Rahmbo Pledges Bipartisan Approach

Well said>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Obama once said “I know what I can do and what I can’t do. I know what I know and what I don’t know”. He is smart enough to know that he needs a bulldog to help face down those ideologues among the republicans who only see things in black and white in a complex world. Good start I say.

“Rhambo?” Why does the press have to commercialize every fact such that it panders to people who read tabloids? It’s such a pathetically obvious nick name too. Now I get to spend the next four years hearing about “Rhambo.” I’m already sick of it!

GOP whiners should first look at themselves, how they behaved in the six years when they had the White House and both chambers of Congress. Instead of whining about what Emanuel MIGHT do, they should instead focus on two things. First they should have a long period of repentence–that’s a Biblical term in their own language–for what they’ve done to this country in a grossly non-bipartisan manner. Second, they should change their ways and THEY THEMSELVES should conduct business in a bipartisan way going forward instead of trying to fight Emanuel or derail Obama’s electoral mandate to save this country from their horrible mismanagement. Stop whining, GOP, start cooperating. I’m an Independent, and that’s how I see it.

I think Rham is an excellent choice for chief of staff.
Now that enough citizens (finally) became disgusted with the policies of the Bush administration and voted for change . . .
. . . change will come. It remains to be seen what, exactly, these changes bring about.
Perhaps the best part of the “Bush Legacy” will be the election of Obama, and the resulting changes.

This talk of a bipartisan approach is all Sunday morning talk show blather. The Obama admistration will try to get through as much of its agenda as it can without relying on Republican support. The Republicans, meanwhile, will try to block as much of it as possible. The two sides will come together when it is in each ones own interest.
This is not rocket science, folks. This is conducting the nation’s business. And until somebody can come up with something better (all or nothing poker games?) this is the way it shall be.

Tagging Mr. Emanuel with the nick-name ‘Rahmbo’ is, at the very least, demeaning in context and intent unworthy of a professional news organization. Rather than using hyperbole to snag the attention of readers and viewers (as well as advertising dollars), I would like to suggest that all news organizations shift to a more respectful use of language when referencing all people.

Methinks that Mr. Tapper owes Mr. Emanual an apology for the “Rahmbo” headline. It’s time to put an end to the republican smears and name calling. The rhetoric of guys like Hannity, Limbaugh, Oreilly is so passe. America has moved on.

They’re already setting the message for their media toadies to push.
They’ll pass some far-left 80% tax on white people at 3AM, and the MSM flunkies will swoon at how “bi-partisan” it was.
Posted by: Concerned in OH | Nov 9, 2008 12:03:03 PM
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You are so right on!! Thought his platform was for “change”. Where is the change; sounds like his staff will be from all the former adms. and especially the Clinton’s. They were real good at “covering up and not remembering”.

This “new” Chief of Staff is a former Wall Street gazillionaire and is implicated in the mortgage scandal, too, by virtue of his service on the BOARD at Freddie Mac. My vote for Obama was wasted and I regret voting for him. I should have voted for Nader. Obama, unless he comes out with some DRAMATIC pronouncements “soon” appears destined to lead us down the same worn out path that was followed by the outgoing representatives of the capitalist leeches. No kidding: the appointments and associations thus far clearly indicate Obama that doesn’t have even a remote clue as to how to RE-STRUCTURE AND THUS REPAIR the U.S. economy.

To be fair, I don’t think Jake’s “Rahmbo” comment is anything but an attempt to be overly-clever. I’m not really sure when it became “cute” in our culture to make fun of people’s names, but it seems we will have to put up with it for awhile longer.

“Rahmbo” is a nickname he’s had for a while. I find it comical that people are commenting on something they know do little about. He’s known for getting things done, and for his strongly centrist views. He was a brilliant pick. It’s curious to me that there are still right wing crazies out there who can’t see that the rest of our nation, republican and democrat alike, want to support our new president and actually get things done.

