I want to see him stick out his lower lip and petulantly say, "I'm the Decider."
Daniel_in_Atlanta
· 1 year ago
I was hoping the 'm' word was 'marmalade.'
cowboyneok
· 1 year ago
Just me, or did anyone else think Obama's press conference was amazing? Maybe its because we've had to listen to an idiot, who couldn't speak English properly, for eight years, but I found not only WHAT Obama said, but HOW HE SAID IT a huge breath of fresh air! I loved it when he kept saying, "That's the OLD WAY of doing business around here... THIS is the new way."
red_dwarf
· 1 year ago
I have disagreed with several of the things Obama has done - and I know, he feels he has to kiss the right wing's ass to get along with them - otherwise they will whine and cry and bitch and moan. But I agree cowboy - nice not to see a blathering idiot on the tube - what a relief that is. I'm willing to cough up a few constituional protections just for that.
Poor dittoheads - sorry rat bastards - they're such losers.
ProgressiveTroll
· 1 year ago
I really loved his reply about the old way of doing business, then the next question was the same type and he had to state it again. Looks like it will take a while for the media to catch up to this new world.
brian
· 1 year ago
While we know he has a mandate, I would rather he just kept quiet about it. The righties are going to go nuts about how he is trying to divide the country. What we really need is someone to unite the country unlike Dubya who immediately divided the nation.
Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas
· 1 year ago
I agree with you Brian. Just don't say the word mandate. Just use it.
JG
· 1 year ago
Give me a break! Who cares what the righties think about "Mandate". G.W. used it after 2004 with a 51%-48% victory. Obama has doubled his margin of victory.
Not that we should do everything they did we shouldn't worry about what toes we step on with such a minor issue.
em
· 1 year ago
hmmmm...so, a 6% margin is enough for a mandate? I'll never buy into this mandate business until a hell of a lot more people get out and vote, and then vote someone in by a landslide...
ZennButtKicker (tlhwraith)
· 1 year ago
So we're back to the being afraid tactics that have worked so well for Democrats? Did we not get the memo that the public doesn't want a bunch of nicey nice Democrats, they want effective ones?
I don't care if Obama says mandate or not, I do care what he does with his perception of having a mandate. If he feels like Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders, great, because that means he's living in reality.
imjussayin
· 1 year ago
Whether our new president should or should not use the M word or whether its fair to use the word because his predecessor used it after winning in a less than impressive fashion, is a subject to keep the political talkers talking and the "experts"sounding expertesque.
This election was the American People saying in one loud voice:
We want this mess cleaned up and we want it cleaned up ASAP!
If that doesn't qualify as a mandate, (yes, I said it) then nothing does.
annatopia
· 1 year ago
hey guys, OT but i just saw some cool news run across the news scroll on my local weather station. apparently a judge in miami has ruled against florida's "no gay adoption" law. she struck it down with some seriously harsh language. just thought i'd drop some good news on that civil rights front since the prop h8 thing has got so many folks down. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us/26florida....
Indigo
· 1 year ago
Yes, it happened yesterday. It remains to be seen how violently the anti-gay special interests react but the ruling might hold.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
When you really have a mandate, you don't have to use the word. I heard the speech live where he made that statement, it was as if he was a little shy of saying so, but it's a fact and he's a politician so, reasonably enough, he's going to use his mandate to the advantage of the nation. That's a good thing.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Well, I just hope he's still listening, and gets rid of the more center-right to rightwing types he's retaining and naming after say, a year, 2 at the most? That's plenty of time to at least formulate a decent agenda to get out of Iraq, get Americans back to work, begin new health initiatives, etc., etc. Yes, I understand why, for instance, he is retaining Gates, though I hate it and despise the ties so many of those he's named for various posts have to Wall St.
Those are the real mandates.
ZennButtKicker (tlhwraith)
· 1 year ago
I daresay maybe your perspective is skewed. For a defense secretary, Gates isn't exactly a hard line right winger.
IMO, I think Obamas appointments are very prudent. Yes they aren't a bunch of far left progressives, but look at reality, neither is Obama! I think a lot of people on "the left" keep tap dancing around the fact that Obama is not a progressive at the core (he just plays one on certain issues), and the only people who think that he is a progrssive/liberal are those who slapped that silly "most liberal senator" label on him (he is far from it). It's pretty obvious Obama is going for concensus, and I will assert that's why he won the election, not because the nation woke up and suddenly decided we wanted a hard left tact, but because we felt like he might be able to do SOMETHING more than just tow the ideological line and deadlock us for the next 4 years.
