President Obama misspoke, let's call it, at his town hall meeting this morning when he asserted that default is not an option, that it's off the table.
Default clearly is not off the table, since it has been enthusiastically superglued to the non-negotiating table by Republican extremists who savor every nihilistic thought of a government implosion.
Because the chickenshit McConnell plan and the fowl Gang of Six plan and some loosey-goosey Obama-Boehner plan all portend congressional flight and therefore failure, default is not only an option, it's a bloody certainty, in view of Obama's additional remarks regarding the inadvisability of the 14th-Amendment route.
Or so, as of this writing, it would seem.
Obama has been an abysmal failure in this fight, and he telegraphed it most graphically with his cave on extending the Bush tax cuts. The public has solidly supported letting these expire on the wealthiest Americans, but he didn't even try fighting for this. He hasn't even pointed out the recent CBO report that if all the Bush tax rates were to expire, and nothing else was done, the entire deficit would be wiped out by 2016.
This man looked at so many gift horses in the mouth - especially considering the teabaggers, dittoheads, and downright nitwits he is bargaining with, yet he acts like he is afraid of them.
Just as he has throughout his administration.
And please don't come back at me with this "professional left" bullpuckey. The fact is, this man doesn't know what he's doing, and I fear things will get ten times worse next year when a Republican wins the White House, and the GOP captures the Senate. It will be the Bush years all over again.
All because Obama was timid in the face of know nothings...
Posted by: Frank Sinclair | July 22, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Frank, you really don't know what the hell you are talking about. Obama is not some naive child playing games here, he is truly working for the American People, all of us, even the Teabaggers.
Posted by: Roberta CA | July 22, 2011 at 12:31 PM
He will cave. Mark my words. I hope to God I'm wrong, and I will gladly eat crow if I am, but he is going to cave like he did on the Bush tax cuts at the end of last year.
The debt ceiling will be lifted in a grand bargain that will render the social safety net insignificant in exchange for closing tax loopholes the rich don't care about anyway.
Obama is Bill Clinton light, which put another way, is teabagger/dittohead light.
Posted by: Frank Sinclair | July 22, 2011 at 12:45 PM
I would be very interested Frank as to what strategy you think the Obama administration should adopt in the teeth of Republican intransigence and superior numbers. Dare I guess it involves spinal rigidity and/or gonadal display?
Posted by: Peter G | July 22, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Frank, I've never seen an Outraged Progressive(TM) "eat crow" after being wrong about Obama. What generally happens is credit goes to general left wing opposition, for "swaying public opinion" enough so that Obama couldn't ignore it, or to some other party for not going along with "Obama's capitulation," forcing his hand.
Whatever happens, no credit will be given by Outraged Progs to this worsteverdinocompromiserinchief, or by rightwingers to this evulsocialistmuslimkenyan POTUS.
Posted by: TomD | July 22, 2011 at 01:03 PM
TomD, Thank you for saying that. I have few words.sometimes, I just get so angry at these people when they are the ones helping to cause this problem. Can't they just go after Republicans?
Too much for words.
Posted by: Roberta CA | July 22, 2011 at 01:11 PM
Peter G, the Obama of the 2008 campaign would do just fine. He effectively shot down every right wing smear attempt. He did his best to stay above the fray, but if he was dared enough to go down into the mud, he would, and he wouldn't leave until he delivered a knockout blow.
That Obama went away for some reason after he took office. This new Obama has decided not to prosecute Bush administration war criminals, or to close Gitmo as he promised. This new Obama make a tepid - at best - attempt to include a public option into health care reform, caving to the insurance companies. This new Obama settled for a lame reduction in the payroll tax and unemployment insurance extensions in exchange for extending the Bush tax cuts two years (and adding $700 billion to the deficit). This new Obama sacked Van Jones because of what Glenn Beck said about him.
Glenn.
Beck.
This new Obama was afraid of Glenn Beck! And Andrew Breitbart!
W?
T?
F???
And this new Obama defended his most important legislative achievements with as much vigor as the French displayed against Germany in 1940.
It was pathetic.
