Here’s someone named Steven G. Brant whining at the Huffington Post this morning:
In Dealing With Blackmailers, We Can Help You, Mr. President
Mr. President, last night you admitted to being forced by the Republicans to accept another two years of the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy even though you know those tax cuts aren’t fair morally and aren’t sound economically. All this so you could get 13 months worth of unemployment insurance for those who still can’t find a job (because there are no jobs to be found) and to continue the tax cuts for everyone in America who isn’t wealthy and supposedly really needs them.
Mr. President, you were blackmailed. You were blackmailed by a party that is holding hostage the economic well-being of every American who needs help to get through what is still a brutal, deeply felt economic crisis…
Mr. President, it has been long-standing American policy not to negotiate with hostage-takers. The obvious reason is that if you give in to their demands, you show them that their tactics work. And that guarantees that they will try those or other criminal tactics in the future.
Yet, you violated that policy in allowing the Republicans to win. You violated that policy by giving in to their demands.
Here’s President Obama this afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkD3ffY7WOw“It’s tempting not to negoitate with hostage takers unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”
Silly Obama. Everybody knows that the reason you’re getting your ass kicked is because you’re not far enough to the left. Everybody knows the rich must be punished. How dare you cooperate with these obstructionists? How can we have bipartisanship if you let the other side get something they want? Also: Waaaaaaaahhh!
P.S. Peter Wehner: “Mr. Obama has mastered the ability to look both unprincipled and graceless at the same time… It’s not clear to me how referring to a party that just smashed your own in an epic midterm election as ‘hostage takers’ is going to help Mr. Obama either win back independents or appear as ‘the last reasonable man in a sharply partisan Washington.'”
P.P.S. Bryan Preston: “This may be the worst presidential press conference I’ve seen since Bill Clinton denied ‘that woman.'”