Eff you Lord of the Flies:
Posted on 12/08/2012 4:58:13 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Obama photo-ops draw criticism By Amie Parnes - 12/08/12 05:00 PM ET
President Obama has taken his negotiating powers to the kitchen table to talk to the middle class in the latest round of debt talks with Republicans.
One photo-op at a time, the White House has sought to drive home a message that middle class families will see their taxes go up if Congress doesn’t pass an extension of current tax rates.
It’s led to criticism from Republicans that the president should be meeting with them instead of taking time for campaign-style visits to suburban homes. But the strategy of having Obama and Vice President Biden appear before every-day backdrops works perfectly for a White House intent on convincing the middle class that GOP opposition to higher tax rates on the rich is putting their own economic well-being at risk.
“It’s good image making on a grand scale,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a professor of communications at Boston University who specializes in political communication and advertising. “What you’re doing is showing that the president cares and is in touch with the middle class and the Republicans aren’t.
“There’s no downside, it doesn’t do any harm, and it reinforces the image that the Obama that the president cares about and is in touch with every day Americans,” Berkovitz continued. “Since the Republicans have no successful PR machine revved up, it translates to having the upper hand.”
Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Republicans have sought to fight back, accusing the White House of playing out the clock and sending the country over the so-called fiscal cliff.
Boehner on Friday accused Obama of having “wasted another week” by not communicating with House Republicans and not offering flexibility on entitlement reform and spending. He accused the White House of making “no progress” in the negotiations.
Asked about the administration’s recent photo-ops, Boehner’s spokesman Brendan Buck replied, “Every day spent campaigning rather than offering a solution is a day wasted and a day closer to the economy going over the cliff.”
Yet the complaints from Boehner’s spokesman and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) who repeatedly has criticized the president for campaigning on the tax issue, suggest the vulnerability Republicans feel when confronted with Obama’s use of the bully pulpit.
More from The Hill: • Democrats warm to Medicare change that Kennedy opposed • Hispanic Democrat says Obama is missing in action on immigration • USDA changes school lunch requirements
On Thursday, for example, Obama traveled to Northern Virginia, a 15-minute drive from the White House, to visit the ground-floor apartment of a high school English teacher.
For about 30 minutes, Obama sat at a round kitchen table with the teacher, her husband who works at a local car dealership and their parents to discuss how they might be affected by the looming crisis.
“They have dreams and ambitions, they have a beautiful six-year-old son Noah,” Obama told reporters inside the apartment. “They’re keeping it together, they’re working hard, they’re meeting their responsibilities. For them to be burdened unnecessarily because Democrats and Republicans aren’t coming together to solve those problems gives you a sense of the costs on personal terms.”
Obama also used the moment, sitting around the table, to reiterate that he would not sign “any package that somehow prevents…the top two percent from going up.”
On Friday, Biden, ever the retail politician, had a similar moment over at a lunch in a Virginia restaurant with seven individuals who could be affected by the fiscal crisis.
“This is no time to add any additional burden for middle class people,” Biden said, adding that it would take “15 minutes” for legislation to get done if Boehner agreed to let taxes rise for the wealthiest individuals. Republicans, he said, shouldn’t “hold hostage the relief for the middle class.”
While the events have mostly been photo ops meant to drive home the White House’s message, Biden actually made news Friday during his trip to Virginia by showing some new flexibility on taxes.
“We are prepared and the president has made it clear…there are two irreducible minimum requirements for us,” he said. “The top brackets have to go up – this is not a negotiable issue; theoretically we can negotiate how far up. But we think it should go—the top rate should go to 39.6 percent.”
The White House has intensified their public outreach, asking individuals who might be affected to e-mail their lawmakers, write on their Facebook walls and even take to Twitter to discuss how a tax increase would impact their lives. Obama will continue that effort on Monday when he heads to Michigan.
A senior administration official said it's part of an "effort to highlight the real world consequences but also engage middle class Americans across the country in an effort to prevent the tax increases on the middle class from taking effect."
While visiting a toy factory last week, Obama acknowledged that people need to make their voices heard for Congress to act.
“I want the American people to urge Congress, soon,” Obama said. “The key there is that the American people have to be involved. We all know you can’t take anything for granted when it comes to Washington.”
