Obama is choosing his enemies (Obama v. Limbaugh.)

[Happy_Fun_Ball]

IdahoMauleMan, what the hell are you talking about?

@IdahoMauleMan

Knock bankers repeatedly…I think the line was ‘I don’t care about the banks’ from the speech. That might not be the exact words, but it was close.

Here is a transcript to the speech. Point out how he slams bankers please…

• At least two jibes about executives using corporate jets, one for Citibank and one for the Big Three automakers.

Where? The only thing I could find was this tidbit from Reuters:

@Reuters UK

Troubled bank Citigroup (C.N) on Tuesday said it canceled plans to buy a
$50 million executive jet, after politicians criticized the purchase as
wasteful. The jet was first ordered in 2005. The bank planned to take delivery
later this year. The purchase was to be funded by selling older jets, the bank
said. [ID:nN27392965]
Citigroup received $45 billion from the U.S. government last year.
Shares of Citigroup, a Dow component, rose 3.3 percent to $3.44 on
Tuesday.

Did President Obama really say something, and if so, what?

• A crack about some company sending top sales performers to Las Vegas for an annual awards trip. I think it was Wells Fargo, might have been AIG.

You got to help me here, I cannot find anything said by President Obama about an awards trip to Vegas by any company. President Obama plays the populist card pretty well and AIG did get a lot of crap regarding the resort meeting, but are you sure you are not confusing President Obama with the national media? What exactly did President Obama say?

• A swipe at defense contractors today.

I assume you are talking about this. What swipe?

@New York Times article

President Obama on Wednesday ordered his administration to change how government contracts are awarded to private businesses, saying he intended to reverse some practices of the Bush administration and do away with no-bid contracts that have cost billions and led to corruption investigations.

…<snip>…

“The days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over,” Mr. Obama said. “We need more competition for contracts and more oversight as they are carried out.”

…<snip>…

Far too often, the spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud and the absence of oversight and accountability,” Mr. Obama said. “In some cases, contracts are awarded without competition; in others, contractors actually oversee other contractors.”

The Justice Department has leveled bribery and other fraud charges against dozens of people in a sweeping investigation of contract and procurement abuse. The fraudulent spending, officials said, was prevalent in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with billions of dollars being spent with little oversight. More than 100 federal investigations are under way into suspected contract fraud related to those wars.

Are you serious? You really see this as sniping at Defense contractors? Hell, I have worked on defense projects for DARPA and the NRO and I don’t feel sniped at. Too me this sounds like he is sniping at the Bush Administration and the no-bid contracts given to companies like Haliburton and its subsidiaries (i.e KBR).

The President is preying on populist anger that is searching for villians. Somebody…anybody, to blame. Then he can punish them for us. It’s not productive and it’s a big gamble on his part.

How the hell is this different from what President Bush’s administration did for the last eight years? They were always pulling out Liberal and Foreign bogey men to frighten us with. It bit him and it may bite President Obama, but hell, this is politics! IMHO Prsident Obama has been tame compared to the rhetoric of previous administrations.

[Lakai]

@Magiver

Rahm once talked about an “enemy’s list” at a restaraunt while stabbing a table with knife. Wiki:
Emanuel is known for his “take-no-prisoners attitude” that has earned him the nickname “Rahm-bo.”[13] Emanuel is said to have “mailed a rotten fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways.”[10] On the night after the 1996 election, “Emanuel was so angry at the president’s enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting ‘Dead! … Dead! … Dead!’ and plunging the knife into the table after every name.”[5][6] Before Tony Blair gave a pro-Clinton speech during the impeachment crisis, Emanuel reportedly screamed to Blair’s face “Don’t fuck this up!” while Clinton was present;

Media dog house candidates
New York Post Ryan Lizza
Barbara West of Orlando’s WFTV

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs rebukes CNBC’s Santelli

Ryan Lizza just had a pretty in depth interview with Emanuel. I would hardly call that the dog house.

His style is different yes, but he is not as dishonest as Rove. To get things done in Washington you can’t be a saint, but you also don’t have to drink the blood of puppies every morning. The stories around the guy just make him better at what he does.