Joe,
what are you talking about?
Bush has already tanked the economy.

I don’t really care much about what Emmanuel has none in the past. This isn’t his administration. Obama has chosen him because he believes he can help him carry out his vision. It will be Obama’s policies and Obama’s priorities. Rahm is supposed to be the watchdog who helps get things done. He does have that reputation.

Sorry, Ken. But, I am not buying it. Though I am well aware that “Rahmbo” was a nickname that Mr. Emanuel has had for quite some time, I still do not think that it is appropriate to use it in a news headline. I too think that Rahm Emanuel is an excellent choice. So, lets all show a little respect by not using nicknames to refer to someone who will hold an extrememly important office. If we are going to move forward in the spirit of bipartisan brotherly love, then it is important for us to point out the subtle attempts at divisional propoganda that have become the daily fodder of the rightwing news outlets.

I think the BO administration should make it a top priority to hold congressional hearings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I’m sure Pelosi, Reid, Rahm Emanuel, Obama, ACORN, Schumer, Dodd, Frank, Biden, Rangel, Clinton, Waters, Meeks, etc. are very eager to uncover the true culprits in the mortgage meltdown.

“Rahmbo” is a kick ass nickname, hardly insulting. I have a hunch the folks condemning use of the nickname are ultraconservative scaredee cats about to see what they have not been able to accomplish go down the toilet.

How many times does George have to ask Rahm a question before he will aanswer it? I thought we were going to get an administration who answered questions straight from the hip instead of that political run around speak. yawn. If I donated hundreds of dollars and hours of my time to elect the same old politics of the past, I’m going to be very disappointed. Just answer the damn questions direct please and stop dancing. We hate that game.

Obama promised me 1000 dollars a year from the government if he won the election.
I am here to collect on his promise to me and all the working people in the country he made this promise to.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill was the mastermind behind NATO which destroyed so many union jobs. So much for Obama and his Union backpedaling
Posted by: Dee Dee Lynn | Nov 9, 2008 1:56:18 PM
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NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
How did this treaty destroy union jobs?

ziadora
I take it you voted for Obama. Obama preached that NATO destroyed Union Jobs to win votes in Union rich states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“You Go Rahm Emanuel!” I love it. One fantastic thing about the Obama Presidency will be since President Bush made such a real huge mess of things it will be easy to see the changes as they occur; as they will indeed be … stark. Stark in comparison.
Wonder what the mad republicans will say as they see this. Can’t wait for Jan 20th, you can count on seeing President Obama in action on day one.

At least perhaps Rahm Emanuel can bring his three kids to work in the White House, where he will spend a LOT of time. Then the Emanuel kids and the Obama kids will have playmates in the White House.

Rahm looks more innocent than before… He has no more sting in his eyes… Anybody noticed?

We (Republicans) do not whine about Emanuel Rahm. Obama couldn’t have chose a better man for the job. Another Karl Rove. Former Director of Freddie Mac. Who tanked the mortage industry. Love it. Keep comin’ Democrats. Also strip Lieberman of his chairmanship and put on his place a loyal aparatchik like Meeks, Cohn, Frank or maybe Jesse Jackson Jr. himself.

Oz, why is it that the so-called poor can afford to pay $3,000 for some rims but now can’t afford to feed their 6 children?

toby hill
- from 2000 until Jan. 2007 the Republicans had control over the government,…along with Bush’s signing statements they basically did whatever they wanted. Dems were minority party.
I don’t expect Republicans to do anything positive to make the country better, they will look to win elections…like they always do,.. they aren’t really concerned with governing,…only winning.
It took a far right ‘Neo-con conservative republican’ administration to get us pretty much where we are………
Only seems fair to see if a ‘leftist progressive socialistic liberal’ administration can get us out the mess we find ourselves in today.
and, just in case republicans don’t get it yet, the country voted you out…. democracy at work,…..OK, I know you guys don’t really believe in democracy…but there might be a few of you left that do…..

toby hill
re: ‘It’s going to be a short 4 years. ‘
….not for you
re: Jimmy Carter
too bad no one listened to him !
“Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.
We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.
The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation’s independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil that it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every nine months, or a new Saudi Arabia every three years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
Unless we act, we will spend more than $550 billion for imported oil by 1985 —more than $2,500 a year for every man, woman, and child in America. Along with that money we will continue losing American jobs and becoming increasingly vulnerable to supply interruptions.
we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.

