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dmaestro 08-Jan-13, 07:38	No More Mr. Nice Guy Obama is getting tougher on his GOP enemies whose only goal was to sabotage and defeat him. It is about time. He should have announced long ago that since the GOP was only trying to sabotage him that he was going to do what he had to do. Now he can, and hopefully he will stop caving and go after his enemies whose day of reckoning is long overdue. His next 4 years should be nothing but in your face politics that will make the GOP rue the day they decided to sabotage him. We won, 51-47%, and elections have consequences. The GOP hasn't learned that yet, it is time to teach them a lesson about democracy. ==================================================== Analysis: Obama shows combativeness entering second term but risks await By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just two weeks before his second inauguration, President Barack Obama is acting as if he believes he has a big mandate for his next term. The latest sign: his decision to defy a concerted campaign against his choice for defense secretary. The Democratic president, re-elected in November, unveiled a more combative approach during the end-of-year "fiscal cliff" taxes and spending drama, exploiting disarray in Republican ranks that underscored Washington's legislative dysfunction. Obama also showed a "get-tough" strategy in his determination to pursue gun control after last month's massacre of schoolchildren by a gunman in Newtown, Connecticut. The actions reflect the growing confidence of a president who, without the need ever to seek re-election, now feels freer to stand up to a new Congress. His first term was marked by complaints from his liberal base that he had been too conciliatory toward Republicans. Some critics say Obama now runs the risk of overreaching when he should instead be building Republican bridges to resolve the next looming budget confrontation. Obama's latest assertive move came on Monday when he nominated Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, setting up a Senate confirmation battle with critics who have attacked the former Republican senator's record on Israel and Iran. Obama's refusal to bow to Hagel's opponents, including pro-Israel groups, neoconservatives figures and some of Hagel's own Republican colleagues, signaled that the president would not allow a top Cabinet candidate to be derailed again. Susan Rice, Obama's U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, dropped out of consideration for secretary of state last month after taking heavy criticism from some Republican lawmakers over her account of the September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya that killed the American ambassador. With word of Hagel's impending selection circulating over the weekend, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham - one of Rice's critics - called it an "in-your-face" nomination by Obama. A former Obama aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this was an opportunity to lay down a clear second-term marker - "no more Mr. Nice Guy, no more pushovers" - as a message to political friends and foes alike. "This is clearly a president who feels somewhat unencumbered by electoral politics, thinks he has political capital to spend, and is not wasting any time about it," said Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Fordham University in New York. The White House is confident that Hagel can weather the storm and win confirmation in the Democratic-led Senate - presidential picks for senior security posts are rarely denied. But Republican strategist John Feehery said Obama was taking a gamble that could backfire, especially in light of resistance from some of the president's fellow Democrats to Hagel, a maverick moderate Republican. He bonded with Obama in the Senate over their mutual opposition to the Iraq war. "The president is betting a big percentage of his chips," Feehery said. "Presidents do tend to over-read their mandates sometimes. The question is whether that's the case now." STANDOFF OVER DEBT CEILING Hagel's nomination comes on the heels of a New Year's Day deal that averted economic calamity when lawmakers agreed to prevent huge tax hikes and government spending cuts. The agreement handed a victory to Obama, who had promised before the election to address budget woes in part by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. His Republican antagonists were forced to vote against a core tenet of their anti-tax conservative faith. Obama and Congress must agree by the end of March on increasing the $16.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, the fate of $85 billion in delayed automatic spending cuts and passage of a bill to fund the government after a temporary measure expires. Obama has vowed not to negotiate over the debt ceiling, demanding that Congress raise it without drama. His aides have made clear they believe the U.S. public would blame Republicans - not Obama - if the nation is forced into a debt default that he has said would be "catastrophic" for the world economy. "This is overreach — hubris — for sure," Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said of Obama's refusal to negotiate. Obama's tough talk on the next round of fiscal hurdles could also limit his ability to push forward on other legislative priorities such as immigration reform and gun control. The shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school put gun control high on Obama's second-term agenda. He appears to be determined to take advantage of a public backlash against gun violence. The White House is weighing a far broader approach than just reinstating a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. A working group led by Vice President Joe Biden is seriously considering measures that would require universal background checks for gun buyers and track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, the newspaper said. Obama promised in an end-of-year interview with NBC to put his "full weight" behind a package of gun control measures this year, and he signaled a willingness to take on the National Rifle Association gun lobby despite the political risks. Obama is also calculating that he may finally be able to make good on his promise to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. He hopes to capitalize on sentiment within the Republican Party that it must reach out to Latinos who voted heavily for Obama after tough comments on illegal immigration by Republicans. Obama also is showing signs he will take a hard line on issues of war and peace. He meets Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House this week and is expected to press for immunity from prosecution as a condition for allowing even a relatively small contingent of U.S. troops to stay behind in Afghanistan after the 2014 drawdown. (Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal and Patricia Zengerle, editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Will Dunham)
astinkyfart 09-Jan-13, 17:44	DM Love the way he works with the opposition. I mean who needs to worry about the other half right? Obama won 99% of the popular vote right?? Or was it closer than that? This is exactly why I didn't want him re elected, he is not my president and in so many words has said so many times. He is a divider.
