Msnbc Shifting Right?

[Balloon guy 158]

Did you guys hear this part?

Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail. (Applause.) This could allow you to go places in half the time it takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying -- without the pat-down. (Laughter and applause.)

Why were they laughing?Was it because of the fact that the 'people' may have to get pat down, but they don't?Was it because they are laughing at Obama saying that there will be no security on high speed trains traveling through our major cities at high speeds?Or was it because they know that America will never be a place where even 20% of the people could be serviced by high speed rail because of geography.Or maybe because they look at Amtrack and realize that Obama is getting ready to dump a ton of money onto another failed US company who refuses to create a viable industry through customer service and comfort?Of course it is also possible that they can't wait to start spending a few trillion dollars to invest in rail travel instead of transporter technology?

[Balloon guy 158]

I don't think that the things he suggested are impossible. Certainly ALL of them taking place is difficult to imagine, but any one of them is potentially doable. I liked this speech because it (optimistically, sure) laid out a path for the President and Congress to follow for the next two years. It created an agenda that many people from both sides can get behind, and it portrayed Obama as a President moving toward the center and looking for common ground. Liberals will criticize Obama for "compromising progressive ideas" and conservatives will criticize him for not moving far enough away from the left, but I think he really has shown that he wants to work from the center (and now that the house is in the hands of Republicans, he will more or less be forced to if he wants to get anything done).Yes, a State of the Union is not an accomplishment, and so he should not be given credit just for saying nice sounding things. Instead, I view this as a checklist that the next two years should be compared to (not just for the President, but for congress, including Republicans). These are the issues that are important and that both sides, if they are serious, will think about deeply and will make REAL accomplishments toward.Just my two cents.

From a certain perspective I agree, it would be nice to have a president and congress who is actually working toward things good for this country.But the question is: Why not do this stuff when you have control of everything? Why is your political leaning have to be changed from who you were when you ran into what makes you popular now?Is it too much to ask that a politician do what he campaigns on irregardless of the current polls?Or that a person who says he is X, actually is X?From a conservative perspective I am happier for the country that Obama is 'less' left by moving away from it, but I know when I vote for a conservative, when he 'moves center' he is breaking the faith we placed in him, and in effect is just another lying self serving politicians not worthy of my vote ever again.

[loogie 115]

Fucking creation of America. How does that work?

[akoff 0]

Wow. Try to give a guy a compliment by calling him a perfect leader of the free world and he jumps all over you.What I was saying (thanks for pointing out that I missed some presidents there, btw, because I thought that was a complete list of them from 1932 to present day, but I went on wiki and realized that Kennedy wasn't even president in 1932, lol) was that you obviously understand politics, the world, what's wrong with both, how to fix our financial situation, what kind of shape we are in, bi-partisanship and how to say better stuff that reflects all of this and probably much, much more, in State of the Union speeches than all of the previous polemic presidents who had a great many detractors that I'm surprised you aren't running for office so you can fix it all and that haha this is a giant run on sentence that is a run on so that I can emphasize the sarcasm that permeates it (and end in a preposition pointed out awkwardly in a totally inappropriate and poorly structured parenthetical). I'm so tired of armchair philosophers/politicians/pundits who pretend as if they can resolve problems that are outside of the ability of a singular person to resolve that I'm calling your stupid-ass out.

so you are saying the debt is not Obama's? really you are going to argue that??

[Balloon guy 158]

Rush just had a wonderful collection of clips of Obama speeches for the last 2 years where he said the exact same thing about high speed rail, about cutting spending, about almost every major point in last night's State of the Union speech.Really makes you see the level of respect the speech writers in Washington have for us. "Hey, Let's just say the things everyone liked before."" But we didn't do any of those things"" No biggie, the sheep will follow"

[custom36 5]

Did you guys hear this part?Why were they laughing?

I heard that part. I'm pretty sure nobody laughed though, aside from Obama. Joke-fail. There will totally be pat-downs. I'd put money on it.

But the question is: Why not do this stuff when you have control of everything? Why is your political leaning have to be changed from who you were when you ran into what makes you popular now?

Partially because Republicans required 60 votes to allow anything they didn't like to move. Partially because the Democratic congress was/is full of pussies.

Rush just had a wonderful collection of clips of Obama speeches for the last 2 years where he said the exact same thing about high speed rail, about cutting spending, about almost every major point in last night's State of the Union speech.Really makes you see the level of respect the speech writers in Washington have for us.

This isn't specific to Obama though. Many presidents before him promised changes to health care and never delivered. At least he's implanting the ideas, I suppose.

