David Frum: GOP wants Obama's unconditional surrender

CNN ^ | July 18, 2011 | David Frum

[2ndDivisionVet]

In this debt-ceiling fight, I'm having horrible flashbacks to the Republican debacle over health care.

Then as now, what could have been a negotiated deal turned into all-out political war.

Then as now, Republicans rejected all concessions by the president as pathetically inadequate.

Then as now, Republicans refused any concessions of their own, instead demanding that the president yield totally to their way of thinking.

Then as now, Republicans convinced themselves that they had the clout to force the president to yield.

With health care, Republicans calculated spectacularly wrong. They pursued an all or nothing strategy and got -- nothing. They neither shaped the bill, nor did they stop it.

Will they make the same mistake again on the debt ceiling?

We don't know the exact shape of the offers President Obama has made inside the negotiating rooms. Republicans tell friendly journalists that the president has been highhanded and long-winded.

Perhaps.

But the president has gone on television to declare himself willing to consider some startling moves: alterations to Social Security cost-of-living formulas, raising the age at which retirees qualify for Medicare, and large dollar figures for deficit reduction over the next decade.....

[2ndDivisionVet]

He has a bright future in writing alternative/fantasy fiction when that Frum Forum thing shuts down.

[JohnBrownUSA]

I’m going to punish every RINO GOP politician by not voting for them if they surrender to Obama.

[Richard from IL]

I wish that he was correct on this one.

[Westbrook]

> David Frum: GOP wants Obama’s unconditional surrender

I don’t see anything wrong with that.

What am I missing?

Of course, it’s not likely, but I still don’t see anything wrong with it.

[oldbrowser]

What is he talking about the Dems controlled both houses and the presidency.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Well, the GOP needs to set its sights higher then. Personally, I’d like Obama’s unconditional resignation.

[EyeGuy]

Frum has progressed to the pupae stage in metamorphisizing from a RINO closet moth to a full blown Leftist earwig.

So predictable. Ahem.....

[jospehm20]

I don’t see a problem with that either.

[svcw]

To the headline: nope I want him to crawl back under the rock he came from never to be heard from again.

[fish hawk]

Hell with surrender. That insinuates that he has something to do with it. I want an “overthrow”. Take it away from him without any input from him.

[KoRn]

What planet is this moron writer from?

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

We just wish they did. Unfortunately, they really don't.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Sorry, David, but I think Goldfinger’s sentiment is more appropo.

[Verginius Rufus]

He's a Canadian with a poor memory for US history.

The 'Rats didn't want any input from the Republicans on health care.

[big bad easter bunny]

sure...cool...ya.....uh huh......please....otay.....

[max americana]

>> David Frum: GOP wants Obama’s unconditional surrender

I don’t see anything wrong with that.<<

Same here. What’s the problem?

[greeneyes]

They pursued an all or nothing strategy and got nothing. Seems to me they got back a majority in the house, and within striking distance in the Senate.

I don’t call that nothing.

[Rashputin]

I like how Frum quotes the Republican account of what's going on and then says, “well, perhaps” each time. Frum is the worst kind of RINO, the kind that is only Republican because it was so much easier to make a name for yourself by being a “reasonable” Conservative that being just another fascist in the democrat herd.

[DaveTesla]

"What planet is this moron writer from?"

Actually it's a moon.

The Uranus Moon,
Marxistpropaganda.
Better known as Marx dingleberry.

[Irish Rose]

They pursued an all or nothing strategy and got -- nothing. They neither shaped the bill, nor did they stop it.

Could they possibly have stopped the bill without an all or nothing strategy? "No bill" was the nothing part.

And shape it? The presidency and Congress were controlled by Democrats. Their health care law was bound to be bad. It would have been like shaping a car wreck.