previous post next post  

The Audacity of Hoping for some change...

By The Armorer on February 17, 2009 | | Comments (5)
From Bill McGurn (former Bush speechwriter who now writes for  the WSJ, and, as SWWBO and I can attest from personal experience, a gracious dinner host):
In a passage from his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," [Obama] sounds like a Republican complaining about the stimulus. "Genuine bipartisanship," he wrote, "assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is measured by how well it serves some agreed-upon goal, whether better schools or lower deficits. This in turn assumes that the majority will be constrained — by an exacting press corps and ultimately an informed electorate — to negotiate in good faith.

"If these conditions do not hold — if nobody outside Washington is really paying attention to the substance of the bill, if the true costs . . . are buried in phony accounting and understated by a trillion dollars or so — the majority party can begin every negotiation by asking for 100% of what it wants, go on to concede 10%, and then accuse any member of the minority party who fails to support this 'compromise' of being 'obstructionist.'"

Taps foot impatiently waiting for some of that change we had the audacity to hope for...
"For the minority party in such circumstances, 'bipartisanship' comes to mean getting chronically steamrolled, although individual senators may enjoy certain political rewards by consistently going along with the majority and hence gaining a reputation for being 'moderate' or 'centrist.'"

Would you have any comment, Senators Snowe, Collins, or Specter?

Share This Article:

Share |

Categories:

5 Comments

By Argent on February 18, 2009 6:38 AM
Audacity: Definition

You heard about it but you will never see it happen.
 
By BillT on February 18, 2009 7:31 AM
Arlen Specter hasn't been "moderate" on anything since he completed toilet training...
 
By Josh on February 18, 2009 6:31 PM
I don't understand, why do Republicans actually vote for Arlen Specter?  What's the point?

If I tell European people everything about myself (people around here probably figured enough about me by now to understand this example) and then say "and I'm running as the Socialist party candidate!" will they vote for me just because I put the word "socialist" next to my name?

If I tell the Muslims "I love eating pigs and having sex outside of marriage and telling everybody that there is no god...but I'm a Muslim, will you make me a mullah now?" will they give me a mosque and a congregation?

I'm sure as hell not making the same mistake twice and voting for this traitor Charlie Crist again, why does Pennsylvania keep voting for this fake?
 
By Justthisguy on February 19, 2009 11:09 PM
Ah, Josh, you've admitted that you suffer, as do I, from Florida locality. You should immediately get in touch with Mad Mike Williamson to make sure that he gives you a special exemption from going through the wood chipper when he becomes Dictator. I have such an exemption. Otherwise, he wants to feed all Florida voters and all Florida LEOs into the machine, most 'specially Collier County deppities. His SF novels are pretty cool, too. "Freehold" is available as a free download at www.baen.com.
 
By Josh on February 20, 2009 12:22 AM
Psh, no way I'm gonna let that bastard get to them first!  While he's busy shredding Collier County, I'm going to be eviscerating Miami-Dade.  Particularly the drivers.  First I'm going to start with the ones who drive 20 mph under the limit in the left lane, then the ones who drive slow lined up across all the lanes, then the ones who stop at green lights, then the ones who merge and turn without turn signals, then the ones who block you when you try to change lanes...aw hell, I'm just gonna have to drop a neutron bomb.