Actually, he's done all he can to reach out to them. They've crapped all over those efforts. So now, he has the political cover to say, "Fine. You don't want to compromise? Then here's what we're going to do." It's actually fairly shrewd. First, he took heat from the left for being to willing to compromise, but I wonder if he know how obstructionist the GOP would try to be. This will bury them in 2010, and they ought to know it.

"The Obama team has a tendency to be a few days late on tactics, but they're pretty good when they finally get the ball rolling."

I'm thrilled to see Obama getting on the airwaves and getting mad (where are all the other progressive pundits/politcos?), but this playing defense has to stop. We have to continually be on offense, and make them play on our turf...not the other way around.

Really. He can't count on the Liberal Press to call-out these asinine GOP dupas. Just listening (if not just seeing him) McAce stand in front of the cameras (provided by those Liberal Press dolts) makes me shudder to think he may have been the one pitching the stimulus with PALINaroundwithterrorists using her fake folksiness to make absolutely sure we would be driven off that cliff Obama was talking about. My God, how stupid can these people be? It's nauseating to see the main stream news showcase people like McConnell and McAce spewing their lunacy. Go get em Obama.

Now all needs to do is give members of his own party a tongue lashing.

You would think that with a struggling auto industry that just received 20 Billion in bailout money and an environment catastrophe looming on the horizon this would be a twofer. Apparently, not. Here's a gem from Sen Harking (D)Iowa.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/06/news/economy/stimulus_clunkers.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009020609

OK, THIS is the guy I voted for. Much more like this, please.

How can it have come to this?

How can he have been so naive?

Just give it until the evening news, when Obama will be described as "frustrated," "losing his cool," "on the attack," "going negative," etc.

It appears slow to us who are anxious to return to Progressive ideals.

But, his attempts a working with Republicans should pay off, not because we necessarily needed their input, but because we need to say we tried.

Well, we tried. And now we'll do what we must do. And voters will be satisfied.

the republicans in congress (and in the media) have exactly the same standing as the bozos on wall street, i.e., "you fuckups got us into this mess. we're under no obligation to listen to anything you have to say about how to get out."

obama can feel free to borrow the line. he might want to clean it up, but i'd be happier if he didn't.

The President's response is very encouraging, but I expect the weekend to be a full court press by the media to provide airspace for Republican dissonance. Already I keep hearing the refrain that Republicans are just trying to strip programs "that don't stimulate the economy". Without reference to which items, they seem to indicate that anything the Republicans oppose is by definition non-stimulative.

And we can bet that the few Democrats that are allowed on tv this weekend end up being the Blue Dogs. Obama is going to have to do an end around with his own presentation because the American media are all defense all the time.

I've said this elsewhere and I think it's worth saying again. After watching Obama, and seeing him handle this first GOP onslaught, I'm coming to the conclusion that this coming-late-to-the-game is a feature, not a bug. I think this is the way he rolls. And it's frustrating to watch but might be crazy like a fox.

Remember the Wright week? It looked like he was sunk. But he waited (it seemed too long?) and when he did the speech in Philadelphia, it not only neutralized the Wright story, it killed it dead, and turned it into a positive. It was an amazing piece of ju-jitsu and may have won him the election.

Obama lets the other side shoot first. Give it their best shot. Makes them show their game. Cause after a couple of days, he knows their game and how to beat it. He doesn't come out swinging, he formulates a plan, the best plan, the right plan. A few days into the GOP game, they've laid down all their best cards, they're out of ammunition and here comes Obama with an answer to everything they've said, and they have nothing to come back with. And because he gave them the hand of friendship at first, they're in a worse position.

It's high-risk, high-stakes. I really think it's his thing to hold back and force the other guy to play first. I don't have the stomach or the cojones to play the game that way. I'm starting to think Obama does, and that's why he wins.

It's time our leaders started calling it like it is. These right wingers (the Taliban-wannabe) see it as their goal to disrupt the policy makers. To serve as a tar-pit distraction/trap so no real constructive business can get done. They are being deliberately stupid, obtuse, and are wasting time. Thank god Obama isn't willing to play along.

He reached out in good faith, like he said he would. Not one of the Republican Taliban responded in kind. I expect them to get even uglier as this goes on. By 2010, the right wingers will be an even smaller minority. Good.

very astute observation zmulls.......i think you're on to something.

I wonder if Obama & crew, rather than being a bit slow, were waiting for the crappy jobs report to come out today to make this newly aggressive pitch. Almost 8% unemployed rather effectively reminds people how badly we need a stimulus . . .

zmulls nailed it. He gets it. It's the Obama rope-a-dope, and given the number of times he's employed this very tactic, it amazes me that republicans, the media and even partisan Democrats still fall for it or at least fail to recognize it.

zmulls -- you nailed it! That's exactly his style. Give your opponents just enough rope to hang themselves. Sure, you might look bad for a news cycle or so, given the way the media focus on the trivial. But Republicans can only keep the focus on "honeybee insurance" for a day or two before real life intrudes. But remember how Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment was supposed to be such a brilliant piece of stagecraft and how it's now up there with Dukakis in the tank?! Obama has patience and calm and that is what makes him such a great political chess player. He's focused on the end game not worried that the Republicans just took his knight.

"The Obama team has a tendency to be a few days late on tactics."

Are they late or aren't they? In a campaign, a candidate should never leave an attack unanswered lest he permently lose control of the agenda. But a president never loses control of the agenda. Everything he says or does makes news; even an unpopular president dominates the news agenda.

And Obama is hardly unpopular.

He has only begun to use the presidency's immense levers of power. Whether this is from inexperience and incompetence or from good judgment and good strategy, only time will tell. Obama has allowed, even encouraged, the GOP minority to posture as conscientious, fair-minded, and bipartisan critics of the stimulus bill. However, he has now begun to paint them as critics of economic stimulus itself, which is a public relations battle they cannot possible win.

