President-elect Barack Obama said that Democrats and Republicans need to act with urgency to address the “great and growing” economic crisis, warning of double-digit unemployment if swift action isn’t taken.
“These are America’s problems, and we must come together as Americans to meet them with the urgency this moment demands,” he said today in his weekly radio address. “If we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.”
Yes, conservatives should all rally behind Obama…just the way the Democrats rallied behind President Bush. The Republican minority should give just as much support to Obama as the Democrats in the Senate gave Bush. Every judicial appointment should be subjected to the exact same kind of scrutiny. By all means, there should be fairness and balance…just as the Democrats were fair and balanced.
There should be no problem with that, right? The Republicans should rise to the same level as the Democrats did.
I don’t think Republicans should oppose Obama simply out of tit-for-tat partisanship, but neither do I think they should be rubber-stamping trillion-dollar boondoggles. There will be plenty of reason to oppose Obama on reasonable grounds.
Gee, are you implying that the Democrats engaged in “tit-for-tat partisanship”? No. That could not be. The same goes for opposing President Bush. Surely, the only opposition was completely “on reasonable grounds”. I am just suggesting that the Republicans treat the Democrats with the exact same fairness and courtesy that the Democrats treated the Republicans with.
What could be more fair or uplifting? The Democrats were all sweetness and light, right?
Sick and tired: because the Republicans are no better, right?
Actually, I am far more disappointed with the Republicans than I am with the Democrats.
The Democrats have behaved during the Bush presidency exactly as I would have expected.
No, I think the Republicans should learn from the Democrats and do exactly the same sort of things that the Democrats were doing all through the Bush administration. The Republicans should give Obama the same amount of time the same chances that were given to the Bush administration. They should follow the model of how the Democrats behaved to the proverbial “T”.
No, I think we should do better. I am prepared to oppose Democratic policies I disagree with and think are bad for the country, whether they come from Obama or Congress.
I’m not going to indulge in the personal invective and unsubstantiated character assassination of which we’ve seen so much directed at Bush in the past eight years. We should not substitute Obama Derangement Syndrome for the outgoing (I hope) Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Katherine is right. There is a good reason the past Congress is the msot despised in history. But for better behavior, we need better people. Do we have them?
Katherine,
Whatever can you mean? The Democrats treated Bush with complete fairness. They put aside partisanship during a time of war and never played politics. They became so virtuous that we now have a new political messiah, the annointed one. With only half a term in the senate and community organizing skills, he is prepared to lead us through the Global War on Terror and the worst economic down turn since the Great Depression.
I still maintain, the Republicans should be just as kind and just as helpful and nonpartisan as the Democrats have been for the past 8 years. What could be more fair? As long as we mean well, it doesn’t really matter what the actual outcome is, does it?
The Republicans should take their cues from folks like Harry Reed and as soon as Obama takes office announce that we lost the war. Republicans should give the new administration about 3 months and then declare that their economic recovery package has failed. When Obama fails to immediately pull the troops out of Iraq and when Obama moves to carry on the war in Afghanistan, we should start cranking out the “Obama lied, kids died” rhetoric. Let’s face it, if Obama doesn’t immediately pull out of Iraq, we all know that he was bought by [b]BIG OIL[/b] (oooh, it gives me the shivers). When kids still graduate this June that can’t read their diplomas, we all know that Obama and company just don’t care about children and want them all to fail.
I could go on and on about the fair treatment the Democrats gave the Republican administration during a time of war; about how nonpartisan they really were. The sad thing is…American’s seem to have loved it. The Democrats won by a clean sweep. So, give the people what they want. Republicans should treat the Democrats EXACTLY as they were treated.
No, azusa, I don’t think we have a better Congress, although that’s hard to say until they do something. I just don’t want to go off the deep end on partisan ugliness just because this has been traded back and forth over the past few years. The sight of millions of theoretical adults pointing fingers and shouting, “They started it!” is not appetizing.
I’ll be writing letters to Congress and the White House the moment they begin to do something I think is foolish, wasteful or dangerous. According to the campaign promises, that shouldn’t take too long, but again, I’ll wait until the problems materialize rather than shooting first. At this point we can still hope.
I’m with Jeffersonian on this. I suspect that I and most like-minded conservatives will have abundant reasons based on specific policy proposals and broader political philosophy points to oppose BO and the Dems in Congress. I AM willing to support him on issues where he’s willing to work with the GOP and truly walk his talk on bipartisanship, though I have little illusions that this will come to pass. The Republican minority needs to have a “come to Jesus” experience, and work to be a smart, principled, conservative opposing voice to the almost-inevitable liberal excess that will emanate from the minds of Reid, Pelosi, Waxman, et al.
It doesn’t matter.
No matter WHY the Republicans oppose Democrat policies, it will be branded as partisanship and supposed retaliation for ‘imagined’ Dem treatment of President Bush.
It is the way the Democrats play politics.
I hope that no one will say about Obama “he’s not MY president.” I hope no one will have bumper stickers apologisint to the world for electing Obama. Many on the Far Left, calling in to Talk Radio and writing letters to the newspaper, purported to believe that, in case of an Obama victory, the Bush “regime” would attempt a putsch using as an excuse national security. I believe that the fact that this hasn’t happened has actually disappointed some of those people.