{"id":5372,"date":"2011-07-12T01:59:04","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T08:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5372"},"modified":"2011-07-12T02:00:03","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T09:00:03","slug":"obama-are-you-crazy-of-crazy-like-a-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/12\/obama-are-you-crazy-of-crazy-like-a-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama, Are you Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The media and blogosphere are abuzz with apparent indications that Barack Obama stands poised to put real cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table and his willingness to take heat from his own party.   If he is serious, it represents the surest way I know to make himself a one term President.  I can\u2019t imagine that he doesn\u2019t know that, but he strikes me as too smart to set up his own failure like that.  It would be crazy, so I can\u2019t help but speculate about whether or not he has something up his sleeve.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"12Obama\"President Obama made no apparent headway on Monday in his attempt to forge a crisis-averting budget deal, but he put on full display his effort to position himself as a pragmatic centrist willing to confront both parties and address intractable problems.<\/p>\n

At a news conference preceding the latest round of debt-reduction talks with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders, Mr. Obama said he would not accept a temporary agreement to kick the problem down the road a few weeks or months<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

He said that he was willing to take the heat from his own party to move beyond entrenched ideological positions and that Republicans should do the same<\/strong>. And he continued to insist on \u201cthe biggest deal possible,\u201d saying that now is the best opportunity for the nation to address its long-term fiscal challenges. <\/p>\n

Republicans dismissed his performance as political theater. But Mr. Obama\u2019s remarks appeared to be aimed at independent voters as well as at Congressional leaders, and stood in contrast to the Republican focus on the party\u2019s conservative base, both in the budget showdown and in presidential politics. <\/p>\n

Mr. Obama\u2019s remarks were among the clearest expressions yet of a repositioning effort that has been under way since the midterm elections last November, when Republicans captured the House and made inroads in the Senate. <\/p>\n

Seeking to shed the image of big-government liberal that Republicans used effectively against him last year, he has made or offered policy compromises on an array of issues and cast himself in the role of the adult referee for both parties\u2019 gamesma<\/strong>nship, or the parent of stubborn children\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

I asked myself why he would do this.  It appears to be political suicide.  It took his most loyal supporters aback.  For example<\/font>, Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Countdown<\/a> cuts to the quick of the matter.<\/font><\/p>\n