Obama’s top dogs target Boehner (TODAY Show invokes "Boehner" 20x in 3 min.)

TODAYshow.com ^ | 9/13/10 | Staff

[teddyballgame]

In case the rest of the media didn't get the memo - the plan is say the name "Boehner" so many times that people start understanding who this guy is. Boehner, Boehner, Boehner.

[Inwoodian]

This is a long-planned strategy that the Dems probably focus-grouped. I was in Saratoga the third weekend in August. When the races ended there was a demonstration outside the track consisting of about 15 people, a bullhorn and some banners. The sign said ACORN and they kept chanting “Down with Boehner” and “Save Social Security”. Most of the racegoers didn’t know who Boehner was but I think we can probably expect some sort of offensive on the Social Security front any day.

[CutePuppy]

I was stunned at the obvious ambush against Boehner by Schieffer. It was like someone was prodding him in his ear to keep attacking.

Yes, it's deliberate. Kevin Hassett at American Enterprise Institute has analyzed Obama's "Boehner game":
Obama’s Insults Mask Fear of Boehner’s New Ideas: Kevin Hassett - BL, 2010 September 13

In Washington, it’s often a compliment when your opponents start to attack you. It means they think you are dangerous.

Democrats unleashed a barrage against House Minority Leader John Boehner in recent weeks, which raises the question -- what are they afraid of?

President Barack Obama personally delivered one of the broadsides at Boehner, using a Sept. 9 speech outside Cleveland to accuse the Ohio Republican of obstructing efforts to revive the economy.

Referring to a speech Boehner had given a few weeks earlier, Obama said: “There were no new policies from Mr. Boehner. There were no new ideas. There was just the same philosophy that we had already tried during the decade that they were in power -- the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: Cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations.”

Obama sarcastically said Republicans oppose his spending programs only until “showing up at the ribbon-cuttings, trying to take credit.”

The Boehner of Obama’s speech is a partisan rube pitching the same old Republican snake oil. Of course, if that were true, then the man would be no threat at all, and Democrats wouldn’t need to send the president out to attack him.

A look at Boehner’s recent speeches and proposals suggests that he has been reshaping the Republican Party in a manner that should make it much more attractive to middle-of-the-road voters, and doing so with, yes, some new ideas. No wonder Obama is scared. .....

..... Boehner highlighted the damaging effect that economic uncertainty is having, and he called on Obama to veto any legislation a lame-duck Congress might produce on union organizing, limits to industrial emissions or any other topic that would harm businesses.

Boehner grasps that reducing policy uncertainty is an overriding challenge for lawmakers. It isn’t just that firms worry Obama might enact policies that will harm them; they are also hamstrung by all of the policies that seem to be up for grabs every year because of budget tricks. Perhaps Boehner would seek to end the legislative patching and extending that has made business planning more and more difficult over the past decade. .....

..... Boehner said Democrats should permit the repeal of the provision in the health-care law that requires business to submit Form 1099 paperwork to the Internal Revenue Service .....

..... Boehner suggested that non-defense discretionary spending -- that is, spending on domestic programs ranging from housing assistance and education to transportation and space flight -- be immediately cut to its 2008 level.

While Keynesians might think such a cut would harm economic growth, Boehner makes the case that reducing government spending could have near-term positive stimulus effects because of its influence on sentiment. As he put it in June, “Listen, the Democrat spending spree is scaring the hell out of the American people and it’s hurting our economy.” .....

Taken as a whole, Boehner’s plan represents a major departure from the compassionate conservatism spend-a-thon under Bush and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Gone is the Republican Party that seeks to buy off citizens with juicy benefits and pork. Good riddance.

Boehner could probably say nothing between now and the Nov. 2 election and still become the next House speaker in a Republican rout. The fact that he’s proposing anything at all should win him admiration, at least enough to offset a president’s scorn. .....

[Deb]

Good piece. Thanks.

[hinckley buzzard]

They are trying to make Boehner into the new Emanuel Goldstein. Orwell's Two Minutes Hate must have been the inspiration for Alinsky's Rule 13.Trouble is, Big Brother had total control of the media, the Usurper does not. And that is why his slimy scheme will fall flat.