Posted on 07/04/2014 4:39:10 AM PDT by markomalley
President Obama is embracing Republican criticism of his aggressive use of executive actions as he shifts his focus to the midterm elections.
The president is openly daring the GOP to challenge him, hoping he can parlay their complaints into ammunition for congressional Democrats who argue Republicans should be blamed for Washington’s dysfunction.
“So sue me,” Obama said Tuesday of the lawsuit threat.
While Boehner’s lawsuit is meant to rally the GOP base, Democrats think the issue will help their party with its base and independent voters.
“Every time the Republicans attack the president for his executive actions, they are reminding the American people that unlike congressional Republicans, he is actually doing something to help them,” said senior presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer.
While Republicans are using those stories to motivate their base, Obama hopes to show he’s trying to take action to improve the livelihoods of the middle class.
It’s not just the lawsuit that Obama is embracing as a gift.
The White House sees the Supreme Court’s decision to throw out ObamaCare’s contraception mandate as another political boon that could help Democrats increase their turnout in the fall.
The administration has taken various steps to highlight the High Court’s ruling as an assault on women and tie it to Republicans. On Thursday, Organizing for Action — the pro-Obama group born from the president's reelection campaign — took the unusual step of tweeting a photo of a birth control ad.
The ad, which read “Talk to your doctor about Birth Control and find out if it’s right for you,” had the word doctor crossed out and replaced with the word “boss.”
Democrats say Senate candidates in vulnerable races can use the ruling to argue to women that it’s essential to vote this midterm, since the upper chamber is tasked with approving nominees to the Supreme Court.
The White House has also been bolstered by a string of strong jobs reports capped by Thursday’s announcement that the economy added 288,000 jobs in June.
That led Obama to take an unscheduled trip out of the White House to visit a tech startup hub in Washington and tout the encouraging report.
“We have not seen more consistent job growth since the ‘90s," Obama bragged. "But we can make even more progress if Congress is willing to work with my administration and to set politics aside — at least occasionally — which I know is what the American people are urgently looking for.”
And Obama hopes to take advantage of the GOP’s pursuit of several scandals, including the IRS and Benghazi controversies, to portray Republicans as being focused on the wrong things.
Obama’s willingness to engage with Boehner on the lawsuit is only the latest sign that he’s pivoted squarely into campaign mode.
Last week, Obama travelled to Minnesota for a series of campaign-style events, including a town hall question-and-answer session and surprise visits to an ice cream parlor, gourmet food store, and local bar.
“They understand the more he’s locked in the Rose Garden and the visible responsibilities of the office, the more he’s going to be associated with the bad feelings toward Washington,” said Democratic strategist Tad Devine. “Getting him into those venues is a smart move, it reminds people of what they like about him.”
To be sure, the White House remains worried about Obama’s anemic poll numbers. A Gallup poll released earlier this week showed Obama’s approval rating at just 40 percent.
For Obama to be a “non-factor in the midterm,” the White House needs numbers to be “into the high 40s,” the strategist said.
“Which is achievable, but hard - we don't have a whole lot of time, and there aren't a lot of legislative pathways to show momentum.”
A stronger economy, a more focused messaging campaign and a president who is out and about could help bolster those figures, the White House believes.
Casting the GOP as an effective foil would also help.
Obama has at times backed away from more aggressively attacking Republicans, in part out of hope that there could be movement on immigration reform.
That strategy has now been abandoned, and Obama is taking the GOP on more aggressively.
On Monday, he vowed to act unilaterally on immigration, blaming “the failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill.”
Attacking the GOP has also helped Obama escape blame for his role in the dysfunction.
Obama’s “so sue me” comments came at an event to promote a transportation bill to fund the rapidly depleting Highway Trust Fund. Without Obama’s comments about the lawsuit, more attention might have been placed on Senate Democrats’ struggles to craft a bill.
Instead, headlines from the event screamed of the president's defiant challenge of Boehner.
The suit also gives expanded credibility to the president's executive actions, which had been largely dismissed as small-ball and ineffective at motivating voters.
“This, things like Benghazi are going to be a classic issue like impeachment was in the Clinton Era, where Republicans overplay their hand and suffer politically for it,” Devine said.
“And the GOP will quake in their boots and collapse.”
Apparently can’t cope with the Progressive, macho-man, bully- boy tactics.
(And a large part of the electorate absolutely loves it.)
IMHO
“So sue me.”
A whole lotta forum shopping will be going on if they do.
Spoken like a true thug.
But they'll keep funding the administration's executive orders and wasted spending, behind the scenes they'll enable even support the DC corrupt crowd, they won't actually DO anything.
How many times did we hear Obamacare was a campaign issue for the future? Then we heard we can't totally get rid of it, we need a better way for DC to conrol our bodies. Then we find out DC Republicans are paid by interests that profit from Obamacare.
No, the 'pubs don't "overplay their hand". Even when they're give four aces, they fold.
The DNC is also falling in line-—to do otherwise would risk the wrath of der leader.
Lock-stepping loyalty is the order of the day.
The world hasn’t seen this type of party loyalty since 1930-40’s era Europe.
Judging by recent polls, Americans aren’t buying what he’s selling. A successful revolution requires a sense of inevitability. That feeling is rapidly disappearing. Americans now see Obama as a failed president.
