"Where's your telepromter now? Mmmrrraaa!"

[PixelPusher]

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Edward_G_Robinson_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_tra iler.jpg/220px-Edward_G_Robinson_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_tra iler.jpg

oBuG2TdgMn0



So effective was the president that Fox News cut away from the broadcast 20 minutes before it ended.

[Winehole23]

Edward G. Robinson? As an asiatic warlord? What movie is the jpg. captured from?

[PixelPusher]

Edward G. Robinson? As an asiatic warlord? What movie is the jpg. captured from?

You've never seen "The Ten Commandments", starring Chuck Heston? They've only played it on TV every Easter since...forever.

[PixelPusher]

btw, forgot to include a link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/obama-goes-to-the-gop-lio_n_442331.html). I wish this shit happened more often. Probably won't. (http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC/status/8380253627)

[Mr. Peabody]

From notorious Bush-era pollster Frank Luntz . . . .



The Plum Line
Greg Sargent's blog

Frank Luntz: Obama Had The Advantage Today, But GOP Should Do This Again

I just got off the phone with Frank Luntz, the well-known GOP pollster who was aggressively called out by Obama at today’s televised face-off with Republicans, and he conceded Obama had the advantage today — but said he’d still advise Republicans to debate him again, because it put them on his “level.”

Luntz also confided that Obama had approached him after the event and joked with him about calling him out. “We had a laugh about it,” Luntz told me in an interview just now. “He said, `It’s good for business.’”

During today’s event, Obama singled out Luntz, poked fun at his obsession with polling and focus groups, and cast him as a symbol of what’s wrong with Washington. “It’s all tactics, and it’s not solving problems,” Obama said.

Asked who won today’s face-off, Luntz said something that people on both sides would agree with.

“I call it in favor of the American people,” Luntz said. “I think it was good for everybody. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve never seen the President of one party interacting with the other party.”

Pressed on who had the upper hand, Luntz conceded: “Obama had the advantage. But he always has the advantage” because he’s President. Luntz said it was a boon to Obama, because he “demonstrated bipartisanship before a national audience.”

B-b-but he's just a celebrity and doesn't understand any of these issues. Certainly, these deft House GOP members should have been able to expose this teleprompter-less President as the aloof and vacuous figurehead the right claims him to be.

It did appear that there were many people in the room who didn't know shit outside of their talking points, but the President wasn't one of them.

[George Gervin's Afro]

This is what happens when your criticisms are just talking points.

[Mr. Peabody]

Here's an article from the AP discussing some of the highlights for those of you who do not want to watch the 90-minute event (although it was great television if you enjoy politics).


Obama, GOP exchange barbs, ideas in rare encounter

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER and CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writers
Sat Jan 30, 12:05 am ET

BALTIMORE – In a remarkably sharp face-to-face confrontation, President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers Friday for opposing him on taxes, health care and the economic stimulus, while they accused him in turn of brushing off their ideas and driving up the national debt.

The president and GOP House members took turns questioning and sometimes lecturing each other for more than an hour at a Republican gathering in Baltimore. The Republicans agreed to let TV cameras inside, resulting in an extended, point-by-point interchange that was almost unprecedented in U.S. politics, except perhaps during presidential debates.

With voters angry about partisanship and legislative logjams, both sides were eager to demonstrate they were ready to cooperate, resulting in the GOP invitation and Obama's acceptance. After polite introductions, however, Friday's exchange showed that Obama and the Republicans remain far apart on key issues, and neither side could resist the chance to challenge and even scold the other.

Obama said Republican lawmakers have attacked his health care overhaul so fiercely, "you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot." His proposals are mainstream, widely supported ideas, he said, and they deserve some GOP votes in Congress.

"I am not an ideologue," the president declared.

But Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., pointedly asked Obama: "What should we tell our constituents who know that Republicans have offered positive solutions" for health care, "and yet continue to hear out of the administration that we've offered nothing?"


