President Clinton took time to give a little help to Obama, taking over at the White House Press Conference - image Yahoo
President Obama brought a little help with him to a recent White House Press briefing - former President Bill Clinton. Obama did not stay to answer questions, rather turned the podium over to Clinton, who then defended the Presidents stance on reinstating tax cuts. Using the excuse that his wife was waiting for him, Obama walked away leaving Clinton virtually in charge, a move that was not unappealing to some pundits, including MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
As Obama has been faced with what amounts to a slap in the face (mildly put) from the hard left faction in his Congress (Pelosi, et al), he appears to require the need to bring in Clinton, the moderate, in order to deal with those who are fighting hard for the progressive line. It has gotten to the point, where some of the less sane members of the Progressive caucus, are considering letting the tax cuts expire as well as the unemployment insurance that is tied to those same tax cuts, in a deal brokered by Obama. In a recent interview one house member Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)suggested that in allowing the tax cuts to expire along with those unemployment benefits, Republicans would then take the blame. In other words, forcing the Republicans to capitulate on letting the tax cuts expire while pushing through the unemployment extensions. This is clearly not in the cards, Obama knows it, Clinton knows it, and the American public is now aware of the fact that Congress is the problem, not the President nor the GOP in this instance.
Apparently, Ellison, under the erroneous impression that tax cuts are not popular with the American public in general (there are conflicting polls on this subject, he must be using selective polling choices in order to get to frame his point of view, always a dangerous move, especially if one, has either been booted out of office, or will be booted out of office in 2012. What the remaining Democrats in the House, and most certainly those in the Senate, that do understand the tie between prosperity, buskin and the basic tax cuts, are likely to do in the event that nothing is done prior to the Christmas Break, is run the same deal January 5th, when the new Congress is installed, effectively putting everything into place retroactively.
This leads the base to believe that certain members are fighting for the Progressive platform, however, in reality, they surely cannot so dense in intellect that they are not aware this will take place with or without them, thereby making Ms. Pelosi, and all others statements and posturing nothing more than political in nature.
As to Obama leaving the podium to Clinton, appearances are everything and he should have, in this opinion, held his ground, using Clinton as the cheerleader when the need arose. To simply bolt with a weak excuse, leave the President appearing disengaged.
1 comment:
This is typical Obama. It is almost like he can't be bothered with the details, that's for the little people to deal with.
His arrogance will be his downfall.
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