[Spademan 94]

so you are saying the debt is not Obama's? really you are going to argue that??

Congratulations. You've stumped me, because I don't even know how to respond to this.Seems I have a kryptonite: abject nonsense completely unrelated to my point culminating with two question marks for added emphasis. Since I'm reeling, I suppose all I can do is fight fire with fire.so you're saying that Obama and Bush are blood cousins and made a sex tape with their uncle Fidel Castro!??!!?!?!?! that's your starting point in the discussion?!?!??!?!??!??:/:!:!:!111??!:!????!?!!?@

[LongLiveYorke 38]

so you're saying that Obama and Bush are blood cousins and made a sex tape with their uncle Fidel Castro!??!!?!?!?! that's your starting point in the discussion?!?!??!?!??!??:/:!:!:!111??!:!????!?!!?@

ha

[brvheart 1,757]

Congratulations. You've stumped me, because I don't even know how to respond to this.Seems I have a kryptonite: abject nonsense completely unrelated to my point culminating with two question marks for added emphasis. Since I'm reeling, I suppose all I can do is fight fire with fire.so you're saying that Obama and Bush are blood cousins and made a sex tape with their uncle Fidel Castro!??!!?!?!?! that's your starting point in the discussion?!?!??!?!??!??:/:!:!:!111??!:!????!?!!?@

Dammit. I hate you and love you at the same time. Mostly love though.

[nutzbuster 7]

I guess the transition from a 'Hope and Change' president into an 'Anything to Get Reelected' president is complete.He hired William Daley to take Rham's place and we go from a President who signed anything with the word spending placed in front of him, who felt the most important thing to worry about was his legacy and free health care, who had no problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars to pay off political favors, into a president who wants to cut spending?He spends more time telling us why the people that are here illegally have a right to be here, then launches into a desire to work on illegal immigration?He wants to start spending money on infrastructure that is 'best for the people, not the politicians' after spending us into the deepest debt ever by doing exactly that?So basically he ran how he wanted to run, his polls dropped to more hate him than love him levels, he gets smacked in the mid terms, so he stops doing thing and instead just does nothing at all but talk, and his polls slip up above 50% so now he wants to embrace this new love for him and pretend he really wanted to do this all along. Even though he and his party were 100% in power for 2 years and all they did was follow Bush's plans on everything while trying to pass a health care bill so bad that they had to let almost 300 companies get full exemptions or face bankruptcy...Well, at least the republicans are split over the Tea Party and will implode themselves again because they didn't learn from Clinton that the only thing worse than a bad economy is a divided party during an election.

and lol spending 'freeze'. Seems to me the better option if you are speeding towards a cliff is to slam on the brakes, not hit cruise control.(ok I totally stole that, but I love it)

[CaneBrain 95]

Well... it kind of was. It would be like Guam winning a war against us. EXACTLY LIKE THAT!

Not at all. We have, in abundance, technology and weapons that most militaries don't have----the British and the Colonists were evenly matched from that standpoint. And we were the home team----the Iraq War and Vietnam should have taught you and Ms. Bachmann that being the home team in a war is a big deal. It was unlikely at best, not a miracle by any stretch.

[Balloon guy 158]

I heard that part. I'm pretty sure nobody laughed though, aside from Obama. Joke-fail. There will totally be pat-downs. I'd put money on it.

It was the laughter that made me notice what he said.

Partially because Republicans required 60 votes to allow anything they didn't like to move. Partially because the Democratic congress was/is full of pussies.

If you run things, being controlled by the people who can't stop you shows your level of ability.

This isn't specific to Obama though. Many presidents before him promised changes to health care and never delivered. At least he's implanting the ideas, I suppose.

The dude ran and promised that he would shut down Gitmo, he failed because it was too hard.You think he's going to stick it out with health care?My guess is he is going to go down in history as the president who tried to give everyone free health care AND the president who stopped that abortion of an idea of free health care for everyone.

[CaneBrain 95]

The dude ran and promised that he would shut down Gitmo, he failed because no governor would agree to take the prisoners and he's not allowed to make them do so.You think he's going to stick it out with health care?My guess is probably wrong because I suck at predicting stuff. See my ridiculous bet about the Senate with CaneBrain. Also, the healthcare bill is not going anywhere now that the insurance companies like it too.

fixed.

[Balloon guy 158]

fixed.

