Link.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans say they rarely hear from the president, and members of his own party complain that Mr. Obama and his top aides are handicapping themselves by not reaching out enough.
“When you have relationships with individual members, you can call them up and ask a favor, and a lot of times, if it’s not objectionable, you can get things done,” said Representative Dennis A. Cardoza, Democrat of California....
White House officials, however, counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically. After all, many Americans regard this Congress as dysfunctional, with abysmal approval ratings.
So... if you're dysfunctional with the dysfunctional, you're...
functional!
Despite the narrative in Washington of Mr. Obama as a loner, his friends and aides say he likes people just fine....
That's not a contradiction. You could like people just fine and want nothing to do with the particular people who happen to be in Congress. Don't
you identify with that?
Posts
71 comments:
NY Times has no idea of the anger building against this poltroon.
To help understand Obama, one need not look further than his close personal relationships growing up, and in his college years.
Look at the plus side. Congress and the bureaucracy have gone wild like teenagers left at home with an unlocked liquor cabinet. Party!
" his friends and aides say he likes people just fine...."
If you have to even make a statement like that, you've proven you have a problem. He's a politician, liking people (or faking it well) is a basic requirement for the job.
My question is -- what is he hiding if he only interacts with his 'small and shrinking' inner circle and a few aides -- if he can't have a working relationship with the people he is supposed to work and get along with in Congress and elsewhere?
White House officials, however, counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically. After all, many Americans regard this Congress as dysfunctional, with abysmal approval ratings.
--------------------
Yes, nothing is more presidential than staying as far away from the elected representatives of the people, to assure that nothing gets done...that way, there are actually "issues" to run on if nothing gets solved.
What you see from Obama is Democrat politics in a nutshell: complain about an issue, get people mad about it, and then blame your lot in life on the person that has more than you.
Solving problems is not in the vast majority of Democrat politicians vocabularies.
Ignore NYT. We will give them one story or access to WH, and it will be all positive. It is important for us to have one -ve story in a while. This was it.
Now, about IA, we believe that Newt, Perry, or Paul should win. May be they will come 1-2-3.
We just do not want Romney to win. What if he selects Jindal as his VP. That ticket will be a disaster for us. Everyone in the WH, DNC, and CAP is worried about that to happen. Secretly, we are happy that all independents and democrats are going to vote for Paul by temporary registration. If Paul wins the nomination, we will get these voters back to us.
We cannot lose with Newt, Perry, or Paul as GOP nominee.
GO GOP!
White House officials, however, counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically. After all, many Americans regard this Congress as dysfunctional, with abysmal approval ratings.
These people are so very out of touch.
People hate Congress. People hate that nothing is getting done. The President is doing nothing....ergo.....
We hired this guy to fix things. To do so requires that he do things he would prefer not to do. Everybody who WORKS does this. It is no mystery that the President has to create relationships where none existed before. This President thinks it beneath him to reach out and make friends. This President is proving to be arrogant without cause, an asshole.
This is like whenn the Titanic's captain refused to speak with his crew after they hit the iceberg. How'd that work out?
Browndog, thank you for making me laugh.
Economists call Obama a shithead.
The Gray Lady, in its fumbling incompetence, has struck what's always been wrong with the Left, as many conservatives have contended.
The only like the idea of people.
People, OTOH, they can't stand.
Browndog you hit that one out of the park! :-) I was thinking the same thing.
How the hell did he convince 69.5 million Americans to vote for him in 2008 ie a bi-racial, African/American Muslim born in Kenya? ~ Rhetorical
btw, (7.5) million more than Bush43 in 2004.
People HATE congress but keep re-electing the same people.
Maybe that will happen with Obama.
It seems so.
Nothing wrong with being a loner.
I find it attractive.
tits.
The last place I would ever live, other than anywhere in the horrible south, is DC.
Could you imagine being surrounded by an entire town that works for or with or lobby's the government?
Gross.
Bit tits.
Could you imagine being surrounded by an entire town that works for or with or lobby's the government?
-------------------------
Welcome to Dane County, Wisconsin.
I do not understand the complaints about Obama not getting things done; he has in fact got a lot done. The trouble is, it is all bad.
