Obama: "They Talk About Me Like a Dog"
CBS
Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET
President Obama employed dramatic language over the weekend to mobilize a listless Democratic base and cast Republicans as special interest shills standing in the way of economic recovery.
At the Milwaukee Laborfest in Milwaukee, Wisc., the president promoted a plan for $50 billion jobs initiative. His administration, Mr. Obama said, has been focused on strengthening the American middle class, in spite of strong corporate opposition.
Rebuilding the middle class, he said, has "meant taking on some powerful interests -- some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time."
"And they're not always happy with me," Mr. Obama added. "They talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks, it's just -- but it's true."
It was not entirely clear what the president meant by "like a dog." Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin commented that his remark seemed "like something that would come from a politician exhausted by marathon campaigning and beaten down by the opposition," as opposed to the leader of the party in power.
Indeed, the president has taken a beating from the opposition. Even though independent observers typically say Mr. Obama's economic stimulus package saved millions of jobs, the unemployment rate remains close to 10 percent. Republicans are hammering Mr. Obama and his party for this, and polls show voters dissatisfied with Democratic leadership.
While polls have shown the Democratic base is unenthusiastic about this November, the audience estimated to be about 10,000 by the White House at the labor union event responded with cheers to Mr. Obama's "dog" remark. He took a combative, campaign-like tone through much of his speech, using many of the same lines he delivers at Democratic fundraising events.
"I'm going to keep fighting, every single day, every single hour, every single minute, to turn this economy around; to put people back to work; to renew the American Dream for your families and for future generations," the president said.
Using a metaphor he has employed a number of times before, Mr. Obama said Republicans "drove our economy into a ditch... And then they got the nerve to ask for the keys back!"
He added, "They'd have those special interests riding shotgun, then they'd hit the gas and we'd be right back in the ditch."
Update: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today he had not spoken with Mr. Obama about the "dog" remark. He added, however, "If you look at some of what is said about the president and match them up against the facts, on occasion dogs get better representation."
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A restoration of Fairness in broadcasting would have stopped this situation. The dogs must be very happy yappers that no one has codifed Fairness, and the FCC has done nothing about it. But they COULD have.
Obama's problem is he retained and promoted Bush's unqualified economic appointees just as Hoover did years ago with his predecessors. Maybe can go off to a job at the Obama Institute at Stanford just as Hoover did but meanwhile the rest of us need jobs and customers for our businesses - not speeches, "programs", and piddly tax cuts.
- NEITHER HAS BARRACK OBAMA
To summarize and conclude, we should not expect a long overdue PROPER house cleaning to help us out of our economic depression, when we remain in a moral depression, thanks to our selfish, greedy, dishonest, rotten-to-the-core lawmakers, business leaders and our unrighteous president.
People are disrespectful because so much was promised and so little delivered. The Obama Administration seems stuck in the idea that the only solution to business laying off employees because of a massive shortage of customers can come form federal spending. That, unfortunately, is an old idea that those who never studied macroeconomics think came from Keynes. (In fact, Keynes was an early hedge fund operator in addition to being a professor of economics and staunchly private enterprise and anti-government spending and regulations).
Today America and the world are short of liquidity. Worse, the banks are under pressure to hold their reserves instead of loaning them out to people and no businesses planning on being around in the future will increase or replace their current capacity no matter what the tax incentive. (few would spend a dollar on unneeded new equipment to save 50 cents in taxes?). The only answer For President Obama to save his presidency at this point is to replace the Bush-appointed Federal Reserve (governors & presidents), FDIC and Comptroller of the Currency appointees he retained/promoted. He needs blood - macroeconomists who understand 1) that no bank can make working capital and personal loans just because the overnight rate of interest goes down so they can borrow money for 24 hours, and 2) there is a shortage of liquidity but putting more reserves into banks and then requiring the banks to hold them to meet "stress test" requirements instead of loaning them out is foolish because it means no more money is available to loan, and 3) that the FED, FDIC and Comptroller already have the power via the various community reinvestment regulations to require the additiional liquidity to be loaned out.
President Obama retained and promoted Bush's unqualified economic appointees just as President Hoover did years ago with his predecessor's when the banks were forced to stop making loans by a similar shortage of liquidity. President Obama can go off to a job at the Obama Institute at Stanford just as Hoover did but meanwhile the rest of us need housing finance, jobs, and customers. We don't need more token federal programs and tax cuts, and they won't work even if they arrive. What we need costs nothing - for the Federal Reserve Open Market committee to put liquidity into our banks and, as in the past, andd require the banks to loan it out in their communities as the Community Reinvestment regulations require. Then there will be more customers and business will need more employees who will then be able to make their mortgage payments without federal help.
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Good post finally someone posting some sensible stuff for these clueless and totally ignorant American public...
This public is so clueless of the American financial system that they make an Indian villager look mighty brilliant...
Its the damn Federal Reserve always playing politics with the financial system,and hence with the lives of clueless average American citizen.
still placing blame for his lack of experience to be in the oval office -but more interesting, the fact that he's whining on top of it by stating the comment was not in his prepared remarks shows how unprofessional he can be