Martin at Politico Blows It: Showdown - Obama warns he's no pushover...

... except to the far left.

There's all kinds of ways to be a "push over," as, contrary to Martin's assertion, Mr. Obama has proven that he has been not only a "push-over," but the penultimate "lay down."

The problem for Mr. Obama is his perspective is so stilted, so warped, so arrogant that his insistence on, for example, carrying through with this idiotic porkulus program, a program that the Congressional Budget Office has determined to be unnecessary, that "bi-partisanship" (Defined by democrats as doing it their way) is simply not possible.

Yes, "urgency" is the reason that Mr. Obama has been engaging in the politics of terror. Unfortunately, an increasing number of his own experts claim there is not only no reason for urgency... but no reason to do this thing at all.

Mr. Martin claims

He reached out to Republicans in opening weeks and got little support in return. Monday night he instead used his prime-time platform to repeat on several occasions that he was inheriting a mess—both a huge deficit and a failing economy—and that spending some $820 billion was not his own preference for how to launch his presidency but the hand he had been dealt.

The first observation; that Mr. Obama "reached out to Republicans" early on is true, as far as it goes.

But when the only reason you reach out is to provide yourself with political cover for foisting on the American people the most horrific spending program in this Nation's history, how much support SHOULD you get?

Few statements of observation by a reporter, as accurate as they may be, are so self-serving and so blatantly arrogant.

That he "inherited" this mess is totally irrelevant. If he doesn't like the current situation with our economy... if it's too much for him to handle (and every indication so far is that certainly is the case) then he should quit.

Unfortunately, given the CBO's conclusions that no stimulus package is required since we will be leaving this recession in the second-half of this year, Mr. Obama's conclusion, related by Mr. Martin, that "....spending some $820 billion was not his own preference for how to launch his presidency..." seems, based on the facts of this matter, to be absolutely untrue.

As one reads this article, it's almost as if Mr. Martin was looking for a job in the White House, failing to use critical thinking and analysis to ask himself the questions that really matter.

Mr. Martin wrote, "To the Republicans who oppose his path, he offered a choice. They might be philosophically opposed to government intervention, even if millions are losing jobs and “most economists, almost unanimously” insist it is necessary. Or they might be partisan hypocrites, who did not mind big spending and deficits under
the last president but are prepared to let the economy “continue to tank” rather
than work constructively with this one."

The phrase "'most economists, almost unanimously' insist" this massive, pork-filled disgrace "is necessary" defies belief.

There is nothing approaching "unanimity." In fact, as I've pointed out, the CBO has indicated that not only is this package not necessary, but it also WILL be harmful to the recovery.

Mr. Obama has painted himself into a corner. He's made the mistake of losing his focus, which is to work to help ALL of the American people out of a situation our government, both democrat and Republican, helped get us into... in favor of a massive, pork-laden bill used to pay off his political buddies and supporters with a bill FILLED, contrary to Mr. Obama's assertion, with enough pork to process lunch meat for the next 1000 years.

He made that decision BEFORE the CBO came out with their conclusions that this package will ultimately only bury us in debt, a debt now, apparently, approaching $9.7 TRILLION.

Thus, my characterization of his effort as the "Generational Indebtedness Act," because, as I described it on Fox Business News with Stuart Varney, it will take untold generations to repay this bill.

And while the President has yet to discuss in any way that I can find what it's going to take and how it's going to be achieved, we WILL have to repay this, and Mr. Obama is tasking untold generations with that responsibility.

Under these circumstance, who in their right mind would come close to "supporting" this utter nonsense?

And if THAT "framing" strikes leftists as something of a stacked deck, it's one THEY may have to get used to, because unlike the president's babble on this issue, it also happens to have the benefit of being the truth.

The one critical flaw in both Mr. Martin's reasoning as well as the President's action is this:

Instead of this horrific waste of time and political capital; instead of this completely unnecessary show of brutish, arrogance-driven incompetence, the President COULD have embraced the CBO report; focused on regulatory reform and reform of the mechanism of oversight, thus allowing the market to straighten itself out... precisely like the Congressional Budget Office has concluded.

So, we must review motive as the basis for action. Clearly, the President's efforts in this matter are not based, or are only based secondarily, on assisting in the economic recovery. With the CBO conclusion out there, one need only view the beneficiaries of the President's largess with our money to see the true motives. And, inescapably, that conclusion is one of a basis of political pay off as the primary motive for his actions.

"Pushover?" With massive, if not insurmountable numerical advantage in Congress, how could it possibly BE a "pushover?"

Showdown: Obama warns he's no pushover
By JONATHAN MARTIN 2/10/09 4:19 AM EST

Yes, there will be time to change the politics of Washington and to give people wondrous examples of bipartisanship.

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But, no, not now, President Barack Obama made clear at his first White House news conference—not if it gets in the way of passing the stimulus bill on which Obama believes the nation’s economy and his own presidency will hinge.

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Urgency was the obvious message Obama was trying to convey to millions of Americans in the hour-long session. But to a smaller Washington audience—to both Republicans and skeptics in his own party—there seemed to be an equally unmistakable subtext: He is not a patsy or a pushover.

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He reached out to Republicans in opening weeks and got little support in return. Monday night he instead used his prime-time platform to repeat on several occasions that he was inheriting a mess—both a huge deficit and a failing economy—and that spending some $820 billion was not his own preference for how to launch his presidency but the hand he had been dealt.

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To the Republicans who oppose his path, he offered a choice. They might be philosophically opposed to government intervention, even if millions are losing jobs and “most economists, almost unanimously” insist it is necessary. Or they might be partisan hypocrites, who did not mind big spending and deficits under the last president but are prepared to let the economy “continue to tank” rather than work constructively with this one.

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