He put a pretty solid smackdown on the Republicans today:
Now, I think the really interesting question is why it is that my friends in the other party have made the idea of preventing these people from getting health care their holy grail. Their number-one priority. The one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don’t have health care; and presumably, repealing all those benefits I just mentioned — kids staying on their parents’ plan, seniors getting discounts on their prescription drugs, I guess a return to lifetime limits on insurance, people with pre-existing conditions continuing to be blocked from being able to get health insurance.
That’s hard to understand as a — an agenda that is going to strengthen our middle class. At least they used to say, well, we’re going to replace it with something better. There’s not even a pretense now that they’re going to replace it with something better.
The — the — the notion is simply that those 30 million people, or the 150 million who are benefiting from the other aspects of affordable care, will be better off without it. That’s their assertion, not backed by fact, not backed by any evidence.
It’s just become an ideological fixation.
Well, I’ll tell you what — they’re wrong about that. There is no doubt that in implementing the Affordable Care Act — a program of this significance — there are going to be some glitches. No doubt about it. There are going to be things where we say, you know what? We should have thought of that earlier, or this would work a little bit better or this needs an adjustment. That was true of Social Security. That was true of Medicare. That was true of the children’s health insurance program. That was true of the prescription drug program part D that was rolled out by a Republican president and supported by Republicans who are still in the House of Representatives.
That’s true, by the way, of a car company rolling out a new car. It’s true of Apple rolling out the new iPad. So, you know, you will be able to, whenever you want, during the course of the next six months and probably the next year, find occasions where you say, aha, you know what? That could have been done a little bit better, or that thing — they’re kind of making an administrative change. That’s not how it was originally thought this thing was going to work.
Yes, exactly, because our goal is to actually deliver high- quality, affordable health care for people and to reform the system so costs start going down and people start getting a better bang for the buck. And I make no apologies for that.
And let me just make one last point about this. The idea that you would shut down the government unless you prevent 30 million people from getting health care is a bad idea. What you should be thinking about is, how can we advance and improve ways for middle class families to have some security so that if they work hard they can get ahead and their kids can get ahead.
Right on.
Just Some Fuckhead
He makes it sound so crazy and unreasonable.
Baud
No, Mr. Obama, you have become an ideological fixation.
dmbeaster
Now he needs to keep saying it very publicly, even though the villagers will then chatter about how abrasive he has become.
Southern Beale
News you won’t see on Fox:
But we’ve got the best healthcare system in the world!!!!
Xecky Gilchrist
The idea that you would shut down the government unless you prevent 30 million people from getting health care is a bad idea.
Well, when you put it like THAT…
John O
I’m really starting to pray for Obama to go strongly angry-Negro depending on how ’14 goes. How can anyone argue with that quote?
THAT would cement his status as a transformational figure.
kindness
C’mon John. Teahaddists (and Republicans) don’t need reason.
Belafon
@Baud: Imagine that at a press conference: “I know it just kills some on the right that they can call me Ni-clang, or boy to my face, and that they can’t just assume any person with dark skin that walks into Congress is supposed to get them a drink, because it might be me.”
Baud
@Belafon:
@John O:
If he doesn’t pull an “Excuse me while I whip this out” at a press conference before he leaves office, I’m burning my Obot card.
Davis X. Machina
Did he call on us to expropriate the expropriators? Did he speak in front of an array of pikes with bankers’ heads on them? Did he announce Van Jones was taking over the EPA? Announce the opening of a US embassy in Gaza?
Feh.
You won’t catch me voting for him again. Just remember, no matter how disappointed you are, I’m more disappointed than that.
lamh36
Chuck Todd has already given the GOP their talking point. He said on Martin Bashir’s show that Obama basically said Republicans are trying to deny healthcare to “poor people”, Martin Bashir interrupted Todd and corrected him by reminding him that President Obama did not say that. He said “…30,000,000 people…” Todd stammered and stuttered, and was all “well that’s what the GOP will hear”.