Yeah Blue, instead the Bush family got in bed with the Saudi’s and any other oil-rich dictatorship – depending on which way the wind was blowing.

‘joe’
curious how ‘the right’ Repubs/Conservs
were ‘small government’ and ‘laissez faire economy’ until they needed the government to ‘intervene’ and save their buddies by bailing them out with tax payer money…
also curious how incredible sums of money are given away to business , but, somehow health care reform is out of the question as a ‘too costly government run’ intervention.
“Why is it that when the wealthy use their wealth and influence to lobby for laws that favor themselves, that’s to be expected – but when the rest of us propose laws that favor the great majority of Americans Dems are accused of “class warfare”?
We have been in a vicious cycle whereby the wealthy, with their money and power, exercise a disproportionate role over our political process.
The principal reason to reform American health care is simply that it would improve the quality of life for most Americans…
There is, however, another important reason for health care reform. It’s the same reason movement conservatives were so anxious to kill Clinton’s plan.
That plan’s success, said William Kristol, “would signal the rebirth of centralized welfare-state policy”
– by which he really meant that universal health care would give new life to the New Deal idea that society should help its less fortunate members. Indeed it would – and that’s a big argument in its favor…
Getting universal care should be the key domestic priority for modern liberals. Once they succeed there, they can turn to the broader, more difficult task of reining in American inequality.

==Michelle, you (and all the other ignorant Republicans) ought to spend about 5 minutes studying the mortgage crisis: Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac do not originate mortgages, and never have.
=======
You are correct. 5 minutes is enough time to do the research to figure out that the dems are in this mess up to their eyeballs.
Fannie and Freddie didn’t make the loans but they “guaranteed” them by buying them from local banks. The local banks relaxed their credit standards and then sold the loans to the GSE’s with little or no risk.
The GSE’s then packaged them up, got AAA ratings from their buddies at the credit rating agencies and sold them to Wall Street banks. The Wall Street banks then sold them to individuals, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc. The Wall Street Banks used AIG to insure these products and make them appear even more “riskless” since AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Bear, Lehman etc were all “too big to fail”.
The republicans recognized that Fannie and Freddie posed a threat to the overall financial system and made numerous attempts to reform the GSE’s. The democrats in the congress (Frank, Dodd, Waters, Schumer, Meeks, etc) resisted every attempt by the republicans to rein them in.
Where did you do your research that showed that this was the republicans fault?

Hemmoroid or toothache which is Emanuel? some DEMS say both!

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill was the mastermind behind NAFTA which destroyed so many union jobs. So much for Obama and his Union backpedaling or should we say Union backstabber.

“Getting universal care should be the key domestic policy . . .”
Hillary Clinton’s plan was truly universal because like social security, everyone would pay into it and in turn be provided with health care. I’m not sure how to define Obama’s plan, which definitely falls short of the universal and has a number of options.

