Nancy Pelosi: Republicans Despise Obama Because He's Brilliant, Strategic, Eloquent. Also He's Apolitical and Nonpartisan

Laying it on thick

Reason

Nancy Pelosi can't heap enough praise on the president.

From Politico:

Striking a tone of disgust, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridicules the GOP as obsessed with its loathing of President Obama and hell-bent on hurting him politically, regardless the cost. She assigns little to no blame to the president (even though Democrats privately say that's laughable) and instead portrays him as saintly, above reproach and the victim of jealousy or something worse.

After 26 years in the House, she says, "I haven't seen anything like it. I haven't seen anything like it."

Throughout a 50-minute interview on Thursday in her second-floor Capitol office, where the late Speaker Tip O'Neill used to receive supplicants, Pelosi was sharply derisive about the scorn Republicans have for this president.

"You know why it is," she said. "You know why it is. He's brilliant, … he thinks in a strategic way in how to get something done … and he's completely eloquent. That's a package that they don't like."

The former House Speaker also called him "practically apolitical" and "certainly nonpartisan."

As Congress works on passing a law to fund the government after the end of the federal fiscal year next week, President Obama is headed to Missouri to tour a factory, explain why Republicans should stop thwarting him, and make distance between himself and the mess in Washington.

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Comments

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Republicans Despite Obama"

Shouldn't that be "Despise"?

[Tonio]

^This. Thanks.

Or maybe "spite".

[WTF]

Despite:
preposition 1. in spite of; notwithstanding. noun 2. contemptuous treatment; insult. 3. malice, hatred, or spite. verb (used with object) 4. Obsolete . to anger or ...

[WTF]

Ed should have stuck to his guns. The original was a perfectly good usage of "despite".

[Zeb]

definition 3 is not a verb. They probably do anger him, but that's not what he was trying to say.

[WTF]

Definition 2 is fine.

[Episiarch]

"You know why it is," she said. "You know why it is. He's brilliant, ? he thinks in a strategic way in how to get something done ? and he's completely eloquent. That's a package that they don't like."
The former House Speaker also called him "practically apolitical" and "certainly nonpartisan."

I's impressive that Nancy can declare that up is down and no one calls her on it. But then again, getting things 180 degrees wrong is her specialty. She just described Mirror Universe Obama. All she left out was the goatee.

[Hugh Akston]

She's wearing the goatee today. Just not on her face.

[Episiarch]

It's the Merkin Universe now?

[Rich]

"I'm proud to be a Merkin
Lookin' like some damn goatee"

[Snark Plissken]

I'm afraid we are in the darkest timeline.

[BakedPenguin]

Sadly, it's the Empire in our universe that's currently doomed, and it won't take 140 years, either.

[Pro Libertate]

It's amazing how much they speak to only true believers, totally disregarding how this sounds to people with even the slightest foothold in reality.

[Episiarch]

Since they have no such foothold themselves, it's not surprising.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, which brings up the age-old question of how much the leadership is playing their idiot supporters and how much they are idiots themselves. In Pelosi's case, she's a clear whack job, but some Democrats strike me as just enjoying the manipulation of morons. Clinton is an example.

[Episiarch]

Considering how stupid most TEAM BLUE hacks are, and how if you just mouth the right words, they will excuse any behavior whatsoever, no matter how at odds with your words, well, can you quite fault a Clinton or someone like them? I mean, TEAM BLUE is literally made to exalt sociopathic liars.

Think of the reward structure: say the right words, and then do anything you want. You will be defended to the ends of the earth no matter what you do (as long as you keep mouthing the right things), and you get adulation and adoration as well. It's like catnip for sociopaths.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

"like catnip for sociopaths"

Imma steal that one.

[John]

I think it is a mix. True sociopaths are a pretty small percentage of society. For that reason, I think it is selection bias. Who becomes a Team Blue politician? Some from the set that is team blue supporters. When the pool you draw from overwhelmingly consists of retards and otherwise smart people living in a complete fantasy world, it is not hard to see what kind of politicians you are going to mostly get.