Shliloh. He convinced a lot of people of good will, many conservatives among them, that he was a wiser choice than the hapless Republican. He did so at a time of extreme economic stress. When he won most, if not all, Americans hoped he would succeed at turning the economy and focusing on the dire problems we faced. Instead he went to work on legacy building and took his attention away from the real problem. He became a disappointment much earlier than could be expected by the expectant. In hindsight many people of goodwill wish he had been vetted harder, had better competition and a resume built on real world experience. Few wanted him to fail in turning the economy. Many wanted his initiatives to fail because they are too costly. As we shall see.
Titus. You would love Atlanta. Gays aplenty and tits.
It's obvious Obama liked the idea of being President but doesn't like actually being President.
After I looked it up, I believe that "perfunctory" is a perfect description of how he has done nearly everything since the inauguration.
But he had a lot on his plate. He holds the record for amount of Presidential golfing in 2011, breaking the previous record held by Barack Obama in 2010, which broke the previous record for 2009 also held by the same chief executive. A hat trick of sorts.
I suspect this is a Hilary Clinton trial balloon being leaked to a dependable leftie paper to see what happens.
Atlanta is the south...gross.
Ronald Reagan learned early in life how to be a great politician, and later in life, how to be a great executive.
Mitt Romney learned early in life how to be a great executive, and proved his skills. He's struggled a bit later in life to be a great politician, but he's learning.
I wouldn't count him out.
Don't look over there-look over here! Obama is bad!
Titus. Lovely homes. High ceilings. Cultured voices. Manners. Tits.
Congress probably feels the same way about him. In any case, I suspect most congressmen poll better than Obama, within their districts. A generic Congress always does badly.
Narcissistic is the descriptor that comes to my mind. Of course the NYT would never use disparaging term to describe a Democrat. But I believe that the soon to be released DSSM-5 may be removing narcissism from it's long, long, list of diagnosis.
No Obama is like Nixon tag?
Welcome to Dane County, Wisconsin
Ignorance. Check out the importance of agriculture in Dane County. $3.4 bn in sales, 17K jobs.
Obama: So lets get to work.
GOP: Where's the damn birth certificate!
Obama: Hmmm, okay then.
Arent all the Republican candidates casting themselves as 'outsiders' this time around? No matter how long they have hung around DC? One would think this is a good thing about Obama. Not playing the circuit.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans say they rarely hear from the president
_____________
Why the hell do Republicans need to "hear from the president"???
Republicans, i.e. Boehner, need to mind their own business and just do the things that they were elected to do, which is STOP Obama, not work with him or sit by the phone fretting about why he doesn't call.
The reason why things are now so effed up, why we need another trillion-dollar debt ceiling increase because we just blew through a trillion dollars in increased debt in FOUR MONTHS is because those dumb ass Republicans keep wanting to dance with Obama. To hell with Obama. Just pass a 2008-level budget, LIKE YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO DO, and be done with it.
Dumb asses.
And of course "let's go to work" can only mean devising more costly programs and interventions at the Federal level. If you are against this, you are a "do nothing."
Oh for more "do nothings."
I've been reluctant to say "Obama is toast" but it's stories like this that are precisely why I think he's going to lose.
By all accounts (including this one) Obama is a detached and imperious President. He hasn't had a news conference in over six months and the lapdog press isn't demanding one. He doesn't feel like he needs to explain himself to anyone, much less those stupid people in Congress.
What's he going to do when he's in a Presidential debate? When he's - finally - forced to stand and deliver on his Administration? It won't be pretty, puncturing that bubble.
Obama the loner.
Loners can be cool.
Except when you are a loner that gets peeved when people dont do what you want.
Because they dont understand how awesome and smart you are.
Then you are not really a loner.
You are just pathetic.
The USA is run by a government of 535 at the Capitol, 1 at the white House and 9 at the Supreme Court Bldg.
Obama despises the other 544 who are an implicit demand that the Won share his total power.
Do they really expect his friendship after they treat him that way?
I start breaking out and have major sweats if I ever go south of like Indiana.
Sorry, I am a major, what's it called...southernphobe.
That accent alone makes me sick to my stomach. It's so dumb and hicky and when you pair it with a gay voice it is just horrible.
I am all about New England and Ivy Colleges and the Atlantic Ocean. Maine, Vermont, The Cape, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Newport, Block Island. It's just so fab...and bitchy. And lots of hot hogs.
