Barack Obama Quotes
Every decision, every debate, no matter how important it is, with the same question: 'What does this mean for the next election? What does it mean for your poll numbers? Is this good for the Democrats or good for the Republicans? Who won the news cycle?' That's just how Washington is. They can't help it. They're obsessed with the sport of politics.
Obama, Barack. "Remarks by the President at a Campaign Rally." Obama White House Archives, 2008.
Actually, the insistence on 60 days had nothing to do with having time of members of Congress to study the treaty and make up their minds. It was intended by the opponents of the treaty to give them time to whip up public opinion so such a degree that it might derail the treaty. But if they said that, and the President said, "No", they would lose. But couched this way, if the President refused, they could say that the President and supporters of the treaty were afraid that the public and the press as well as they would have the time to see the weaknesses and just wanted to "ram" the treaty through. So they either get the time or they create suspicion of the treaty in many minds. Unfortunately, what is good politics is often hypocritical and frequently intellectually dishonest.
Hanna, managing William McKinley’s Presidential Campaign against William Jennings Bryan, outspent is opponents by a factor of ten to one. Few understood that at the time or the profound effect that money could play in national politics. Hanna was a political strategist far ahead of his time.
Congress at that time had about a 12 percent public approval rating. Other emergency disaster appropriations had been made in previous years in days or weeks, but the aid for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut had been voted by the Democratic-controlled Senate but not in the Republican controlled House. The Republican House leadership had planned a vote after the Fiscal Cliff vote the previous evening before the end of the Congressional term. Then the speaker cancelled the vote infuriating Christie and many of the members of Congress. His reason was that there was opposition from the Tea Party Conservative wing of his own party who had just been badly beaten on the fiscal cliff legislation, and the Speaker was up for reelection by his own party caucus the following day. If the vote had proceeded, it would have passed with Democratic and some Republican support but with the opposition of the conservative wing some of whom noted that the states seeking the emergency aid had just recently voted for President Obama and they were opposed to more federal spending despite the fact that emergency aid had never before been subjected to such partisan criteria. After much pressure, the Speaker then committed to an up or down vote in the following Congress to the chagrin of some of the Tea Party members. Governor Christie, much admired for his commitment to his state and not politicking was his candid self but he did not even go as far as Republican Congressman Peter King {630995}.
In a zero sum system whenever one party gains, the other must lose, and if one loses, the other has a corresponding gain. At other times, legislation was not a zero sum game. Many Congressmen believed that if good legislation would be passed, BOTH parties would benefit as would the country. If poor or no legislation were passed, that would be bad for all.
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