Has Emanuel ever swift boated anyone? Has he tried restrict gay rights in order to get his party elected? Has he outed a CIA agent? Spread rumors about someone’s illegitimate black child? His theatrics in your wiki quote don’t come anywhere near that level. They are just theatrics because he wants people to see that he is tough. He’s no where near deplorable as the political operatives under Bush.

[Happy_Fun_Ball]

@Magiver

White House Strategy

I read this, but it does not diminish Kimstu’s point; what exactly did President Obama say about Mr. Limbaugh? How is he being overly aggressive and confrontational?

What I said before:

@L. G. Butts

I do agree that the democratic party, and maybe even the White House specifically, is trying to stir up crap with Mr. Limbaugh, but President Obama himself? What has he said and done personally?

If you are trying to say that it seems like President Obama is telling his staff to attack Rush Limbaugh, I won’t disagree.

Actually, Meh… Not worth arguing about, I concede the point.

Regarding the wiki on Rahm, that was in the 90’s! I agree that he was pretty far off the reservation, but it was a long time ago… Do you have anything from the last 5 years or so? My preference would be something during the time he has been associated with President Obama. Lots of politicians did crap when they were younger that I am sure they regret. Just wait until the current crop of budding politicians has their old Facebook pages thrown back at them!

Media dog house candidates
New York Post Ryan Lizza
Barbara West of Orlando’s WFTV

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs rebukes CNBC’s Santelli
Today 12:28 AM

In order:
If Lizza was truly excluded for this reason, pretty lame. I am not convinced that it was truly about the New Yorker cover however. It could have been that there wasn’t room as they claimed. (Note, Ryan Lizza was representing the New Yorker, not the New York Post. I am not sure where the New Yorker is in the hierarchy of media sources, maybe it is not high enough to rate having a reporter on this trip.)

West. Whatever. She attacked Biden with a bunch of very partisan and slanted questions. From your cite:

During the interview, West asked Biden: “Aren’t you embarrassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?”

“Are you forewarning Americans that nothing will be done and that America’s days as the world’s leading power are over?” West asked.

West returned to the “spreading the wealth” question, asking Biden what he’d “say to the people who are concerned that Barack Obama will want to turn America into a socialist country much like Sweden?”

She is like that Minnesota (?) news organization that attacked Senator McCain during the campaign. It was lame for them too… Did you really think this woman would be allowed into the press pool? Shit, at least President Obama has not hired someone like Jeff Gannon!

Robert Gibbs rebukes CNBC’s Santelli: Meh. A rebuke is a rebuke, not some inclusion onto a “Nixon style list”.

Your charge that:

@Magiver

Anyone who criticizes Obama will find himself on a Nixon style list and that doesn’t speak well for the office of the President.

is pretty serious and, so far at least, you haven’t convinced me.

Magiver, I want you to know that I am not President Obama’s boy or a true believer (though I did vote for him), believe it or not. I’m sorry, but you are not pulling up anything that is at all convincing with regards to President Obama attacking Americans to drum up political support from other Americans or that he has some kind of Nixon’s enemy list and is a vindictive asshole… I want more proof.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Magiver

Media dog house candidates
New York Post Ryan Lizza
Barbara West of Orlando’s WFTV

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs rebukes CNBC’s Santelli

It’s late for me, and I’m tired, but your cite for the Ryan Lizza thing says

Forty journalists, including such leading correspondents as Dan Balz of The Washington Post, will be aboard his plane for next week’s swing through Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.

The campaign received 200 requests for press seats on the plane.

Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine’s satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away.

Do you have any evidence that there was something other than space constraints which prevented Lizza from being one of the 40 people, out of 200, allowed on Obama’s plane?

And as for the Barbara west thing… good lord, just read that article. She wasn’t an impartial journalist after a story… She was baiting and taunting Biden. She didn’t deserve another interview. Did you know that she is a registered Republican, and that her husband, Wade West, was working as a GOP media consultant during last year’s campaign? Did you know that they gave thousands of dollars to GOP candidates?

cite

[Voyager]

@IdahoMauleMan

How is that helpful? To him, I mean? The finance and banking blogs are already buzzing with buyers-remorse posts from Wall Street folks who are asking ‘Why did we elect this guy again?’

There are 100s of thousands of people who work in banking and finance in New York. Not all are evil. Most are hard-working, law-abiding citizens just like you and me. Ditto for defense contractors and corporate jet manufacturers. And for the folks who make $10/hour waiting on tables at Caesar’s.

