Not knowing who the eventual Republican presidential nominee will be in the 2012 election, President Obama's supporters are taking the opportunity to blast all of the GOP candidates, using aggressive language to argue that the crop of contenders is either uninterested or incapable of helping Americans.
Much of the criticism is focused on describing the candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S.
"While protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil while proposing to end Medicare, slash Social Security and pile additional burdens on the middle class might win plaudits with the Tea Party, it's not remotely what the American people are looking for," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse said in a statement Sunday after Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race.
"In a Republican field that has already pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and failed to present any plan that will benefit the middle class or create the jobs America needs to win the future, Governor Perry offers more of the same," Obama campaign spokesman Ban LaBolt said Saturday after Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz noted that Obama asked for compromise on a debt reduction plan but all the presidential candidates at the Fox News-Washington Examiner debate on Thursday night agreed that they would not back a deal that would be 10-1 cuts to revenue.
"That's how strangled by the Tea Party that they are, and that's not what Americans are looking for. They're looking for solutions," she said.
"If anyone is in trouble, it's the Republican Party," continued Wasserman Schultz, who was appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Right now, they have a collection of candidates for president who are busy out -- trying to out-right-wing each other. Essentially, they are all so similar that they might as well be Legos; they're that interchangeable."
Often the speaker will try to talk over or ignore the heckler — but sometimes they just can’t resist mixing it up.
That’s almost always a mistake.
The latest incident occurred last Monday night in Iowa, when one Ryan Rhodes stood up and shouted a question during a Town Hall meeting, and afterward confronted the president as Obama was shaking hands and signing autographs, asking the president how he could call for more civility “when your vice president is calling people like me, a Tea Party member, a terrorist.”
Rhodes was referring to reports that Joe Biden used the word “terrorist” in a closed-door meeting. Biden has denied using the word.
Obama responded to Rhodes by noting he’s “been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms,” so he’s all for toning down the rhetoric. A woman in the crowd joined the fun, yammering at Obama, “You do realize that 90 percent of domestic terrorist attacks are done by left-wing, environmental radicals and not people like me!” (Where does she get her figure? Also, does she really believe Biden was saying Tea Party activists are domestic terrorists?)
“You don’t seem to be interested in listening,” Obama said to Rhodes as their little tiff ended.
“Neither do you,” said Rhodes, as casually as if he were debating with his next-door neighbor and not the president of these United States.
Bachmann turns on overdrive
Michele Bachmann has emerged as a rising superstar with the GOP — Sarah Palin without the commitment issues. She’s fresh off a straw poll victory and she was on five — count-’em, five — Sunday morning political talk shows.
But rebel or traditional candidate, there are certain rituals you have to participate in on the campaign trail, including the time-honored practice of eating the local food in diners and at country fairs, and pretending there’s nothing you’d rather wolf down than some barbecue in Kansas City, a cheese steak in Philly — or a corn dog in the Midwest.
So there was Bachmann at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines the other day, downing a corn dog with gusto and inspiring a thousand Google Images and countless easy jokes on Twitter, Facebook and on the comedy shows.
In the meantime, Bachmann continues to deal with the “submissive” question. A few days after the topic was raised at the Iowa debates, Bachmann was asked on “Face the Nation” about saying, “[T]he Lord says, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.”
When asked if submissive meant subservient, Bachmann said, “You know, I guess it depends on what word people are used to, but respect is really what it means. We respect each other, we listen to each other, we love each other, and that is what it means.”
Of course, that is not what it means. The dictionaries tell us “submissive” means, “inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others,” and that suitable synonyms include “meek, passive, obedient, yielding, docile, dutiful, deferential,” etc.
One can argue about the biblical context, but it’s hard to get away from such quotes as, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands . . . for the husband is the head of the wife.” That seems pretty clear-cut.
Not that it’s going to matter in the end. Bachmann’s chances of actually becoming the next president? I’d say it’s 30-1 against. Iowa straw poll aside, Rick Perry has the best chance of making a serious run at Mitt Romney. (When did the Iowa straw poll become such a national event, anyway, and how do we put an end to that?) A new Rasmussen Poll of likely GOP primary voters has Perry leading with 29 percent, with Bachmann a distant fourth with just 13 percent.
Like Sarah Palin, Bachmann loves needling the mainstream press and playing the part of the rock star who refuses to do things the traditional way. Yet it’s that very attitude — and yes, the fact that both are attractive women — that makes them such intriguing subject matter for the very “lamestream” media for which they have such supposed disdain. It just might be that both Palin and Bachmann are bigger stars and bigger players in the media than they are on the Republican depth chart.
