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The Too-Busy Meme Cont'd
President Obama took on the can-he-walk-and-chew-gum media today:
I know there are some who believe we can only handle one challenge at a time. They forget that Lincoln helped lay down the transcontinental railroad, passed the Homestead Act, and created the National Academy of Sciences in the midst of Civil War. Likewise, President Roosevelt didn't have the luxury of choosing between ending a depression and fighting a war. President Kennedy didn't have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon. And we don't have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term.
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Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
Preach it Obama. Preach it.
March 10, 2009 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't you mean "read it Obama. read it."
March 10, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I smell bitterness!
March 10, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you're mistaking "Silly" and "uninformed" for bitterness.
March 10, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I caught a hint of those too, but bitterness is definitely the main ingredient.
March 10, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, you're right. You're silly, uninformed AND bitter. But why are you proud of it?
It cracks me up that you guys love to pick on people for their strengths, because your carping leaves us baffled because it is so foolish. After 8 years of a president who couldn't put a sentence together with the subject and verb in agreement, you love to say that Obama isn't articulate! That he depends on telepromters! As if you even knew!
Did you see him at the health summit when he was asked stupid questions about Social Security? I promise you there was no canned answer for such a dumb question. He handled it with aplomb, as always.
So the only thing you can think to say about Obama is that he READS his answers? I guess that is because you just don't have anything -- except silliness, lack of information, and bitterness.
You might try being FOR the country instead of just AGAINST the President. It might even feel good when it all starts to come together.
March 10, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Before teleprompters, people used note cards and papers. A teleprompter is just a fancy piece of paper. Whenever I see someone pushing this meme it's like they're holding a sign that says "Ignore this moron."
March 10, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get your point. Obama seems to do just fine off the cuff.
March 10, 2009 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
All true, just please, please release the banking plan. It needs to be done asap and will solve alot of the problems in the economy. Banking plan first, everything else is secondary at this point.
March 10, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
You act like Obama is writing the damn plan himself ALONE and that every time he signs an executive order or speaks about education, the banking plan goes to the back burner. He's president of the United States, not president of Citi!
I'm beginning to wonder if Geithner is a bit of a scardey cat but this constant call for them to release a plan that obviously is not ready is just silly.
They're trying to work out problems and issues that NO ONE has ever faced before. That takes time and I'd rather they get it right than get it quick. We saw what happened with TARP I. No more of that rushed madness that only exacerbated the problem.
March 10, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not arguing with any of your points at all and of course I know that obama isn't writing the stupid plan. The only point is that it is about time they do something. The five biggest us banks are all insolvent and you can't just pump more money into them. Credit is frozen like a rock. It's been weeks since they talked about administering the stress tests and they have to have an idea about what to do at this point and truly they have known about the problem and been working on the problem since the election, and before. I guess I am just impatient, but I am really freaking out at this point.
March 10, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Until the stress test results are complete, no plan will be released I don't believe. Telling the public they will nationalize some banks prior to knowing which ones could have a convoluted result on the markets, even more dire than those being experienced right now I would think.
March 10, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you. I thought the stress tests would be complete by now. Apparently not, which I find hard to believe to be quite frank. Also, I just read that the stress tests aren't supposed to be completed until the end of APRIL. I don't think that I can make it that long. I'm having a cardiac here.
March 10, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I don't think that I can make it that long. I'm having a cardiac here."
Fortunately, the economy does not run on your personal timetable.
March 10, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
True, that's a good thing. I'll be dead by april.
March 10, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're very good natured, you know?
March 10, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. You are too.
March 10, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geithner's is the guy with the "doing too much" problem because there's wtill no one at Treasury to do the planning and writing. Finding people who are a) qualified and experienced yet utterly unconnected to any company in any way connected to, or implicated in, the meltdown and b) have absolutely, positively no tax issues of any kind is turning out to be kind of tough.
March 10, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the appointees. He's got a ton of people inside the administration that are working on the problem, including advisers to obama. We got the best and the brightest working on this, let's get it done already.
March 10, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only appointees can negotiate, make and sign off on policy. There are 17 deputy positions in Treasury. All of them are vacant.
March 10, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brand me a comics nerd, but Obama staffing the Treasury Dept. is starting to take on the same level of difficulty as Commissioner Gordon staffing Gotham P.D. Kinda hard to find those good cops.
March 10, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, this will probably ignite another round of concern trolling from the bobbleheads.
Nonetheless, it's great to hear the President address what passes for analysis from the babblebeans with a point anyone can understand: we can't afford to do just one thing at a time.
Plus, there's a very faint admonishment here: stop complaining and try to keep up with me, ok?
March 10, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is absolutely NO way that Obama can walk, chew gum, toss a ball, and talk at the same time. To do so is just reckless. Obama's going to blow the whole baseball game!!!
Every time I hear about Republicans spinning that the White House is going too fast, I think "of course it's too fast if it's policies that you oppose." President Bush went WAY too fast for me. Saying that they are doing something too fast is just a way of saying that the White House is doing things that Republicans are shaky about.
March 10, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
But he can shoot a mean 3 pointer. I hope he nails a buzzer beater on the banking crisis.
March 10, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
heh heh, you're right. I got my sports metaphor wrong.
March 10, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
AMAZING FACT: There are multiple departments in the executive branch!
March 10, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is true. Isn't there a secretary of education to pen education reform? Aren't there other people in other departments also writing bills as well? When people say "there's no way Obama can write or do all that he's doing", they are right. He isn't Stephen King--he's got his own team of writers working for him!
March 10, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans would rather have Obama focus on one item at a time so they can all focus their opposition and tear down Obama on one item at a time. Their opposition is getting lost having to fight a dozen fights at once.
I think this is hilarious.
I would liken it to a flock of birds. Overwhelm the enemy with numbers and closely knit unity and befuddle their attack. They won't know where to strike.
March 10, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
...which is why Harry's having such an easy time moving his agenda along...
March 10, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why. Which one of Obama's agenda's has failed so far?
March 10, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps SFCWallace is referring to Harry Whittington moving his agenda along with the help of a flock of birds.
March 10, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course the party of no and no action, would think that Pres. Obama is doing too much at one time, because they did nothing so now he is left to fix everything before the whole building collapses.
March 10, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is an excellent point, well put. But just to nitpick, this:
...is a poor example, since Kennedy very much did in his first year decide he had to make a choice between civil rights and addressing his foreign policy goals-- and he chose foreign poilcy. Kennedy started his administration trying to put off civil rights reform until it could be attempted without diverting his attention from other things, and eventually was forced to take on the civil rights issue before he really felt ready because activists (the freedom riders etc) pushed him into it. (Of course, maybe this is what Obama meant by "didn't have the luxury".)
March 10, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
As always, the beauty of Obama's rhetoric always shows when its parsed.
March 10, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep
March 10, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, when faced with the prospect of young black Americans being beaten, firehosed and attacked by dogs for trying to exercise their right to vote or go to school, President Kennedy did not have the luxury of ignoring the growing storm. And the cities began to erupt in violence, delay was no longer an option.
Keeping up the Russians in the nuclear (noo-cue-lar!) arms race and the race to space both had to share space with fixing the inequality of race.
March 10, 2009 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't Pres. Obama know that while he is busy solving America's problem, the brush in Crawford Texas is growing out of control!
March 11, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink