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Lawrence O’Donnell: GOP & Tea Party Gave Obama Gift Of Being Absurdly Unreasonable

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» 72 comments

Despite an earlier discussion on Morning Joe that President Obama was “invisible” and not tough enough in negotiating with Tea Party Republicans, Lawrence O’Donnell stopped by to try and convince Joe Scarborough and The New York Times that Obama is actually doing everything correct right now. O’Donnell argued that Obama is “absolutely winning the perception that he is the one who is reasonable.”

O’Donnell believed that the Obama White House is engaged in some very smart, long-term political thinking:

“The New York Times doesn’t get it . . . no one gets it in the daily press because they think every day is real. They don’t understand this is a fake day. . . . It’s the management of a disaster . . . this is one of those things where we all look bad and so what the White House has done masterfully is try to make sure their guy doesn’t look as bad as the other guys. And what the Tea Party and what the Republicans have done is given them this gift of being absurdly unreasonable.”

John Heileman agreed that with the narrative of this story shifting so drastically every day, it’s hard to conclude any one is a winner or loser politically until a few months from now. Yet O’Donnell was most pleased that Obama actually didn’t accept any of the previous deals on the table, since each were filled with “political poison” that would have been much worse for the President. Instead, by continuing to suggest he’s willing to compromise, O’Donnell predicts Obama is scoring points with independent voters.

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

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  • Anonymous

    Did he play the 14th amendment card? No time to waste watching a vile liberal trying to explain something in his head.
    Has lil Larry looked at Obamas polls?

    “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday
    shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that
    Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent
    (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index
    rating of -1″

    Worse yet, only 17% of likely voters think the Country his headed in the right direction…hmmm, I wonder who those 17%ers are??

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWVKX2P2QBPQ6FHQHCHVIC2ALQ Fedup in Florida

    I am sure that O’Donnell also thinks that Sharpton was a reasonable choice to host a new program on MSNBC.

  • SAWB

    Larry seems to be blowing smoke up Joe…  Obama is not winning any position with the people.  Everyone sees that he has no plan other than to be the President of NO.  He is not the President with answers or a clear way out of this mess.  Obama just wants to keep digging a deeper hole and maybe he will pop out in China where everything is better in his view.

  • Harry Flashman

    MSNBC, the Obama Bootlicker Network.

    That whole bunch will need to be put on suicide watch when Obama is given the heave-ho in 2012.

  • Anonymous

    “O’Donnell argued that Obama is “absolutely winning the perception that he is the one who is reasonable.”

    Obama is winning that perception in the O’Donnell house . Only .

  • http://twitter.com/Good_Lt Good Lt.

    Harry Reid has announced, along with the Obama White House, that they REFUSE to pass anything the GOP sends them from the House.

    Who’s obstructing again? The Democrats.

  • Anonymous

    @JoeNBCJoe Scarborough Do you agree with Lawrence O’Donnell that the President killed the ‘Grand Bargain’ with Republicans by using a bait and switch strategy?

  • Michelle

    LOD, if Obama is winning, why is his approval at an all time low?  You’d think it would be going up.  Nice try!

  • Michelle

    Yeah, they love Socialists in the O’Donnell house!!

  • Moderate

    Obama is running for reelection and does not want to be associated with any cuts in spending. He knows that it is essential but he wants to blame the Republicans for any cuts.

  • Anonymous

    O’Donnell argued that Obama is “absolutely winning the perception that he is the one who is….
     reasonable… By “punishing his enemies.”
     a genius… By not releasing his academic record.
     color blind… By saying “typical white person”
     for raising the debt limit… By actually calling it irresponsible in 2006.
     

    Fill in the blank Larry, and feel free to add anything you want to, facts be damned.
    You perception is not reality. Like your network is not real.

  • Anonymous

    Here’s a great interview with Langone, he touches on Obama being in campaign mode.
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/43924372

  • Exgoper

    The polls bear O’Donnell out. The vast majority of Americans want a balanced and reasonable approach to solving the debt ceiling crisis, and that means spending cuts AND revenue increases.

    You don’t have to be a math whiz or a political scientist to see that Obama is winning the messaging war on this one.

  • realheadline

    “Absurdly unreasonable” is a term usually applied, and more appropriately applied, to socialists. Hey Lawarence…….you know anybody that’s a self-described socialist? What was the dream of your father, Lawerence, was it radical Marxism like Obama’s father. Birds of a feather…..