Doing her coitus-interruptus routine, Sandra Fluke pontificates about the Repubs "war on womyn."
"I want to thank all my sex partners for taking time out so I can be here today."
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Texas Democrat, and abortion worshipper, Wendy Davis is making an
appealing advert, assertively warning guys what could happen if they
dared approach womyn w/ an unsheathed penis.
Imagine the wailing and moaning from the "news" media if a Repub Prez said that!
This is what we will be up against this November, where the Dems and their propaganda arm fear the loss of the Senate, and in 2016, where they might lose the Presidency.
Obama sits back....waits for a crisis...or causes one...and then blames his political opponents. It’s how he runs the Presidency. Sometimes he does win the politics of the situation with that strategy, but he never ever accomplishes anything, fixes anything, or prevents anything.
The House has passed plenty of Bills, the Senate has taken up very few of them, and Obama has signed less then 13 of them into Law. The Dems refuse to negotiate on anything and then use their bully-pulpit to accuse the GOP of refusing to negotiate on anything. It perhaps is good politics for the Dems, but again this accomplishes absolutely nothing.
Nothing would make Obama happier to see violence break out with this immigration debacle going on so he could take center stage and act like a cool cucumber....even though he is the one causing the entire situation. The guy is a dirt bag.
Uhggg!! I can’t wait for Obama and his band of criminal cronies to hit the road in a couple of years. They are just awful leaders, but more to the point they are awful people.
Too bad “birth control” wasn’t more popular when his mother was pregnant.
Faux fighting for the masses. No blood, no foul, no fight. Kabuki theater/hollywood production. The rhetoric of retrogressives.
Proving this to be laughable - that in fact Obama has made American middle class lives a magnitude worse - should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Even with an Obama *ss-kissing news media.
The price of food, gas, taxes, health care, race relations at home; the threat of war and terrorism and loss of prestige abroad, by EVERY MEASURE we are far worse off. The GOP disgusts me with their timidity.
Did Obama get permission from Bayer to use their and destroy their copyrighted advertisement?
” but he never ever accomplishes anything, fixes anything, or prevents anything.”
I beg to differ. He is accomplishing EXACTLY what he wants to accomplish.
Destruction of America and principles.
No one could sit in the pew listening to Rev Wright for 20 years and not agree wtih all of the America hating rhetoric he spewed.
Zero is making it happen.
While what is said about the GOPe is true , Obama the narcissist has mis-identified the culprit.
The enemy is not the GOPe , rather it is "We the People "
To Progressive / Communists their philosophy of Socialism becomes their religion which governs their thoughts, and core values ( ie.: OCCUPY )
They are Socialists first , and Americans as an after thought. They beleive that all rights are delegated by the State (Government)
"We the People" believe in the Constitution, the 'Founding Fathers' , and we beleive in Freedom, and freedom of choice,
and we believe in God, American exceptionalism , and inalienable rights given to us by God , not by government.
The Democrat Party philosophy was never more evident than at the Democrat convention when the mention of God was booed by a majority of those present.
The Republican Party has left most of us behind in their enthusiasm to embrace compromise and mediocrity, and have become more like the Democrat Party.
The only alternative representation for "God-fearing people " is the TEA Party which reflects the majority of "We the People".
Obama , your fight is not with the GOPe .. it is with God !
Where would guys find one?
At a dyke bar?
A NOW hen coop?
A DNC Convention?
A Hillary book signing?
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TALKING POINTS The propaganda machine for Obama grinds on.
The presidential election had ended, but Barack Obama’s propaganda campaign continued, utilizing a tax-exempt nonprofit organization...."Organizing for Action."
Not content with a loyal, compliant and supportive media, in lock-step w/ his goals, this group encourages support of the president’s agenda while ruthlessly targeting and criticizing all opposition in its path.
Organized under a 501(c)(4) social and nonprofit label, “Organizing for Action” will attempt to influence public sentiment concerning issues in preparation for the 2014 congressional elections.....and beyond.
The ruthless group utilize a multimillion-dollar budget, character assassination and threats, to intimidate all who oppose or criticize Obama’s policies.
To dare criticize incurs slander and accusations and name-calling, such as "being out of the mainstream," tarring critics as "radicals, extremists, right-wing ideologues without heart for the underprivileged."
"Organizing for Action" will embody the same rules criticized by Obama during the 2012 campaign. Yet, unlike so-called Super Pacs, his group isn’t required to disclose contributors....a nice perk he allowed himself
Keep in mind, this permits unlimited donations by corporations, lobbyists and those seeking influence or favorable consideration on matters like the shady money-laundering operations of Solyndra.
Anyone raising or contributing $500,000 will have guaranteed access to the president. Many consider this “selling the presidency,” and even some liberals are critical.
While claiming to be non-political, "Organizing for Action's' chief goal is to destroy the Republican Party, the Tea Party, conservatives.....anyone who dares oppose the "transformation" of America.
The WH Chicago political kingpins are in deep---the same individuals who ran Obama’s re-election campaign, Jim Messina, David Axelrod and David Plouffe.
Americans are being forced to endure years of Obama's perpetual campaigning, political arrogance and lack of leadership while unsolved national problems affecting ourselves and our children’s and grandchildren’s futures remain untouched.
In the all-girl State Dept?
LOL
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