I'm fairly sure the idea of making a recess appointment was kicked around almost immediately, but almost as quickly rejected. The President has the advantage in this situation already. He doesn't have to resort to any kind of procedural legerdemain: the rules and traditions are all in his favor, and to flaunt those would only give ammunition to the GOP to lob back at him.Consider that this will all get played out in the Senate, and that this year 34 Senators are up for reelection. Of those, 10 are Democrats, but 24 of them are Republicans. The Democrats would love to get control of the Senate again. If the Democratic Party can succeed in highlighting the obstructionist GOP Senators, it might drive additional Democrats to the polls and help them in contesting these states. My guess is that Obama will play it slow and careful. McConnell, Grassley and Cruz have already made rash statements that have committed the GOP Senate to a strategy of near maximum self-inflicted damage, my guess is that Obama will be careful not to let them off the hook, and will let this play out slowly and continuously during the election season.
Pelosi says 500 Million, Obama says 57 States, Biden says JOBS is a three letter word, is there a pattern?
Nancy is just counting the illegal aliens as citizens and also figures that there will be a baby boom now that octuplets are making the news. President Obama has a democratic Congress and figures he can get seven more states so that Republicans won't be able to filibuster. Joe Biden has foot in mouth disease and may now be able to afford to get medicine to treat it. And the nominee for attorney general is a good choice--he has worked long and hard to make sure our daughters have a way to make money by selling photo shoots of themselves. Don't be surprised if the president's daughters opt for a big payday when they reach 18. As for a pattern, ignorance is bliss and many people are happy with their vote.
Right now, Hillary Clinton is the consensus presumptive nominee in polling and amongst Democratic Party insiders. The advantage for her with regard to President Obama is that she doesn't have to differentiate herself from him; she already did in the 2008 Democratic primaries. She can point back to that fairly bitter contest.Prospective candidate Bernie Sanders is sufficiently to the left of Obama. He is so far to the left that, although he caucuses with the Democrats in Congress, he is not actually a member of the Democratic Party. He might officially become one to seek the party nomination and keep Clinton on her toes.Jim Webb, the first to announce his exploratory committee, is differentiating himself by more actively talking about the concerns of rural whites more than most high profile Democrats. My belief is that Clinton has identified Webb as a potentially valuable running mate and is encouraging Webb to raise his national profile so that a VP announcement in mid-Summer 2016 doesn't come from nowhere. (Addendum 12/17/2015: Webb withdrew from the Democratic primary and has been very critical of Clinton. He's unlikely to get the VP slot, although if he stages an independent run he remains my preferred candidate.)Popular populist Elizabeth Warren would probably have the most difficult time differentiating herself from President Obama should she choose to run. That's not due to policy, however. She, like Bernie Sanders, presents herself as sufficiently to the left of President Obama. Her candidate profile, however, sparks some questions. Like Barack Obama in 2008, she is a first term Senator with little (no?) major executive experience and no significant public profile prior to her emergence in 2009 as champion of having a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau included in Dodd-Frank. There are some who are really excited by the prospect of her in the Oval Office, but those are also people who were largely disappointed by President Obama's first six years for an array of reasons. If she runs, she'll have to speak to that issue and distinguish herself in that respect. That's a big part of the reason that I believe she won't run in 2016 – but she'll certainly leverage the speculation and attention.
Does anyone else hear the chanting "BHO's gotta go" resonating across the Country?
