Posted on 01/27/2009 4:55:07 AM PST by Kaslin
One of the songs from the 1959 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" is, "How do you Solve a Problem like Maria?"
Republicans are asking themselves the same question about President Obama. According to RealClearPolitics.com, the new President's approval ratings average 73% ranging from a high of 79% (Pew and ABC news/Washington Post) to a low of 60% (CBS News/New York Times).
Note, though, that all of those polls were taken before last Tuesday's inauguration.
Republicans in the House and Senate have to find a voice without getting in between a 70+ percent President and the American people.
What … ever … shall … they … do?
First of all, don't panic. Just below the chart showing Obama at his high levels is a chart showing the approval rating of the U.S. Congress. Average? 21% approval. Nearly the same percentage of Americans disapprove of the way the Congress is operating as approve of the way the new Administration is starting.
So, the secret is to leave Barack Obama alone for the time being. He'll make his own mistakes. Snapping at a reporter in the briefing room the other day was not a good way to start.
The relatives of people killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 telling the press they are furious at the prospect of terrorists being set free upon the closing of Guantanamo will wear away some of the glow.
If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ever had a glow it has long since been reduced to a faint spark.
Republicans in the House cannot whine about not getting a fair chance to participate in the design of legislation. The current split is 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans (with one vacancy).
When you are 78 seats in the hole you are not going to win many battles in Committee or on the Floor. There are no filibusters in the House, whatever bill Pelosi wants to bring to the floor for a vote is coming to the floor for a vote.
Republicans in the House have to pick their spots. The current campaign to make the case that the focus of any stimulus package should be putting money directly into the hands of Americans so they can go back to being consumers - is a good example.
It can take a "shovel-ready project" like a bridge something on the order of a year from the time the money is approved to the time the first shovel is actually needed.
It will take a mom with an extra $100 in her checking account about 20 minutes to drive to Target and start buying clothes for her kids.
That's a message almost everyone who does not work in Manhattan (and most who do) will understand.
On the Senate side, things are a little different. Republicans currently have 41 seats. If all Republicans stick together they can pretty much stall anything Harry Reid wants to bring to the floor.
The challenge for Senate Republicans is not to just stop a stimulus package - a 73% President will go on TV and blame the GOP for extending and deepening the recession. The job is to have a few non-negotiable items they want in the package and hold the 21% Senate up until they get it.
Whatever those few legislative initiatives are, they have to be easy to understand by people who don't live and/or work inside the Beltway and the individual Senators' offices have to be able to communicate to the folks in their states why they are important.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky) should pick a fight early and make certain that it is an issue which will allow Republican Whip John Kyl (Az) to hold the Republican Conference together so that Harry Reid can't get to the 60 votes he needs to break a filibuster.
The final chart on the RealClearPolitics.com page is "Direction of the Country." Only about 22 percent of Americans think the U.S. is on the right track.
A 21 percent Democrat-controlled Congress leading a 71 percent wrong-track country gives Republicans have a big, bright target to help Americans separate the Obama White House from the Pelosi/Reed Capitol.
That's how you solve a problem like Obama.
Now if our ‘loyal opposition’ can just grow some spine ...
You solve it by the Republicans demanding we see proof of citizenship.
That is clearly going to take a protest. Berg needs to have as many people at the SC when his case comes back to the SCOTUS. Without a significant showing of people the Big Boys in Black are not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole. The potential for violence after such a ruling would be huge. Think of all of his worshippers. Basically brainwashed cultists.
It is unbelievable what you see in people now. They need to have something like The Baker Act for all these Obamanites. Like detox in a padded cell.
Oppose everything he does on principle, obstruct with filibuster selectively, and let him solve the problem himself. In other words, set him up to fail. His policies will ruin the country, yes. But he is what the electorate wanted, and he is what they get.
obama is not the problem. obama is only the symptom of the problem. The problem is the people who elected him.
So long as idiots and parasites are allowed to vote the problem will never be solved. It will only get worse.
So, now fear, from the highest court in the land, where their individual oaths are abandoned, allow that fear to usurp The Constitution? The blood of our forefathers runs cold now as they knew fear well and the risks; those who made courageous sacrifices to establish this nation and release themselves from tyranny.
It is called Resistance.
This is the absolute worst advice that could ever be given, similar to “well we're for the troops but against the war.” Zero should be called to task for each decision that Republicans feel he is in error. This notion of a “loyal opposition” is a complete and utter fallacy. All that will produce is cover for the false messiah’s illconcieved decisions and hamper Republican chances to accentuate policy differences going into the 2010 election cycle.
Any documenation that proves or otherwise the real place of Obama’s birth has long since been sent to Sleep with the Fishes.
Worked in Iceland.
Jerry: You have to signal me that she’s coming.
George: I’ll call out ‘Tippy toe!’
Jerry: ‘Tippy Toe?’ I don’t think so.
George: Alright, er, OK I got it, erm, I’ll sing.
Jerry: What song?
George: ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria?’
I think it’s a given that the low ratings of Congress are a result of its actions and policies.
Most people (I think) are still unaware that the Congress is majority Democrat; they’re still laying 100% of the blame for the economy on President Bush.
However, with a Democrat Congress having a far left Democrat president to push through some of the really unpopular stuff that Democrats have always stood for (no matter how they marketed themselves), people will see the results, and Obama’s ratings will slide.
His ratings aren’t in the 60-70% range because of policy; they’re there because of marketing. In marketing, the customer base only sticks around when the product delivers as promised.
It is the job of Republicans to point out that y result is a result of x policy; our media is not likely to do that crucial job.
Yeah sport, you got it right. What's amazing to me is that the Dem's have waited so long to buy an election by promising 95% of the people a tax cut. This so called tax cut which is nothing more than a cash hand-out to about 75% of the working population, has secured a Dem majority for the foreseeable future. Now, more people do not pay taxes than do pay taxes. So, guess which party the majority of voters will pull the handle for from now on? I don't think appealing to their higher morality or shaming them will work. I think the only shot that Republicans have of winning either house or the presidency is on the national security issue. For this to occur would require a WMD attack with causalities and deaths in the many thousands. Not something that I wish for but in my opinion that's about the only thing that would cause those who have been prostituted by the Dems to change their votes to Republican.
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Obama?
Have press conferences and townhall meetings back home where the GOP representatives take questions- unlike the White House. Even the mainstream media will be starving for real news instead of staged events within a few weeks
Have a real alternative simple workable plan, with a mantra. (STOP THE CLASS WARFARE. Let all of the American working people keep and decide how to spend the money they earn) Rush Limbaugh has done what McConnell and Boehner have yet to do. Shame on them.
Mumble sympathetic sounds to the democrats as they realize that the boys from Chicago are effectively trying to reshape this society and rule this country by executive order. If and when the Congressional democrats form a circular firing squad, make sure Obama Pelosi and Redi are in the center.
Not the GOP.
Flame away ....but I would start using Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals against the Democrat Party.....
I would start with #9—The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself......
Have the GOP start leaking to the media that there is a movement among the population to stop producing wealth because of the current and possible future tax structure...IE—letting the Bush tax cuts expire....
The Conservatives have become the radicals for change..
Just an idea...feel free to expand or offer your own....
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