Clinton’s plan wasn’t universal health care, it was universal health insurance. Health insurance is not the solution to the health care crisis, it is the problem. Neither Clinton nor Obama has presented a plan that deals with this problem.
The American people favor universal health care. There is only one realistic way of getting there. We must eliminate the health insurance industry as a first step. They are the greatest parasite on our society and are dragging us down. Second, we must establish scholarships and new schools to insure that any qualified high school grad who wants a career in medicine is able to get a first rate education, free of charge if necessary.
We all know what the solutions are. The question is can we shake up Washington to the point that they are forced to accept them?>

Dee Dee Lynn,
I was going to take back alot that I said about Rahm, since it appears from this interview that he is willing to subordinate his views on trade agreements to Obama’s priorities, as he should.
Then I thought to myself, why is Steph even bringing up Columbia to begin with? Where did he come up with the idea of tying it to the stimulus package?
Given Emanuel’s backstabbing history, it wouldn’t surprise me if he told Steph to bring it up so he could have it floated as a trial balloon.
Can’t trust this guy.

==why didn’t the Republicans do it when they had control of the White House, the Congress and the Senate for SIX YEARS?
=====
in 2005 the Senate Banking committee, which was controlled by the GOP, passed a bill (I think it was S190) along a party line vote. All 11 republicans on the committee voted to pass and all 9 dems opposed.
Since the bill to reform fannie and freddie and appoint a new regulator had no democrat support it was never brought to the floor for vote in the Senate. 60 votes would have been needed to pass the bill through the Senate and since there was no democrat support and the republicans didn’t have the 60 required votes the bill would have been filibustered.

Blue,
So you don’t require sound fiscal principles before you call a program a success.
Head Start has plenty of detractors.
SCHIP is miniscule.
The VA? Really? I’ll give you the GI Bill. But the VA? Seen some of their hospitals have you?

Foghorn not that it matters, but I generally don’t trust politicians at all, especially after what we’ve seen the past 8 years.

Jake, thanks for including the video — an interesting interview. Clearly, we can all look forward to an aggressive, vigorous Administration dedicated to leading the way to changes to rebuild the nation.

The American people favor universal healthcare. There is only one way of getting there. We must eliminate the health insurance industry . . .
Canada’s system is based on both compulsory taxation and health insurance, like countries in the European Union. Most of us will be relieved with more affordable and accessible healthcare, whatever it’s called.

It appears that there are a lot of people in favor of a socialist Government… well I’m having a great life without big Daddy Government bottle feeding me… just get your sticky fingers out of my wallet……..Anybody ever read the Redbook by Mao Se Tung….. socialism here we come…..

Kat, so you really want a health care system like that one they have in Canada? I hope you are healthy and never need a doctor!!
Are you aware that the founder of the Canadian health care system, Claude Castonguay, recently stated: “We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice.” And he is now urging for the legalization of private health insurance. That’s because Canada’s health care system is broken. There is a report that several towns are starting to follow Norwalk, Ontario’s lead in holding lotteries where the prize is an appointment with the local doctor.
Things are so bad that the Canadian Parliament passed a low that requires that the emergency rooms see their patients within four hours. The catch is the clock doesn’t start running until you are actually in the waiting room. So frequently there are ambulances with patients waiting outside for hours. That means these ambulances are out of service for hours and unable to respond to new emergency calls.

Kat,
The countries of the EU each have there own individual plans. Germany is different from France. Yes, there is health insurance for all, but in Germany for instance, they still use private insurance companies to administer the benefits. And not everybody gets the general health insurance plan from the State. It’s means tested and after a certain income level, you must purchase private insurance. But, you must still contribute a portion to the general insurance fund plus taxes plus social security. It ends up being quite a lot of money deducted form your monthly salary. There are no free lunches, even in Europe.

Bob Long wrote: “…just ask any Canadian, ANY Canadian I repeat, if they would change their system for ours.”
If that is true, then why do so many Canadians cross the border and pay cash for medical care here in the US?

