Cenk Uygur: If I were Obama, 9 out of 10 times the correct answer for me is attack. Now often times the President does not do that. In fact the President is convinced that if he has a second term, that the Republicans will finally be nice to him:
“I believe that if we’re successful in this election, when we are successful in this election, the fever may break.” Really? “Because it is the tradition of the Republican Party of more common sense than that.”
Cenk Uygur: No, there isn’t. What is that tradition? What are you talking about? Remember Bill Clinton, first-term they went after him. Second term? After he won, they impeached him. So what are you talking about?
But it is not just the President. David Axelrod, his top political advisor, went on C-Span and said,
“My belief is that when the President wins in November, we are going to liberate these Republicans of good will, that they are going to blink into the light of a bright new day and they are going to turn to the Grover Norquists of the world, as, frankly, Jeb Bush has recently, and say, you know what? We did it your way and that was a failure, a failure for the country and also a failure for the Republican Party, and now we are going to work together. There may be issues on which we are going to fight and disagree because that’s why we have two parties. But where we can agree, we are going to find that common ground. I think that that is the message that his reelection will send.”
Really? I argue that that is not the message that his reelection will send. That the message that the Republicans will get is fight even harder even and even dirtier. And it turns out I’m right.
Here come the Republicans with impeachment talk. Here is Senator John Kyle from Arizona talking about President Obama’s stance on immigration. Here is what he told the radio host:
“If the President insists on continuing to ignore parts of the law that he doesn’t like and simply not enforce that law, the primary remedy for that is political. And you have it two ways: one, oversight through the Congress to demonstrate what they’re doing wrong. And if it’s bad enough, and if there are shenanigans involved in it, of course, impeachment is always a possibility.”
Of course! Of course they will try to do that. Do you think it is just John Kyle? No. There is a guy named Alan Quist, who is running now in Minnesota against Representative Tim Walz, who is a Democratic in Minnesota. What is he going to say on the immigration issue, on the defense of marriage act? His ideas are also impeachment:
“So is it an impeachable offense? Yes. Whenever the Constitution is violated, it is an impeachable offense. I would not only propose it, I would argue it to the utmost of my ability and I would carry it like a banner to the American public.”
Carry impeachment like a banner. But they are not alone. The 25th district In Texas, there is a Republican primary with a clown named Wes Riddle in it. He says the very first day, if Obama gets reelected and he’s in office, he will go for impeachment. Facts be damned. Who cares what the facts are? In fact, he said, I’m worried that he gave away seven islands of ours near Siberia. Yeah, there is such a treaty. Do you know who signed it? George H. W. Bush. Who cares what the facts are. We are going to impeach, we are going to impeach.
Look, President Obama, you can’t keep reaching out to these people. If I were Obama, what would I do? I would say, look at these guys. They don’t care about the facts. They are going to come after us no matter what. So, you know what? I welcome their hatred. I am going to go after them. Do you want to play? I am the President of the United States of America and I am going to show people how we are going to do this thing, I am going to fight for progressive ideas, that is where the country stands, and I am going to take the flight to you. Don’t go around looking for agreement from these radicals. They are not going to give it to you. They are only going to fight you harder.
Now when the President does do that, for example, on the issue of immigration, it actually works for him. Remember he came out with a new policy that said, if you are a young kid who came here into the country, I am going to let you stay for a two year period, and let you be able to work in this country, because you didn’t make the decision to come here, and guess what’s happened since? Tremendous support in the Latino community.
First of all, we have, as they call her, the Latino Oprah, who came out and did an ad for Obama because she was so impressed by this move: “President Obama wants everyone to have the chances I had. That’s why he is working to put health care and a good education within reach for more Americans, and supporting the Social Security and Medicare millions of seniors count on.”
Now they didn’t do that for 3 1/2 years, this policy, because they were worried what the reaction of the country was going to be: oh my God, what is the right wing going to think, what are the independents going to do. Let me show you the numbers. It turns out that 70% of all Americans approve of the policy; 90% of Latinos approve of the policy. They should have done it on day one. Hey, he did it: God bless.
So this is what happens when you stand your ground, you plant your flag, you get 70% of the country behind you. Not only that, he has got to win the swing states, right?
Look at what is happening in the swing states. Among Latino voters 63% to 27%: kicking Romney’s ass. A new poll out today showing Romney is doing even worse in Florida now. Why? Because of President Obama’s stance on immigration.
You fight them, you don’t agree with them. And then finally all the Democrats came out and said, oh my God the Bain ads against Mitt Romney, President Obama don’t run those ads. Ads like this one:
“I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message. Day one: President Romney stands up to China. But would he? The Washington Post has just revealed that Romney’s companies were pioneers in shipping US jobs overseas and investing in firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China. Romney has never stood up to China. All he has ever done is send them our jobs.”
Now that is absolutely true. So what did I say on this program over and over? Pound them again and again, and guess what? President Obama did do that much to his credit and his team. What were the results? Look at new poll: 50% to 42%, up in the 12 swing states that he needs to win. That is a big margin.
Okay it gets better. The unfavorables for Romney. Take a look at this: he was tied in May, 36% favorable, 36% unfavorable. Now he is down to 30% favorable, and 41% unfavorable.
Don’t listen to the pundits, the guys in the mainstream media: they love private equity, they love Bain Capital, they love rich people. When you ask real Americans, they say pound them. We didn’t like that he outsources our jobs. So go after him.
So far the President has done exactly that. And by the way, I saw another poll today in Ohio where he is now crushing Romney, partly based on this outsourcing. So stay on the offense. That is the winning strategy. So I hope he listens to that in the campaign, which he is, and more importantly, if he wins, I really hope he listens to that in his second term.
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