The President is preying on populist anger that is searching for villians. Somebody…anybody, to blame. Then he can punish them for us. It’s not productive and it’s a big gamble on his part.

I’m sure the millionaire bank execs were all lined up behind Obama. :rolleyes: I think everyone understands that criticism of bankers is about bank execs who ran their companies into the ground, almost destroyed the financial systems, and who still think they deserve bonuses. I don’t think your average American thinks Obama is criticizing bank tellers.

This crisis didn’t create itself. Even Greenspan gets who the culprit is - a bit late, but he finally gets it.

Ditto for defense contractors. Your average assembly line guy didn’t gouge the government, and didn’t pay lobbyists for no-bid contracts.

[Magiver]

@L. G. Butts

Magiver, I want you to know that I am not President Obama’s boy or a true believer (though I did vote for him), believe it or not. I’m sorry, but you are not pulling up anything that is at all convincing with regards to President Obama attacking Americans to drum up political support from other Americans or that he has some kind of Nixon’s enemy list and is a vindictive asshole… I want more proof.

It’s been 2 months - It can only go in 2 directions, better or worse. If he doesn’t grow a thick skin it will be a long haul.

[Merijeek]

@Magiver

It’s been 2 months - It can only go in 2 directions, better or worse. If he doesn’t grow a thick skin it will be a long haul.

And if he continues to react like an adult, it won’t. There, your concerns based on prognostications pulled from nowhere should now be assuaged. All better.

If he gets the girls a dog that isn’t a Shih Tzu, will it offend the Chinese? Should we be concerned? Does it foretell war with China?

-Joe

[Shodan]

Politically, it’s a good idea. Obama needs a demon to blame his failures on. Die Massen sind wie ein Weib - they’ll fall for it.

Regards,
Shodan

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@L. G. Butts

Did President Obama really say something, and if so, what?
You got to help me here, I cannot find anything said by President Obama about an awards trip to Vegas by any company. President Obama plays the populist card pretty well and AIG did get a lot of crap regarding the resort meeting, but are you sure you are not confusing President Obama with the national media? What exactly did President Obama say?

At the 2008 Alfred E Smith dinner, President Obama said:

@then-Senator Obama

Given all that’s happened these past few weeks on Wall Street, it feels like an odd time to be dressed up in white tie, but I must say I got a great deal, rented the whole outfit from the treasury department at a very good price.

Looking around tonight at all the gourmet food and champagne, it’s clear that no expenses were spared. It’s like an executive sale meeting at AIG.

I for one do NOT want a president who tries to be funny during comedy-appropriate speeches for charity. :mad:

[Sitnam]

@Shodan

Politically, it’s a good idea. Obama needs a demon to blame his failures on. Die Massen sind wie ein Weib - they’ll fall for it.

Regards,
Shodan

Those Limbaughs, they’re always sneaky and lying, they and their ilk are the ones that started this financial crisis, they’re responsible for this new war we’re going to get into. Limbaughs are greedy as hell and everybody knows it, they’ve got big noses and they’re just basically dirty dirty people. I’m telling you, it should be illegal for Limbaughs to marry other Americans and infect our gene pool. We need some kind of camp where we can keep Limbaughs away from the rest of the civilized world.
Yeah, I’m not sure that’s going to work.

[Burton]

I don’t think populism is necessarily scary thing. America is fed up with the corrupt set of elites who have put their personal gain and short term profits ahead of what makes sense for our country. Look at the crap that’s hit the fan over the last decade. Big money has run completely amok. At least as far back as 2002 it was evident that our financial reporting system was in big trouble, that conflicts of interest were keeping rating and auditing firms from doing what they set up to do and nothing of significance was done.

Now look at where we are. How Bernard Madoff could have done what he did is completely ridiculous. How it came to be that one company is so huge and holds so much debt interrelated to nearly all investment in the world that everyone fears a total financial collapse
should it fail is crazy.

[Shodan]

@Sitnam

Those Limbaughs, they’re always sneaky and lying, they and their ilk are the ones that started this financial crisis, they’re responsible for this new war we’re going to get into. Limbaughs are greedy as hell and everybody knows it, they’ve got big noses and they’re just basically dirty dirty people. I’m telling you, it should be illegal for Limbaughs to marry other Americans and infect our gene pool. We need some kind of camp where we can keep Limbaughs away from the rest of the civilized world.
Yeah, I’m not sure that’s going to work.

