O'Donnell: There Is Just No Educating Of Tea Party People

RealClearPolitics ^ | July 29, 2011

[2ndDivisionVet]

Lawrence O'Donnell: "They truly did not know what the words debt ceiling meant. Look, let's admit it. It's true of most of the media, most everybody because these things were never covered before. And so they didn't know what it was. Now they were going to have to learn what it was, and they certainly weren't going to take their lesson from Washington about what the debt ceiling is. They were going to take their lessons from Sarah Palin about what it is....

(VIDEO AT LINK)

[2ndDivisionVet]

If only we would do what our intellectual overlords tell us to do, since we obviously can't fathom the technicalities of government and economics.

[tsowellfan]

Tea Party People = American tax payers who work in the private sector

[A CA Guy]

There is nothing to kick down the road anymore.

[A CA Guy]

There is nothing to kick down the road anymore.

[USNBandit]

I understand the debt ceiling perfectly. It is kind of like the dosage of heroin that an addict needs to get a fix. They insist that amount will get them by, but tomorrow the number will be bigger.

[dajeeps]

There is no educating the liberal sheeple, zombies, whose only vocabluary is, “yes, Master.” Even the talking heads on TV seem to be infected with it, and why they think the debt ceiling means nothing at all.

[R0CK3T]

O’Donnell fits the description of somebody who is so “smart” that he’s stupid.

Progressivism is nothing more than Government Default and Economic Collapse.

We are all about to see it unfold and its ALL on him and the so-called intellectual genius Progressive who put us no his path.

[teletech]

There is nothing to kick down the road anymore.

Maybe not but I'll tell you we are gonna kick the Kenyan to the political curb come 2012.

[Oztrich Boy]

Lawrence O'Donnell: "They truly did not know what the words debt ceiling meant..."

I didn't know, so I went on the internets and Wikipedia told me that

• "Debt" is money the US Government has borrowed and promised to pay back
• "Debt ceiling" is a limit set by Congress to the total amount at any one time of "debt" that is outstanding and the Government has promised to pay back

I was certainly enlightened. I had thought it was something simple.

[nathanbedford]

Lawrence O'Donnell is one of the cleverest and most dangerous of our adversaries. We are well advised to understand what he is up to here. Clearly, he is no more interested in bipartisanship than he is in phrenology. He is interested in driving a wedge into the Republican coalition and splintering off the Tea Party so that leftists can win the 2012 election.

Note how he proceeds: he does not discuss a debt crisis he frames the issue as a debt ceiling crisis. He cites a history of countless extensions of the debt ceiling and notes that that was done on a bipartisan basis. The obvious deduction? We to should solve this debt ceiling crisis as we always have with a reasonable bipartisan extension of the debt ceiling and go about the business in the sunshine of harmonious bipartisan governance.

The unspoken assumption here is that there is nothing worth fighting over. The quarrel is simply over an artificial debt limit which can be neutralized as a threat to our harmony if only the Tea Party would become reasonable.

So long as Democrats succeed in framing the issue thus, they have a chance of winning this debate. The great middle of America is at best superficially informed over the debt ceiling issue and will react to sound bites and bumper stickers. So long as the mushy middle of America feels intruded upon by an unruly, ideologically driven mob of tea baggers who are interrupting American Idol with this artificial controversy, the Democrats win the debate. That is why you did not hear and will never hear the likes of Larry O'Donnell using the word "downgrade" because he does not want the electorate to know that the debate is not over the debt ceiling but the debt.

To believe that the impending insolvency of America can be cured by legislating a way a debt ceiling is akin to expecting your doctor to cure your tumor by photoshopping an x-ray.

It is not the tea party who have precipitated this debate but the looming insolvency of the American government. It is not the Republican Party that is raising this issue but Moody's and Standard & Poor's who are simply reporting the reality of that insolvency. The Republicans, stiffened by the tea party, are the white knights coming to the rescue.

The job of conservatives to frame this debate in terms of debt, not debt ceiling.

[4rcane]

the left can’t’ even honestly argue what the right stand for

[cranked]

The more these libtard progressive idiots frak with the Tea Party, the more fired up and galvanized the Tea Party becomes. These idiots better look out in 2012. Bet. =.=

[justa-hairyape]

Yes, the Tea Party people have been displaying a serious lack of education and formal training by calling their political opponents

hobbits, hostage takers and terrorists

How can anyone expect the opponents of the Tea Party to take the Tea Party seriously when they display such childless, mindless aptitudes.

[justa-hairyape]

The problem with that argument is that the last time we significantly raised the debt ceiling in 2006, the crash of 2008/2009 followed. How do we know that the crash was not caused by the debt ceiling raise ? And if we raise it again the economy could suffer another significant crash 1 to 2 years later.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Go to the bank and try to raise your debt ceiling.

[Berlin_Freeper]

When you get your phone bill - raise your debt ceiling.

When you get your electric bill - raise your debt ceiling.

When you get your insurance bill - raise your debt ceiling.

When you get your tax bill - raise your debt ceiling.

When you get your rent bill - raise your debt ceiling.

When you get your cable TV bill - raise your debt ceiling.

See how that all works.

[seton89]

O’Donnell attended Saint Sebastian’s School. As such, I’m sure he was taught something about calumny.

~~~~~~~~~~
from The Catholic Encyclopedia:
“Objectively, a calumny is a mortal sin when it is calculated to do serious harm to the person so traduced.”

[newzjunkey]

He’s a nut. Even on MSNBC he’s on the fringe.

[justa-hairyape]

Here is some more detailed info on recent debt ceiling raises.

February 2010 - $14.294 trillion
December 2009 - $12.394 trillion
February 2009 - $12.104 trillion
October 2008 - $11.315 trillion
July 2008 - $10.615 trillion
September 2007 - $9.815 trillion
March 2006 - $8.965 trillion

So we raised the debt ceiling by about 10 % in 2006 and 10 % again in 2007. Then in 2008 the economy crashed. Clearly raising the debt ceiling by 10 % a year preceded an economic crash.

[NoLibZone]

No need to.

The New York Times wro0te that TPers are better educated than non TPers.

"Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html