” From Rush:
RUSH: So now we want to go back to the audio sound bites, and let’s move forward here to audio sound bite number 14.
This is David “Rodham” Gergen last night on Anderson Cooper 69. Question: “It’s kind of boggling the mind here that here we are facing yet another crisis, and congressional leaders aren’t even meeting with the president ’til Friday when the cuts already take effect.”
GERGEN: Americans are turned off and tuned out of what’s going on. They are now increasingly saying, “Look, why can’t both of these sides get together? That’s what we thought we, uhh, voted for back in the election, and it’s — it’s worse now than it was.” I cannot remember a time when we’ve been so leaderless, that nobody is stepping up and taking the reins.
RUSH: Whoa! That would include Obama. You got David “Rodham” Gergen saying that Obama’s is not acting like a leader, and this time around the American people are blaming him, not just the Republicans. That’s what David “Rodham” Gergen is afraid is gonna happen. Here’s what he says it in the next sound bite. Anderson Cooper says, “Is the president crying wolf over all of this?”
GERGEN: No, I don’t think they’re crying wolf. I think they’re quite intentionally allowing cuts to go on that are gonna be painful, and that’s what’s irresponsible. It was this White House that proposed this bill with this rigidities built into it. They now come out and tell us, “Well, it is going to shut down the airline traffic. It’s gonna make it impossible to travel. It’s gonna shut down meat inspectors.” For goodness’ sakes, we gotta keep a carrier in port because of these tiny cuts? My goodness! The role of the president is first and foremost to protect the citizenry. Why put the country through the wringer? I think now the blame is shared on this one. I think the Democrats and the president deserve as much blame as the Republicans do on this one, and they both have a responsibility to get us out of this mess.
RUSH: That was last night on CNN. Has anybody seen David Gergen today? I haven’t. Anybody seen him? This is unheard of. The president of the United States was just called out last night on CNN by David Gergen. He’s basically saying this is not necessary. These cuts are minuscule. This is being done to purposely harm this country. The only saving grace that Gergen can rely on here is that he is sharing the blame. He’s spreading the blame, including the Republicans in this. So that kind of takes Obama off the… well, takes the heat off him a little bit.
But, man, I mean, I don’t think they’re crying wolf. They’re intentionally allowing cuts to go on that are gonna be painful, and that’s what’s irresponsible. It was this White House that proposed this bill with these rigidities built into it, and now they come and tell us, gonna shut down the airlines traffic, impossible to travel. Shut down meat inspectors. For goodness’ sakes, gotta keep a carrier in port because of these tiny cuts? My goodness, the role of the president is to protect the citizenry. Why put the country through the wringer? Then he says, “I think the blame is shared on this one.” Meaning, up until last night it was all the Republicans’ fault. But now David “Rodham” Gergen’s looking at this, and he… Look, the only conclusion you can come to here if you’re gonna look at this honestly. This is all Obama.
Now, he can’t admit that. But on this, this is all Obama. This is Obama’s idea. Obama has discretion over what is and is not cut. It is Obama putting the country through the wringer. It is Obama inflicting pain for his own political gain. He is inflicting pain for the express purpose of seeing to it the Republicans get blamed for it. And Gergen now understands what’s going on. Maybe he’s understood it all along and is just now saying it, because it’s gotten so ridiculous. And for somebody like Gergen who fashions himself as intellectually honest, he may have reached the wall here. He’s no longer able to intellectually defend this from the standpoint of defending Obama.
And folks, he’s dead right on this. None of this is necessary. These cuts are infinitesimal. There are areas of the budget that are filled with waste and fraud that he could cut. There are areas that don’t impact very important things that he could cut, but he’s choosing to say that he’s going to cut these areas that are going to really make life more difficult. The reason he’s doing this is because he knows the Republicans are going to get blamed for it. His sole objective is to eliminate any viable opposition. Mr. Gergen, in the first sound bite, says, “That’s what we thought we voted for back in the election. Why can’t both these sides get together?”
Mr. Gergen, if I may — I don’t know I don’t have any credibility with you and the mainstream media in Washington, but there is no getting together. The Republicans and Democrats have not one thing in common in this sequester or the fiscal cliff or any other budget deal. There’s not one thing the Republicans want that Obama wants, or vice versa. There is no overlapping of interests. And if there is, Obama does move the goalposts so that there isn’t anything that overlaps.
Go back and look. John Boehner gave him as much revenue as he was asking for in one of the fiscal cliff deals, and that’s when Obama upped the ante, wanted $500 billion more in tax increases, and Boehner walked away. There is no common ground. There will be no bipartisanship, because that’s not what Obama wants. Folks, it’s sad to admit this, but I’ve seen enough focus group data. The low-information voters do indeed want cooperation between the two parties. They really do. To them, that’s golden. That’s what they want, and that’s precisely why it isn’t gonna happen, because the ultimate objective of President Obama is continued chaos that he can blame on the Republicans.
At the end of the day he wants the chaos. He wants the unsettledness. He wants the unrest because he wants the Republicans blamed for it. He wants to be seen as the great compromiser. He wants to be seen as the guy trying to fix this. He wants to be seen as the man who’s doing everything he can to fix these problems. But it’s the Republicans. And that’s why they got mad at Woodward, because Woodward accused them of moving the goalposts and making deals impossible. And that’s why Sperling threatened Woodward, because Woodward gave up the game. Woodward explained for anybody paying attention what Obama’s actually do. He’s moving the goalposts. He’s making a deal impossible. That’s why Sperling threatened Woodward. “