  • Anonymous

    Is it a surprised that the ‘Hobbits’ as John McCain and WJ called them would take the baits. What a surprise. 

  • Howard

    That’s just fact-free nonsense. Obama has proposed billions in spending cuts.

    Do your parents not let you watch TV?

  • Anonymous

    Leftist media hacks are feverishly trying to ‘justify their buying decisions.’ They are pounding the airwaves, screaming, ‘See!?! Obamo really IS a savior!!!” Of course, they are only screaming this to like-minded sycophants…their ‘choir.’ File under ‘wasted energy.’

  • Anonymous

    Capiche!

  • Exgoper

    What you fail to mention is that the Republicans’ poll numbers are much worse than Obama’s. So while confidence in all government institutions has eroded, Obama’s really aren’t all that bad given the state of the affairs right now.

  • Harry Flashman

    I’m wondering how long it will take for those academic records to be leaked now that Obama is showing himself for the empty suit he is.

    The Guardians of the Holy Papers, the academics who have them and know what’s in them, may decide that a six figure bribe is much more enticing than protecting this vaccuous phony. 

    Where’s Trump and his checkbook when you need him?

  • Anonymous

    The Dems, sure are obstructing, with their refusal to hold a vote or even consider it…….AND, so are the Republicans with their out-right-refusal to include tax increases of any kind………………!’with that said, both parties are playing us like a game of  ‘go-fish!’

  • Harry Flashman

    No, you don’t have to be a math whiz. Being delusional would help, though.

  • Michelle

    Obama is losing the next election to an unarmed Republican.  That wouldn’t be happening if he were “winning” this debate. 

  • Ralph-NY

    Do you have a link for what he proposed? How many billions to what programs over how long a period of time?

  • Ralph-NY

    Do you have a link for what he proposed? How many billions to what programs over how long a period of time?

  • Anonymous

    Obama gives the Tea Party and the GOP the gift of simply being absurd.

  • Anonymous

    Obama gives the Tea Party and the GOP the gift of simply being absurd.

  • Michelle

    The latest polls show that if the election were held today Barack
    Obama would lose in a landslide to the Republican nominee. This is a
    very interesting and optimistic find from the National Journal: The National Journal reported:
    President
    Obama’s job approval rating in the latest national polls has been in
    the danger zone, ranging from 42 percent (Gallup) to 47 percent (ABC
    News/Washington Post), with every survey showing him with higher
    unfavorables than favorables. Needless to say, it’s not a good place for
    a president to be, especially since his numbers have worsened over the
    past two months.
    The race for president isn’t a national
    contest. It’s a state-by-state battle to cobble an electoral vote
    majority. So while the national polls are useful in gauging the
    president’s popularity, the more instructive numbers are those from the
    battlegrounds.
    Those polls are even more ominous for the
    president: In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the
    past month, Obama’s support is weak. In most of them, he trails
    Republican front-runner Mitt Romney. For all the talk of a closely
    fought 2012 election, if Obama can’t turn around his fortunes in states
    such as Michigan and New Hampshire, next year’s presidential election
    could end up being a GOP landslide.
    Take Ohio, a
    perennial battleground in which Obama has campaigned more than in any
    other state (outside of the D.C. metropolitan region). Fifty percent of
    Ohio voters now disapprove of his job performance, compared with 46
    percent who approve, according to a Quinnipiac poll conducted from July
    12–18.

    http://politicons.net/gop-to-win-in-a-landslide-as-obama-loses-support-in-key-battleground-states/

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWVKX2P2QBPQ6FHQHCHVIC2ALQ Fedup in Florida

    Republicans have said that they will consider Tax Reform which goes much further to fix many problems than simply raising the rates of a corrupted tax system.

  • Anonymous

    “Sources close to the rating agencies are saying that the White House
    is trying to get the rating agencies to endorse a certain plan. The White House
    is trying to prod the agencies to accept the Reid plan, which gives them
    political cover…”
     

    http://wallstreetpit.com/80330-white-house-prodding-rating-agencies-to-endorse-reid-plan-report

  • Anonymous

    Fact: Those liberal wacko’s can’t blame global warming now! http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

  • realheadline

    Bully and Bribe, it’s the Chicago way!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWVKX2P2QBPQ6FHQHCHVIC2ALQ Fedup in Florida

    Nancy Pelosi has just been quoted as saying;

    “What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget…  We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”

    Nancy, always good for a good laugh.