I am really amazed and disturbed at how quickly and how far they have fallen. Thirty years ago, I hated liberals like Tip O'Neil and Mario Cuomo. But whatever those guys' faults, they had some grasp of reality. Compared to someone like Pelosi, the worst Liberal pol of the 1980s is Thomas Jefferson by comparison.

[ChrisO]

I would say that elected politicians are more likely to be malignant narcissists than out-and-out sociopaths. Bill Clinton is one of the more extreme examples of recent decades, but the very nature of elective politics favors the narcissistic personality. You have to be a pretty fucked-up person to think "I am the answer to all of society's problems!".

Old-school machine pols like Tip O'Neil or either of the Richard Daleys are more like crime bosses. It's all about business. And the businesses are strikingly similar, when it comes down to it.

[BakedPenguin]

And the businesses are strikingly similar, when it comes down to it.

At the end of Goodfellas, the Henry Hill character sums it up something like 'The FBI never got it. All of it was about protection...'

The mafia and the government both run protection rackets.

[John]

Here is the difference Chris O

Old timers like O'Neil and Daley knew there was a limit to how much you could steal. It doesn't do you any good to have power if there is no money left to steal. So when it came right down to it, they were willing to back off and ensure that the economy and the government kept working. They knew that was essential to their ability to skim off the top.

People like Pelosi don't understand that. They are fanatics who have no idea that their policies could ever lead to bankruptcy. I think most of it is that guys from O'Neil and Daley's era could remember the depression. They knew that things could get really bad. And that made them cautious even in their criminal enterprises. Pelosi and her ilk don't remember the Depression. They don't have the imagination to understand that the lights really can go out. So there is no limit to their capacity for theft and mischief.

[ChrisO]

I don't necessarily disagree, John, but I think you have to disregard most of what someone like Pelosi says publicly. In private, I suspect she understands all too well the need to keep the money machine in working order. The crony capitalists that fund her and her ilk aren't going to let her forget it.

That's what is more troubling about Obama, in some ways. I'd like to think he learned some lessons from Ritchie Daley in that regard, but instead he has the worrying stench of the True Believer that you describe. At heart, he really is a Hyde Park googoo who is detached from reality.

[John]

Chris O,

I look at the Detroit bankruptcy as something to make you really afraid of the current generation of liberals. American cities have always been run by one party machines and were nothing but a spoils system for various cronies. It is not good. But it is the way it is and the drag never stopped the country as a whole.

But in Detroit something different was going on. The old machine politicians would have never let things get that bad. They would have backed off for no other reason than out of self interest. What good is a fat pension if the city goes broke and can't pay for it? The current generation of liberals didn't back off. They actually screwed themselves and their supporters. They did so because unlike the old politicians who were just crooks, current liberals are nuts. They actually believe that high taxes and luxury pensions are, instead of a perk available to the powerful, the way to prosperity. What is terrifying about current liberals is not that they are crooks, even though many of them are. What is terrifying is that they actually mean well and think doing this shit is going to help.

[ChrisO]

Detroit's a case where I don't believe you can draw such a convenient line between the machine and the liberals. The black political machines have never seemed as adept as "keeping the patient alive" as their white ethnic counterparts in the "good old days."

Nobody in any political machine is that far-sighted. It's just a matter of where the skim is coming from.

My theory is that the black political power base is in municipal employees and contractors, rather than private union members, the way it was with, say, the Daley machine in the old days. Unfortunately for Detroit, you can only get away with putting everyone's cousin on the city payroll for so long before the apparatus falls apart. It may be that old machine pols understood that better, but I suspect it had more to do with the differing nature of the old and new political machines.

[DH]

Isn't there a good quote by C. S Lewis that nicely sums up what you were saying. About how real tyrants will rule over us endlessly all in the name of doing good, where as robber barons may occasionally lapse in their greed.

[Lurker Kurt]

I agree 100% with your assessment, ChrisO.

Daley said publicly that the schools had to perform in order to keep the middle in Chicago, thus keeping Chicago economically viable, or else Chicago would end up like Detroit. Daley was a pragmatist.

Obama is a True Believer.

[hotsy totsy]

I really think they think they are good persons because of their good thoughts. Their noble intentions. If they ever had to face reality, they'd have to modify their "good thoughts", and thus become bad people.

