The Blame Game Question

[BDBoop]

Given the circumstances exactly as they unfolded, what was Obama supposed to do differently. What would you have done differently in his shoes, that you honestly believe would have been the right thing to do for this country.

What were his options?

 

[Lumpy 1]

I'd say choose whats best for the American people over political ambitions from the start..

 

[BDBoop]

Norly.

HOW. Given the intractability of the GOP/TP; what should he have done.

 

[Neotrotsky]

Quit

 

[BDBoop]

So he was trapped, and there was nothing he could have done against the intractability of the TP/GOP. Thanks for playing, Neo. At least you're honest.

 

[Neotrotsky]

Norly.

HOW. Given the intractability of the GOP/TP; what should he have done.

Speaking of

was ObamaCare on the table
and

How come PapaObama's budget, the one voted down by the whole Senate, increased our debt ?
It did not bother him then; he must not have been "serious" then

funny how that works

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Given the circumstances exactly as they unfolded, what was Obama supposed to do differently. What would you have done differently in his shoes, that you honestly believe would have been the right thing to do for this country.

What were his options?

He should have resigned.

He was more concerned with unlimited refills on his spending crack pipe and didn't once mention how he was going to protect our AAA Credit.

he needs to resign and take Geithner with him

 

[Lumpy 1]

Norly.

HOW. Given the intractability of the GOP/TP; what should he have done.

The Tea Party grew in power as a reaction to Obama/Democrat leadership...blame them..

Obama/Democrats had the power in Obama's first 2 years, they squandered that power with "Nanny State" policies, spite and a deaf ear to the American peoples interests..

You seem to be looking for a reason to not blame Obama/Democrats...

 

[theHawk]

He was supposed to cut federal spending and reduce our national debt, instead of granstanding and trying to force the Republicans to the dirty work for him and raise taxes.

 

[Bigfoot]

Obama has failed as president. At this point we could use another GW Bush term to help fix Obama's mess.

 

[ladyliberal]

1) Insist on adding a debt-ceiling raise to a previous deal, such as the Bush Tax-cut extensions. This had been suggested by political commentators.
2) *Threaten* to exercise 14th Amendment option to ignore debt-ceiling. By hanging tough it would have given him more leverage, at a negligible political cost. As a practical matter, once his options were ignoring the debt ceiling or stopping entitlement payments/ military spending/ interest payments he would have had to do it anyway.
3) Strike a harder bargain. Ultimately, as reflected by the House vote, the bill passed was a largely Republican one (in return for a clean raise, 100% spending cuts 0% revenue increases). Tougher bargaining would have put at least some of the $800B in revenue initially offered by Boehner back on the table. The political costs of this brinkmanship would have been negligible, since the American people wanted a balanced approach. The revenue increases would almost certainly have been enough to stave off the S&P credit rating downgrade, at least temporarily.

 

[BDBoop]

Norly.

HOW. Given the intractability of the GOP/TP; what should he have done.

The Tea Party grew in power as a reaction to Obama/Democrat leadership...blame them..

Obama/Democrats had the power in Obama's first 2 years, they squandered that power with "Nanny State" policies, spite and a deaf ear to the American peoples interests..

You seem to be looking for a reason to not blame Obama/Democrats...

Actually, I'm checking myself. In my estimation, he was trapped. However, I am human and therefore fallible. There may be something I am missing.

 

[HenryBHough]

Given the circumstances exactly as they unfolded, what was Obama supposed to do differently. What would you have done differently in his shoes, that you honestly believe would have been the right thing to do for this country.

Resign.

What were his options?

Follow his ball over a cliff at Pebble Beach.
Test the AF-1 escape pod over water.
Of course there are many additional options open to royalty.

 

[Sactowndog]

2) *Threaten* to exercise 14th Amendment option to ignore debt-ceiling. By hanging tough it would have given him more leverage, at a negligible political cost. As a practical matter, once his options were ignoring the debt ceiling or stopping entitlement payments/ military spending/ interest payments he would have had to do it anyway.

This one is interesting as most Libs blame Obama for not taking this route and driving a harder bargin. But he is a constitutional law scholar and this is his area of expertise. I think we should defer to his judgement on this one as taking that route and losing in the Supreme Court some time next year would have been more damaging to the economy.

 

[HenryBHough]

Given the circumstances exactly as they unfolded, what was Obama supposed to do differently. What would you have done differently in his shoes, that you honestly believe would have been the right thing to do for this country.

Resign.

What were his options?

Follow his ball over a cliff at Pebble Beach.
Test the AF-1 escape pod over water.
Of course there are many additional options open to royalty.

Or with a wig and some clown white he could have disguised himself as Jimmy Carter and appeared infinitely more successful. So long as he only spoke the words on the teleprompter.

 

[Zoom-boing]

What was Obama supposed to do differently.

He never should have run for office of the president to begin with. He's inept, can not lead and thinks catchy phrases will appease the masses and fool Americans into thinking he can actually deliver.

He's doing an OBL burial with this country.

 

[ladyliberal]

2) *Threaten* to exercise 14th Amendment option to ignore debt-ceiling. By hanging tough it would have given him more leverage, at a negligible political cost. As a practical matter, once his options were ignoring the debt ceiling or stopping entitlement payments/ military spending/ interest payments he would have had to do it anyway.

This one is interesting as most Libs blame Obama for not taking this route and driving a harder bargin. But he is a constitutional law scholar and this is his area of expertise. I think we should defer to his judgement on this one as taking that route and losing in the Supreme Court some time next year would have been more damaging to the economy.

Note again that I was suggesting the threat of ignoring the debt ceiling, not ignoring the debt ceiling. However, I think that actually ignoring the debt ceiling would have turned out very well for him anyway.

As a layperson the Constitutional justification seems clear enough to me, but even if it were overruled that would take quite some time. Also, there doesn't seem to be any particular penalty to Presidents for violating the Constitution. When Bush's counterterrorism policies were repeatedly ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the policies changed but Bush's reputation took only a modest hit. When a President does something that is popular, such as pursuing terrorists or saving the economy, the voters don't really punish him when it turns out to be unconstitutional.

And I think that ignoring the debt ceiling could have been done in a popular way. If the President tried briefly to meet government obligations without continuing borrowing this would have led to very unpopular cuts and possibly a market crash. From there, ignoring the debt ceiling would have seemed to save the economy.