A Heap of BS from The Washington Post: "George W. Obama"

[MadBadger]

From the small-minded idiotic mind of Deputy Editor Jackson Diehl

Bush squandered his chance to lead. Three cardinal errors are commonly cited: The president failed to ask a willing nation for sacrifice, instead inviting consumers to shop and heaping on more tax cuts. Rather than forge a bipartisan response to the crisis, he used it to ram through big, polarizing pieces of the Republican Party's ideological agenda -- from asserting presidential powers to breach treaties to eliminating protections for federal workers. Worst, he chose to launch a war of choice in Iraq, thereby shredding what remained of post-Sept. 11 national unity and diverting attention and resources from the fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

That brings us to the first weeks of the Obama administration, set against the background of a scary and steadily deepening global economic crisis. Last month, in his first address to Congress, Obama warned the country that fixing the huge problems in the financial markets and housing and auto industries would require a historic effort. "None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy," he said. "But this is America. We don't do what's easy. We do what is necessary to move this country forward."

Minutes later, Obama spelled out what he proposes this to mean for 98 percent of Americans: "You will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime. In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut . . . and these checks are on the way."

So much for summoning the country to sacrifice. Obama has been no more willing to ask average Americans to pitch in, even once the recession is over, than Bush. What about bipartisanship? Like Bush, Obama offered a few early gestures. And like Bush, he has been unapologetic about using emergency measures like the stimulus bill to press polarizing Democratic priorities, such as the expansion of Medicaid benefits to the unemployed and union-friendly contracting provisions.

The Bush administration pushed through the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 by suggesting that opponents didn't want to stop another al-Qaeda attack. In his first news conference, Obama suggested that congressional opponents of the stimulus package "believe that we should do nothing" about the economic emergency. Last week his political team launched a concerted and ugly campaign to portray Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party and "I want the president to fail" as its slogan. Republicans who have taken the crisis seriously, offered their own solutions and even supported the president on occasion -- Sen. John McCain comes to mind -- have been ignored.

So Obama hasn't strayed far from Karl Rove's playbook for routing the opposition. But surely, you say, he's planning nothing as divisive or as risky as the Iraq war? Well, that's where the health-care plan comes in: a $634 billion (to begin) "historic commitment," as Obama calls it, that (like the removal of Saddam Hussein) has lurked in the background of the national agenda for years. We know from the Clinton administration that any attempt to create a national health-care system will touch off an enormous domestic battle, inside and outside Congress. If anything, Obama has raised the stakes by proposing no funding source other than higher taxes on wealthy Americans, allowing Republicans to raise the cries of "socialism" and "class warfare."

More BS from the Washington Post here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030601328.html?nav%3Dhcmodule⊂=AR

[annabanana]

1. And the Post sinks further & further into the land of fantasy...

where the vast majority of Americans are against a National Health Plan...and unfettered, unregulated capitalism can fix everything with only a few more tax cuts for the wealthiest...

[blogslut]

2. Jesus

Mr. Diehl, you are full of shit.

[PSPS]

3. Translation: What we need are more tax cuts for millionaires (including Jackson Diehl)

One doesn't expect any better from the pages of the WP. It's reliably right-wing. But when they claim that McCain has "supported (Obama) on occasion," it shows that Diehl is still living in his non-reality based bubble. Plus, I'm willing to bet that he has a lot of stock in big pharma and health insurance companies.

[bluestateguy]

4. These people live in a sheltered world of Georgetown Cocktail parties

This bozo implicitly calls for tax increases on all Americans, which would be a political non-starter, and then laments the lack of bipartisanship (which seems to be an obsessive priority for newspaper editorial boards). The irony here is that if Obama called for raising everyone's taxes he'd get bipartisanship all right: total opposition from both sides.

Then he asks what the average American is sacrificing. Well, who do you think the people are who are losing their jobs in this low-grade depression? Who are the people who are underemployed? Who are the people, who go to work every day in fear of bringing home a pink slip? Working people are sacrificing every day, regardless of what Obama does: they are cutting back on cable TV, halting going out to restaurants, cutting back on vacations, turning down their thermostats, getting haircuts at home rather than the barber shop, and spending less on Christmas and birthday presents. All to sock money in the bank as fast as they possibly can in preparation for a rainy day.

That's your sacrifice asshole.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Very, very true. nt

[SOS]

6. Bombing Iraq = health care because they are both "historic commitments".

Patriot Act = economic stimulus because they are both something.
Limbaugh talks bullsh!t for 90 minutes on CNN = ugly campaign by Obama.
Raising taxes on workers = shared sacrifice
Raising taxes on Wall Street pricks = "class warfare"

This man is an idiot.
It's hard to believe the the WP would print such garbage.