So then he goes on Hardball with Michael Smerconish (Tweety’s on vaykay) and said the same thing about “poor people” and of course was not called on it.
hildebrand
Watch how studiously the media completely ignores what the President said. Then, next week, whilst he is on vacation, more than one of the knaves will spout off about how awful it is that the President is taking a vacation while the government shut-down, that he won’t speak sweetly to the Republicans about, inches closer to reality – all the while ignoring the whole impact of ripping health care away from 30 million people.
raven
@Southern Beale: Quick question I’ve been wanting to ask you. What’s the deal with the people selling newspapers at off-ramps and intersections in Nashville. They all seemed to have some kind of ID tags around their necks. Is it some kind of homeless registration?
John O
I’m sure I’ll lose some FB friends over it, but I posted it in what my circle is generally unofficially treated as a no-politics-zone. So 100 or 2 will read it, and have to deal with me if they challenge.
(For the record, Obama has lost me on civil liberties, primarily. But he’s about infinityX the next best alternative, including Hillary.)
Redshirt
@John O: I’m really interested to see if Obama acts differently after November, 2014. I suspect he will, but who knows.
He’ll want a Dem successor as much as anyone, I suppose, so he might just keep on keepin’ on, but I’d really like him to make more comments like the one John quoted above.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Mumphrey, et al.)
I heard that very stretch on the radio in the car this afternoon. Good for him. Republicans can’t stand it when anybody points out their nihilistic bullshit, and then they go even more nuts, frothing at the mouth about how the president is a commie or some shit like that, and they can’t understand that that only makes them look worse than they already did. So I hope he keeps needling them this way.
raven
@John O: My FB policy is don’t disagree with me on MY page. I also don’t get into shit with people on other people’s pages.
Baud
@raven:
My FB policy is don’t use Facebook. :-)
(I have an account, but never use it.)
Davis X. Machina
@lamh36: “Poor people”? Isn’t that an oxymoron, sort of? I mean, to the extent that they’re ‘poor’, they’re not properly speaking ‘people’, are they?
You are what you own.
Consumption is existence.
This is America.
raven
@Baud: I use mine all the time.
Alex S.
@lamh36:
Heh, Chuck Todd only hears what the GOP hears, because Chuck Todd is part of the GOP.
Jane2
From one of my American Facebook friends who has never posted anything remotely political:
So suck it, GOP.
Southern Beale
@raven:
It’s The Contributor, a newspaper operated and sold by the homeless and formerly homeless as a way to earn money and get off the streets. It’s an excellent paper and it’s actually won some national awards.
Conservatives hate it because poor people should all be invisible, as you well know. :-)
patroclus
I disagree that Obama’s response was a “smackdown” – instead, it seemed like a calm serious description of the Republicans’ ridiculous strategy and the harm that it would inflict on real people’s lives. Hence, it is likely to be ignored by the media in favor of something that sounds much more sensationalistic – this is August after all and is generally considered to be the silly season for politics. For example, the below post stated it as fact that the sole reason Obama gave the press conference at all was because of some article that Dear Leader Greenwald wrote – that, to me, is a much better example of the media’s and some blog-hosts’ attitudes towards real policy.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Republicans follow through with their shutdown strategy and if they really will attempt to shut down the government in order to stop people from getting health insurance.
Baud
@raven:
I’m not a “people person.”
hildebrand
@lamh36: The other day someone posed a question on Deadspin – if you could punch someone in the nuts on pay-per-view, and not get charged for assault, who would you punch? Chuck Todd. God, that would be beautiful.
Baud
@Jane2:
That’s great. We need real people testimonials more than anything else, IMHO.
Redshirt
@patroclus: Good points. Obama framed the upcoming showdown over the government shutdown in pretty clear terms. Like that will matter to the media, but it’s out there, and I hope other Dems repeat this message. Constantly.