I hate the meme that the right has been using that we are a "center-right" nation, but I think it's equally wrong for those on the left to assume that just because the Democrats are winning the nation as a whole is progressive. I think it's as much a function of the nation rejecting Republicanism as it is embracing Democrats. That being said, I think Obama is being very smart to try to minimize conflict and try to put an EFFECTIVE team in place to actually pass initiatives, not just a bunch of left leaning figureheads to placate the progressive side of the party.
James McConnell
· 1 year ago
There are two ways to kill a person: directly and indirectly. Hitler gassed 6 million Jews. Mao killed millions of Chinese. Directly. Stalin on the other hand killed 35 million Kulacks by denying them the necessities of life when he expropriated their harvests. The British did the same thing to the Irish when they pushed the Irish off the land onto the bogs where only potatoes would grow except in damp years. (grain harvest actually rose during the potato famine, so it wasn' t the weather it was the land taking). So how many did Reagan and Bush kill indirectly by denying and thus delaying research for AIDS. Had there been no dealy and if all these drugs had come in 12 years earlier, how many lives might have been saved? Would our friends and partners still live? Is not the ultimate toll larger than the toll for Stalin? Are not these the greatest mass murderers in the history of the world?
Eric
· 1 year ago
This is my favorite part:
"and not continue the same old practices that have gotten us into the fix that we're in."
He's going to do a massive stimulus package (bailout) to jumpstart the economy. It's the same bullshit any previous president would have done. At least now we'll have a bunch of left-leaning apologists when nothing improves.
MaudGonne
· 1 year ago
“I was sitting in my underwear getting dressed in the morning when it came on TV, and I told my wife, ‘Rates are going down today,’” said Henry Savage, president of PMC Mortgage Corp. in Alexandria, Virginia. “Instead of buying stocks in stupid banks, the government finally is going to make a move to clear assets from the market.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...
MaudGonne
· 1 year ago
Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama's national-security team is shaping up as a collection of strong figures, with no one dominant. His biggest challenge may be to keep them working in harmony. With Senator Hillary Clinton in line to be secretary of state, former Marine Corps Commandant James L. Jones likely to be national security adviser and Robert Gates staying as defense secretary, Obama will have three high-powered officials at the heart of his administration. "It's a credit to Obama that he wants people like this in his administration,'' said Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at Washington's Center for American Progress, which supports the Democratic Party. "It shows that he's secure enough in his own skin that he's willing to take them on.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070...
jane
· 1 year ago
I remember Cheney making that comment after the '04 election, not '00.
All Comments
Poor dittoheads - sorry rat bastards - they're such losers.
Not that we should do everything they did we shouldn't worry about what toes we step on with such a minor issue.
I don't care if Obama says mandate or not, I do care what he does with his perception of having a mandate. If he feels like Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders, great, because that means he's living in reality.
This election was the American People saying in one loud voice:
We want this mess cleaned up and we want it cleaned up ASAP!
If that doesn't qualify as a mandate, (yes, I said it) then nothing does.
apparently a judge in miami has ruled against florida's "no gay adoption" law. she struck it down with some seriously harsh language.
just thought i'd drop some good news on that civil rights front since the prop h8 thing has got so many folks down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us/26florida....
Those are the real mandates.
IMO, I think Obamas appointments are very prudent. Yes they aren't a bunch of far left progressives, but look at reality, neither is Obama! I think a lot of people on "the left" keep tap dancing around the fact that Obama is not a progressive at the core (he just plays one on certain issues), and the only people who think that he is a progrssive/liberal are those who slapped that silly "most liberal senator" label on him (he is far from it). It's pretty obvious Obama is going for concensus, and I will assert that's why he won the election, not because the nation woke up and suddenly decided we wanted a hard left tact, but because we felt like he might be able to do SOMETHING more than just tow the ideological line and deadlock us for the next 4 years.
I hate the meme that the right has been using that we are a "center-right" nation, but I think it's equally wrong for those on the left to assume that just because the Democrats are winning the nation as a whole is progressive. I think it's as much a function of the nation rejecting Republicanism as it is embracing Democrats. That being said, I think Obama is being very smart to try to minimize conflict and try to put an EFFECTIVE team in place to actually pass initiatives, not just a bunch of left leaning figureheads to placate the progressive side of the party.
"and not continue the same old practices that have gotten us into the fix that we're in."
He's going to do a massive stimulus package (bailout) to jumpstart the economy. It's the same bullshit any previous president would have done. At least now we'll have a bunch of left-leaning apologists when nothing improves.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070...