  • realheadline

    Marxist drama queen.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWVKX2P2QBPQ6FHQHCHVIC2ALQ Fedup in Florida

    Here’s another Fact: The big push on Global warming
    has little to do with weather conditions on the planet, but much more to do
    with defining a future global economy, governance, and redistribution of wealth
    from developed economies to the 3rd world economies in a manner which will
    control the resources and development of those countries. That can be read in
    UN documents as well as cost projections that have been greatly increased from
    original estimates. If you research Agenda 21 and those that have developed the
    UN Agenda 21 you can use their own words to describe their treacherous little
    plan. What is interesting is that yesterday there was much debate on the House regarding
    the Federal funding of the ICLEI initiatives in local communities as well as
    the Dept. of Interior’s ability to bypass congress in changing the designation
    of wilderness areas to wildlands… if you have studied the work that has been
    done surrounding Agenda 21 plan you will know the significance of that designation.

  • Anonymous

    Yea, how amazingly irrational for the tea party to want the government to stop borrowing another $4 billion each day.  Thanks, Larry for pointing this out.  But Larry also needs to tell us about the secret Obama-Reid-Pelosi research program that has demonstrated how to grow money on trees.   Because without an invention of this sort, O’Donnell’s whole commentary (and the Democratic agenda) makes no sense whatsoever.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NWVKX2P2QBPQ6FHQHCHVIC2ALQ Fedup in Florida

    Talk is cheap and that really seems to be all that this president can do.

  • The Dweller Ysul

    Did Colorado Conservative see the clown car that parked on the stage in New Hampshire a few weeks back?  Given the poor state of the economy, Bam Bam’s poll numbers are well nigh miraculous.  It helps, of course, that most of the country regards conservatives as blowhards and nitwits. 

  • Anonymous

    By saying the “The vast majority of Americans…” shows that Exgoper is living in Larryworld throwing out liberal talking points that have him hooked like a fish.

    PRINCETON, NJ — Despite agreement among leaders of both sides of the
    political aisle in Washington that raising the U.S. debt ceiling is
    necessary, more Americans want their member of Congress to vote against
    such a bill than for it, 42% vs. 22%, while one-third are unsure. This
    20-percentage-point edge in opposition to raising the debt ceiling in
    Gallup’s July 7-10 poll is slightly less than the 28-point lead (47% vs.
    19%) seen in May.

    You DO have to be a partisan hack to think o’bama is winning the messaging war on this one… And feel free to do the math there….

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    You must be having doubts, flooding cyberspace with hyena-like shrill posts. Kalm down, Michelle-in-Utah. Pull out a box of Ding Dongs and a 2 liter Mountain Dew and let yourself go. Oh, I forgot. You’re not going anywhere. 

  • Anonymous

    Because evrything on msdnc is “real”? Do your parents let you watch too much TV?

  • Anonymous

    Search for “obama debt plan” and look at all of the non-results, except for Harry Land Deal Reid’s “plan” to shut any bill proposed down…

  • The Dweller Ysul

    Please, Sara, there was no grand bargain. You don’t really buy the transparent lie that Boehner, who today can’t even get his caucus in line for an all-cuts deal, had agreed to $800 billion in revenue enhancements, only to balk at the President’s unrealistic demands for $400 billion more.  I mean, that’s your real hair color, right?

  • Anonymous

    Pablo, here is a TEA Party joke that the lefties here won’t get…

    What do McCain, Angle, and O’Donnell all have in common? They all ran for higher office, and FAILED.

    I cannot wait for “please love me NY Times, I’m a maverick”… McCain to try to run to the right to save his reelection in 5 more years…

  • Anonymous

    Pablo, here is a TEA Party joke that the lefties here won’t get…

    What do McCain, Angle, and O’Donnell all have in common? They all ran for higher office, and FAILED.

    I cannot wait for “please love me NY Times, I’m a maverick”… McCain to try to run to the right to save his reelection in 5 more years…

  • Exgoper

    Let’s see those head-to-head match-up polls. The only Republican that actually beats Obama in any poll is a “generic” Republican. Good luck with finding him or her. Right now the only nominees you actually have to choose from are right wing dingbats.