Is anyone a grownup? Immature you know what.........
Obama doesn’t need to meet with them.
The GOP is negotiating with itself as it alwys does, and it is losing those negotiations with itself as it always does.
It's obvious that he prefers the showdown vote. We are going to lose either by Boehner caving or by a showdown vote which we would lose. The best outcome which is a longshot is going off the cliff. The way to get to the cliff is to avoid a showdown vote.
“This is no time to add any additional burden for middle class people,” Biden said,
Joe, if it’s not the time to add additional burdens on
the middle class.....why is it time to add additional
burdens on anyone else? Are they not Americans too?
The class war of the democrats is as unAmerican as it
can be.
If raising taxes is SO importand Joe, raise taxes on
EVERYONE !
“This is no time to add any additional burden for middle class people,” Biden said,
Joe, if it’s not the time to add additional burdens on
the middle class.....why is it time to add additional
burdens on anyone else? Are they not Americans too?
The class war of the democrats is as unAmerican as it
can be.
If raising taxes is SO important Joe, raise taxes on
EVERYONE !
The is a huge downside. It's called not governing. We don't have a president, we have a campaigner intent on collecting the scalps of republicans while the economy disintegrates.
Why don't the pubby figure heads (and FOX talking heads) hammer on the fact that those "middle class tax cuts" are totally present because of G.W.B's tax cuts, which only require extention - for all Americans?
That lib just made a major slip. They're having to create an image for him. The image is make believe.
My business in bulk ag. If my tax rates increase, I will increase my prices to recover the lost revenue. The middle class will see prices raise across the board. They inevitably WILL be the ones to pay.
He is doing what he knows how to do - “organizing”. He is not a leader and cannot work with others. His arrogance of “my way or the highway” cannot be discussed. He does not know how. And, he believes it would show a sign of weakness. This guy is intolerable!
Said a different way, one team is 24x7 politics, while the other team isn't even on the field. We are pretty screwed, I would say.
That is, IMHO, exactly what this is all about; the beginning of the destruction of the middle class (the burgeouis (sp?)) in America. Or perhaps it’s the final straw in that destruction. In either case, this is aimed at the middle class. If you want to break America, you have to break the middle class. Sadly, for those who voted for the president, this is going to drag them down, too. It’s not going to lift them up in the way they have been led to believe. And you can bet that the dinosaur media will be right their telling them it’s Bush’s fault (or whoever the conservative du jour is).
This is so easy. The Republicans won the House in 2010. They need to vote to make the tax cuts permanent and send the bill to the Senate. If the Senate fails to pass it, they are to blame for the middle class rates going up. No deal needs to be made on anything else.
Spending MUST be reduced. They need to get to work on that asap. They have the majority. They don’t need to make any deals. Let the Senate fight it out.
This is exactly what I told my students in Adult Ed class the other day. Many of them think the taxes should go up on the rich.
I explained to them that if I were a rich corporate business owner who made furnaces, when my tax goes up, I will increase the price of furnaces which YOU buy. Thus, you pay the increase not me, the rich guy.
I am amazed that people don’t think this far ahead.
The price of gas has caused the price of food to go up a lot.
It’s just common sense. I don’t know how it is so easy to get people to believe the stuff they spout.
Taxes on the middle class are going up NO MATTER WHAT — inpart due to Obamacare. The Republicans might be best off doing NOTHING and let the Dems own EVERY TAX HIKE!
The Republicans are trying to win with a pair of deuces. The media being on his side gives him a royal flush. Boehner may deserve the Neville Chamberlain Award of 2012, but I don't know if any other Republican would be more successful at this point.
Eff you Lord of the Flies:
yet when a million+ people show up in DC they are invisible.
What you say makes so much sense and it would seem by all normal standards that the pubies should prevail and make mincemeat out of oboma, but nooooooo. Pubies know how to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. It makes me wonder why they are so freekin’ stupid.
I’ve had it with them and will never vote for a republican ever again - third party all the way from now on. I would change my mind if they had the sense to get rid of Rove the the likes of him. But the establishment won’t allow it.
I know I’d like some tea but in NJ I can’t find any!
It will all be photo ops for the next four years in anticipation of the kings 3 term.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.