Senior GOP Aide: Rahm’s Blunder Has Given Us Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” Moment!
A top GOP Congressional aide emails excitedly to say that Rahm Emanuel’s statement that “we’ve rescued the economy” has handed the GOP something akin to Obama’s very own “mission accomplished” moment. He says plans are afoot for Republicans to hammer away at it en masse in the days ahead.
In an interview with the Times that was published this morning, Rahm said that Obama would use tonight’s prime-time presser as a “six-month report card” to talk about “how we rescued the economy from the worst recession.”
“Rahm’s statement could well be the `mission accomplished’ moment for the President’s health care reform effort,” the GOP aide emails. “The moment when the Administration’s arrogance got in the way of its goals. I expect you’ll see Republicans making this point repeatedly going forward.”
John Boehner already hammered the comment this morning. I’d say it remains to be seen whether this will have anything near the traction of “mission accomplished.” But it’s interesting that top GOP strategists are planning to use the economic crisis, which began while Bush was in office, to tar Obama in the same way Bush was tarred by a catastrophic war of choice that began while Bush was in office.
That said, Rahm’s timing was pretty bad, since his comment could trip up the momentum Dems built up in recent days by hammering away at Jim DeMint’s claim that health care failure will be Obama’s “Waterloo.”
**********************************
Update: House Dem spokesman Doug Thornell emails over a response:
“Man, Republicans are desperate. If I earned a dime every time House Republicans pointed to a ‘game changing’ moment, I could pay back taxpayers for the money the previous Administration wasted producing a ‘Top Gun’ style photo-op for President George Bush.”
Update: Some video of Boehner attacking along these lines on the House floor is here.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
How many US Soldiers have died since Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” moment? How bg a federal deficit were we running, hidden by keeping the costs of the wars off the books? How badly did the economical policies of Republicans turn out?
They can try this gambit all they want…the public still trusts Obama on the economy much more than they trust Republicans – this just gives Obama a shot to remind them why.
And I’m suprised they keep trying to name his “moments”. It’s an easy pushback: “His waterloo moment, his mission accomplished moment…nothing but political games designed to be catnip for the DC media. But the American Poeple don’t care about ehese games, they don’t care about who’s scoring political points. They want something done. It’s time to put aside these political attacks and start working to do the work the American people sent us here to do.”
All that said…I firmly believe that all we’ll see is “mission accomplished” this and “mission accomplished” that…because our corporate media is frakkin’ pathetic.
The GOP is just in crazy land right now. That isn’t even a full quote, its a half of a quote at best from the Chief of Staff. How does that equate to a man flying onto a frikkin ship with big @ss banner and a band playing in a flight suit saying mission accomplished?
The major point they seem to miss in constantly trying to find attacks that are comparable to those used on Bush is that thousands of our troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis continued to die after President Bush’s Mission Accomplished photo op and our troops are still there in Iraq. Trying to build Rahm’s words in a NYTimes article to that is just ridiculous and it reeks of desparation.
I honestly hope they keep it up too, its not only going to back fire, its going to open up even more people’s eyes to the fact that they are praying for failure. They are hoping every single day that we get bad news because all they care about is their party, not the country.
This is so Washington, Greg. I really think no one outside the Beltway cares. I mean: Rahm’s statement: a six month report card = a “Mission accomplished” moment. Ridiculous. What is with the creeps in Washington?
I don’t really see this gaining much traction since the GOP has shown the attention span of a five-year-old on a sugar high when it comes to Obama’s “moments.” And, really, the economy ain’t all peaches and cream, but it has not collapsed completely. Unless it falls apart over the next couple years, I’d say Rahm will be proven correct in his assessment.
Although many economists have said that we have now backed off the edge of a cliff regarding the economy… Rham should have known better… That wasn’t a very smart thing to say…very bad timing. We don’t need anything shifting our focus away from the number one goal right now which is Healthcare.
Wasn’t it actually Bush who stoof before a “Mission Accomplished” banner and proclaimed the same? Now we have Obama needing to take all responsibility for third hand statements? Show me a pic of Obama standing in a three piece suit before a banner that proclaims “Economy Rescued” with a full military band playing victory songs and I will grant you it is the same.
I hope that the stenographers in the media run with it and ask Obama a question tonight about it. He will shut it down pretty successfully.Otherwise this is just more stupid bs from the GOP.
