Surprise!! Obama Grasping Centrist Banner in Debt Impasse [ANNOTATED]

WASHINGTON — President Obama made no apparent headway on Monday in his attempt to forge a crisis-averting budget deal (THERE IS NO CRISIS, ONLY A FABRICATED ONE], but he put on full display his effort to position himself as a pragmatic centrist willing to confront both parties and address intractable problems. [TIMES IS HERE ACTING AS A P.R. ASSET TO OBAMA AND THE DEMS]

At a news conference preceding the latest round of debt-reduction talks with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders, Mr. Obama said he would not accept a temporary agreement to kick the problem down the road a few weeks or months.  He said that he was willing to take the heat from his own party to move beyond entrenched ideological positions and that Republicans should do the same. And he continued to insist on “the biggest deal possible,” saying that now is the best opportunity for the nation to address its long-term fiscal challenges. [BIG OF HIM TO MAKE DEALS BLOWING AWAY WHATEVER SAFETY NET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE STILL HAVE, UNDER SOME OF THE MOST CYNICAL PRETEXTS. THIS ADMINISTRATION SIMPLY DEFINES SCUM. ]

Republicans dismissed his performance as political theater [THE SHEER GALL, THE KETTLE CALLING THE POT BLACK]. But Mr. Obama’s remarks appeared to be aimed at independent voters as well as at Congressional leaders, and stood in contrast to the Republican focus on the party’s conservative base, both in the budget showdown and in presidential politics.

Mr. Obama’s remarks were among the clearest expressions yet of a repositioning effort [REBRANDING IN CLASSIC OPPORTUNIST COWARDLY FASHION, TYPICAL] that has been under way since the midterm elections last November, when Republicans captured the House and made inroads in the Senate.

Seeking to shed the image of big-government liberal [SIC] that Republicans used effectively against him last year, he has made or offered policy compromises on an array of issues and cast himself in the role of the adult referee for both parties’ gamesmanship, or the parent of stubborn children.

“If we think it’s hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season where they’re all up,” he said.  “It’s not going to get easier.  It’s going to get harder.  So we might as well do it now — pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas.”  [EASY FOR HIM TO SAY.]

He added, “We keep on talking about this stuff, and we have these high-minded pronouncements about how we’ve got to get control of the deficit and how we owe it to our children and our grandchildren [CHEAP INVOCATIONS]. Well, let’s step up.  Let’s do it.  I’m prepared to do it.  I’m prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done.  And I expect the other side should be willing to do the same thing.” [SELLING HIS BASE OWN THE RIVER HAS BEEN HIS SIGNATURE ALL ALONG, NOTHING NEW HERE. PURE CYNICAL KABUKI WITH THE COMPLICIT RETHUGLICANS.]

Mr. Obama did not shake Republicans’ resolve to oppose any increases in taxes for wealthy Americans and businesses, as he proposes. “Eat our peas?” asked a mocking news release from the office of Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, placing the blaming for the impasse on Mr. Obama for demanding “job crushing tax hikes.”

Mr. Obama used his news conference to counter Republicans’ attacks suggesting that he wanted immediate tax increases. With the economy still weak and unemployment high, he said, tax increases should not take effect before 2013 [OUTRAGEOUS, JUST MORE CRAPPY PRETEXTS. WHO WILL BE ALIBE BY 2013?] and even then should affect only corporate jet owners, oil companies, millionaires — including himself — and billionaires. (Mr. Obama has long pressed [ pressed in rhetorical terms but never seriously fought or stuck to his guns like GW Bush] for higher taxes on income starting at $250,000.)

Denying he had “some grand ambition to create a bigger government,” Mr. Obama said that in trying to solve the debt problem, “if you don’t have revenues, it means you are putting more of a burden on the people who can least afford it. And that’s not fair. And I think the American people agree with me on that.”

Mr. Obama also called on resistant Democrats to compromise on “trimming benefits” for the entitlement programs [THESE ARE ENTITLEMENTS BECAUSE THEY ARE ENTITLEMENTS, THEY ARE NOT HANDOUTS, AS THE INNUENDOS SUGGEST. OF COURSE SUCH ELEMENTARY CLARIFICATION WILL NEVER COME FROM HIS LIPS OR THE PROSTITUTED PUNDITS AND FELLOW DEMOCRATS], including Social Security, to ensure its solvency for future generations. [THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH SOCIAL SECURITY; AND IF THERE IS ONE IT CAN BE EASILY FIXED. BY RAISING THE INCOME CAPS, FOR EXAMPLE.  SEE OUR NUMEROUS PIECES ON THIS TOPIC.]

“I think the American people want to see something done,” Mr. Obama said, echoing the stance of many independent and moderate voters reflected in polls and focus groups. “They feel a sense of urgency, both about the breakdown in our political process and also about the situation in our economy.”

In a break with many presidential candidates who first appeal to their party’s base to win the nomination, Mr. Obama from the earliest days of his 2008 campaign sought support from independent voters. Though liberals were attracted to him for his opposition to the Iraq war, Mr. Obama more broadly reached out to independents with his calls for bipartisanship and problem-solving; his campaign saw expanding the pool of primary and caucus voters as the only way to defeat the party establishment favorite, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Independents also powered Mr. Obama’s victory over his Republican rival, Senator John McCain. But since Mr. Obama entered the White House, polls showed, many abandoned him as the economic downturn persisted, and he pursued an ambitious domestic agenda topped by an overhaul of the health insurance system.

By November’s midterm elections, some national polls showed a majority of independents disapproved of his job performance, and winning them back has been central to the White House’s political strategy. [ENTICING THE SUCKERS ONE MORE TIME]

This year, support among independents is up, though Mr. Obama still has a way to go to regain his former standing. A New York Times/CBS News poll in June gave Mr. Obama a 50 percent approval rating among independents, up five points from the start of the year, though a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in June had 50 percent of independents disapproving of the job he is doing.

“There was never a discussion of, ‘Let’s sit down and reposition ourselves.’ There were discussions of returning to first principles and the things that motivated him to run,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior political strategist. “This is what he talked about all through the 2008 campaign — that we need to put solving problems ahead of scoring political points, and we have to think about not just the next election but the next generation.”

But David Winston, a Republican strategist for Mr. Boehner and other Republican leaders, said Mr. Obama was “putting a poison pill” into the debt talks by his insistence on higher revenue, and drawing clear lines between the parties that would benefit Republicans.

“We have two clearly different economic viewpoints,” Mr. Winston said. “And from the speaker’s point of view, if you increase taxes you’re going to contract the economy and that is going to lead to a job loss. And right now we can’t do that.”