President Obama is wasting no time in concentrating on keeping our election momentum going by giving an inspiring press conference this afternoon to seize the initiative and translate victory momentum into immediate legislative success. And, put an end to this ridiculous Republican spin that the consequence of our President winning this election is he should adopt their agenda.
"We can't just cut our way to prospertity," say President Obama.
"We have to ask the wealthiest to pay a little more in taxes."
"I'm open to compromise. I'm open to new ideas."
This is a great speech, and I am going to wait for the transcript rather than try to capture it here.
And, I'm glad President Obama is not letting John Boehner seize the media cycle and is taking our modus operandi of the presidential election right on into the day to day process of governance and negotiations with the obstructionist House. Boehner said this morning" nothing is going to get down in the lame duck session."
President Obama directly took this on saying let's get the congress to reflect the will of the American people, "and let's do it now. (not in John Boehners February debt ceiling strangle-hold - strike while the iron's hot.)
He's saying let include an extension of the middle the tax cut for the middle Americans right now.
He wants the wealthiest Americans to pay a llittle more in taxes. Wolf Blitzer is making a big deal that the President didn't mention a specific return to the Clinton era tax rate from 35% to 39% rates, suggesting this is leaving open the possibility of compromise.
"I've got the pen ready to sign the bill, right away... (applause) I'm ready to do it," says the President.
Way to go, Mr. President, this is the way to do it! Put the pressure on the House obstructionists from day 1. And, escalate this pressure every day for the next four years. We learned a valuable lesson from the first term -- we can not turn off the lightls in the campaign war rooms, and let trust in Washington back room politics to push the way forward.
"So, let's get to work," concludes our upbeat, happy President ready to pounce ahead on this next fiscal cliff issue, like Woody Allen's coiled jungle cat making his Manhattan rounds.
This was perfect folks. Quick,to the point, understandable and enough to set the media discussions for the rest of the day! We need to keep David Axelrod and Team Obama war council intact and in the White House all this next four years if we want to actually implement the progressive agenda we have the mandate for.
BTW, late last night I posted a new survey that showed an overwhelming 70% of American voters support our approach to taxation and balancing the budget and reject, yes reject, (to copy the Blitzer double down), REJECT the Republican approach to balancing the budget with cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and education.
We need to hang tough and not sell out our constituents trust by taking these Republican compromises too readily.
I'll post a transcript in an update once it is available.