Obama: Tea Party Divided Between Fringe And Those With 'Legitimate Concerns'

[Emit]

Obama takes on Tea Party and political divide

March 30: In an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer, President Obama describes the conservative movement as a “loose amalgam of forces” and says that Democrats and Republicans “can disagree without being disagreeable.”

I’ll continue to reach out to GOP:
President says political rancor won’t stop him from meeting challenges

~snip~

“I do think that we now have a pattern of polarization not just with George Bush, but also previous to George Bush with Bill Clinton,” Obama said. “Frankly, it gets spun up in part because of how the media covers politics, in the 24/7 news cycle, cable chatter and talk radio and the Internet and the blogs, all of which try to feed the most extreme sides of any issue instead of trying to narrow differences and solve problems.”

The president said he believes the problem can be solved, but on health care, he said, “I am frustrated that Republicans who I think had an opportunity to help shape this bill declined that opportunity.”

~snip~

Moving back to domestic topics, Obama took a measured view of the Tea Party movement that has focused its anger on him and his administration. He took care to distinguish between the people who question his citizenship and who are convinced he’s a socialist and those who are simply concerned about the future of a country going through economic tumoil.

“There's a part of the Tea Party that actually did exist before I was elected … where there's some folks who just weren't sure whether I was born in the United States, whether I was a socialist. Then I think that there's a broader circle around that core group of people who are legitimately concerned about the deficit, who are legitimately concerned that the federal government may be taking on too much. And I think those are folks who have legitimate concerns. And my hope is that as we move forward and we're tackling things like the deficit, imposing a freeze on domestic spending, taking steps that show we are sincere about dealing with our long-term problems that some of that group will dissipate.”

~snip~

Videos at link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36096371/ns/today-white_house/#ixzz0jfXqllas

Video Obama: Tea Party Divided Between Fringe And Those With 'Legitimate Concerns'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYMIwOqDNEw&feature=player_embedded

[Walk away]

1. It's optimistic to think if you treat a skunk like the family dog....

it won't stink up the house. Obama is just a good human being that believes in humanity. I give him a lot of credit.

[xultar]

4. or a racoon like a cat...

i love that commercial

[Wednesdays]

2. Obama is being generous

At best, the former outnumbers the latter by 10 to 1.

[polichick]

3. Far too generous - borders on enabling imo...

It makes me sick that Janet Napolitano was made to apologize last year for a report about domestic terrorism that was accurate.

EVERYBODY has to stop enabling these nuts.

[Catshrink]

5. Depends on the tea

[LeftinOH]

6. "Fringe"? He's got it backwards; the "fringe" are those with 'legitimate concerns'

-and they are a tiny fringe, at that.