Southern Beale
@raven:
Oh and no, the ID tag is not a homeless registration. It’s just something to identify them as a Contributor vendor.
Davis X. Machina
@Jane2: Don’t worry. The fellow in question will, l guaranteed, have friends — or ‘friends’ — telling him he just sold his immortal soul, or his freedom, for $430.
Because Freedom isn’t Free. Or something.
lamh36
@hildebrand: agreed. I want to tear that goatee off his face every time I see him.
Oh and Andrea Mitchell ain’t no better. On the same Bashir show, she was asked about what Obama said in regards to Putin, and she went on to say that she was “shocked” that he was so frank about his companionship with Medlevev (sp?) and therefore inferring his dislike of Putin. Then with a slithering smirk on her face, she said there is a reason Putin went out of his way to convey well wishes to GWB, because “there is a US President that he did get along with, and he wasn’t named Obama”…
Ugh I almost threw my remote at the tv.
hildebrand
@Redshirt: That has been the problem from the beginning of Obama’s presidency, though – the Democrats have never backed him up. They never race to the cameras to support his plans, not in any kind of concerted effort. They bitch, gripe, moan, and kvetch, but they never support. 99% of the time, Obama fights these battles on his own. Which is why the media realizes they can tout the Republican angle, because the lack of Democratic support ‘shows’ that nobody likes what the President is doing.
hitchhiker
@Jane2:
Yep. Last week our 23-yr-old daughter came by after stopping at the local drugstore to pick up her birth control prescription.
Her, looking puzzled: “It was free.”
Me: “I think that’s Obamacare.”
Her, looking happy: “Really?? It used to be $40/month!”
She’s in the midst of a two-year commitment to doing service work for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which involves living on almost nothing while working with victims of domestic violence. For her, $40/month means being able to buy a plane ticket home in the middle of her year. For the women she’s working with, it probably means eating more regularly.
The bad news is, she had no idea . . . and she’s politically aware.
ruemara
I’m surprised you didn’t address his statements on NatSec. Here’s the NYT’s link to the documents]. It’s a lot of talk, with some barebones actions. Not entirely sure if it fits my criteria of what I’d like to see, which is Pat Leahy’s bill.
This statement from Obama is good, but it will be parsed and misconstrued in 10 seconds flat.
The Dangerman
@Jane2:
I thought the ACA didn’t kick in until 2014? How are things available already?
Also, the Republicans will have to choose: Shutdown over Obamacare or Killing Immigration Reform. They don’t get the daily double.
Violet
I heard that live while I was in the car. It was awesome. Love that he put it that starkly.
piratedan
@hildebrand: I’m not so sure of that, I’ve always seen Nancy Smash, DWS and others have the President’s back on things, the issue is that you rarely see the MSM giving them a forum in which they can support him. Count the number of times you see Orange Julius and Turtle on the screen and the number of times you see Reid and Nancy Smash, the R’s get face time to the tune of at least 5 to 1 in comparison to the Dems.
lamh36
@hildebrand: oh Chuck Todd was on that train too…”Some Dems say…where has that Obama been!”
Puh-leaze. I was amazed, but it the dude Chris Cilizzia from The Fix at least made the point that Dems have NOT always been out there and having Obama’s back on things like ACA or his jobs act.
Shoot in fact, wasn’t there a story about how the Dems didn’t want POTUS to come to their state and campaign for them, but they did expect OFA to and POTUS to fundraise for them.