softaire 09-Jan-13, 17:50	The "Divider-in-Chief".
dmaestro 09-Jan-13, 18:13	No you are the dividers. We won fair and square and you have sabotaged and refused to recognize he won or reasonably contribute ever since. We are tired of waiting while you have lost the popular vote in 5 of 6 last elections but stonewall and sabotage everything. No more Mr Nice Liberals. We are approaching eventual civil War over irreconcilable opposite visions and you Right wing Rebs need to be taught a final lesson and should never gain power again. In other words: Get to the back of the bus, we are driving! Or we will throw you under the bus.
dmaestro 09-Jan-13, 18:25	Once enough people understand that the extreme and uncompromising GOP conservatives are at the root of many of the problems we face, the divide will be resolved our favor. I work daily toward that end. We didn't create the divide, you did by moving to the right, but our educational efforts are bearing fruit.
astinkyfart 09-Jan-13, 18:34	Deleted by astinkyfart on 09-Jan-13, 18:34.
astinkyfart 09-Jan-13, 18:35	Same thought process "We won fair and square" "Get to the back of the bus or we will throw you under the bus" GOP conservatives are at the root of many of the problems we face. Name one. The problems you face are because you took a different side of an issue, not because they are real problems. Most of the stuff you call problems are an ideology that manysimply don't agree with, not real issues. Anyone that sees a victory in the White house as you do is dangerous, those that agree with you are no better. Those that wont condemn you when you say these things are no better.
dmaestro 09-Jan-13, 19:54	The country was and is increasing divided because you moved right, not because of Obama. A majority elected him to do things conservatives will not compromise on. At some point the conservative stonewalling requires bold action to break by any means necessary. Waiting in limbo with infinite patience is not an option we will accept anymore while conservatives divide and destroy the country. A country divided against itself must be resolved by majority rule.
thumper 09-Jan-13, 20:48	DM You guys should step up now and take your place as the rightful leaders. It's time for you to bring order, to take the bold steps required to fulfill that end. Resistance in any form should be tolerated no longer. That time has passed. This is a new era, Forward.
tat3225 10-Jan-13, 06:58	Stalin wannabe "At some point the conservative stonewalling requires bold action to break by any means necessary." Is it bad that I hope your children are hauled off to the prison camps you set up, just because they end up disagreeing with you? That would be fantastic. I'd love it like I love good nachos. Not cheap chips with cheese sauce but nachos with the chili and cheese and scallions and guacamole...........are those allowed in your America?
dmaestro 10-Jan-13, 08:03	As I have said, you all are neo-mccarthyists who have the Uncle Joe McCarthy playbook down pat. As the old song goes, "we're wise to you this time", your red scare tactics wlll fail. Your racist southern strategy ran out of enough angry old white guys to impose your will on the rest of us. It is new day and we are the new majority, not your fictional silent majority. Forward towards the future, not back into the past...

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