Please DUers. Click through to this discussion. Cenk and company take a very intelligent discussion on the fiscal, political and compromise. Cenk is extremely skeptical on Obama's sincerity.

It is one of the best political discussions I've heard in any forum.

BTW, I love Cenk Uygur. But I sincerely hope he is wrong here.

R&

...although someone needs to get on Cenk's case about always interrupting his peers, it gets old. And I say that as someone who mostly agrees with Cenk's analyses...

I hope Cenk is wrong here, but I fear he is right. From where I sit, our government looks like it exists mostly to serve the interests of the wealthy elites, and that is true whether we are talking about Democrats or Republicans. Unfortunately, Obama seems to fit right in with that thesis.

Again, though: I will be thrilled if Cenk is proven wrong in this instance.

waaaay off the mark and lolz.
sort of distracting to the conversation, like watching a good comedy.

you're right I just tried it and it's hilarious.

Right after the election Boehner just held a conference call with fellow goopers in which he talked about the need to cooperate with the White House and they did not challenge him. They were chastened. It was like a funeral.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/politics/boehner-tells-house-gop-to-fall-in-line.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=1&&pagewanted=all

Practically five minutes later Boehner is all hard line and intransigent.

Why? What changed?

Simple. Obama immediately went back to playing his usual weak negotiating hand and they smelled his fear.

When I was a kid my family went horse back riding. All of a sudden my horse lay down and rolled around to scratch his back. I was lucky to get away without being crushed. The trainer then said that even if the horse had an itch, the horse would not have done this with an experienced rider who would have exerted a sense of authority over the horse.

If you do not show command, the GOP will smell your fear and keep raising the ante and moving the goal posts while you keep coronating their views. Chastened though they might be, the moment Obama started acting conciliatory the hard liners in the GOP caucus agitated with Boehner for a hard line on the argument that Obama was still acting weak and like an easy mark. They smelled his hesitation and took advantage. Obama keeps waiting for the public to come around to agreeing with him while he is busy being more and more agreeable to the GOP. And he can't figure out why it doesn't work. Same with the first presidential debate. Obama thought he was being polite. But the public thought he was being weak. That is why he lost the first debate.

But if you want, go ahead and repeat the mistakes of the first 4 years. After all, as Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." So let's just cave into the Republicans some more and be nice-nice. That's really gonna work. As soon as they see how cooperative we are, they'll turn over a new leaf. Just be real nice to them.

Who needs a Democrat with guts?

Pay no attention to this (from fellow DUer Alan Grayson, now back in Congress):

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And pay no attention to this:

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Forget about that. What we need is more Stockholm Syndrome. We need to learn to love our GOP captors. That'll really work.

Here's another item. In 2010 Ohio Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur was opposed by Rich Iott, a GOP opponent who had been in Wiking, the Nazi reenactment war group that would dress up as Nazis and march around. Meanwhile, Republicans all over were carrying guns to GOP rallies and going off the deep end in lots of other ways. Yet the Democrats never made an issue of this. Kaptur won but even she did not make an issue of it. The GOP had a total glass jaw that year and yet we tried to play nice. We let them get away with murder, and they took over the House. Incidentally, midterm elections (like the one we're now headed toward in 2014) are won by party base zealots, since fewer people turn out to vote. But why be a zealot? Let's be cream puffs. Let's be really wimpy.

Wiking recruitment video (Rich Iott's lunatic group):

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But if you want, watch "Romper Room," "My Friend Flicka," and "Leave It To Beaver" and let the GOP walk all over us. We have to be nice-nice. Let's let the GOP get away with murder.

Afterall they are his big donors. He's got to pay his dues too like the republicans

So i doubt Obama is weak naturally he is just finding an excuse so he can do waht he really wants which is what republicans want

When we laugh at the Right for their Bubble this is a perfect example of the Bubble on our side....Most here on DU despise Cenk for pointing out the facts.

And lets face it Cenk Uygur would be banned from DU pretty quickly

all the pressure is from the right. In that sense Cenk is doing Obama a big favor. But if all you want is pressure from the right, there will be those who are very happy to attack Cenk. To those I say, go ahead, attack him. Support appeasement of the GOP. As Harry Truman said, "If you run a Republican against a Republican, the Republican will win every time."

When we attack our own for coming at President Obama from the left to try to pressure him we actually enable the right wing. This is my entire problem with the blue-dog democrats and the third way/DLC nonsense. It doesn't actually help us politically or in terms of policy.