Redshirt
@hildebrand: Yeah. I wonder how much of that is simply the media not giving Dems a platform. It’s got to be a factor (since there are dedicated conservative outlets who will never give Dems a sincere platform), not sure how much though.
piratedan
@The Dangerman: phased rollouts, part of the plan were implemented immediately, others phased in to accommodate the insurance industry and small businesses, the immediate benefits, were the ones that affected consumers directly in regards to things like the children on your existing insurance and reductions and availability of plans to high risk folks and prohibiting the pre-existing conditions rationale.
patroclus
@Redshirt: We can hope, but other Dems aren’t likely to coordinate their messages because that isn’t generally what they do. And the media won’t actually ask them questions about it because they’ll be driving their own agendas – which is to cover controversies or gin them up out of wholecloth if there aren’t any. The Obama statement is good, but will almost certainly be misconstrued and lied about very quickly and there’ll be a Chandra Levy/Gary Condit story that will overshadow everything like every August…
Comrade Jake
Ed Henry asked him how come we haven’t caught the Benghazi terrorists yet.
Good job, CNN.
Roger Moore
@Southern Beale:
I think it’s more about poor people working as servants for rich people at starvation wages than about them being invisible. Poor people can be as visible as they want, as long as they’re serving as a backdrop for the point the rich people are trying to make.
Comrade Jake
Also, I think the question that prompted the above response was something like “If Republicans give you the choice between a government shutdown and funding Obamacare, would you really choose to shut the government down, just to save Obamacare?”
Our liberal media, at work.
hildebrand
@piratedan: Their comments certainly don’t create the kind of critical mass to find some kind of equal footing with the mass of republican nonsense that is thrown about. That the MSM doesn’t give them much screen time is reason to be more vocal, more supportive, with greater numbers of Democrats hitting the local media in support of the President. A press release by Pelosi is nice, but it really isn’t full-blooded support. Every now and then isn’t good enough.
patroclus
@piratedan: Yeah, the immediate stuff was children on your policies up until age 26, the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and an end to the lifetime caps on insurance coverage – all of which are affecting real people right now. The 2014 stuff includes the individual mandate to purchase insurance and the state-by-state setting up of the exchanges which will provide a basket of options to new (previously uninsured) customers. It’s a big bleeping deal and will take time to be fully implemented – especially given the Republicans’ obstructionism.
Southern Beale
@Roger Moore:
Erm, not here. Cities around here have actually tried to ban these vendors. I’ve written about it here. They’re all like “Get a job!” and then they’re like, “No, not THAT job! Get another one! One where we don’t have to see you everywhere!”
Fuckers.
WereBear
@lamh36: Based on your recommendation, I watched the first episode of Luther last night.
I am so impressed! And he’s a wonderful actor, too :)
To go back to the topic, I long anticipated that President Obama would both be re-elected, and make his second term all about the butt-kicking.
Jane2
@The Dangerman: Someone asked her that question, and she replied that she was told that some companies are rolling it now out because it’s going into effect in 2014 anyway, and that turned out to be the case.
Southern Beale
I was surprised to hear Condi Rice give Obama props on the Putin diss this morning, cancelling the meeting before the G20. She actually made some interesting points about Russia being 14th or 15th economically and even though they have a security council vote and nuclear weapons, in this day and age it’s economic power which counts. And that there’s really nothing more America has to say to Russia, so buh bye. I figured most of the ole Bush crowd would be trying to make some political hay out of this but she didn’t.
Still can’t stand the woman, though.
The Dangerman
@patroclus:
OK, those I know; I was curious how someone went from a COBRA of 570 to 139. Something isn’t adding up (but it’s Friday and my caffeine levels are approaching dire).
ETA: I see Jane2 answered me above.
Jeremy
@hildebrand: I agree. I think Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the leadership in the Senate and the House have supported the president openly. But a lot of regular democrats have let Obama do all the work, and then they blame him when things fail.
Guantanomo is a perfect example. They go along with the republicans and tie his hands on the issue and then the Professional left and emo’s blame Obama. While people like Bernie Sanders remain quiet and let Obama take the fall.
Violet
@Southern Beale: Yeah, Russia is the “R” in the BRIC countries, but it’s by far the weakest economically.
