The President has done everything possible to work with the Republicans.

[kentuck]

Some would say, to a fault.

He understands that he is the President of all the people. But some folks believe he should have presented a stronger defense against the radical Republicans. He has been too obligatory. In turn, they have perceived that as a weakness and have used that against him on several occasions.

The President is basically a fair and honest person. He believes in negotiating in good faith with the Republicans in Congress. He begins in the middle of every issue and expects the Republicans to reach an agreement with him. Unfortunately, the Republicans always demand more and, in return, the President ends up giving up more than he should. That is my opinion.

The people just voted him in with a mandate. At least, the people that voted for him thought they were giving him a mandate. Even though he is President of all the people, including the 47% that voted against him, it is disappointing when he appears to kowtow to the Republicans.

It would be encouraging to see him take his case to the people in a strong and forceful way that would put political pressure on the Republicans, rather than on the Democrats. Sometimes the appearance of weakness is just unbearable.

I'll say again. The President is a decent and honest man that wants to do what is best for this country. However, his mistake is that he thinks the Republicans have the same goals. They do not. I am not sure that the President understands that?

I support the President. He is doing his level best to unite this country. I truly believe that.

Enough already. I just feel that it needed to be said.

[spanone]

1. k&r... time for recess appointments...a record number.

get around the thugs anyway possible.

they won't play nice for any reason so fuck them.

[Cresent City Kid]

2. I listened to the first debate on the radio

It was much like Kennedy/Nixon where how it looked on TV galvanized the perception of being one sided, but on the radio it seemed closer. One thing that jumped out at me, even on the radio, was Obama saying nothing when Romney painted him as someone who wouldn't work in a bipartisan way. We all know what happened in that first term, the stimulus got 3 republican votes, and those 3 were admonished by the gop and the right wing media machine. That was the first bill, it got even harder to work with them after that.

Obama expected some small degree of compromise from the other party like had been the case throughout history. Shit, the Reagan White House gave a little ground to make deals, even raised taxes to keep the budget from blowing up despite their ideology. I don't fault Obama for expecting this to continue, but once the obstructionist strategy became clear, he never adjusted to it, or hasn't yet. Maybe he just wanted to give them the chance to redeem themselves and help the country in the process.

Obama, or any Democrat, can do nothing more to meet them halfway. The current gop is pathologically stubborn. This president is a centrist with no personal scandals, and has a foreign policy almost unchanged from Bush. If they are this way with him, what Democrat could we put in office that they could work with? All this over a 3% increase in the top marginal tax rate. They can't even suggest 2% or 1.5%, the whole legislative process has to grind to a halt. He let the Bush tax cuts stay in place until they were set to expire in the first half of his first term, and gave way on the extension covering the second half. That's two compromises on the same issue.

It takes two to compromise and we're halfway there.

[TheKentuckian]

3. Half way to batshit crazy is an absurd starting point

[Cresent City Kid]

4. It is

But even that isn't good enough for these kooks. I don't agree with Obama's compromises, just pointing out that he has despite the gop's claims to the contrary.

[upi402]

5. like working with scorpions

Just not gonna happen Gomer.