Also, do you know that most of the adopted dogs peeps have in Boston come from dumb south states who abandon them.
Dog haters you southern hicks.
Sorry.
tits.
You'd be remote too if people expected you to, you know, like actually DO something.
wv: Poula. "he's in a poula sh!t now."
Now they notice?
No need to romance congress, everything can be done by regulation. Wasn't Cass Suntein assigned the task of making that happen in 2009? Only one real branch of government, the executive. Everything else is ignoreable, isn't it?
I wrote in 2009 that this was "The Mae West presidency."
///There is nothing at all in Obama's resume that shows he ever made highly difficult decisions that depended, at the end, on his own personal reservoir of wisdom and experience. So he does not tackle the inbox because its contents are above his competence. (One is reminded of Obama telling Rick Warren that when an unborn child gets human rights is "above my pay grade.") He tends instead to lesser matters that match his lower level of competence and gratifyingly feed the ego.\\\\
And this was in the fall of 2009. Why is anyone surprised today?
I have had my 20 NYT reads for the month so I will just have to read the comments.
"remote" "distant" and "perfunctory" are obviously racial code words playing to the white stereotypes of blacks as lazy, non-employed welfare collectors who are wholly dependent on racial preferences, set asides, and food stamps that failing. Instead of racial slurring Obama, people should be talking about how if the Republicans regain power it will be back to the days of blacks being dragged behind pick up trucks and Religious Right wackos blowing up women;s health centers.
master cylinder said...
Arent all the Republican candidates casting themselves as 'outsiders' this time around? No matter how long they have hung around DC?
No different from GodZero four years ago.
gosh, I can hardly remember the last time an incumbent Democrat president didn't win a 2nd term.
Levi, I would want to forget Jimmuh Carter too.
ALH said:
"Loners can be cool."
Agreed- in the movies the loner is typically an unsociable & useless person until people find out the loner has skills they need [i.e Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive TV series].
But OBAMA does not have any useful skills.
Hey, it's not his job to like you, it's your job to like him!
Brian G. wrote:
"remote" "distant" and "perfunctory" are obviously racial code words playing to the white stereotypes of blacks as lazy...
Is this an exercise in extended sarcasm, or just unadulterated stupidity?
Titus said...
The last place I would ever live, other than anywhere in the horrible south
We do have a disgustingly high percentage of fat people, but still, a hearty "fuck you" to the frozen North and your horrid vowels.
I've enjoyed my time here on Althouse arguing various points of view but I have come to a troubling conclusion.
Eric Holder by all accounts is a despicable human being, let alone Attorney General.
Any President that employes him must by all rights be despicable too.
Any person that supports that President is supporting a despicable person, and as such, I really have to question their morals too.
Are you Liberals that engrossed and enchanted by having power that you support people responsible for the deaths of over 300 Mexican Nationals at the hands of drug cartels supplied with weapons arranged for by this regime?
Are you liberals so scared of loosing to Republicans, even though most Republican politicians aren't conservative, that you continue to support a Congress, and a Senate that has cast aside their vow to protect and defend the Constitution by doing away with Bill of rights, passing laws that Americans can be arrested, and held without trial indefinitely, on the basis of some star chamber decision?
You do realize that our forefathers revolted for less than that, right?
And you support this President, who allows, condones, and advances these travesties?
Professor, I'm not a lawyer, I'm a simple carpenter/truck driver. I see things as either a positive or negative, black or white, good or bad. Explain to me in simple words how you can continue to support a man that is tearing the very foundations of our country apart. With help from the GOP, I'll admit. I have no love for those bastards either.
I fear the coming New Year like I have feared nothing else. Crushing debt, nuclear Iran, Kids rioting over not having any money one weekend, and the next rioting over $400 sneakers. The army allowing bestiality? Scientist making new frankenflu's that are deadlier, and easier to spread than ever before, just because they can. Other, non-scientist hi-jacking climatology to spread socialism to the world, and greater wealth to themselves.
I fear the coming year.
There will be little room left for charity as all will be looking. Looking for hope, a job, hospital care, food, shelter.
I see a descent into barbarism looming. The Fed, hiding its books, printing more and more dollars, like Idi Amin. I see China, with more men than women, and the largest standing army in the world. Unused. For how long?