MattR
OT, but this is probably the coolest burglary story I’ve ever heard. On July 31, the Sexual Assault Services Center of San Bernadino was broken into and a bunch of computers were stolen. While the officers were investigating, a bunch of local transients congregated and one officer explained what the building was used for.
lamh36
@WereBear: Awesome. I cannot wait for the 4 episode of season 3. It has already premiered in Canada and UK and the reviews I’ve read are all saying it is one of the best eps yet and will make you sad there are only 4 episodes!
LanceThruster
Heard a couple of good calls this AM from Republicans on the Stephanie Miller Show who were grateful for Obamacare for keeping them from going bankrupt when catastrophic illness hit.
Jeremy
I will also add that the beltway press are GOP shills and it’s been that way since the late 80’s early 90’s. They always go along with the GOP talking points and book less liberals/ democrats on the networks.
John Cole
@patroclus: Did you watch the conference or read the transcript? The first half hour of it was all about the NSA, and they were prepared remarks. I don’t think I am being crazy or careless in noting that that was the impetus for this conference.
WereBear
Mr WereBear & I were certain Republicans would wind up being sorry they called it Obamacare. It is going to turn around and bite them hard.
ranchandsyrup
OT but I can’t decide whether this is satire or terribly sad. “I got yelled at by an inner city kid at a YMCA camp”. Starts out with, ‘I never went to public school. This is probably for the best because frankly I don’t think I would have survived.”
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/i-got-yelled-at-by-an-inner-city-kid-at-a-ymca-camp/
LanceThruster
@WereBear:
Something along those lines was mentioned on the show, to which it was added that they could call it Romney-Care or Dole-Care (since these were the basis for the plan) if it would make them happy because the important thing *should* be looking out for our fellow citizens. They finished saying the GOP hated it not because they were sure it was doomed to failure; they hated it because they feared it would be effective and popular.
Roger Moore
@Southern Beale:
I think it’s at least as much about “get a job doing what we want you to”, but that’s doesn’t sell as well as “not one out in public where people can see you”. I really think that a large part of the “job creators'” program is about ensuring an endless supply of cheap labor, and ending any attempt by poor people to provide themselves with jobs rather than taking what the rich people want to offer them is part of that program.
Lurking Canadian
@MattR: Was the burglar named Malcolm Reynolds?
Jeremy
@LanceThruster: Actually you can call it Nixon Care because that was the basis for all those plans. Employer mandate concept and reforming the private market, subsidies, expanded medicaid program. The only thing that’s different is the lack of a individual mandate which came later and was used in other plans.
MattR
@Lurking Canadian: Ha. Sounds about right.
I got completely hooked by Castle went it went into syndication. I just can’t change the channel when Nathan Fillion is on the screen.
? Martin
You know who else didn’t want the government shut down over health care? Uh huh.
LanceThruster
@Jeremy:
That’s interesting. Thanks for the info, J.
Chris
@MattR:
I second this. Blew through the entire series in one summer and then stayed hooked through Seasons 4 and 5. It’s a rare TV show that can keep me watching all that time – usually I’ll drop off three seasons in (if I’m watching it online, at least).
Long Tooth
Obama has studied Lincoln, and obviously took note of the time Abe eviscerated Horace Greeley in an open letter to the NY editor. It is perhaps best known for Lincoln’s pronouncement “If that meant a nation half slave, I could accept that..” [badly paraphrased].
There is no way under the sun that republicans can refute Obama’s argument today, tomorrow, or by November 2014.
