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Michael Barone: Obama flails as Republicans stand firm on sequester
Washington Examiner ^ | March 9, 2013 | Michael Barone

Posted on 03/09/2013 5:49:21 PM PST by gusopol3

This comes amid stories that Obama's chief political goal is helping his fellow Democrats win a House majority in 2014 and as his Organizing for Action (formerly Obama for America) is still cranking out press releases about the dire effects of the sequester.

It's not unheard of for a politician to make public threats and private blandishments at the opposing party at the same time.

But it is sometimes awkward. Especially if the threats and blandishments are not entirely credible.

Democrats have some chance of winning the 17 seats they need for a House majority. But it's an uphill climb. Even though Obama won 51 percent of the vote in 2012, he did not carry a majority of House districts.

And there is some chance Republicans will capture the six seats they need for a Senate majority. Seven Democratic incumbents are running in states Mitt Romney carried.

And the retirements of incumbent Democrats in West Virginia, Iowa and, as announced Friday, Michigan may put those seats in play.

As for blandishments, Boehner is not the only Republican who has concluded that Obama is not capable of good-faith negotiating.

Republicans argue that revenues are approaching the norm of 19 percent of gross domestic product and that spending needs to come down more from its historic high of 25 percent of GDP.

They're making a little bit of headway on that by accepting the sequester. Obama's flailing seems unlikely to persuade them to change course.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barackobama; budgetandgovernment; johnboehner; paulryan; republicans; sequester; whitehouse
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To: Tammy8

Somehow, I thought the drone issue should have focused on Brennan,but it focused on Paul. Your point is well made though.


21 posted on 03/09/2013 7:39:21 PM PST by gusopol3
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To: eyedigress

Good point. I’m more afraid of McCain and Shamnesty than I am of the Democrats or the terrorists. :-)


22 posted on 03/09/2013 8:20:17 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: gusopol3

Obama’s “flailing”? Does he not mean “hissy fit”, or how about “temper tantrum”? The “flailing” about is being done by the “media” (Obama’s propaganda arm), trying to stay on message and make sure we the people get maximum hurt from the sequester.


23 posted on 03/09/2013 8:24:07 PM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: jeffc

That Washington Post piece posted later (the one about the “civics lesson”) makes your point well. No amount of spin can hide the truth though.


24 posted on 03/09/2013 8:28:32 PM PST by gusopol3
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To: gusopol3

Bad timing? WTH are you talking about? I wish he’d have worn a diaper and went longer!


25 posted on 03/09/2013 9:44:42 PM PST by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: gusopol3

“The focus needs to shift back to the sequester, it hurts Obama more than Paul did.”

Hurting Obama is not the only goal here. Control of the party for 2014 and 2016 is also important. Paul exposed McCain and Graham as tired old guard dinosaurs. He started to push himself, Cruz, Lee and Rubio as the future of the GOP.

Not only that, I think the damage to Obama was non-trivial and that 2 point swings in the polls are meaningless from day to day.

That said, I’m happy to go back to SEQUESTAGEDDON!!


26 posted on 03/10/2013 12:23:58 AM PST by ModelBreaker
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