Foggy:
re: “The VA? Really? I’ll give you the GI Bill. But the VA? Seen some of their hospitals have you?”
-actually, I have,.. my next door neighbor, an amazing sweet old guy was a VET who served WW2 in the South Pacific, needed help every now and then to get to the VA hospital……. and I would help him out.
He never spoke of his service much, but when he did, it was amazing what he went through.
Some care….. is better than NO care. Government talks a good story about taking care of the VETS….too bad their rhetoric doesn’t match reality on this issue.
Health care should not be a commodity..
I don’t have all the answers, maybe no one does, but, health care should be a right of all Americans…..
think about all the money that’s used for the recent ‘bailouts’, the one that’s coming for the car Cos, the money spent by both parties for campaigning and by the ’527′s, and on and on…
yet…… there’s no money for a solid universal health care plan

Great!

Obama is our first affirmative action President, (see what happens people when you let people have jobs they havent earned)he never would of won this if he wasn’t half black, but now that he is almost president I’m happy and here is why?
The Messiah is about to part the waters and heal the planet. So who cares if we run out of Oil he is the MESIAH, he can turn water to Oil.
Also he will use his majic telaprompter to force are enimies to fall in line and become our friends.
I’m glad Obama is president, now I can be a lazy citizen and collect money from the people that actually work for it. YES Mesiah this is a great day in American history.

As a Democrat, I couldn’t be happier that the right is still mired in the kind of stuff I see in this thread.
What some of you fail to grasp is that the country’s had enough divisiveness, paranoia, distortions and distractions, e.g., they’ll “pass some 80% tax on white people at 3 AM.” If you really believe that, you need to get out more.
240,000 more people lost their jobs last month. People want solutions not paranoid rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and talk about who’s a “real American.” The Republican Party has been relying on feral rhetoric rather than solutions for the past several years. Unless they shift into forward gear, they’ll remain a rural, southern, and over-65 party.

They will try the bipartisan approach until the first time it doesn’t serve their own interests. Then it’s back to Washington politics as usual. Happens every time.

Pledges of bipartisanship from any politician are nothing more than window dressing for the masses.

Morning, James -
Obama has consistently advocated merit pay for teachers and getting rid of teachers who aren’t hacking it. This has hardly endeared him to teachers unions.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for the dismal state of education in this country including parents, teachers, inequitable school funding, and nonsensical programs like “No Child Left Behind” which are teaching children to take tests rather than learn.

I am like others here I think we need term limits. Whether republican or democrat having ANYONE in the same office for 20-30 years is stupid.
That amount of time does not allow for much change as times change and I think our design without term limits is to blame for some of our issues.
Most people who work for the public I think have good hearts and goodwill but over 20-30 yrs people get into routine and we need to adjust to the times.

Obama is on target. Choosing experienced people who know how to win, and who know how to avoid failure is great for us all.The amount of debries of uncertainty left by Bush adm requires quick responses to mend our economy, restore calmness to the market, failing companies, decaying infra structure, etc. Please stand with Obama.

It won’t matter how much effort is made to stay center for the Obama administration; the GOP will attack them at every opportunity because that is the Republican way. Never mind that the country needs unity like never before, our friends on the other side of the aisle will embrace obstructionist tactics on productive legislation in order to keep Congress and the president from accomplishing anything remotely like actual progress.

Dan, in our system of government, the losing party does not just give up their ideology and convictions and just kowtow to the victors. The Republican senators and Republican representatives still have constituents who expect them to represent their ideology. So if a bill is being considered that goes against that ideology and/or convictions, yes they will obstruct with every tool available. This is nothing new. The Democrats have used this quite effectively when they were in the minority. That is what the minority party does.

Emanuel can pledge all the bipartisanship he wants, but you would have to be an idiot to think he actually believes it. Obama, Emanuel and the rest of the leftist cronies in his cabinet will be anything but bipartisan.

George, please do not invite Representative Emanuel back to This Week unless he first agrees to answer your questions. I don’t think he answered a single one. I was so frustrated, I couldn’t even watch anymore. Please spare us an future “non-answers.”

Emanuel preaching bipartisanship is like Bill Clinton preaching faithfulness in a relationship. Obama and his leftist illuminati cabinet will say one thing and do another.