Each passing month since November 2012 has left me more convinced that the national republican party is following in the footsteps of California’s state GOP. It went so far ’round the bend that it’s a rare republican today that can be elected to state office. They’re political lunatics, and they like it that way.
patroclus
@John Cole: Of course I did. The first half hour was not all prepared remarks as you assert. Press conferences are not speeches and no President in history has given 30 minutes of prepared remarks prior to beginning the press conference. There were, to be sure, prepared remarks, as there always are, but prepared remarks are never the sole reason for a formal press conference. Usually, in fact, prepared remarks are given so as to attempt to divert the press from other issues. The assertion that the sole reason for having this press conference was to discuss the NSA issue is inaccurate, in my view. There are always many reasons for having a presser. You obviously disagree, and that’s fine, but am I permitted to have my own opinions?
lamh36
@John Cole: Doesn’t Obama always give extended press conferences before he goes on one of his “extended” vacation trips. He and the family are heading off to MV this weekend.
I did watch the press conference and while the Snowden NSA stuff was there, seeing as this President doesn’t really do too many “official” press conferences, I’m betting this had more to do with the vacation than with Snowden.
But then I’m betting you’ll just consider me an Obama apologist…so there is that :-)
Jeremy
@LanceThruster: No problem.
Rex Everything
Right on, Mr President.
Anton Sirius
@Comrade Jake:
I thought that smackdown was even better, if on a smaller scale, than the one quoted in the post:
Shorter Obama: Hey, Ed? GFY
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
They actually think it would be a good thing if he were good buddies with Putin!
Yesterday there was a smarmy article in the Times that quoted some Russian thug as saying, “Our president, to put it bluntly, despises your president.” I thought, yeah, and I’m damn sure Obama is nauseated by being in the same room with your repulsive president, and good for him.
gogol's wife
@Southern Beale:
At least she knows a little bit about Russia.
Calouste
My, haven’t the Republicans thrown up a storm yet about how the President could probably suggest that Americans don’t do things 100% perfect the first way around?
Mothra1
I was on another telephone “Town Hall” with my representative, good old Scott Dejarlais. One of the loons wanted the repeal of Obamacare, AND for a single mother he knew to get some help with health insurance.
Yatsuno
@Southern Beale: That is amazingly stupid of Condi. Russia might only be number 14 on the world economic scale, but they still have huge influence on the economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, mostly because of energy supply. There are also ties dating back to the Communist era that have never been severed because Western Europe has shown little interest in picking up the slack. Yes we have to deal with Russia dammit.
Jane2
@hitchhiker: These are the stories the administration needs to get out there. On the post I quoted, there were about 40 responses, and not one OBAMA KENYAN SOCIALIST one. Half the people wanted to know where they could sign up, and the other half said how good it was to hear something positive about it.
TriassicSands
The problem is that this is the same president who is running the security state Cole discussed in the previous post. On the one hand, we have a president who is fighting against a bunch of selfish lunatics to provide high quality, affordable health care coverage to the American people. On the other hand, he is running a deplorable security state and enthusiastically violating the rights of those same Americans.
In the first case, the president should be applauded and supported by every sane person who cares at all about the well-being of his or her fellow citizens. In the second case, he should be forced to stop by the collective outrage of all Americans.
Suzanne
@hitchhiker: Perhaps this is an over share, but wev. I am getting an IUD in two weeks, which is the only kind of BC I can really use (long story). I have wanted one for two years, but couldn’t afford it (almost $700). Now…. FREE.
gene108
@hildebrand:
The Democratic Party – for as long as I can remember and maybe longer (I’m only 39) – has had a serious fucking problem with their national figures being toxic in some districts and states.
I know this was the case when Reagan was President and the national Democratic Party of Mondale and Dukakis types were not welcome, where many southern Democrats still held office. This may have been the case going as far back as LBJ, when he became very unpopular due his escalation of our involvement in Vietnam.
All I’m saying is the shit is deep, with regards to Democrats not being able to rally around national figures.
When Republicans and their backers run ads saying Democratic candidate ‘x’ will implement Nancy Pelosi’s/Ted Kennedy’s/Bill Clinton’s/Barack Obama’s agenda of gay-marrying-turtles-and-redistributing-money-to-all-the-young-bucks I can’t blame guys like Heath Shuler for letting their instincts of political self-preservation kick and put as much distance between themselves and the national party as possible.
