I "say" I'm a lawyer. Yep. I "say" I'm a lawyer. Decide if you want to call me out on it or not. Let's go ahead and get past that. If you like you can pm me and I'll give you my work number.

Or I can just post you to our firm's website.
I really don't care. People on the internet can say whatever they want. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. For the purpose of political discussion, it's not important. I just thought it odd that you're unwilling to exercise simple logic.
No no no. You can't make a snide remark calling into question my claim...then run go hide when I call your bluff. You dont get to do that. Either come out and claim I'm not or quit that shit right now. Suddenly it's not relevant?
As for the inability to use simple logic, you must be looking in the mirror. I don't see you proving that my A + B = C is wrong. Care to give an example? Of course not.
Earmarks, let's say for argument's sake that what you say about McCain is true, it's certainly not true for the entire Republican party. Furthermore you keep dancing around and avoiding the meat of my posts. Do you think Obama, if given a choice, would rather have done it without earmarks or not? Answer that. Don't change the subject. Just answer it. It's not that hard.
Unless you were living under a rock during the 2008 presidential campaign, you know that McCain has never taken an earmark. It's common knowledge. Barack, on the other hand, took to them like a pig to mud as soon as he walked through the Senate door.
As far as the "meat of your posts" is concerned... sorry, it looks more like tofu to me... but I wasn't evading it, it just didn't grab my attention.
So you pick and choose which parts to respond to. Fair enough. But drop the silly evasion bullshit you attack me with when I do it.
To answer your all-important-question... I don't think he cares. All he cares about is getting a bill through. He doesn't care what's in it. He thinks any 'win' will do. He views it as just "the foundation" anyway:
Obama To Progressives: This Is Just The Foundation
Certainly, Reid stuffing carve-outs and bribes into the Senate bill made his job more difficult. But he needed the votes. He's not going to let a little horse-trading get in his way, no matter how unpalatable it might be to tax-paying citizens. There's time to spin it later if need be, right?
Well that's your opinion and you're allowed to have one. But my opinion differs. If he could get it passed without the normal politics in the background...he'd do it...if only because there's positive reputation for doing it. If he could get around doing it, he'd get so many more people clapping for him...but you're naive to think that something like this can just pass without wrangling to get it done. I admit that it'd be preferrable. Hell I'll even admit he campaigned on being able to do it and has failed in that regard. But it's not going to happen.
That wasn't "folksy and informal". It was insulting. Is that the kind of respect you show in your professional life? Do you just go around all "folksy and informal" with people you're in a state of conflict with? Say, you're arguing a case in court... do you refer to the opposing council as "Tom" or "Lamar"? Would you punctuate damn near every sentence with it?
He knows very well they can't refer to him by his first name, certainly not in public. That's tradition from as far back as George Washington.
Well you've got your mind made up. You aren't willing to possibly see things another way. I love the comment "in a state of conflict with"...aren't they supposed to be working together? Aren't they supposed to be civil to each other at least and put the people first? Of course it was folksy and informal.
As for your jibe, "do you do that in court" you're making an invalid comparison. What you saw was a mediation. It was two sides trying NOT to use an adversarial method...it was two sides instead trying to problem-solve together...like in a mediation. And yes, if I know the attorney I'm in the mediation with...I'll definitely use their name. There's nothing unprofessional about that at all. Perhaps that's why the event didnt work...while you were being adversarial, BO was trying to problem-solve
Bottom line, it's a small thing, but in this Obama acted like a dog marking its territory.
He cut off alot more than one guy. Maybe you'd better watch a third time.

Overall, his manners were rude. And as I've pointed out MANY times, he monopolized the time, refused to engage Republican points, and would not budge an inch from his faulty "starting point". How successful do you think YOU would be if you conducted your professional negotiations this way? If he was serious about a bipartisan solution, how was his behavior logical?
Translation: We knew what was going to happen before we walked into the room and acted like it was ok...but when we got there, we conservatives dug in our heels, and wanted to start over.
As I said earlier... it's a BAD BILL. "Gamesmanship" would only apply to a good bill that was being rejected for no particular reason. There's no middle ground to be had if the starting-point is the Senate bill. That works the same for your question as it did at the healthcare summit.
Constitutional concerns...hmmm...well we can have the same old debates about the General Welfare clause and the Commerce Clause on whether a bill like this is constitutional if you want. You'll never agree...just like no one on this board ever submits to anyone about anything.
No, I most certainly would not. Both arguments are a ludicrous twisting of the founders' intent. A mandate that individual citizens purchase an insurance product is unprecedented. Mandates on employers based on no enumerated power, seizure of our personal medical records, dictating to private businesses what they'll sell, who they'll sell it to, and what it will cost... it's ridiculous.
Frankly, I don't understand why any citizen would support these depredations on our liberty. But then again... I'm not a lawyer.
Perhaps you should ask your conservative congresspeople and senators. They've used the same rationale for Medicare and agencies like the FDA and EPA. I could school you on the constitutionality of executive branch agencies, but you'd just call me arrogant.
But you're a partisan hack who can't even admit that starting over could be, by some, a delay/kill tactic. I wouldn't expect less.
Bullshit. If Obama had made an honest effort, they could have taken 8 or 10 agreeable items, written up a bill, and had it through Congress in a matter of weeks.
Oh... and who the hell are you, btw, to be calling anybody else a "partisan hack"? You might feature yourself a "moderate"... but you're defending a
statist bill.