Suppose you and I are to negotiate a business deal, but you have decided in advance that you will reject any deal I might possibly agree to. Given this, how much blame should be assigned to me and my actions when no deal is struck? Given this, does it really matter if you were to perceive me as ‘arrogant’ during our sham negotiations?
What you’re dismissing as merely “arrogance” is the same intransigence and unwillingness to deal that you say the GOP is guilty of. And this pocked Obama’s tenure - it wasn’t just the stimulus.
In any event, the facts don’t support your claim that from the outset, the Republicans were Hell-bent on refusing to cooperate. If that were remotely true, Cantor wouldn’t have made his pitch on the stimulus bill.
In addition, the GOP has just gotten thumped and were in a complete minority (plus being on the wrong side of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate), and going up against a very popular President who’d been elected by a wide margin. They weren’t about to categorically refuse to do anything from the outset, if for no other reason than raw political self-preservation.
Moreover, when it came time to pass a stimulus bill, there wasn’t one bill - there were many variations, introduced by both Democrats and Republicans. Obama could have insisted that any bill that arrived on his desk included facets of a GOP-introduced bill and the primary Democratic bill. A “post-partisan” president ready to bring scrapping factions together could have, and would have.
And my point is again, not that the GOP is blameless - it’s that Obama was as uninterested in working with the GOP as they were with him, and that becamse clear as a result of the early meeting on the stimulus. Obama continued the trend with the Affordable Care Act, and throughout, including his role in screwing up the Grand Bargain.
As I mentioned before, Obama didn’t even have working relationships with Congressional Democrats.
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I am not offended by Michelle Obama acting like a man. She looks like a man why not act like one? Okay…that was a low blow. Seriously what offends me about Michelle Obama is the fact that she said when Barack was elected. “this is the first time I have ever been proud of my country.” Then to follow up she has gave speeches which claim America is unfair and racist. And black people are held down. And this after her and Barack were elected twice to be President and first lady. They could not have done that if we really lived in a racist nation. Granted there is still racism but things are so good that we have elected and then reelected a black man to the Presidency TWICE. How racist can we be?
There is no comparison to Trump’s tweets.
What Trump is doing (and we will see if it works long term) is negotiate through tweeting. One can only imagine the shit storm that would occur if he said the types of racist remarks that Michelle Obama has. Who by the way has been the worst first lady in modern times. Not just because of her racist remarks but did anyone check out her school lunch program? LOL
Barack and Michelle…they deserve each other
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I don’t understand how people don’t see a problem here
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What do you see as the ramifications, if Russia did hack DNC?
@Mufasa was right, you surely are consistent!
I know it is shocking Zeb, but there are people in this country who experience a different reality than yourself. Obama’s election did demonstrate that at least half of our country isn’t horribly racist 
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Sure, there is nothing technologically impossible about what is being suggested. My point is just that we’re talking about huge amounts of very large and expensive infrastructure. A 350kW charger is probably about the same size and weight as the car itself, and probably costs several times more. And you probably need a high voltage grid hookup (13.2kV, or similar).
I don’t see a way for that to move into the mainstream and justify building an infrastructure of charging stations, unless gasoline cars become much less attractive.
I think the fact of the Inauguration-night meeting supports my claim very well.
To the contrary–that is exactly what they did, and with good (albeit deeply cynical) reason:
"The president’s first budget proposal presented a juicy target in early 2009. At a spring meeting with Republican leaders in his office, Mr. McConnell invoked, as is his custom, a collection of poll data to argue that the budget could be undone with a simple phrase that would crystallize public concerns: “spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.”
That phrase, Mr. McConnell said, should be invoked by Republican lawmakers every time they saw a television camera or an open notebook."
Forgive me for repeating myself:
“Very early on, Dave Obey, then chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, asked his counterpart on the committee, Republican Jerry Lewis, to get his leaders and rank-and-file to provide Republican ideas to include, and non-starters to exclude, in a stimulus plan and was told that there were orders from “on high” not to cooperate.”
We just see the world completely differently. The Obama I saw circa 2009 was naively sure he could work in a post-partisan manner with the GOP, to the point where he allowed himself to get played by them.
Do you see how these two statements are not congruent?
You mean, a massive, multinational company didn’t make a multibillion dollar decision on the spur of the moment in response to a tweet? Color me shocked.
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You sound quite knowledgeable on this.
My neighbor is an engineer (Fortune 100 VP) that took a couple of year ride with a company working on storage for renewable energy. He says increased storage capability is the key over the generation aspect.
I think the Exxons of the world will buy out these new technologies when they actually become true economic competitors.
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We don’t know who is or who isn’t racist. But we do know that it is far, far less than half the country. Simply because someone voted for McCain or Romney does not make them racist. Many like myself voted for them because I didn’t like the democrats philosophy of stealing from those who have worked hard for their money and handing it to those who did not work hard and do not deserve it. Most like myself couldn’t care less about race. But care a great deal about the core issues such as lower taxes, second amendment rights and less regulation.
Racism is not dead but it is on life support. But you’d never know it if you listened to Michelle Obama.
You and I are about the same age as we once mentioned. If so you must remember when there was serious systemic racism, as I do.
Read the above post that I wrote to “More Muscle” no sense repeating it. Suffice it to say here that racism is nothing…no where near what it was even 20 years ago. Let’s have Michelle Obama give speeches talking about opportunity for black people inspiring them. Not the crap she spews now.
Ford plant - another example in how manipulating people’s outlook greatly effects decision making. They expect a more pro business future and thus the plant is cancelled.
Potential illegal immigrants have stated they are giving up on crossing into America because of Trump.
I predict he’ll fight ISIS partially by using this same method. Changing people’s outlook and perception of ISIS. Right now ISIS has insanely good propaganda and things desperately need to be fought on that front
Racism being ‘nowhere near what it was’ does not imply that it is ‘nothing.’ By way of an example: Whereas racism against the Irish used to be horrible in this country, I think most reasonable observers would agree that it is now nothing. So, when racism experienced by black folk in this country reaches the level currently experienced by those of Irish ancestry, then (and only then) you can say it is ‘nothing.’
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Racism is normal.
People of all races will always prefer their own race
I’d say this is absolutely true in many applications. The focus in the popular consciousness is on how fossil fuels need to be replaced as sources on energy, but in many ways the struggle is to replace them as devices for transporting and storing energy. The 60 kwh battery in the Tesla weighs 1200lbs and has about the same energy as 1.5 gallons of diesel fuel. Of course, diesel engines aren’t very efficient, so you really need a couple more gallons of fuel to get the same range as the battery, but we’re still talking about two things of very different size, cost, and weight.
This explains a lot
Tell that to interracial couples…
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separating the statements like you did rips the meaning out of what I said.
on interracial couples: I was speaking in generalities.
BTW even babies show racial bias