I see Jihadist. bragging about wiping Israel off the map, and America turning its back to her.
I see Obama, and the UN, conspiring to implement and force America into the Small Arms weapon Ban treaty.
I see the Army, crushing American civilians, trying to defend their rights, like they did in New Orleans.
I see a Supreme Court that doesn't recognize the rights of a person to own private property.
I see police using more and more, military tactics to arrest, subdue, kill civilians.
I see even more than this. And I want to know, why you people support this.
"Professor, I'm not a lawyer, I'm a simple carpenter/truck driver. I see things as either a positive or negative, black or white, good or bad. Explain to me in simple words how you can continue to support a man that is tearing the very foundations of our country apart."
I've never said that I "continue to support" him or even that I ever supported him.
I voted for him when given a choice between him and McCain, and I defend the choice that I made at the time. That means only what it means and nothing more.
his friends and aides say he likes people just fine....
Oh how nice of him!
Aren't we honored that the President likes people!
White House officials, however, counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically. After all, many Americans regard this Congress as dysfunctional, with abysmal approval ratings.
Hilarious.
Talk about being out of touch with reality.
PS, gridlock is good.
"counter that Mr. Obama’s detachment from Congress could end up benefiting him politically"
Because that's the highest priority, after all, what is personally beneficial to him. The fate and future of the country he was elected to lead lies somewhere in a distant second (or lower?).
traditionalguy said...
The USA is run by a government of 535 at the Capitol, 1 at the white House and 9 at the Supreme Court Bldg.
Obama despises the other 544 who are an implicit demand that the Won share his total power.
Do they really expect his friendship after they treat him that way?
This here is why the Zero is so sad, so frustrated, so alone.
He wanted to be dictator, but only got elected president. Then they made him talk to the horrible Jew, Bibi, and those European losers. Oh, the horror.
Who can blame him?
Why isn't his administration lambasted for being secretive and too quiet? I remember Bush getting a lot of heat for this kind of thing --- and he'd actually meet with loathesome people who oppose him, like Kennedy.
"Professor...I see things as either a positive or negative, black or white, good or bad."
You really need to learn to see that real life is more complex than black/white, good/bad dichotomies. When one can only see the world in such a simplistic way, one can only imagine simplistic solutions to problems...which usually don't solve the problems, which are almost never just matters of black/white or good/bad.
"I see the Army, crushing American civilians...."
"I see police using more and more, military tactics to arrest, subdue, kill civilians."
My first comment to you above notwithstanding, I have to agree with your concerns here. However, do not assume that Obama's exit from the Presidency, whether it be in 2012 or 2016, will relieve us of these grave threats to our nation.
Isn't this the very definition of a "puff piece"? Why is this news or necessary? It's not even interesting.
Amer. Politburo:
Ignore the NYTimes
Done and done. And I mean done.
President Obama was a community organizer, opposed to the "insiders." It shouldn't be surprising that he isn't comfortable dealing with them.
Let the record show Althouse replied to the biggest conservative, hyperbolic whiner in this thread.
A certain symmetry as she continues to post over-the-top, negative Obama articles. Indeed, she also continues to apologize/rationalize voting for Obama.
And after skimming a few threads today, please, let the conservative whining continue ...
What is the NYT really trying to tell us?
They open the story with Obama talking about missing Reggie Love, and calling him from AF1. Then they mention one new, rare, best friend, Robert Wolf. His new basketball buddy.
All this fluttering psychobabble about a puppet. That's all he is. He's "detached" from his "job" because he has nothing substantive to say unless someone has their hand up his ass and his script printed out on the screen discreetly arrayed in eye view. Of course he likes people who have nothing to do with this unpleasant "job" thing everyone expects him to do.
shiloh wrote:
And after skimming a few threads today, please, let the conservative whining continue ...
Don't complain too stridently. After 6 November 2012 we'll be reading, or more accurately, skimming over your whining screeds.
I am also great with people that work for me and my friends ...
now folks who have to work with me might have many varied opinions of my people skills but they would have formed them thru actually interacting with me ... unlike Presentdent Obama who can't even bring himself to meet with anyone who doesn't work directly for him ...
Quaestor's alleged predictive powers notwithstanding, let the record show he did not disagree Althouse's conservative flock are excessive whiners ...
Post a Comment