[General Butt Naked]

@John

Hell, read Gary Hart's Restoration of the Republic and he sounds like a radical teabagger. He used to be considered pretty liberal.

[Pro Libertate]

No, it's obvious what the incentives are. And it's nothing new. Julius Caesar was an optimate by birth and upbringing, yet he was politically in the populares class. Why? Because control of the mob was an easy way to power.

[John]

But there is a difference between leaders like Caesar and Augustus and leaders like Caligula or Nero. The all are tyrants. But the former understood that without some form of good government tyranny wasn't worth having. The latter didn't understand that. Daley and such are more like the former. Pelosi is more like the latter.

[PapayaSF]

John, ChrisO, and the others above: excellent thread.

[hotsy totsy]

YES!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Quiet, you. Pelosi is trying to describe Obama's package, and you just have to talk about politics.

[Rich]

IIRC, Biden described it as clean, bright, and nice-looking.

[Marc F Cheney]

Also well-spoken.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

Paging Teenaged Girl... Teenaged Girl - Ewwww! needed in Aisle 4.

[DontShootMe]

Well, uh, you know, uh, I agree, uh, you see, I agree, uh, let's think about this here, uh, yes I, uh, do agree, uh, that the, uh, president is uh, wait, what was the question again?

[Hugh Akston]

I guess Obama is pretty nonpartisan, considering he also doesn't give much of a shit about a lot of things that Democrats are supposed to care about.

[datcv]

Comparing him to herself, I can maybe see why Pelosi thinks Obama is non-partisan. Hell, the interview she gave was a perfect example of hyper-partisanship!

[Marc F Cheney]

Calling Obama partisan or nonpartisan is like calling God religious or nonreligious. Neither term applies.

[playa manhattan]

What is this I don't even...

[Killazontherun]

. . . so far from being right, it is not even wrong.

[Jordan]

Nancy Pelosi = Shreeeek?

[WTF]

Striking a tone of disgust, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridicules the GOP as obsessed with its loathing of President Obama and hell-bent on hurting him politically, regardless the cost. She assigns little to no blame to the president (even though Democrats privately say that's laughable) and instead portrays him as saintly, above reproach and the victim of jealousy or something worse

Good thing the Democrats never did that with Bush, amirite?

[DJF]

Ok, it was bad enough that the government let the Washington shooter walk about while spouting delusional stuff, but can't they put Pelosi in a straight jacket before she buys a shotgun?

[SugarFree]

It's sad that she has to struggle with dementia in such a public forum. She should retire and deal with this as a private family matter.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

+1 Pat Summit

[Killazontherun]

I don't think this is signs of aging for her. She was kicked out of an ashram in her hippie youth for being too irrational. Okay, I made that up, but it sounds truthy.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

Well...you do have to admit, he has not been very critical of the opposition party, he has been very careful to submit his budgets on time and with plenty of input from the opposition, and has crossed the aisle to make sure his appointments have been made with the advice and consent of the Senate. I guess we could also include his care in not expanding executive power at the expense of the other branches of the Govt too!

/Shriek

[WTF]

You forgot his tremendous support for gun rights and the Second Amendment.

[Sevo]

He's also been very forthcoming with information regarding how the IRS and NSA deals with the citizenry, and he's kept every promise he's made!
You left that out.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

+1 line by line examination of spending

[#]

Don't forget the net spending cut!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He also made time in between all that to sign autographs! What a guy!

[Rich]

"You know why it is," she said. "You know why it is."

Just spit it out, Nance: They're a bunch of fucking RACISTS!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

"You know why it is," she said. "You know why it is. He's brilliant, ? he thinks in a strategic way in how to get something done ? and he's completely eloquent. That's a package that they don't like."

LEAVE BARACK ALONE! YOU'RE LUCKY HE DOES ANYTHING FOR YOU BASTARDS!

[anon]

Please, master! Just please, quit trying to help me!

[The DerpRider]

Did she go on to quote Ghostbusters? Are dogs and cats sleeping together now?

[Sam Grove]

I can see why Nancy Pelosi would think Obama is brilliant.

[Sevo]

Boxer thinks he's a genius!

[T]

She's gonna get her arms torn off by an angry wookiee if she doesn't take that dick out of her mouth.

