Quote Of The Day – Winners And Losers
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Democrats, Quotes, Republicans
“So the stimulus was a political gamble for the White House. But ask yourself what you’d rather inherit: a booming economy that could go nowhere but down, or a struggling economy that could — and we stress “could†— go nowhere but up by 2010?”
- MSNBC’s First Read on the stimulus package
Here are their winners and losers of the week…
The obvious winner here, of course, is Obama, who will get the first big victory of his four-week-old presidency. Other winners are Collins/Snowe/Specter (who proved that they will control what passes in the 111th Congress), Harry Reid (who got the 60-plus votes he needed), Joe Lieberman (who helped behind the scenes with Collins), White House aide Phil Schiliro (who played an unsung role on the Hill), the Republican Party (which demonstrated unity after its big losses in November), and No.2 House Republican Eric Cantor (who raised his profile during the debate, although he took a BIG hit yesterday for that profane AFSCME video his office released).The losers, in our opinion, are Nancy Pelosi (some House priorities lost out in the end) and governors (who didn’t get all the money they wanted and will have to make some tough cuts before a re-election year).
I agree that Pelosi is a loser in all of this. She came off sounding shrill and uncooperative, while Reid played the dealmaker. The Obama White House may be gunning to get her out of that leadership position in the not too distant future, but that’s a very difficult thing to do.
Still, don’t be surprised if it happens.
However, I think the press is WAY too close to the beltway when they say the Republicans are winners.
In poll after poll after poll, Americans disapprove of the way that Repubs aren’t playing nice with Obama. Sure, they might not be overjoyed by the stimulus package, but they don’t see the Republicans offering any realistic alternatives. So the reality is that they’re looking increasingly like the “Party of No” to those outside DC. Whether that’s a fair assessment or not is certainly up for debate, but there it is nonetheless.
Your thoughts?
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 and is filed under Barack, Democrats, Quotes, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Senators, Snowe, Collins, and Specter, are the only true Repblican Senators left in Senate. The other are Social Republicans, old dixiecrats, they spend like the old southern democrats, who they really are, and want to tell you how to live your life and vote against the opposition no matter what is at steak. My hat is off to the brave three true republicans.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I agree that Pelosi came out badly in this and I think that given the large majority the Dems have in the House that she will continue to be marginalized in conference committees. It would be a difficult task to get her out of her leadership position and I don’t know how much support there would be behind Steny Hoyer.
However I think the Republicans came out OK, but not great. First they proved they wouldn’t be steamrolled. They got some concessions from Obama but they didn’t prevent the stimulus from being passed so they can’t be blamed. On the down side they came across as a group that missed the forest for the trees and appeared out of touch with average Americans. The good news is that TARP-II will be a much easier target when any legislation come up for that.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
My thoughts are that there’s a new quote of the day now.
Judd Gregg, upon withdrawing as Obama’s commerce secretary nominee.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Why would Obama try to depose Nancy Pelosi? The House did exactly what Obama wanted. As did Nancy Pelosi. Even her ’shrillness’ suits him. You know those plans people had to cut taxes? There’s no way those get a vote in Pelosi’s house, which means that those schemes are wastes of paper. The only stimulus plan that matters is the one Obama wrote, because that’s the only one that’s gonna get anywhere in the House.
Even if he was angry with Pelosi he wouldn’t try to get her ousted. Thast would annoy women’s groups, and most members of Congress too. He’d try to isolate her. Speaker Hastert had very little actual power, so it it possible to isolate a Speaker completely.
BTW, have you noticed the evolution of the plan’s price? In December it was supposed to be about $800 Billion. The House voted for an $820 Billion package in late January. The ‘moderate’ Senate package was $838 Billion. The final Bill is $789 Billion. It looks like our boy Barack played everybody perfectly, and ended up with exactly what he wanted in the first place.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
One interesting aspect to the “Winner/Loser” question is that of bipartisanship. Ultimately, it has ended up a loser in this entire process. Yet, there are many “winners” in this bill as well–namely: homeowners, college students, the unemployed, energy independence. I watched an interesting video that summarizes many different viewpoints on this question at newsy.com. It’s worth watching:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/u_s_winners_losers/