Much of the criticism is focused on describing the candidates as lackeys to the Tea Party, which establishment Democrats have classified as right-wing zealots bent on destroying the U.S.
"While protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil while proposing to end Medicare, slash Social Security and pile additional burdens on the middle class might win plaudits with the Tea Party, it's not remotely what the American people are looking for," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse said in a statement Sunday after Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the race.
"In a Republican field that has already pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and failed to present any plan that will benefit the middle class or create the jobs America needs to win the future, Governor Perry offers more of the same," Obama campaign spokesman Ban LaBolt said Saturday after Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz noted that Obama asked for compromise on a debt reduction plan but all the presidential candidates at the Fox News-Washington Examiner debate on Thursday night agreed that they would not back a deal that would be 10-1 cuts to revenue.
"That's how strangled by the Tea Party that they are, and that's not what Americans are looking for. They're looking for solutions," she said.
"If anyone is in trouble, it's the Republican Party," continued Wasserman Schultz, who was appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Right now, they have a collection of candidates for president who are busy out -- trying to out-right-wing each other. Essentially, they are all so similar that they might as well be Legos; they're that interchangeable."
Often the speaker will try to talk over or ignore the heckler — but sometimes they just can’t resist mixing it up.
That’s almost always a mistake.
The latest incident occurred last Monday night in Iowa, when one Ryan Rhodes stood up and shouted a question during a Town Hall meeting, and afterward confronted the president as Obama was shaking hands and signing autographs, asking the president how he could call for more civility “when your vice president is calling people like me, a Tea Party member, a terrorist.”
Rhodes was referring to reports that Joe Biden used the word “terrorist” in a closed-door meeting. Biden has denied using the word.
Obama responded to Rhodes by noting he’s “been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms,” so he’s all for toning down the rhetoric. A woman in the crowd joined the fun, yammering at Obama, “You do realize that 90 percent of domestic terrorist attacks are done by left-wing, environmental radicals and not people like me!” (Where does she get her figure? Also, does she really believe Biden was saying Tea Party activists are domestic terrorists?)
“You don’t seem to be interested in listening,” Obama said to Rhodes as their little tiff ended.
“Neither do you,” said Rhodes, as casually as if he were debating with his next-door neighbor and not the president of these United States.
Bachmann turns on overdrive
Michele Bachmann has emerged as a rising superstar with the GOP — Sarah Palin without the commitment issues. She’s fresh off a straw poll victory and she was on five — count-’em, five — Sunday morning political talk shows.
But rebel or traditional candidate, there are certain rituals you have to participate in on the campaign trail, including the time-honored practice of eating the local food in diners and at country fairs, and pretending there’s nothing you’d rather wolf down than some barbecue in Kansas City, a cheese steak in Philly — or a corn dog in the Midwest.
So there was Bachmann at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines the other day, downing a corn dog with gusto and inspiring a thousand Google Images and countless easy jokes on Twitter, Facebook and on the comedy shows.
In the meantime, Bachmann continues to deal with the “submissive” question. A few days after the topic was raised at the Iowa debates, Bachmann was asked on “Face the Nation” about saying, “[T]he Lord says, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.”
When asked if submissive meant subservient, Bachmann said, “You know, I guess it depends on what word people are used to, but respect is really what it means. We respect each other, we listen to each other, we love each other, and that is what it means.”
Of course, that is not what it means. The dictionaries tell us “submissive” means, “inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others,” and that suitable synonyms include “meek, passive, obedient, yielding, docile, dutiful, deferential,” etc.
One can argue about the biblical context, but it’s hard to get away from such quotes as, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands . . . for the husband is the head of the wife.” That seems pretty clear-cut.
Not that it’s going to matter in the end. Bachmann’s chances of actually becoming the next president? I’d say it’s 30-1 against. Iowa straw poll aside, Rick Perry has the best chance of making a serious run at Mitt Romney. (When did the Iowa straw poll become such a national event, anyway, and how do we put an end to that?) A new Rasmussen Poll of likely GOP primary voters has Perry leading with 29 percent, with Bachmann a distant fourth with just 13 percent.
Like Sarah Palin, Bachmann loves needling the mainstream press and playing the part of the rock star who refuses to do things the traditional way. Yet it’s that very attitude — and yes, the fact that both are attractive women — that makes them such intriguing subject matter for the very “lamestream” media for which they have such supposed disdain. It just might be that both Palin and Bachmann are bigger stars and bigger players in the media than they are on the Republican depth chart.
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