Also, I wish I could be that divorced from reality and still get paid. Alas, my designs have to work here on this planet.

[Killazontherun]

No kidding. The closest resemblance to the emotion of envy I have is when considering how these chuckleheads among us can live in sheer fantasy and not pay a price for it.

[Killazontherun]

I mean, the woman rationalized passing Obamacare so street people can live like lotus eaters and strum their guitars on the sidewalks of San Fransisco without having to worry about the consequences that lifestyle has on their health. She is truly insane.

[AlmightyJB]

I don't know. I'm starting to get a little bored with the whole this retarded person who always says retarded shit said something retarded again stories. It seems like there are a lot of folks making a living out of just doing that and it's so goddamn easy. It's like National Inquirer stories for political hacks.

[John]

I would agree except that Nancy Pelosi is minority leader in the House. She is one bad R election away from being the third most powerful politician in the country. It is kind of hard to ignore her.

[Killazontherun]

This. Voters might have elected Michelle Bachman, but her colleagues never gave her an ounce of power over themselves. How Democrats let P-brain get through the vetting process needs to be explained. She has no business in a leadership position.

[ChrisO]

Oh, Pelosi's a viper. I wouldn't put her in the Michelle Bachmann category. Pelosi grew up in a prominent Baltimore machine family, so I'm sure she's good at using both the carrot and the stick on her Democratic colleagues when necessary.

She may not be smart, but she's undoubtedly cunning.

[John]

Pelosi is a hundred times worse than Bachman. If you made Bachman God emperor tomorrow, what would she do? At most maybe continue the drug war and chase windmills trying to ban porn.

Now think about what Pelosi would do if she had the power. There is no comparison.

[Killazontherun]

Viper plus crazy equals back room political operative, not the public face of your party. I know how the game is played, and the cards played out here make no sense.

[ChrisO]

Congress generally seems bad at putting appealing public faces out there. Would anyone rational choose Boehner as the face of the Republican Party?

The nature of Congress puts the backroom vipers also into an out-front position they often aren't suited for. Hell, look at Lyndon Johnson. That didn't matter as much in a less media-saturated age, but it's comical now.

[Killazontherun]

There's truth to that, but this is Congress we are talking about, she isn't the only snake in the pit born into a political machine backing her, hardly a unique creature in that regard. Her internecine rivals have the advantage of being able to call her out as major league flake. No, there is something fundamentally wrong with the Democratic vetting process that would allow such an abomination to thrive.

[ChrisO]

She may not be the only snake in the pit, but I'd venture to guess that she's the most vicious, to torture the metaphor.

I agree that it produces comical results when her bug-eyed craziness appears on national TV as a spokesperson for a major political party.

[Killazontherun]

I'm inclined to meet you half way there. San Fransisco was ripe pickings in the late 70s due to the weird confluence of events and culture at the time for an East Coast pol to come in and throw elbows around. At the same time, the vetting process is broken to allow both BO and Pelosi major level positions.

[ChrisO]

Oh, absolutely. I even question the very existence of a "vetting process" anymore. The backroom deal-makers of old wouldn't have allowed someone as callow and inexperienced as Obama to get a shot at the presidency after four years in the Senate. Television allowed him to bypass the process, basically.

Pelosi is an unusual creature, in that she's a nasty East Coast machine politician who managed to marry California money. San Francisco itself is a strange combination of machine fisticuffs and leftist wackiness. In some ways, she's a perfect reflection of her constituents.

[Killazontherun]

My sister, a decade my senior, was stationed on a naval base nearby SanFran in 81-82, and I got to visit her at the time. I'm still pretty much attached to liking the city in spite of all the kookiness.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

"She may not be smart, but she's undoubtedly cunning."

Change "she" to "he" and you have perfectly described Dick Durbin...

[John]

This is one of those examples of media bias hurting the Democrats. The media's scrutiny of Republicans forces them to confront their flaws. The constant coddling of Democrats allows Democrats to convince themselves someone like Pelosi is not an embarrassment.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah I always wondered about that. They pound Palin, but not Pelosi? She's plain nutty. If Palin uttered the shit she spews it would make SNL in a heartbeat but no one has spoofed her yet.