We need to give every Repug bleat a rest. Does anyone seriously believe that a conversation betwee Rahm and someone is equal to Bush and his “Mission”? Recall Tweety got a dripdrip up or down his pants when he saw fly boy with his hump showing. The two just don’t compute. This has been another idiot moment courtesy of the RNC.
“it’s interesting that top GOP strategists are planning to use the economic crisis, which began while Bush was in office”
No fair, Greg. You might have a point but Obama has already explicitly agreed that this is “his” economy.
While this certainly is not a “mission accomplished” moment – that would take the assistance of the media – I agree that this is a monumentally stupid thing for Rahm to say. Obama needs to nip it in the bud tonite and say “We have NOT rescued the economy [but we're clearly BS BS blah blah blah].”
It’s so bad for Obama and the Dems right now that I feel that I should take a troll-break!
Non-comparable instances, as everyone is noting. And given the RNC’s (explicit) strategy of helping America to succeed by working to facilitate the failure of federal governance, this response is predictable. It’s the only game they are playing now.
In my view there are two particularly significant matters going forward. The first is the economy. The longer/deeper the recession goes, the more hardship that will work on the administration and on sitting politicians (probably regardless of who is to blame). And the second matter was addressed by Josh Marshall yesterday in his rhetorical discussion on whether it will even prove possible for the powerful business interests working to defeat healthcare reform to be countered and bested. I’ve previously noted John Dewey’s observation that “politics is the shadow cast by business”. That’s really an observation on the structure of American politics and business and as such would be quite at home in a passage from Chomsky. Josh is quite correct to imagine that the dynamics of power and wealth might well trump here.
The comments so far are rather silly. Truthfully – it is a very valid point. Obama started this with the jobs “saved” or created. How can you count what a saved job is? Facts are – we are spending too much and building way too big a deficit. Jobs come from people with money to start businesses or grow them. So far all we have are card check and other pro-union positions from the democrats. Unions caused this problem.
Quick note on healthcare – Where are the gym subsidies? Where are the incentives on healthy eating? How about getting rid of High fructose corn syrup! GOP is not much better but truth be told the current plans are useless without Tort reform and the Dem’s will never allow it! Onward to Waterloo!
I don’t like Obama and cronnies
I dont like them taking our money
I don’t like Michelle Obama
I don’t want or need this stupid healthcare bill.
I don’t want to hear Bush criticized for being a good american.
I don’t like Libs who think they are better than I am.
I dont like Al Gore trying to convince people of global warming being caused by us. (Lies)
I don’t like the thought that Obama says we are a muslem country and not a Christian nation
I don’t like that if we disagree with the president we are racist.
I don’t care if we torture the morons that killed our men ladies and children and babies. I do not even care if we kill all of them.
I don’t want BO to bring all these animal people to our soil.
I believe this:
Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The Canadian Soldier.
3. The British Soldier.
4. The US Soldier, and
5. The Australian Soldier
One died for your soul, the other 4 for your freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET ALL OF
THEM.
someone’s been drinking the krazy juice
Only time will tell. It is hard to imagine employment improving anytime soon with Obama’s many job-killing schemes hanging over our heads. He wants to force employers to pay more covering more employees, to make it easier for union goons to take over prospective employers, and on top of that he wants to raise the cost of energy (as in raising the cost of everything). If these things came to pass, I really do think wencould see unemployment fall of another table.
I know what you will say if in fall 2010 employment is still above 10%and Obamanomics doesn’t pass: it is the obstructionist GOP’s fault, they didn’t let Obama do what he wanted. I know this point is lost on you regular commenters here, but that argument will not seem so compelling when what the President wanted was three different laws to make having an employee more expensive. This is the very simple micro-economics of running a business that you people don’t understand.
Dan Guttman,
Go to your fellow Republicans and lecture about the deficit. You guys creates a trillion dollar deficit with the wasteful tax cuts and wars.
GOP or Democrats it doesn’t matter. Our country is getting screwed. NO MORE TAXES! We work hard for our money and yet all the government wants to do is take it. What’s wrong with Medicaid/Medicare? They need to overhaul that to include more people for health coverage. It seems that doesn’t work well so they want to create something else to screw up. I didn’t like Bush but even though he was President, Congress was mainly Democrats. Democrats love to spend money. Your money! It’s more important to get jobs for people and to educate them so they can work and have a good livelihood.People always say “tax the rich.” Remember, “the rich” will be anyone who has a job and pays taxes. Yea, tax them all and make them all poor like everyone else and we won’t have jobs, businesses, we will turn into a third world country.