Obama showed little sympathy, disputing Price's claim that a Republican plan would insure nearly all Americans without raising taxes.

"That's just not true," said Obama. He called such claims "boilerplate" meant to score political points.

At times it seemed more like Britain's "question time" — when lawmakers in the House of Commons trade barbs with the prime minister — than a meeting between a U.S. president and members of Congress.

Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana defended Price on the health care proposals. He said a GOP agenda booklet given to Obama at the start of the session "is backed up by precisely the kind of detailed legislation that Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and your administration have been busy ignoring for 12 months."

Obama shot back that he had read the Republican proposals and that they promise solutions that can't be realized.

In another barbed exchange, the president said some Republican lawmakers in the audience had attended ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects in their districts funded by the 2009 stimulus package that they voted against.

Pence said Obama was trying to defend "a so-called stimulus that was a piecemeal list of projects and boutique tax cuts."

Obama replied, "When you say they were boutique tax cuts, Mike, 95 percent of working Americans got tax cuts."

"This notion that this was a radical package is just not true," he said.
Republicans are feeling energized after winning a Democratic Senate seat in Massachusetts, and Obama is trying to refocus his stalled agenda more on jobs than health care. With Obama at a podium facing a hotel conference room full of Republicans, both sides jumped to the debate.

"It was the kind of discussion that we frankly need to have more of," said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

"I'm having fun, this is great," Obama said when Pence asked if he had time for more questions.

"So are we," said Pence.

Some Republicans prefaced their questions with lengthy recitations of conservative talking points. The president sometimes listened impassively but sometimes broke in.

"I know there's a question in there somewhere, because you're making a whole bunch of assertions, half of which I disagree with," Obama said to Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, whom he mistakenly called "Jim."

Obama, a former law school professor, launched into lectures of his own at times. He warned lawmakers from both parties against demonizing a political opponent, because voters might find it incomprehensible if the two sides ever agree on anything.

"We've got to be careful about what we say about each other sometimes, because it boxes us in in ways that makes it difficult for us to work together because our constituents start believing us," Obama said. "So just a tone of civility instead of slash-and-burn would be helpful."

Republicans sat attentively for the most part. There was some grumbling when Obama remarked — after being pressed about closed-door health care negotiations — that much of the legislation was developed in congressional committees in front of television cameras.

"That was a messy process," Obama said.

GOP lawmakers pressured him to support a presidential line-item veto for spending bills and to endorse across-the-board tax cuts. Obama said he was ready to talk about the budget proposal, though he disputed accusations that his administration was to blame for big increases in deficit spending. And he demurred on the idea of cutting everyone's taxes, saying with a smile that billionaires don't need tax cuts.

In his opening remarks, Obama criticized what he said was a Washington culture driven by opinion polls and nonstop political campaigns.

"I don't believe that the American people want us to focus on our job security, they want us to focus on their job security," he said.

The president acknowledged that Republicans have joined Democrats in some efforts, such as sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. But he said he was disappointed and perplexed by virtually unanimous GOP opposition to other programs, such as the economic stimulus bill.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said of the event, "In some places I kind of felt like I was in my high school assembly being lectured by my principal. In others, I felt like he was listening."

When it was over, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio issued a statement saying Obama "acknowledged the fact that House Republicans have offered better solutions over the last year.":lmao

Not exactly how the president and his allies saw it.
___
Charles Babington reported from Washington. AP Writer Christine Simmons contributed from Baltimore.

[Mr. Peabody]

Here's a fact check on the Representative from Texas' question and the President's response -



FACT CHECK: Obama, GOP Rep. tangle over numbers
By JIM KUNHNENN
The Associated Press
Friday, January 29, 2010; 6:33 PM

WASHINGTON -- An irked President Barack Obama on Friday invited fact-checkers to judge his budget claims against those of a Republican congressman who challenged his fiscal stewardship.