  • Exgoper

    Let’s see those head-to-head match-up polls. The only Republican that actually beats Obama in any poll is a “generic” Republican. Good luck with finding him or her. Right now the only nominees you actually have to choose from are right wing dingbats.

  • Anonymous

    The TEA Party already knew o’bama was absurd. That’s why they were elected. He didn’t have to “give them that gift”.

  • Anonymous

    The TEA Party already knew o’bama was absurd. That’s why they were elected. He didn’t have to “give them that gift”.

  • Anonymous

    I was happy when the “one” raised his hand and raised the ocean levels. I cannot understand why the messiah won’t wave his glorious, historic hand and wipe out Global Warming. And Global Cooling as was the hype in the 70′s. Or, just simply wave his hand and moderate “Climate Change”

  • Anonymous

    I was happy when the “one” raised his hand and raised the ocean levels. I cannot understand why the messiah won’t wave his glorious, historic hand and wipe out Global Warming. And Global Cooling as was the hype in the 70′s. Or, just simply wave his hand and moderate “Climate Change”

  • Anonymous

    I was happy when the “one” raised his hand and raised the ocean levels. I cannot understand why the messiah won’t wave his glorious, historic hand and wipe out Global Warming. And Global Cooling as was the hype in the 70′s. Or, just simply wave his hand and moderate “Climate Change”

  • Anonymous

    I was happy when the “one” raised his hand and raised the ocean levels. I cannot understand why the messiah won’t wave his glorious, historic hand and wipe out Global Warming. And Global Cooling as was the hype in the 70′s. Or, just simply wave his hand and moderate “Climate Change”

  • Anonymous

    Save life on this planet as we know it today? Like Darfur? Tibet? Somalia? Chad? Sudan? Zimbabwe? The Congo? Haiti?

    Maybe if this botox induced skeleton would stop her party from taxing us to death, we may have some leftover money to be more of a generous Nation that we are….

  • Yukon Jack

    McCain has a big stamp on his forehead, reminiscent of labels placed on supermarket perishables. Anyone with realistic eyes should be able to see: “BEST BEFORE 03-14-1973″.

  • Anonymous

    The NEW NASA: (Think, punish your enemies here. NASA has true climate facts so:
    In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency,
    NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him
    to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study
    science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to
    “reach out to the Muslim world.”  Of those three goals, Bolden said in a
    recent interview with al-Jazeera,
    the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it
    will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific
    accomplishments.

    In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which
    first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching
    beyond low earth orbit without help from other nations.

    Bolden made the statements during a recent trip to the Middle East. 
    He told al-Jazeera that in the wake of the president’s speech in Cairo
    last year, the American space agency is now pursuing “a new beginning of
    the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.” 
    Then:
    Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-s-new-mission-nasa-reach-out-muslim-world#ixzz1TQDMljXt

  • Anonymous

    Crazy Larry just admitted that Obama blew up the Boehner budget jeapordizing America’s solvency solely for the purpose of making Republicans look bad in order to improve his chances for reelection.  Larry do you really think these are admirable qualities?  The American people certainly do not.  You sir, are out of touch with reality.

  • Anonymous

    I keep saying to the right that no matter how bad Obama’s approval rating gets he still fairs better than Republicans by double digits.  His disapproval rating may be 47% but the Republicans disapproval rating is in the 60′s.  Funny they keep forgetting to post all the information.  Guess full disclosure does not work well in the alternate universe they live in.

  • Anonymous

    And he wins by double digits against every Republican when they’re named.  Back to the drawing board for you guys.

  • Anonymous

    What does this have to do with the 3/4ths of Americans who want there to be revenue increases as well as cuts?

  • http://www.sarainitalyblog.blogspot.com/ sarainitaly

    That was a tweet from Joe Scarborough quoting O’Donnell. 

  • Anonymous

    Spending money that one does not have is, by definition, “unreasonable.”  Hence, Lawrence O’Donnell, a proponent of the “unreasonable” cannot accuse another person of being “unreasonable,” and maintain a degree of credibility.

    Such falls into the Orwellian “Double Speak:  Lawrence O’Donnell says: “being unreasonable is reasonable.”

    Furthermore: “The Tea Party is un-reasonably, reasonable.”  Once the nonsense starts, it goes on and on…

    Being a Democrat-Socialist would be such an undignified proposition for me:  I could say anything I want, without responsibility.  The very concept of “fairness” imbued at the childhood playground is rendered a quaint and archaic notion.

