Obama Will Not Give Up On Bipartisanship

President Barack Obama met with progressive bloggers Duncan Black, Joe Sudbay, John Amato and Oliver Willis. Obama told the bloggers that he is a "stubborn guy" and will continue to push for bipartisanship with Republicans.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, the -- I’m a pretty stubborn guy when it comes to, on the one hand, trying to get cooperation. I don’t give up just because I didn’t get cooperation on this issue; I’ll try the next issue. If the Republicans don’t agree with me on fiscal policy, maybe they’ll agree with me on infrastructure. If they don’t agree with me on infrastructure, I’ll try to see if they agree with me on education.

So I’m just going to keep on trying to see where they want to move the country forward.

Republican have floated the possibility of shutting down government.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland

"The government shut down," said Westmoreland -- and the crowd started cheering. "That's what I wanted to hear! A good clap for that!"

The previous government shutdown was a political disaster for Newt Gingrich and made Bill Clinton look like the serious adult. Fortunately, John Boehner realizes this and stated Republicans will not shut down the federal government. Republicans have made it clear they will not pass anything. Republicans filibustered the bill helping small busineeses get loans and tax cuts. Republicans have traditionally supported business tax cuts and easier access to credit. The filibuster was merely about destroying Obama politically. Democrats were able to break the filibuster with the vote of retiring Sen. George Voinovich.

This isn't just political rhetoric from Obama. He actually believes he can get bipartisanship from Republicans. A Democratic strategist A Democratic strategist told David Corn that Obama refused to give up on bipartisanship during the crafting of the health care bill. The result was zero Republican votes for the final product.

It took "so goddamn long," of course, partly because the president and his aides were overly deferential to Congress—especially to a few Senate Republicans they were trying to rope in. "We told the White House repeatedly," says the Democratic Senate strategist, "that it was a mistake to think they could negotiate with Republicans. They never listened."

Obama's first two years have been a huge disappointment. If Obama continues to buy his own 2008 news clippings of being a transcendiary figure then he will accomplish nothing. Obama's bipartisanship has achieved health care reform that gives insurers a greater monopoly, financial reform that did not force the major investment banks to pay into a fund in the event they bailout and an energy bill that advocated more offshore drilling. All of these terrible corporate-friendly policies Republicans filibustered merely for midterm election gains. That is what Obama's bipartisanship has accomplished.

It Property Appraisal Values, Stupid

Duncan Black makes the same point I did in converstations I had with friends. Homes are appraised over the value.

Watching a 3 bedroom condo fall in listed price from $610K to $449K I'm inspired to make the obvious point that housing prices will come down until they hit the point where "average" housing units are priced such that typical potential homeowners can afford to make the monthly payments with typical mortgage terms.

Florida has two problems: property taxes and decreased number of people buying new homes. A recent Leadership Florida study found one out of five Floridians are considering leaving. United Van Lines moved more people out of Florida than in for the first time in thirty years.

If homeowners are selling their houses under the appraised values than state leaders needs to re-evaluate property appraisal. The State legislature would have to set new guidelines. That would be a major headache for county appraisers. Many homeowners would be furious over lower appraisal values. Changes still need to be made.

Over-inflated property appraising is a scam counties and homeowners enjoyed. Counties enjoyed the increased tax revenue. Homeowners could sell their property for a good price. But then the market's bubble popped.

Appraisal ratings are suppose to reflect actual market value. Current ratings are used to increase the tax on millage. Homeowner can pay taxes for value their property doesn't have or ask for reform. Housing sales will increase with lower property values. The current system is regressive and hurts economic growth.

Florida needs to find a better tax system than an over-reliance on hearding new residents into the state. The economic growth monster creates new revenue, as well as needs for more roads, schools and first responders. The Growth Monster is like a heroin addict always needing another fix. Florida's budget deficit can no longer feed the monster.

Barack Obama Attacks Trial Lawyers

I agree with Duncan Black. Barack Obama's running to the right is getting increasingly annoying. Demonizing attorneys and Social Security was part of George W. Bush's 2000 campaign. Obama is either an opportunist or believes in bad policy. I'm leaning towards the latter. His Social Security boogie man talk does more flips and flops than Mitt Romney on hot button social issues.

"I absolutely agree that Social Security is not in crisis."

Barack Obama - Oct. 30, 2007

"You know, Senator Clinton says that she's concerned about Social Security but is not willing to say how she would solve the Social Security crisis, then I think voters aren't going to feel real confident that this is a priority for her."

Barack Obama - Nov. 6, 2007

Obama's shot at trial lawyers was aimed at John Edwards.

In one of his standard riffs, Obama asserts that his career choices -- community organizer, civil rights lawyer, elected official -- underscores his commitment to public service and to bringing about political and social change. He always mentions the lucrative job offers he turned down, but today he added a new line.

"That's why I didn't become a trial lawyer," Obama told the Newton audience -- a clear dig at Edwards, who made millions in the courtroom.

The Edwards campaign has a video of Sandy Lakey, the mother of Valerie, whom was disemboweled by a swimming pool drain. Edwards sued the company to pay for the girl's medical expenses.



Besides Valerie, Edwards represented a six year-old whom suffered brain damage and a baby deprieved of oxygen during labor. Edwards got very rich from these cases. Republicans loved to demonize trial layers because their corporate interests are terrified about being sued for negligence. The Bush administration has made it impossible for any American to be convicted of a crime in Iraq and that policy led to the rape of Jamie Leigh Jones. Trial laywers are the only avenue for people to hold high-powered corporations responsible.

Netroots For Dummies

"His fanbase is entirely netroots... they're not frequent voters if ever. A lot of the people I spoke to never voted for a candidate, but this guy turned me on."

Wayne Garcia on Ron Paul.

Garcia makes the mistake of thinking Ron Paul's Myspace friends are netroots. They are not. The Republican Party, and it's current presidential candidates, have yet to provide anything resembling on organization. Gene Smith is also known as Gatordem. He has worked on Democratic campaigns in the Tampa area for years. Boy wonder Ray Seaman is highly active in the Florida Democratic Party. These are people that hardly can be accused of rarely voting.

Garcia and Jim Johnson have no idea what the netroots is about because they aren't apart of it. Progressive bloggers don't give a shit about Myspace polls. It is about making the media cover issues, raising awareness and money for candidates.

Getting Trent Lott to step down as Senate Majority Leader was a result of action taken by progressive bloggers. The Note was the only news site to mention Lott's racist comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party. No network broadcasts covered the story. Josh Marshall and Duncan Black read The Note and wrote about the Lott story. Both correctly guessed that John Kerry's expensive haircut would get more media exposure. Other bloggers then covered Lott. The attention was so great that Lott then because a story. The rest is history.

Howard Dean's netroots campaign made him the frontrunner because of exposure and online fundraising. Dean proved that the internet can't stop a candidate from embarrassing himself on television. It did give him the potential tools to win. Democracy for America was created from the Dean campaign. The site encourages Democrats and activist to meetup with other likeminded individuals to raise money and GOTV. Not vote in online polls. Ron Paul has nothing resembling the netroots. For Garcia to call it that is a mistake.

What the netroots does is even the playing field for Democrats. For too long the Donkeys had nothing to compete with corporate fundraising and the right-wing echo chamber of talk radio and Fox News.

How do I know all this? I am part of the netroots. I used netroots organization to draw attention to certain stories. The police-handling of the University of Tampa rape and Rachel Moran's offensive post against the homeless are examples. I also was in contact with the Kathy Castor campaign last election and work with the 527 group Florida Progressive Coalition.

Short answer: we could play six degrees of separation with all my netroots connections.