Substitute “Republicans” for “Limbaughs” and you have a post that would pass unnoticed on the SDMB.

Obama better handle this thing carefully. Rush is going to spend the next month repeating “If I am the leader of the GOP, how come you are afraid to debate me? Why will you just sit in the Oval Office and take cheap shots?”

Or Obama could make a huge blunder and actually debate Rush (he won’t). Rush would wipe the floor with him, and the ratings would be huge.

Regards,
Shodan

[Sitnam]

@Shodan

Or Obama could make a huge blunder and actually debate Rush (he won’t). Rush would wipe the floor with him, and the ratings would be huge.

He had his way with Bill O’Reilly and didn’t even wrinkle his suit. What makes you think Limbaugh’s good at debating people he can’t shout over?

[Shodan]

I wasn’t talking about the perception of Dopers - Obama would “win” any debate in which he didn’t drool on himself there. I meant in the eyes of Rush’s 20 million listeners and the country in general.

And this would be a debate, not an interview.

Regards,
Shodan

[Sitnam]

@Shodan

I wasn’t talking about the perception of Dopers - Obama would “win” any debate in which he didn’t drool on himself there. I meant in the eyes of Rush’s 20 million listeners and the country in general.

And this would be a debate, not an interview.

I’ll give you the Rushbots, but the country in general? Like no ones going to bother fact checking his rants?

But perhaps you’re right, perhaps he is the Republican Ragin’ Cajun, where in the past has this debating mastermind worked his craft?

[IdahoMauleMan]

@Kimstu

Well, yeah, actually, if you want your claims to convince people. I mean, that’s how it works around here, isn’t it?
As I asked in an earlier post, how are you managing to interpret that “no more blank checks” remark as a swipe at defense contractors themselves, rather than a swipe at the previous administration’s rather loose and wasteful policies for awarding them contracts?

And your “knock bankers” complaint also seems to be on the weak side. As far as I can tell, what you’re referring to is Obama’s sentence in his Feb. 24 speech, “It’s not about helping banks, it’s about helping people.”

But all that says is that the ultimate purpose of the bank bailout is to restore prosperity to individuals, rather than just making sure that financial companies don’t lose money. In what way is that “knocking bankers”?

Thanks for the cites.

I guess we’re listening to the same words, but hearing different things, if you know what I mean. I most definitely interpret his words, and the manner in which his says them, as strawman attacks on those businesses and their workers in an effort to drum up popular support for his proposals.

We shall see. I’m sure there are a lot of people who agree with you. I know there are a lot of people that agree with me. Time will tell if any real damage has been done by this. I find it distasteful and it could be counterproductive for him.

[Bosstone]

@IdahoMauleMan

I most definitely interpret his words, and the manner in which his says them, as strawman attacks on those businesses and their workers in an effort to drum up popular support for his proposals.

“Gosh, you look lovely tonight.”

“Are you implying I look hideous the rest of the time?”

[SteveG1]

@Kimstu

… a dearth of specific references to particular actions or statements that are being objected to.

Again, let’s see some cites of specific actions or statements you consider out of line, and then we’ll have some basis for considering the (so far unsupported) allegations that these are somehow atypical or unprecedented.

I doubt we will be seeing any concrete examples or cites. It’s cool though. No one is checking to see what books I read, no one is setting up “free speech zones” or demanding “loyalty oaths”, I haven’t heard of anyone being arrested on a “fill in the blanks” warrant from a secret court lately, things are getting better all the time.

So, no, there won’t be any cites proving the “iron fist of Obama”.

[Mosier]

@Der_Trihs

Like what ? ARE there worse things ?

The search feature is failing me, but I remember you called him a monster and a murderer.

[Kimstu]

@Shodan

Politically, it’s a good idea. Obama needs a demon to blame his failures on.

Actually, it seems to be the other way around: Limbaugh is using Obama as a demon to blame the failures of Republicans and conservatives on. Remember, Limbaugh’s the one who picked this fight in the first place.

Nice Godwinization of the thread, though!