Yes, that chant is getting louder as more people discover the true nature of Barack Hussein Obama. He has lost my vote! Why? Dear Friends, A young American businessman emailed me asking to help spread the word that John McCain or Hillary Clinton is better qualified to lead the U.S. as next President, not Barack Hussein Obama who has been enthusiastically endorsed by radical racists like Rev. Wright, Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and even by the Black Panthers. He recommended that I take a look at this website http://www.newblackpanther.com/10pointpl... Obama's pastor for 20 years, his spiritual mentor, the guy who officiated his wedding and baptized his two kids---Rev. Wright---this firebrand pastor espouses "Black Liberation Theology", has defamed and lied in sermons and videos saying USA "state terrorism" brought the 9-11 disaster on itself, claiming Whites invented AIDS and gave it to all Africa, claimed that Whites distribute illegal drugs to blacks, Wright also said blacks should shout "God Damn America" and not God Bless America. The young American businessman said it's disturbing that well-educated Obama only repudiated the racist and anti-American ideas and lies of Rev. Wright only now, when the USA media bought the church videos and discover Wright's hate sermons. What do you think about all these? Is John McCain and Hillary Clinton now a safer, less divisive choice for next USA President? warmest best regards
What if Obama wasn’t such a good president as many seem to assert?Let me point out that when he was elected, Obama was supposed to be the opposite of George W. Bush.Instead, we saw a President that:Increased inequality and in many cases, signed legislation that increased inequality.Had a cabinet selected by Citigroup.Refused to persecute Wall Street executives for the 2008 Crisis.Did not reinstate Glass-Steagall nor pass anything more than Dodd-Frank, which overlooked too many issues.Chose to write a debilitating healthcare system that even today bitterly divides Americans nicknamed Obamacare, instead of trying to copy say, the Canadian healthcare system or at least trying to implement a serious public option.Largely continued the wars of Bush and started new ones, in Libya for example, while “surging” in Afghanistan.Did not address the fundamental problem of Washington, which is political corruption.Had a pro-austerity budget and made no attempts after the first partial stimulus.Waged a war on whistleblowers that was unprecedented.Did not mobilize his base in an attempt to address the very issues that he ran to fix. He could have used his base to try to overcome an obstructionist GOP. There was a ton of goodwill after his election. He chose to throw it away.I don’t think that Obama will be well regarded. IN fact, I suspect that he will be compared to James Buchanan, who was facing a profound crisis and made a bad situation worse.There’s a reason why Bernie Sanders gained so much popularity. It was because Obama had not delivered the Change that we so pushed in 2008. There’s a reason why Clinton’s attempt to say that she was Obama’s third term failed to generate excitement.Combine that with Clinton’s poor campaigning skills and the Democratic National Committee’s unethical sabotage of Bernie Sanders, then you have Trump.
They can, of course. Presidents have freedom of speech too.But they typically don't becausepresidents at the end of their second term are usually 'lame ducks' and some candidates want to distance themselves or define themselves as a different candidaterunning for President is a full time job. Presidents already have a full time jobin the primary season, especially, Presidents tend to want to stand back and let the party do its work and decide.some candidates might come off as lacklustre compared to a glamourous president like Barack Obamaoften people are looking to see fresh facesTraditionally, in-office candidates will endorse the candidate the party eventually settles on after or during the Party Convention.
Why did the voters elect Obama?
In 2008 the Republican president was widely seen as a total failure. He'd started two wars based on lies, both of which went bad. There had been some scandals on Wall Street early in his term but he steadfastly refused to take any action, believing Wall Street could regulate itself, then a few years later Wall Street just totally collapsed, the stock market losing half its value! Americans were just tired of that kind of leadership, ideological rather than practical. Under the circumstances, it was just clear from the start that America was ready to change parties. McCain put up a good fight but he was really hamstrung by the widely-perceived Bush failure. He wasn't able to distance himself from Bush, in fact his program sounded embarrassingly similar to Bush's. So he wasn't able even to admit there was a problem! He wasn't able to admit Bush had made 'honest mistakes' and tell us what he'd do differently, and I think that was very important! Romney had kind of the same problem. His plan to overcome the Bush recession was to do just what Bush had done to bring on the recession! And watch what happens next year! Once again Republicans will be selling MORE tax cuts for the rich, MORE defense spending and restarting the Iraq War, MORE stupid deregulation that's caused a dozen major catastrophes in the last 30 years. The Party of Ideas is just out of ideas!
It depends on which source for statistics you look at:Obama Averages 41.5% Job Approval in His 23rd Quarter (Gallup)Daily Presidential Tracking Poll (Rasmussen)Rasmussen consistently I believe has GOP favorable numbers and is constantly quoted on Fox News. I'm not sure what methodology or sampling they use.It would be interesting to see how various outlets might critique Rasmussen.Perhaps what might be a lagging indicator of Obama's approval is the changes of Dems vs. GOP in the midterms and Data Lab at the New York Times (aka Nate Silver and 328 Media) suggest the Dems are going to be upset: FiveThirtyEight's Senate Forecast