Northern California Nesties
anneg
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
if you're disgusted by obama's latest display of spinelessness
you will no doubt find this funny (in a painful way, 'cause it's so true.)
http://www.borowitzreport.com/2010/12/07/in-latest-compromise-with-gop-obama-agrees-he-is-a-muslim/
sorry it's not clicky... i can never get that feature to work on d's mac.
great blasket island, co. kerry, ireland
june 2011
Re: if you're disgusted by obama's latest display of spinelessness
PM me for our family/baby blog
Haley Beth ~ March 3rd, 2011
Maybe it's the fact that I've been in negotiations for the last couple of months with my union and management at work... but while I am pissed about this latest development, I do sympathize with Obama's position and I don't quite see it as spineless. I'm learning first-hand right now about negotiating from a very crappy position, and the sh!t sandwiches you have to swallow to get even tiny gains. So while I hate what's happened this week, I also understand the process that got us to this point and why this course of action was taken.
The choices are to hold your ground no matter what, and probably get nothing done; or, accept some bad terms while getting a few things done that are important to you and the people you represent. Then you get to go out and make the case to your supporters (and non supporters) about why you're not actually spineless and what the up sides are to the deal you made. Tough sell? Absolutely.
I'll just add that I'm glad to see Obama still trying to get things done and still willing to compromise, instead of adopting the "just say no because my team lost" attitude I've sometimes seen on the other side. I see it as putting action ahead of ego and political gain, and I think there's something to be said for that.
I didn't reply b/c I was too lazy to craft a reply and look up an article that disputes that Obama gave in. Some folks are saying that Democrats actually got more in the deal...
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/how_the_white_house_cut_the_de.html
Also, if you're miffed that they didn't let taxes rise for the richest, you can think of it more optimistically that we didn't cut taxes further (which if we had a Republican controlled White House, I think would have been a real alternative).
That said, I am peeved that Obama doesn't at least act like he's championing the Democrats' position. But I do like that he's showing some fire now in defending his decision.
Is this about the speech he gave where he chastized everyone (maybe it was particularly Dems?) for refusing to compromise and thus screwing over the American people? Because I kind of thought that speech rocked.
But I am very much out of touch with the political landscape these days.
i guess the main problem i have with obama is that he goes and starts from a weaker position than necessary, which ensures an even weaker end result. the issue of the tax cuts hasn't gone away... it's just been shelved for two years. that's not a compromise, that's avoiding doing anything about the issue. which, incidentally, will be front and center for the 2012 election cycle. the republicans aren't interested in negotiation, they're interested in blackmail. there's nothing wrong with calling them out on that, in fact, it would help his position, but he keeps presenting this idea to the country that we just need to find common ground. but there is none. he gives in every time and they become even more emboldened because hey, he rolled over last time. he'll do it again next time.
he will wind up a one-term president. mark my words.
I think Obama is a great president. I think our economy is recovering, true he probably should have added more stimulus money to make it come back quicker to make everyone happier but it is growing now. He got the health care bill passed which was a huge major success IMHO. Albeit not what I would have wanted, I am a bleeding heart liberal and more than half the country would scoff at what I want. He has been continually making inroads in almost every area he promised to work on. Is he terrible at PR? Definitely. Is he trying to set a bipartisan tone? Sure. Is he getting everything he wants? No of course not. But Spineless? Rolling over? No way. He is probably one of my favorite presidents ever.
I agree that he will probably be a one-term president, but that is because the majority of this country is self centered, and not particularly good at weeding out the republican lies and rhetoric for actual facts.
I am sad that this is how people are viewing him.
How does this strategy play out though? Let's say he "calls them out," doesn't try to find common ground - what is the end result?
I honestly think Obama's big problem is not really with specific policy but with messaging. He did a great job with this during his campaign, but ever since taking office, the other side has been dominating and leading the conversation and spreading a lot of misinformation. The White House/Democrats in general have been completely ineffective in combating this. Half (if not more) of the battle is in how the situation is presented to the public.
And yes, I agree that Obama is in danger of becoming a one-term president if things don't change dramatically in the next two years.