Linda,
Republicans like to spend as well. I also wanted to inform you that you do know that Medicare only cover senior citizens and that it is quite popular.
Linda – You do know that since Obama took office taxes on everyone who has under $250,000 taxable income have been lowered?
Healthcare, Bank bailouts, saving the big three, the war, congress’s appetite, etc.. It doesn’t matter a wit. Once China gets the other 1 billion of their people under capitalism we’re toast. We can’t compete with $1/hr wages. Face it, we’re broke and the future can not be avoided. Cry for the children.
Angela,
Please cite the tax code changes that were passed. Or are they buried in one of those bills that no one took the time to read. Have you read them?
Actuator – here is an article that is a good start for you. And you do know that those bills are actually read, don’t you? And no, I have not read all of the tax law changes, but I am sure I will. Especially before they take effect.
Angela,
A temporary reduction on some people amounting to less than $300/yr per household, to be followed by increasing their energy bills by over $1500/yr through Cap & Tax. Wow, what a bunch of suckersthat 53% was. Pity is, we’re ALL getting stuck with the stupidity of their choice’s actions..
RAhm’s claim that “we’ve rescued the economy” is just plain nonsense, to put it politely. It will be a long time before companies start to rehire employees and people change from the saving mode to spending. All Obama wants to do is to make this a socialist country and throw money at the healthcare situation. It won’t bring healthcare costs down, but it will increase taxes and have the Government running everything and telling people who should live and who should die (to reduce medical costs). The government run medical plans have been disasters. Look at Massachusetts as well as England and Canada. Why should we have to pay higher taxes to cover the medical costs of someone who is poor, but doesn’t take care of theirown health, but does insist at eating all the wrong foods (e.g. Big Macs)?
I’m WAY outside the beltway, I think it’s very funny in the worst way and is symbolic of the absurdity of Washington. Republican or Democrat. Absurd.
Rahm meaned right now ,Obama has rescued Wall Street, but Rahm, that got to transulate into jobs for millions of Americas and voters. That the real rescued or the second leg of the economy. High unemployment is not good thing.
This Administration and the people advising it out of touch with reality. They certainly subscribers to the old Clinton adage that if you say something enough, people will take it as the truth. The interesting thing is not watching BHO crash and burn (in a counrty that is still more conservative than liberal it was only a matter of time), but the corruption and deceit that will be revelad when he leaves office in 2012 and make no mistake, BHO is a on term prez.
In your dreams! You had to omit half of his sentence to come up with this bs. Typical Republican lying slags.I wish you losers would just secede like your buddy in TX wants to and go entertain each other with your ignorance, lies and stupidity. You really don’t deserve a country as good as the USA. In lieu of that, I’ll just have to hope that your fanatical enthusiasm for letting lunatics carry concealed weapons, smoking, and tanning salons (like your buddy bonehead Boehner *cough* *wheeze*, and all the inbreeding will kill ya all off sooner.
Pssst hey Gee – That was Karl Rove who asserted that saying something long enough, loud enough and people will take it for truth, not Clinton. Think before you speak.
Yeah, that Democratic rep. sure is right. The momentum is definitely in the Dem’s favor. Unemployment has stayed below 8%, Obama’s approval ratings aren’t dropping like a stone and the health care vote wasn’t postponed. Yeah, those Republicans sure are desperate.
And the Democratic Party can hilariously tout the return of the DOW to the level it was ten years ago all they want, but with unemployment still rising, the erosion of Obama’s approval ratings will continue apace. When even the president of the United States is admitting unemployment will hit 10%, you know you are in trouble. And it is kind of hard to have a robust economy when unemployment is at it’s highest since the FDR years.
“Republicans like to spend as well. I also wanted to inform you that you do know that Medicare only cover senior citizens and that it is quite popular.’
Uh, the person who wrote the above quote is dead wrong. Medicare is NOT only available to seniors. I am terminally ill with metastatic liposarcoma and I qualified for Medicare, yet I am only 35 years old. You most certainly do not have to be a senior to be on Medicare, and any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.