he took pains to argue that the next two years will be different.
“For the last two years Republicans have had the benefit of watching us take all these emergency actions . . . watching us preside over a $1.3 trillion deficit we inherited. . . . Well in the next two years they are going to have to show me what they can do,” he said.
“I will be happy to see the Republicans test whether I am itching for a fight on a whole range of issues. I suspect they will find I am.”
The martial language directed at the GOP notwithstanding, Obama reserved perhaps his harshest criticism for critics on the professional Left. He complained about the New York Times giving higher placement to the administration’s failures than its successes, and said “purists” on the Left had set unattainable standards for success.
“This is the public option debate all over again,” Obama said of leftward criticism of the tax deal. “So I pass a signature piece of legislation . . . something Democrats have been fighting for for a hundred years,” but since it lacked a “public option” it was seen by liberals and progressives as “a sign of weakness.”
“If that is the standard . . . then let’s face it, we will never get anything done,” Obama said. “Sanctimonious” progressives “will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people.”
“That can’t be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat. This is a big, diverse country,” Obama added, raising his voice. “Not everybody agrees with us. . . . The New York Times editorial page does not permeate across America.”
Life imitates The Onion. "Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000 Word E-Mail." External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama has allowed very rich people to fund his entire career, so his latest demagoguery is all the more off-putting.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSomeone (me) wrote this in a Comment on November 30 (link -- External Link
):
"The trend line over the next two years is that President Obama's instinctive disdain for the vast majority of the American people will decay into open hatred. Domestically he will be stymied at every turn. He will also get frustrated and bored with his lack of success in foreign affairs. Obama's reaction to all the immovable objects in his path will be to reject the job of President as not worthy of his greatness. Golf and basketball will occupy more of his time. The Oval Office will resemble that Fuhrerbunker scene from the "Downfall" movie from time to time. The good news is that this sullen and withdrawn executive will stop destroying the country. Even better: no second term."
President Obama appears to be fast-tracking the process. I've been getting this vibe from the President for some time now: essentially, he really doesn't like/hates most of us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's like he's melting in front of our eyes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy is he getting all wee weed up?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLooks likes he might be losing his swagger.
After performances like this, you can really see why having nobody in the Administration who can tell Obama what he doesn't want to hear is a fatal flaw. That was cringe worthy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe still believes most Americans back Progressive policies despite the last election. Buckle up because it's going to be one game of budgetary "chicken" after another, especially with the vote to increase the Debt Limit. The President of the United States just likened his political opponents to criminals and terrorists. We are (in his eyes) Hostage Takers and Bomb Throwers.
The Battle for 2012 just started.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sorry, but you cannot triangulate with success when you refuse to put on a happy face, refuse to OWN compromises,and call your opposition "hostage takers," or "sanctimonious." Can you imagine a post 1994 Bill Clinton saying such things? While he might have felt that way towards Newt or the professional left, he knew all too well that in order to win over the American public he would need to SELL himself as bipartisan and a uniter. You cannot unite people on such dangerous public rhetoric. Wow!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho, exactly, are the "critics on the professional Left"? Are there people on the "amateur Left"? What are the writers at National Review if not the "professional Right"?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs it still triangulation if the Pres is on one side and everybody else, left, right, and middle are on the other? It's a good thing he has a dog...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI caught snippets of his presser and was astounded by how angry he was. These are uncharted waters for Obama. He has never faced serious opposition in his entire career. He has been handed virtually everything.
He did not look presidential today. He looked like a petulant child being forced to defend himself.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore destruction of the English language by our supposed great orator. Of course it is "central economic doctrine" to say everyone should be treated equally without regard to class distinction (forgetting about the fact that "class warfare" was the only thing motivating Democrats which is a "central economic doctrine").
And it was the GOP who held "hostage" keeping the tax rates the same when the Dems had two whole years to work on this issue and it was the GOP who said do it for everyone, but the Dems who wanted to extend it for only a group of people. This is akin to an actual hostage taker saying that he will let the sick and maimed go free, but will shoot the able-bodied to prove a point.
If anyone was held hostage, it was the President and the American people to a far left ideology that views all money belonging to the government and that they pursued a scorched-Earth policy whereby either some people get to see their taxes not raised or everyone will get their taxes raised. That is a policy based on sheer hatred and there is nothing redeeming for it. Kudos to the President for at least recognizing that the Left was being irrational (although I guess he needed to excoriate the GOP to cover his real ire). However, people like my sister are already stating that they will not support him 2012. He better hope Sarah Palin runs for President.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama’s Press Conference was like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone. He both lambasted the GOP for the very deal that he called the Press Conference to defend, and attacked his liberal base for objecting to the deal for the very same reasons he just blasted the GOP for! If Obama was aware of this epic contradiction, he certainly gave no sign of it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama the Socialist.
Poor Stanley Kurtz is having the rug pulled out from underneath him.
Then again, he wrote a book strangely evocative of this scene from that cult classic, Repo Man:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSomebody remind me again what advantages we got by compromising with these people?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo let me get this straight, Obama chides the Left for being unrealistic, and you guys still continue to hammer him for being angry, out of touch, and a demagogue?
I'm trying to understand how Obama can be a committed leftist and chide Leftism as being too unrealistic at the same time. What Obama essentially did was tick off his entire base to compromise with Republicans and give them what the wanted. You can't tell "the Left" to get over it and learn to compromise and be a ideological demagogue at the same time. What Obama told "the Left" today is "I'm not one of you, and never have been." The reaction by NRO readers? Look how angry Obama was!
The need for partisans to attack Presidents, no matter what they do, is a strange phenomenon. I would think you guys would get tired of saying/hearing the same partisan blather no matter how events seem to contradict it. Its also odd that most of you thought "the Left" went overboard in its reaction to Bush, but you seem intent on doing the same thing to Obama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGee, what an inspiring uniter!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCarwin Obama has been the most left wing president we possibly have had since FDR at least. He is compromising with Republicans because he has no choice he ignored them for two years but the election changed his circumstances. He is made at the Left Wing not because he is centrist but because he is angry they no longer worship at the Obama alter as they once did.
To take his side for a moment he has a point that if the Left is not enthusiastically happy with him they will not like anyone ever. They should be behind him 100% but they are not they want to go even farther but they do not have a realistic ideal of what the public in American will take.
But going back to Obama he compromised because he was forced to by the election. He hates republicans and dislikes the necessity of capitalism and now loathes the Senate. But to move forward at all he has to make some deals with Republicans he hates it but he HAS to do it. I think you are misreading the situation over all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat people like Carwin fail to get is that Obama is for Obama. He could care less about the Democrat Party. It is just a vessel for his travels to universal greatness, seen through his eyes only. He is the ultimate narcissist. Of Clinton it was once said, by a FOB, "There is no there, there." Obama really believes he is "The One," he has said so. In his mind he is doing fine, just a failure to communicate keeps him from taking over ALL of the economy and driving it further into the depths of Hell, as planned.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse_Isn't this deal sorta bipartisan?
Is bipartisan bad now? This is so confusing.
Are we going to hear 2 legs good, 4 legs better next?
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