    I just can’t be that way.  I am responsible for my actions, I may need help at some time and will ask for it, but, never assume that someone else owes it to me.

    Purveyor

  • Anonymous

    Spending money that one does not have is, by definition, “unreasonable.”  Hence, Lawrence O’Donnell, a proponent of the “unreasonable” cannot accuse another person of being “unreasonable,” and maintain a degree of credibility.

    Such falls into the Orwellian “Double Speak:  Lawrence O’Donnell says: “being unreasonable is reasonable.”

    Furthermore: “The Tea Party is un-reasonably, reasonable.”  Once the nonsense starts, it goes on and on…

    Being a Democrat-Socialist would be such an undignified proposition for me:  I could say anything I want, without responsibility.  The very concept of “fairness” imbued at the childhood playground is rendered a quaint and archaic notion.

    I just can’t be that way.  I am responsible for my actions, I may need help at some time and will ask for it, but, never assume that someone else owes it to me.

    Purveyor

  • Anonymous

    Spending money that one does not have is, by definition, “unreasonable.”  Hence, Lawrence O’Donnell, a proponent of the “unreasonable” cannot accuse another person of being “unreasonable,” and maintain a degree of credibility.

    Such falls into the Orwellian “Double Speak:  Lawrence O’Donnell says: “being unreasonable is reasonable.”

    Furthermore: “The Tea Party is un-reasonably, reasonable.”  Once the nonsense starts, it goes on and on…

    Being a Democrat-Socialist would be such an undignified proposition for me:  I could say anything I want, without responsibility.  The very concept of “fairness” imbued at the childhood playground is rendered a quaint and archaic notion.

    I just can’t be that way.  I am responsible for my actions, I may need help at some time and will ask for it, but, never assume that someone else owes it to me.

    Purveyor

  • Anonymous

    That’s quite a coincidence Lawrence, I was just about to illustrate how Harry Reid is absurdly unreasonable. Wow, how is it possible for you to be so completely upside down?

  • Dflojak

    Blindly going where no intelligent person has dared before, progressive twitty. Follow her into the Obamatron, where all things Barry are instilled in your not quite developed brain and you are indoctrinated into the religion of BaHuOb, where you may genuflect to the internally created facts that prove that He, and no other, is bestest of all. All Hail BahuOB. You may kiss his ring now.

  • Dflojak

    You remind me of the bird that goes and gets the food, then pukes it up for her babies, that’s what you do with the dem talking points and it’s frickin boring. . Do you realize what a stupid poll would ask the question to the average american “don’t you think people that make more than one million dollars a year can afford to pay more in taxes.” Of course 75% will say yes, you moron, because the poll excludes them from the tax. The real question is, if you currently don’t pay any income tax, would you be willing to give up the same percentage of your income as a millionaire would have to in the form of a new tax. Let’s see how that poll’s.

  • Anonymous

    How can O’Donnell talk when he’s been in a coma for 10 years?

    Oh, MSNBC fans you can now get a “Sharpatron” for 10 dollars.  It attaches to your TV and translates Al Sharpton’s words into English.

    It’s really a great buy, but this price is only good for a short time – six weeks, or until Al’s replaced by a pet rock or a test pattern.

  • expatpatriot

    Using a metaphor of one’s household budget as an example of the need for sound policy is reasonable; pretending that a soveriegn nation and your household are synonymous when it comes to deficit spending — and making policy accordingly — is unresonable. Or, more to the point, batshit insane.

    Play with words any way you want (although you might consider some upskilling training in that area), you can’t transmute one into the other.

  • expatpatriot

    Oh, bullshit. Less than 1 percent of the US Federal budget goes to foreign aid.

    Of course, if you add in the costs for invading other countries, killing their people, and wrecking their infrastructure and social institutions, that amount goes up.

  • realheadline

    Assets = liabilities + Owners Equity………. the accounting pinciples are the same.

    Hey, I want to let you in on a secret: When you constantly posture like a psuedo-intellectual twit…. MOST people understand it comes from your own insecurities and character flaws. Your logic and knowledge might need some “upskilling training.” ………What a tool.

  • expatpatriot

    Yeah sure. OK so you’re uneducable. It’s sad, but many people are that way. Moving right along . . .

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