Mr. President, here's your fact check.

OBAMA: "The fact of the matter is, is that when we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. So when you say that suddenly I've got a monthly budget that is higher than the annual - or a monthly deficit that's higher than the annual deficit left by Republicans, that's factually just not true, and you know it's not true."

THE FACTS: Obama argues that the federal budget in 2000 had a surplus of $200 billion. He says two tax cuts, two wars and a Medicare drug plan eliminated that surplus over the next eight years. It is true that the budget in 2001, as Bill Clinton left the White House, had a $236 billion surplus. By the time Obama took office in January 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the annual deficit at $1.2 trillion.

At the time, CBO projected a $4 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Obama placed the 10-year deficit he inherited at $8 trillion, the figure used by the Office of Management and Budget. The difference is because CBO assumed the Bush tax cuts would expire and that taxes would increase and bring in new revenue. The OMB projections assume a continuation of current law - a more realistic scenario - thus the higher number.

The congressman, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, asserted that "what were the old annual deficits under Republicans have now become the monthly deficits under Democrats." He did not say, as Obama claimed, that the monthly deficits were higher than the deficit "left by Republicans." The deficit inherited by Obama was the result of spending increases and revenue losses incurred under President George W. Bush and a Democratic Congress.

Still, Hensarling's claim is based on a selective use of data. Monthly deficits in 2009 ranged from a low of $21 billion in April to a high of $193 billion in February. The annual deficits under Bush, when Republicans controlled Congress, ranged from $158 billion in 2002 to $413 billion in 2004.

OBAMA: (Referring to Hensarling, his last questioner.) "Jim is going to wrap things up?"

THE FACTS: Hensarling's name is Jeb.

[George Gervin's Afro]

I hope Obama does more of these. Makes the talking points look real stupid.. as they should be..:lmao

[jack sommerset]

I hope Obama does more of these. Makes the talking points look real stupid.. as they should be..:lmao

You really should stop drinking the kool-aid. All you Obama dems, not just GGA. Obama had no choice but to speak with repugs after a year of locking them out that resulted in losing his super majority, seeing his approval rating dropping in record time and watching America turn on him. LOL thinking you would have seen him meet with repugs if Dems did not lose in New Jersey, Virgina and Massachuttes, all Obama states a year ago.

The repugs were nice to him, asked him the questions respectfully that our entire nation wanted to know the answers to. They were not a rowdy group of tea baggers, they were senators elected by the people understanding that there is no need to press the President after he answered in his typical bullshit form.

You cannot erase the year of lies, broken promises, history making spending, jamming bills down throats, ignoring the majority of the people in the first meeting with repugs in a freaken year. That is ridiculous to think.

Obama laid out all new "promises", doing his best to deflect the first year of MASSIVE lies. He continued to blame the repugs and/or Washington for his behavior. He is a politician. I was left thinking after the State of the Union and Q&A with repugs shaking my head knowing I just witnessed more BULLSHIT.

[George Gervin's Afro]

You really should stop drinking the kool-aid. All you Obama dems, not just GGA. Obama had no choice but to speak with repugs after a year of locking them out that resulted in losing his super majority, seeing his approval rating dropping in record time and watching America turn on him. LOL thinking you would have seen him meet with repugs if Dems did not lose in New Jersey, Virgina and Massachuttes, all Obama states a year ago.

The repugs were nice to him, asked him the questions respectfully that our entire nation wanted to know the answers to. They were not a rowdy group of tea baggers, they were senators elected by the people understanding that there is no need to press the President after he answered in his typical bullshit form.

You cannot erase the year of lies, broken promises, history making spending, jamming bills down throats, ignoring the majority of the people in the first meeting with repugs in a freaken year. That is ridiculous to think.

Obama laid out all new "promises", doing his best to deflect the first year of MASSIVE lies. He continued to blame the repugs for his behavior and/or Washington. He is a politician. I was left thinking after the State of the Union and Q&A with repugs shaking my head knowing I just witnessed more BULLSHIT.