Personally, I think Obamacare will be the real game changer, with Democrats in conservative areas being able to side with the national party. I think enough people will be helped by it that Republicans will not be able to run against it entirely – sort of like Social Security and Medicare – while Democrats can use it as a rallying point to rebuild and unify the Party; in the way that the 1980’s coalition of Democrats survived Republican Presidential landslides by sticking to being the Party that was for Social Security and Medicare.
This is why Republicans did everything they could to scuttle Clinton’s healthcare plan 20 years ago and have jumped on the crazy train throttle Obamacare before it goes fully into effect, because a government backed universal healthcare plan will show the country that Ronald Reagan was wrong when he said “government is the problem” and their whole political philosophy becomes undone and more importantly Democrats get the credit for making government work again.
And Republicans cannot have Democrats getting that kind of positive credit, because it makes the concept of a “permanent Republican majority” impossible to even think about.
Suffern ACE
@Yatsuno: and we need our influence to grow in Eastern Europe because?
gene108
@Yatsuno:
There’s one quip I heard about Russia that sums it up nicely, “when you span 11 time zones, you will be a world power”. They are just too big geographically to be ignored.
This doesn’t mean they always have a lot else going for them though.
Yatsuno
@gene108: They still got quite a bit of oil, which means they’re gonna be able to exert influence over those areas thirsty for it. I’m thinking the reasons for this are historical, but why they don’t have a shit ton of pipelines running to China mystifies me. That would be quite the gravy train for the Russian oil oligarchs.
@Suffern ACE: You think we have zero interests in Eastern Europe? They don’t have goods we might want to buy? SRSLY???
Suffern ACE
@gene108: right now, the only reason we need to be concerned about Russia is that the supply routes in and out of Afghanistan that don’t run through Pakistan run through Russia. After that war is over next year, why? Are they buying Fords and iPhones? Do they want our banking services?
raven
@Southern Beale: Thanks!
Suffern ACE
@Yatsuno: yes. And is anyone threatening to stop selling us what we want to buy?
Dolly Llama
@Suzanne: Yeah, that probably goes over into overshare territory. But it’s a bush-league overshare as overshares go. There are many other overshares far more grievous you could have committed. This one? Few people will ever notice. I noticed, but I have no questions [ETA, or comments] about it.
A Humble Lurker
@Lurking Canadian:
Dear God, yes! (<-Just started rewatching Firefly.)
MomSense
@Suzanne:
$700??? Wow, I had no idea they had gotten so expensive.
MomSense
@gene108:
This. Tell me that if the Republicans had an incumbent who had pulled the country out of the Great Recession, saved the auto industry and killed bin Laden they wouldn’t have rallied themselves silly around that candidate.
Dream On
He put a pretty solid smackdown on the American Constitution too.
mclaren
Oh, and here’s a link to a scholarly paper by a University of Berkley economics professor that backs up my claims that the main problem is global wage arbitrage: “The Great Doubling: Challenges of the New Global Labor Market,” August 2006.
[Freeman, R., op. cit.]
Bob h
He’s moving out of Sydney Poitier mode.
Karla
@Suzanne: I don’t see it as an overshare. I doubt anyone would hesitate to mention now being able to afford a hearing aid, retainer, foot brace, etc.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
Actually, the GOP has given Todd HIS talking point, really! And he dare not repeat it over and over, lest he lose his high-paying media job.
I bet this is a dead thread, but I gotta say what I gotta say.
Older
@ranchandsyrup: I am stunned to hear that kids were so much nicer at her private school. I’ve heard so much bad stuff about private schools.
It’s not the public or private nature of the school, it’s the leadership from the faculty and staff that makes the difference.
Older
@gogol’s wife: “Our president is devastated!” (wrist to forehead)
lefthanded compliment
@lamh36: Well, of course Shrub and Putin got along; they were no-soul mates.