Tina Fey, paging Tina Fey. Aw, forget it.

[John]

There is nothing crazy about Palin. Palin is nothing but a mainline conservative.

[ChrisO]

Palin's problem is an inability to pre-edit herself. If she wasn't such a gaffe-machine, she'd probably be vice-president right now and preparing for 2016.

Of course, that would mean President John McCain. Shudder...

[John]

She wasn't a gaffe machine. The media took everything she said and made it into a "gaffee". Obama is a gaffe machine and committed about ten gaffes for every one Palin did. The difference is the media never treats Obama's gaffes as gaffes.

Every politician has gaffes. It is the nature of speaking a lot in public. Palin's gaffes were neither more frequent nor any worse than those of other politicians. The media just hated her and through selective coverage and total group think created the impression she was gaffe prone.

[ChrisO]

No, John, she was a gaffe machine. Yes, the media highlighted it. The reality, though, is that she was not ready for national TV "gotcha" politics that Republicans have to deal with.

I agree that the media ignores gaffes from Democrats they like. But Palin had/has a terrific ability to shoot herself in the foot.

I say this as someone who was quite sympathetic to her in 2008 and basically considered her the "de facto top of the ticket."

[radar]

Gaffe machine's a bit much. She said some silly things.

I'm not a big Palin fan, but squaring all the media coverage calling Palin dumb with the many, many, MANY Donks who have said equally or more idiotic things is tough.

[Killazontherun]

Palin is too human and not enough of a sociopath to be a politician. She has this tendency to freeze up and be overwhelmed by the magnitude of responsibility that a position in high power would entail. Natural born politicians are never phased by this because they just don't give a damn about anything but their own skins.

[ChrisO]

She also has a tendency to bring the drama in any given situation. She actually reminded me a little Clinton that way. It seemed like every single aspect of her life was complicated and troublesome, and she had a talent for doubling down on that.

I think that ultimately turned people off.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow.

Maybe a university can fund research as to how much damage can do to the brain?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Maybe a university can fund research as to how much damage BOTOX can do to the brain?

Missed a word.

[Hyperion]

Nancy Pelosi: Republicans Despise Obama Because He's Brilliant, Strategic, Eloquent

Yeah, that's it, Nancy. It's the only reason anyone could dislike anything that great leader does.

So please, remind us again, why over half of Americans, including labor unions and all of congress plus their staffers don't want to participate in it?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So now the default defense mechanism for dingbats moves from 'racist' to 'you're just jealous?'

[earthandweather]

"where the late Speaker Tip O'Neill used to receive supplicants" ...That was perfect Ed. Thanks.

[Loki]

"He's brilliant, ? he thinks in a strategic way in how to get something done ? and he's completely eloquent."

It must be nice to be hopelessly delusional while simultaneously completely lacking in shame.

[OldMexican]

President Obama is headed to Missouri to tour build a factory,

... with his bare, strong and calloused hands, laboring while the sun glintens off his chiseled pectorals.

As Nancy would put it. Or the NYT, for that matter.

[Killazontherun]

Was he working in a quarry at the time hen the boss' daughter game strolling by? I've heard this plot before, somewhere?

[Killazontherun]

Holy crap! One error I'd let slip by, but -- let's start over --

Was he working in a quarry at the time when the boss' daughter gcame strolling by? I've heard this plot before, somewhere?

[radar]

As Moe Wanachuk says in Slap Shot....that cunt is no good.

[WTF]

Greatest sports movie evar.

[Swiss Servator, Spare a Franc?]

Agreed!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Dave's a killer!

[PM]

Anybody else noticed that repeating thing Pelosi does?

"I haven't seen anything like it. I haven't seen anything like it."

"You know why it is," she said. "You know why it is.

"Are you serious? Are you serious?

I'm not sure what the significance is. But it's annoying as fuck.

[Hugh Akston]

Well, just avoid the salt & vinegar potato chips and you should be fine.

[Killazontherun]

Salt & vinegar potato chips? Is that how her face got that way?

[Killazontherun]

The ampersand is back, and it doesn't spit our random ;s like a pistol crapped from a skag's ass. Yay!