My IQ jut dropped a couple of points after reading this.

[jack sommerset]

My IQ jut dropped a couple of points after reading this.

:lol You believed so much that actually makes sense.

[George Gervin's Afro]

:lol You believed so much that actually makes sense.

You do realize jack that he owned the Q&A. Don't you? He OWNED the GOP yesteday jack...:lmao

[Winehole23]

You've never seen "The Ten Commandments", starring Chuck Heston? They've only played it on TV every Easter since...forever.


Who wants to see a movie where the man's tits are bigger than the woman's?

[jack sommerset]

You do realize jack that he owned the Q&A. Don't you? He OWNED the GOP yesteday jack...:lmao

I told you what I realized/witnessed. I'm out of here buddy. Enjoy your Saturday!

[PixelPusher]

The repugs were nice to him, asked him the questions respectfully that our entire nation wanted to know the answers to.

except the portion that watches FOX News, apparently.

[Winehole23]

(BTW, Groucho Marx originally said that stuff about Charlton Heston's tits in The Ten Commandments.)

[RandomGuy]

From notorious Bush-era pollster Frank Luntz . . . .

B-b-but he's just a celebrity and doesn't understand any of these issues. Certainly, these deft House GOP members should have been able to expose this teleprompter-less President as the aloof and vacuous figurehead the right claims him to be.

It did appear that there were many people in the room who didn't know shit outside of their talking points, but the President wasn't one of them.

It does show that the "useless without a teleprompter" schtick was partisan hackery, and not valid criticism.

It further demonstrated something that I have never really liked about hollow GOP talking points: that the GOP is, in general, more interested in parroting those talking points than actually addressing people honestly.

To be fair, I would not doubt that, were the parties reversed, it would probably have gone fairly similarly, in terms of the kinds an purposes of the questions asked.

Leading me to a last observation: I could not see ANY Republican president doing something similar.

Such things just are not done that way in the Republican party these days. The extremists in charge would not allow such a thing to happen, because it would negate the scorched earth strategy being used to destroy the Democrats at the expense of public good.

[Sportcamper]

I thought Obama did very well….The Republicans thought that they would steamroll Obama & they came out swinging….Obama showed that he thinks on his feet, is well informed on the issues & that he is a two fisted S.O.B…:tu

Now if only Obama can rid himself of Reid, Polosi, Barney & Dodd…

[TeyshaBlue]

Anybody see Seth Meyer's bit on SNL this weekend?

"C'mon Republicans. Are you on such a Scott Brown high that you thought you could take down Barak Obama by debating him? You realize debates are why he's President, right?
Seriously, all you guys do is complain about how Obama is all talk, then you invite him to a forum that's literally all talk. That's like saying, 'Let's see how tough Aquaman is when we get him in the water.' ".:lmao :lmao :lmao


http://rackjite.com/archives/4507-VIDEO-SNL-Weekend-Update,-Obama-Eats-Repubicans-in-debate-and-iPad.html

[Nbadan]

swing..hit...score!

qkAn_qJdgBs

[Def Rowe]

I thought Obama did very well….The Republicans thought that they would steamroll Obama & they came out swinging….Obama showed that he thinks on his feet, is well informed on the issues & that he is a two fisted S.O.B…:tu

Now if only Obama can rid himself of Reid, Polosi, Barney & Dodd…

I agree with this.

[PublicOption]

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Edward_G_Robinson_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_tra iler.jpg/220px-Edward_G_Robinson_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_tra iler.jpg

oBuG2TdgMn0




you ever seen an impromptu bush speech:lol

not that is something to laugh at.

you are just a regurgitator

[admiralsnackbar]

you ever seen an impromptu bush speech:lol

not that is something to laugh at.

you are just a regurgitator

[insert whooshing sound of joke flying high overhead]