'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Obama?'
This account has NOT been banned or suspended
'cause I'm shuttin' up!
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.
PRAY FOR GOD . . .
TO FLUSH THE TOILET.
I get a kick out of the Obama tax cut. A whopping $500 or $1000 of worthless printed up cash eaten up by rising prices. Geesh
That gal that thought she was gonna get rich because of Obama is going to be so disappointed.
So long as idiots and parasites are allowed to vote the problem will never be solved. It will only get worse.
Yes, and I think that a simple IQ test to be eligible to vote, would solve that problem, and I mean simple!
Ha! The DUmmies are already calling for his impeachement.
That's not an unreal threat. I'm self employed, and I plan to make just enough to get by on in the future. Why should I work myself into exhaustion only to have the Federal Government come and take it away? I can work like a maniac, but make no more money than I would have if I had worked at a more leisurely pace and kept more of it.
I think a lot of people actually are going to look at it that way.
'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Obama?'
This account has NOT been banned or suspended
'cause I'm shuttin' up!
Copy that, only in my case the business is tanking so we're not spending.
Thank you. We need to stop purely blaming the politicos and blame the jackasses who put them in. I mean, look at Murtha’s district. He insults them (never mind GIs) on 2 separate occasions and they put him back in.
“how do you solve a problem like obama?”
he is not a problem. he is a symptom of acorn disease.
IMHO
Absolutely right. And what is the root cause of the problem of an incredibly stupid electorate? Education firmly in the grip of unions, marxists and communists. Other than home schooling maybe 10% of our nation's children, what is the solution to that problem?
The loyal opposition that literally robbed the bank at taxpayers expense. A pox on them all.
We need Repub Leadership willing to define graphically; articulately. . .the TRUTH of the sinister MO of Obama and why this MO for Change is ANTI-America; rather than 'Pro'. Without this, Republicans; Capitalism; and our Constitution will soon be rendered 'null and void' as Obama Inc. deftly crafts America's Collective future.
(For starters,by Obama's innocent comment/ recent warning to Repubs, of Rush Limbaugh's influence; our Leadership should be explaining immediately and loudly, how Obama's comments as well as the Dem's rising efforts to enact 'Fairness Doctrine' are only a variation of what is otherwise recognized as the 'Leftist/Communist' inspired, Re-Education Program. Words mean things and too many Repubs afraid to use honest, powerful words. We need the truth and nothing but; and we need powerful sound-bites 'out there' in the Media, everyday.)
The above 'Town Hall' menu assumes a great deal of 'surmising' on behalf of a public that it being educated - and anethesized - by the Left; and assumes as well, the message will have an authentic translation.
All to say. . .Repub's need an MO and a daily message - or or 'scream' - that will 'wake and shake' all good citizens, efore it is too late.
(and to say as well; we need now, more than ever; Republicans with 'backbone' who are willing to tell the truth. . .)
‘to say’ gamesmanhip. . .
It is so sad how our people have become. So spoiled rotten that even the worst single ambush attack at home in the history of the world doesn’t make them see straight.
In marketing, the customer base only sticks around when the product delivers as promised.
Everyone is currently competing for the title of Cheapest Person On The Planet. No one I know (all of whom are still employed or in business at some level) is spending a single dime if they aren’t forced to do so.
zerO and the donks have raised *prices* (aka: the cost of living comfortably) to the breaking point. We need utilities, food, minimum transport to work, taxes and (if we are really feeling affluent) insurance. zerO’s policies are making these essentials more expensive and all we can do is cut out everything else.
For a people accustomed to having discretionary income, this new extreme frugality becomes wearing. I look at our savings and imagine what life will be like when it is devalued by 90% and my levels of animosity towards the entire government, from County to Federal and everything in between, rises to stroke levels.
But I do not think people will vote for the GOP. They will vote for the conservative donk who doesn’t run on morality or religion and instead positions themselves to lower the basic, essential costs of survival.
They may come to hate zerO, but I fear they will continue to vote for him and to give him poll points. Otherwise, they will have to question themselves and I don’t think people do that any longer.
I see one thing that could defeat all of them: if government and union pensions fail, the donk constituency may just rebel. There has been an increase in anxiety from formerly sanguine liberals whom I know and it is all based on the fear that their pensions will revert to the federal guarantees, which are much lower, with higher medical insurance co-pays. Every level of government has raised tax rates or will, soon. But they cannot raise the number of taxpayers or their AGI.
We can all see the inflation coming at us. Combine it with lower income and vanished security and we will either become a nation of dispirited slaves or a nation of rebels.
Also, none of the promised checks and benefits are going to reach anyone before next Fall. It isn’t possible. Those counting on that money are going to become very anxious and then feel betrayed. They are going to look for scapegoats. I think it will be anyone still earning a living and going about their lives as they did 18 months ago.
I just am not counting on a rational reaction.
Preparation H?
oh no. . .there are more. . .re post 34/Good grief. . .my ‘s’ key is broken and I thought I got them all!/’s’orry. . .
Not a rumour, a goal in my life. I sold some investment real estate in 2008 and as long as I kept my net income below $65,000 the capital gains tax was 0% (Bush's tax plan), normally 15% fed and 9% state. I know that isn't much money for earnings but I have a lot of rentals and alot of expenses and the fed and state are getting nada from me for 2008.
Not one dime in 2009, either.
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