Quoted Text

Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction. Wait! His party runs Congress
August 20, 2010 |  2:22 am

Just a few minor things to catch up on for the weekend now that the Fundraiser-in-Chief has gone on another vacation (Don't worry though. White House chef Sam Kass went along, so the first family need not eat ordinary human food.)

-- The Congressional Budget Office says the 2010 federal deficit will be in excess of $1.3 trillion, as in $1,000,000,000,000+. (BTW, the next level we'll be talking about out of Washington is quadrillion, which has fifteen 0's.)

-- Despite Vice President Joe Biden's April boast that administration stimulus spending would spur the economy to add a half-million jobs a month by now, initial unemployment claims jumped a half-million last week, the worst since last November, as national unemployment remains at 9.5% and the economy sheds 131,000 more jobs.

-- But the economy's going great at the Democratic National Committee, which reports collecting $11.5 million from donors in July on top of the $53.8 million already taken in from various sources this year. The president just devoted three workdays across five states to rake in several more millions for his party.

-- But before leaving for his ninth presidential vacation, 10 days at a....

...secluded estate on Martha's Vineyard, Obama devoted four minutes in the White House driveway to a special statement on the latest disappointing jobs numbers. (Full text, as usual, can be read on the jump, along with a brief reaction from the Republican National Committee chairman.)

No questions allowed because the president didn't want to explain why despite the administration's announced Recovery Summer Program, the jobs numbers have started going backward again after 19 months of promises and $787 billion in alleged stimulation spending. Because, faced with the uncertainty of the economy and the certainty of new taxes after Nov. 2, employers are holdinDemocrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevadag back on hiring.

According to the president, he's been "adamant" with Congress for months now about a new jobs bill to help small businesses. Obama says this really good bill is stalled in the Senate, where so much administration legislation has been crammed through so effectively by Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid's been so good at it, in fact, that he's now running for his political life in a reelection campaign back in Nevada where unemployment is 14.3% and Obama's legislation is not so popular.

Reid's up against a conservative Republican. So, That means that Harry Reid must be a Democrat, just like Obama, and just like 59% of the Senate's votes.

The very same party that has controlled both houses of Congress since the 2006 election and really controlled them both since the 2008 hopey-changey balloting.

So, facing the growing grim possibility of a GOP surge on Nov. 2, is this maybe the start of buddy-bickering within the Democratic huddle? Vulnerable people pointing the proverbial political finger of blame at someone else? That's ridiculous, of course.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

This is one of the things that makes me scratch my head and wonder ...  Obama was tauted as well-educated (Harvard - which never impressed me much .. and I have met some folks who graduated from there) and he has such well-experienced former members of Congress on his team like Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel ... and yet .. his White House is so poorly run.  

Personally, my favorite Democratic president (in my lifetime) was Lyndon Johnson -- he knew how to get Congress to work.  Speaker Sam Rayburn once said that trying to lead the Congress .. was trying to "herd cats" .. frankly .. I think cats are a hell of a lot smarter than most of Congress.

My favorite GOP president (in my lifetime) was Ronald Reagan -- instead of having 150 things on his "top priority list" - Reagan had about 3-5 things - lower taxes, smaller government, and winning the Cold War.   He focused on those and .. well .. succeeded to some extent.

Finally (and I will end my rant) ... a real leader take responsibility for his/her administration from Day #1 -- how long will they try to blame George W Bush for all their problems ?

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

This is one of the things that makes me scratch my head and wonder ...  Obama was tauted as well-educated (Harvard - which never impressed me much .. and I have met some folks who graduated from there) and he has such well-experienced former members of Congress on his team like Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel ... and yet .. his White House is so poorly run.  

Personally, my favorite Democratic president (in my lifetime) was Lyndon Johnson -- he knew how to get Congress to work.  Speaker Sam Rayburn once said that trying to lead the Congress .. was trying to "herd cats" .. frankly .. I think cats are a hell of a lot smarter than most of Congress.

My favorite GOP president (in my lifetime) was Ronald Reagan -- instead of having 150 things on his "top priority list" - Reagan had about 3-5 things - lower taxes, smaller government, and winning the Cold War.   He focused on those and .. well .. succeeded to some extent.

Finally (and I will end my rant) ... a real leader take responsibility for his/her administration from Day #1 -- how long will they try to blame George W Bush for all their problems ?

Quoted from bumblethru

My favorite democratic pres was Kennedy, in the little time we had him. He appeared to be able to handle both domestic (taxes) and foreign (cuban crises) straight on. I have to disagree on LBJ.....I thought he was one of the worst! My favorite rep was also Reagan for the same reasons you mentioned.

We need leaders like that again. The keyword is LEADERS!

Quoted from 612

DVR--I am not sure you are a Democrat at all.  Bush is why this country is in the shape it is in.  So he is the WORST Rep Pres ever.  I like Obama despite wha the rest of you say.  But hs is not my favorite.  Kennedy probably was the best.   AS for Reps, I am surprised nobody said Lincoln.  He was great.  And Mario Cuomo's book on "Why Lincoln Matters" was a very good read.  Never cared for anything Reagan did.  But I did like Ike.  I bet he could have won a third time if he wasn't forced out by term limits.  In fact I think he was the first president to ever be out because of term limits.