Oh, didn't realize that making a promise means you only have to stick to it if it is easy.Its almost like he didn't have enough experience to understand why all the things he ran against were necessary evils.GitmoPatriot ActTax CutsWar in AfghanistanSupport of Israel

[Balloon guy 158]

I think I will run for president:My platform: Free health care, free housing, free cars, free internet access, free cable movies shows.Once elected; Wow, sorry guys, those things turned out to be too hard, let me tell you about my Nobel Peace Prize and how I use it for a paper weight for all my speaking contracts I am accepting now to make sure I get rich when I leave office.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Many presidents before him promised changes to health care and never delivered. At least he's implanting the ideas, I suppose.

[ShakeZuma 585]

hahahahaha

[CaneBrain 95]

Oh, didn't realize that making a promise means you only have to stick to it if it is easy.Its almost like he didn't have enough experience to understand why all the things he ran against were necessary evils.GitmoPatriot ActTax CutsWar in AfghanistanSupport of Israel

not easy and impossible are two very different concepts. other problems: support of Israel is not an evil, Obama campaigned in favor of Afghanistan as "the important war", tax cuts did us little good during the Bush presidency and keep those deficits high.other than that, great post.

[Balloon guy 158]

not easy and impossible are two very different concepts. other problems: support of Israel is not an evil, Obama campaigned in favor of Afghanistan as "the important war", tax cuts did us little good during the Bush presidency and keep those deficits high.other than that, great post.

Thanks!

[SlapStick 0]

.

[custom36 5]

I'd run against supporting Israel.Just another in a long list of reasons why I'll never be president.

[Balloon guy 158]

Rush just had a wonderful collection of clips of Obama speeches for the last 2 years where he said the exact same thing about high speed rail, about cutting spending, about almost every major point in last night's State of the Union speech.Really makes you see the level of respect the speech writers in Washington have for us. "Hey, Let's just say the things everyone liked before."" But we didn't do any of those things"" No biggie, the sheep will follow"

Posted it on his website:OBAMA JUNE 15, 2010: We have to build a new and stronger foundation for growth and prosperity -- and that's exactly what we've been doing for the last 16 months.OBAMA JUNE 15, 2010: It's been based on investments in our people and their future, investments in the skills and education we need to compete, investments in a Twenty-First Century infrastructure for America from high-speed railroads to high-speed Internet, investments in research and technology like clean energy that can lead to new jobs and new exports and new industries. This new foundation is also based on reforms that will make our economy stronger and our businesses more competitive; reforms that will make health care cheaper, our financial system more secure, and our government less burdened with debt.OBAMA FEBRUARY 1, 2010: We simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences, as if waste doesn't matter, as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money, as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation. We can't. In order meet this challenge I welcome any idea from Democrats and Republicans. What I will not welcome, what I reject, is the same old grandstanding when the cameras are on and the same irresponsible budget policies when the cameras are off. It's time it hold Washington to the same standards families and businesses hold themselves. It's time to save what we can, spend what we must, and live within our means once again.OBAMA JUNE 15, 2010: What has defined us as a nation since our founding is the capacity on shape our destiny, our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we're unsure exactly what that looks like, even if we don't yet precisely know how we're gonna get there, we know we'll get there.

[CaneBrain 95]

Jon Stewart played that game with the entire GOP spanning 2000-2010.Rush is a hack.

[Balloon guy 158]

Jon Stewart played that game with the entire GOP spanning 2000-2010.Rush is a hack.

Yea, Rush was doing this for 20+ years and is the most listened to broadcaster ever.But John Stewart really invented using people's words against them....okay.

"The Daily Show" reached a milestone this week, as newly released ratings revealed that the Comedy Central show was the top show in the coveted 18-49 demographic for the month of October. This marks the first time in at least a decade that the top spot has not gone to either "The Tonight Show" or David Letterman's "Late Show.""The Daily Show" drew 1.3 million viewers in the demo, whereas the other two averaged 1.2 million viewers.

Rush has 15-20 million listeners.but good use of deflection to ignore that Obama's SotU speech was another example of empty platitudes designed for empty headed sheep who still believe in him.

[CaneBrain 95]

Yea, Rush was doing this for 20+ years and is the most listened to broadcaster ever.But John Stewart really invented using people's words against them....okay.Rush has 15-20 million listeners.but good use of deflection to ignore that Obama's SotU speech was another example of empty platitudes designed for empty headed sheep who still believe in him.

I don't pay much attention to what politicians' say. And I didn't say Stewart invented it; he just does it much, much better.I also appreciate the logic that Friends had more viewers than the Wire so it was definitely better.