Politico Faults Obama For Following Their Advice [View All]

[underpants]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201104140010

Yesterday, I noted that Politico, in an article prescribing the "7 things Obama needs to do" in his big budget speech, said that Obama had to attack Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, show his willingness to "compromise" with Republicans, and ignore the GOP completely, all at the same time.


This morning, Politico's Glenn Thrush -- who shared a byline on yesterday's article -- and Manu Raju take the president to task for, as they put it, "beat up" the Republicans with "a fiscal olive branch."

Obama's long-anticipated speech on the deficit at George Washington University was one of the oddest rhetorical hybrids of his presidency - a serious stab at reforming entitlements cloaked in a 2012 campaign speech that was one of the most overtly partisan broadsides he's ever delivered from a podium with a presidential seal.

But this odd "rhetorical hybrid" that they say poisoned the compromise well is pretty much exactly what Thrush and Politico said Obama "need to do" in the speech -- they even specifically counseled Obama "beat up" the Republican plan. From their article yesterday:

He needs to reassure his liberal base but signal to Republicans that he's open to compromise. He needs to show he can get serious about cutting the budget but sustain the economic recovery. He needs to set out a sharply different vision than House Republicans but keep them at the table.

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Beat up on Rep. Paul Ryan