Why on earth should I believe in him now???
Posted by: Frank Sinclair | July 22, 2011 at 01:15 PM
Frank and co have the word 'cave' as their mantra. Well,if Frank thinks he will cave,as well as the usual spiel of O negativity that goes along with the speculative bacchanalia, then that is Frank's opinion and frankly(pardon the pun), until such time that the Prez states his case, then and only then should we be indulging in all this hyperventilating.
Posted by: caribbeanobserver | July 22, 2011 at 01:40 PM
Well Frank I have to agree that campaign Obama went away after the campaign was over to be replaced by Chief Executive Obama. Those are two different jobs entirely. In the first you have to persuade voters. In the second you have to persuade elected legislators. Whether the legislators are a diverse majority of Democrats in the first two years (including conservative democrats) or the recently elected Republican majority the problem is the same. It is just harder now. Obama's most important legislative achievements have been almost universally condemned by the left wing of his own party as being imperfect. And condemned with relentless, unthinking personal attacks that make me wonder this: The wheels of the bus go round and round and those who aren't on the bus are most likely to wind up beneath it. All the polling I have seen shows a large majority of Democrats favor compromise as do most independents it seems. If sacrificing some or all of the very unreliable progressive support is required to trade for center moderates and secure that re-election majority and get a Grand Bargain I would steel myself for impact if I were you.
Posted by: Peter G | July 22, 2011 at 01:48 PM
Anyone who blames Gitmo on the president obviously hasn't been paying attention.
Posted by: elisabeth | July 22, 2011 at 02:13 PM
He failed to close Gitmo? That's the club you choose for beating on Obama? Why don't you go after all the gutless Democratic congresscritters who voted to block his ability to close it, when one of his first acts upon taking office was to sign an order that it be closed?
Anyone who rails at Obama over Gitmo is either pig-ignorant or deliberately duplicitous, and in either case not to be taken seriously in any policy debate.
Posted by: janicket | July 22, 2011 at 02:16 PM
There's some blame to go around, but I don't know how anyone -- liberal, conservative or anything in between -- couldn't be consumed by anger, disgust and despair over the handful of know-nothing Tea Party freshman and the Republican leadership being led around by the nose by them.
Posted by: You Don't Say | July 22, 2011 at 02:50 PM
Yes, the Senate vote on Gitmo was 90-6 against. And that's all you need to say to the PUMA/Firebagger and/or Heritage Foundation intern/ratf*cking concern troll of the day.
Speaking to PM's post, the reason President Obama isn't pushing the 'constitutional option' solution is that he knows it's not a workable solution. He knows the markets are not going to support it. If the Congress can't figure out a way to solve this legislatively, it means that the US Government is no longer the bedrock-solid foundation of capitalism.
And so the bond markets will knock the US credit rating down a tick, and the ratings of secondary (state) bonds will drop a tick, and the stock market will begin to falter, and the Asian markets will react, and the Euro will start to slip a bit...
Obama knows that no one will take him to court to stop him from continuing to pay the bills, but he also knows the markets are looking to see if the Congress can still minimally function, and that's why the 14th Amendment option is not really an option.
Posted by: JS | July 22, 2011 at 02:57 PM
I'm tired of the "let's you and him fight" attitude that Frank and others exhude.
If liberal outrage from the likes of Frank got people to the polls in 2010 we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Just ask Russ Feingold.
Posted by: Bruce | July 22, 2011 at 04:04 PM
Well, I have to say, it seems that pm is enough of a player now that the roaches come out of the woodwork.
Congratulations PM for making it in the a bigger and uglier league.
I wonder where WTF is today? He/she would be thrilled.
Posted by: Dorothy Rissman | July 22, 2011 at 10:49 PM
In thinking about the comments, I am zoning in on Jane the Sham or gigi. I know that crew and their tactics. They are ugly and their goal is to do as much harm as possible.
Posted by: Dorothy Rissman | July 22, 2011 at 10:52 PM
Spot on, Dorothy -- our PM is making waves big enough to disturb the water snakes.
Posted by: janicket | July 23, 2011 at 03:18 AM