Doctor Fate wrote:President Obama's presidency has unfolded precisely as I thought it would.

Eh? You thought it would last one term. At least that's what you predicted.

danivon wrote:

Doctor Fate wrote:President Obama's presidency has unfolded precisely as I thought it would.

Eh? You thought it would last one term. At least that's what you predicted.

Hey, it was difficult to believe there were enough vacuous Americans to make it two terms, but here we are.

But, I did say he would be a disaster and he is. In fact, he has exceeded my expectations. I thought he might have, somewhere within his frame, a small streak of pragmatism. I was wrong about that. There has never been a President as blindly partisan and ideological as this one. He even attacked Republicans while the Naval yard attack was still under way.

Doctor Fate wrote:He even attacked Republicans while the Naval yard attack was still under way.

What was he attacking them for? Does everything in the USA have to stop because of the attack - which it turns out appears to be an aggrieved former employee with a history of using guns to cause problems, and not terrorism?

Maybe your political culture is wildly different to ours. In the UK, Prime Minister's Question Time has a convention. If we have someone killed in action, they are named or mentioned at the outset and people are respectful. And then a few minutes later they are kicking metaphorical lumps out of each other for all kinds of political reasons. We don't clutch pearls at the juxtaposition.

"turns out" ...but it was not known at the time now was it?

GMTom wrote:"turns out" ...but it was not known at the time now was it?

So are you saying everything else has to stop during such an incident?

everything of course not
Petty partisan political arguments, absolutely!

There are times a nation should rally around a common cause and show support, if this had been a terrorist attack (and at one time it was reported there may be as many as three shooters) that would have been one of those times. Yes, it "turns out" that was not the case, but it was not known at the time. I honestly am not trying to paint us (the US) different from the UK, this is absolutely what we do here, we always rally around a tragedy and partisan politics is put aside for a while. This is quite against the way we normally behave and it was considered rude by the president (par for the course for Obama).

Was it 'petty partisan' stuff? As my question was not answered, I looked it up. Seems he was (as planned beforehand) talking about the upcoming budget deadlines. The debate about the fiscal position (and the ACA's part in that) and what will happen over the next month with key dates may be handled in a partisan manner, but it is far from being 'petty' itself.

was it petty?
The Washington Times tagline:
Obama defends partisan speech after Navy Yard shooting
And if you wish to claim this was "important" and could not wait, the speech was scheduled to coincide with the 5 year anniversary of the Wall Street collapse. It could wait until the anniversary date but no longer? Not even a few hours later when we even knew if this were a terrorist attack or not? Yes, the answer is quite clear it was petty partisan political nonsense and nothing more, nothing that could not wait ..far from it!

[quote="GMTom"]was it petty?
The Washington Times tagline:
Obama defends partisan speech after Navy Yard shooting[/quote[Well if a newspaper prints it as a tagline it must be true!

I'm sure the WT is in no way opposed to Obama in general and could never be accused of partisanship in it's own right. Right?

And of course the constant whining about it from Mitch McConnell is in no way partisan or petty, and just an expression of national unity.

Yes it was 5 years since the Wall Street crash. It's also days away from Congress having to make key decisions (or, as is more likely, kick them into the long grass and blame someone else).

On the other side - should the President capitulate to terrorism (or even possible terrorism) by stopping normal business? That is how they win, you know.

should petty partisan politics be put aside for a few hours? absolutely, no doubt about it. I have shown how it was indeed petty and not anything of urgency as you had suggested it was, now you move the goalposts to terrorists winning? Nope, they do not win if we simply wait to make petty complaints during a crisis, that's not a win in any way.

GMTom wrote:should petty partisan politics be put aside for a few hours? absolutely, no doubt about it. I have shown how it was indeed petty and not anything of urgency as you had suggested it was, now you move the goalposts to terrorists winning? Nope, they do not win if we simply wait to make petty complaints during a crisis, that's not a win in any way.

Terrorism is an extreme form of attention-seeking.

You have not 'shown' it to be petty - you have argued that it is and cited as your main evidence the headline in a right wing newspaper (in which the Moons are re-asserting control).

oh no, no, no. You made the claim that Obama was making an important speech, it could not wait. Yet I did point out it was scheduled for a while now to coincide with the wallstree anniversary. It was absolutely not of an urgent nature and could have waited a few hours, your suggestion it was important kind of seems sill doesn't it? And in turn, the partisan bickering was not urgent in the least.

No, I did not make that claim.

My 'claim' is that the budget is an important subject (note that this is not the same as the speech itself being important), and rather than using the attack as cover for criticism of the Congressional Republican, the attack interrupted the build-up to the statement.

The situation was contained already, and didn't need any direct intervention from politicians.

The situation was absolutely not yet contained, they didn't even know how many shooters there were and he was still on the lose. Nothing was known, yes he was contained to a building but he was on the lose and still shooting, people were in hiding from him and more casualties could happen.

And your claim that the speech was not important but the subject matter was???
Then it could have waited
and you really want to claim the partisan nonsense was "important" and it had to be discuused at that exact time?
what he said is "important"?

"The problem is at the moment, Republicans in Congress don't seem to be focused on how to grow the economy and build the middle class."

...that comment couldn't wait?

Was that the whole speech? If so you have a point. If it covered a little more than that, well...