"The Permission Structure Is The Leadership"

[Cha]

The least surprising news of the week is that getting dressed down at the White House correspondents dinner did nothing to persuade Maureen Dowd and other opinion makers that their fantastical depictions of presidential power are actually puerile and lazy. Less than a month after Republicans rejected Obama’s budget — Chained CPI and all — gauzy platitudes about leadership are back in vogue.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Jake Sherman http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C7AF3FCB-804A-41F5-BD6E-6993579B527F (A House In Chaos) reports that the very people Obama’s supposed to “lead” to a budget deal (or a deal on anything) are perhaps more dysfunctional and reactionary than at any point since they came to power.

So he has two options: He can do nothing. Or as a long shot he and his allies can create atmospheric and procedural and rhetorical conditions that might allow House Republicans to give Obama something he wants without appearing to have consorted with him in any way. Ideally while retaining a pretense that they’ve somehow dealt him a defeat. To try and find a sort of legislative wormhole connecting the House GOP’s irrational universe and the universe everyone else inhabits.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/the_permission_structure_is_the_leadership.php

Thank you, Brian Beutler.. for explaining that!




[font color=red]FYI this is Posted in the Barack Obama Group[/font]

BOG

[Lady Freedom Returns]

1. If they don't start working with him soon...

They supposed to be House Representatives not Big Children!

[Cha]

2. Funny you should have that graphic, Lady Freedom Returns..

because I think the only thing that's going to make the gops work with PBO is when they implode and they have no choice.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

3. What scares me is how much we have to suffer before...

The House Reps grow up.

[Cha]

4. It's very surreal scary. And, way too much needless

suffering.. and, too many people voting against themselves.

Here's to a beneficial "legislative wormhole"..

[sheshe2]

5. We need to scream this from the roof tops Cha!

That’s the House majority. Without at least its implicit assent, Obama really can’t pass anything. And he can’t change these attitudes, or the incentives of the people who hold them, with speeches or dinners or even de facto threats and bribes.

We need to vote, first and foremost, special election, MA, Markey (D) vs Gomez (R). Sixty days people we need support here. This is for Kerrys seat.

After that we have to shout out every damn election that pits repukes vs dem. 2014 people, lets get this done! I say enough!

For me, I want to take back our Country!

Forever Strong!

[Cha]

6. I know the Obama Admin is Serious about 2014, she..

They are gearing up.. they know how different it would be with Reps in Congress who were there for the People of the US. Not there for the plutocratic Koch types.

At least we have Obama as President.. and all those who have his back.

Markey For Senator June 25, 2013!

[sheshe2]

7. PS

Fuck the Repukes! Now and forever Fuck them.

They have lost all and I mean all credibility. They believe in there lily white asses and their power, far more than the rights and beliefs of the American people. They do not vote or support the People, they vote for power.

It makes America weep.

Vote the bastards out!

2014 or bust!

[Cha]

8. Sing it,

Sistah!

Chickenshit gops who are afraid to be seen helping the President.. so they vote against sensible background checks for criminals and those with mental problems.

Callously thumbing their collective NOSE at the Family and Loved ones of the Sandy Hook wee ones and all those who have been victims of gun violence.

Michael Cohen @speechboy71

The single most under-reported story of the last 4 years is the Republican Party's unhinged hatred of Barack Obama: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/01/pat-toomey-confirms-it-obama-is-right-about-gop/ …

Pat Toomey confirms it: Obama is right about GOP

President Obama is getting widely mocked by commentators and Republicans for using the phrase “permission structure” at his presser yesterday in the course of claiming that Republican officials are constrained from cooperating with him because their base would see it as a “betrayal.”

So it’s good to have a Republican Senator on record confirming that Obama is right about this.

I’m talking about Pat Toomey. The Senator from Pennsylvania didn’t directly address Obama’s remarks, but something he said in another context perfectly confirms the President’s diagnosis of the GOP.

[sheshe2]

9. May they all rot in hell, Cha!

In subsequent comments, he tried to walk that remark part-way back by noting he meant to say Republicans across the nation in general, not just those in the Senate. “The toughest thing to do in politics is to do the right thing when your supporters think the right thing is something else,” Toomey said.

Hold it a second here...look what he just said. They want to do the right thing! Their supporters, Who. The NRA!

They collectively went against what the majority of the American people believe, that is the "toughest thing they do in politics "they suppress the will of the people because they are doing the right thing. Their opinion, not ours. Suppress our rights, our voice and vote against us because YOU think it's right!

Guns kill, babies die!

God help us! Screw what the majority of what the real people want.

May they all rot in hell all the Gop, collectively!

[NYC_SKP]

10. I love a cogent analysis. Thanks for posting, Cha! K/R

[Cha]

11. From Smartypants' blog: "Permission structure" and The Art of War"

But when I heard the President talk about creating a permission structure, what came to my mind is the idea of letting your opponents save face in defeat. It is an ancient strategy from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

If you surround the enemy, leave an outlet; do not press an enemy that is cornered.
A google search sent me to this interesting article about the fact that President Obama quoted Sun Tzu to a group of Jewish leaders in talking to them about his approach to Iran. The author explains:

We need to let people save face, especially when their only alternative left when surrounded (and sanctioned) is to battle to the bitter end. The key here is Obama is taking the more difficult yet desirable route of winning without fighting. Anybody can fight -- only the wise truly win.

What is interesting to me is that if President Obama is attempting to create a permission structure (or to allow the Republicans to "save face&quot , then its also true that the opposition is surrounded. As I've been suggesting for a while now, the forces that are aligned against him look very much like a beast in its death throes.

http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/05/permission-structure-and-art-of-war.html

Interesting take from smartypants.. as usual!

BOG

[Number23]

12. The fact that the man is even having to TALK about creating a "permission structure"

in order to get these obstinate, Republican fools to do their jobs is astonishing. They refuse to support anything he asks for, even programs they have supported in the past or their constituents want.

And yet, I am still being regaled with missives from the mindless that everything is of course, Obama's fault and that it is really not fair to blame Republicans for the dysfunctional crap going on in Washington right now. It is nothing short of astonishing.

[Cha]

13. It's Outrageous, 23! Pres Obama is trying to deal with the reality of

teabagger Koch infested brainwashed idiots who get sent to Congress.

And, those blaming the President have terminal ODS and are more than a little brainwashed themselves.