Unlike the congressional minority, Obama can wage war at the time and place of his own choosing.

It's the Obama rope-a-dope

Yeah, sure.

We're on the verge of getting a stimulus that's too small and may not work, with too much in the way of tax cuts and not enough spending, with few if any republican votes, that even the public barely supports. This, in a situation in which we could have gotten ANY stimulus we wanted.

It's a rope-a-dope alright. Question is: Who's the dope?

One of the reasons why Obama's rope-a-dope tactics works is because the GOP cannot control their crazies. In the last week, Coburn and DeMint has become the voice of the GOP on the stimulus. They put up the most extreme version of the GOP program -- all stupid tax cuts and no spending -- and 36 of the GOP voted for it, including their senior leadership. You can count on the GOP becoming driven by their most obstructionist and extreme elements. He's very successfully splitting the GOP and holding the Dems in unity.

Whew! At last, the MoJo is starting to move. Thought they were going to have to outbid the KC Chiefs for the Offensive Coordinator of the Cardinals, one Todd Haley. Now, President Obama, act like Larry Fitzgerald and roll.

The Obama team has a tendency to be a few days late on tactics, but they're pretty good when they finally get the ball rolling.

NO! They give reason, sanity, civility and good-will a chance. ONLY when they perceive that that route is leading them to a ReThug dead-end, they cut in to inject reality into the lunatic "discourse" of the unholy ReThug-media axis...

It's about time. He also needs to take it directly to the people, bypassing the media filter as much as possible.

Yes, we need that Rep Peter DeFazio's plan for more infrastructure, but, it was voted down. However, interesting that "rope-a-dope" was developed by a superb African-American boxer from Louisville, KY. So, to see Mitch on the receiving end of that is apt.

What Publius sees as being a few days late, I see as a well-timed blow delivered after setting up the opposition.

different strokes...

'zmulls' nails it indeed. But please remember three things:

(As I type this) it will be 50 minutes before Obama completes his seventeenth day in office -- and he's done a lot in several areas already, including demonstrating he meant just what he said about not toerating corruption.

This is, and would have been had it passed unanimously, merely the first Stimulus bil, not the last. There will be room for these provisions later.

Over 40% of the voters voted Republican in the last election -- and of those who voted for Obama, many of them were actually voting against Bush (or McCain, or Palin) and others were simply voting for 'the first Black President.' They don't have the sort of understanding of Bush economics that we do, they just didn't like the guy.

Obama is letting the Republicans be as obstructionist as they choose to be, I hope, because he believes like I do, that the obstructionists will start getting plenty of flak from their constituents -- and particularly from "local bigwigs" -- who will suffer because of their posturing.

It is a damn shame that this means that suffering will be extended a little, but it might be necessary to assure that the rest of his proposals go through more smoothly.

Holy freaking shit, I LOVE our president. That was great. He is a truly intelligent, funny man who really knows what the hell he's talking about. This wasn't fluffing stagecraft designed to build-up an incompetent dope who barely understood the words that were written for him. This is what a real president looks like.

And as I've been saying lately, everyone needs to get off his back and start pressuring Congressional Dems to get out there and support this man. As usual, they're still too scared to stick their necks out on any issue. We need for them to be scared not to. Not just for their own good, but for all of our good. Obama will do what he can, but he can't do it alone.

How hard is Keynesian economics?

GDP = Consumer + Industry + Govt. + (Export - Imp)

Consumers and businesses are not spending money. The only thing left is Government spending.

When the government builds a bridge, how is this different from private industry building an office building?

If 100 people could build a $100Mil building over two years. Is that only 100 jobs created? Imagine that everyone makes $100k/year. That is a total wage of $2Mil. Where did the other $98Mil go? Republicans would have you believe it evaporates and causes no other effect.

Wow; the right was all afraid about the "angry-black-man" syndrome. Now they got it. The thing is, I think Obama was the one that pulled the rope-a-dope here. It's the right that's clearly overreacting, because, as Obama pointed out - this was presented as a balanced package. It was initially accepted, then when it came time to vote, the R's decided to dig in. Obama poked them a bit with the "failed policies of the past" rhetoric. . . and boy did those conservitards get all hot under the collar.

They look very weak now.

well, grab people by the back of the neck, sit them down and make them watch the video posted here.

only 1,500-1,600 people have watched the first video on youtube, the second video has fewer than 700 views.

if people don't watch, they can't learn.

i hear the president is doing a live press conference on monday and perhaps an "address to the nation." i sure hope so, because he is his own best advocate. and at this point, his only advocate, it seems.

A poster yesterday coined Obama's seemingly perpetual coolness as "Obama-Fu".

I agree entirely. If you remember, back in the campaign some comparisons were made between McLame and Obama and their gambling habits.

McLame? Craps... all chance, hope for luck.

Obama? Poker... strategy, bluffing, make your opposition show their hand.

We're witnessing a master strategist at work. The O man has a royal flush, and the idiot republicans went all in with a pair of 3's.

The premise of this discussion is a bunch of baloney. The reason the President is having issues getting the bill passed is because it is loaded with pork that has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. He hasn't put enough pressure on his own party to change their ways regarding spending. Both sides should be focused on the solution for the immediate crisis and filling the bill with every agenda they had hoped to implement over the next four years.

As one wise person said recently, this is Obama's entry level Executive job and he's just clueless in many respects. Making matters worse for him are folks in the Democratic leadership like Pelosi.

This bill should be slam dunk for Obama.

I would imagine that the Obama team's 'bipartisan' gambit wasn't the only scenario they planned for. He's not bush so, I'm sure they have a plan 'B'.