Author Topic: BEDFORD: One month after the shutdown ended, Lee and Cruz are sitting pretty  (Read 1329 times)

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Offline mystery-ak

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http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/16/bedford-one-month-after-the-shutdown-ended-lee-and-cruz-are-sitting-pretty/?print=1

BEDFORD: One month after the shutdown ended, Lee and Cruz are sitting pretty

Posted By Christopher Bedford On 12:57 AM 11/16/2013 In

It’s Nov. 16, 2013, and the partial government shutdown ended one month ago today.

In those four weeks, and the two prior, everything conservatives said would happen has happened. What’s more, the Democrats’ united stand against them has turned into a retreat — and is primed to become a rout — as they amend Obamacare’s disastrous rollout, President Barack Obama apologizes for his failures, and electorally vulnerable Democrats break ranks and flee.

Hell, even the polls that D.C.’s Republican pundits shrieked, wept and clawed over show the Grand Old Party has bounced back while the Democrats have fallen behind. Because, in the end, real people simply weren’t affected by the shutdown, so they won’t vote on it — a distinction Obamacare does not share.

It’s clear now that the whole shutdown thing could have been avoided if Mr. Obama had been willing to bend on his signature health-care law — something reality has since forced him to do, and something he will likely have to continue to do — instead of accusing the Republicans of being “terrorists” who are holding the country captive.

And rather than crashing, as the president predicted, the private sector survived just fine without government. Obama’s specific prediction — “I mean whatever effect Obamacare might have on the economy is far less than even a few days of government shutdown” — turned out to be precisely wrong. (VIDEO: It’s been two weeks and still no apocalypse, you guys)

Finally, the events of the last month have shown that Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were correct to make a final stand against the law, and it’s really the president and his policies that are terrorizing the country. (RELATED: How Cruz, Lee and Paul shut down Obama’s agenda)

Because since Obamacare has come into effect, millions have seen their health-care plans cancelled; enrollment numbers have lagged 80 percent behind the White House’s predictions; every facet of the sign-up process has failed to deliver; and some of the very “navigators” who are supposed to make all that easier have been exposed as criminals.

And for the two weeks that preceded this debacle, the story is one of Republicans fighting with everything they had to save the country from what they saw coming.

True, there’s no doubt that the shutdown fight did not go the way Messrs. Lee and Cruz had hoped, and they took a beating in the polls. True, there was little chance the fight could have gone any other way. They were outgunned and outnumbered. But they set the stage for the coming fight by drawing bold lines.

If there was any remaining doubt in the American electorate that what was to come was anybody’s fault but the Democrats — or that conservatives hadn’t done all they could to stop it — those doubts were wiped away. Besides, people remember the Alamo — not the Siege of Béxar.

“The Republican Party’s favorable ratings fell substantially in most every national survey that uses this yard stick, declining to 28 percent in the Gallup poll at one point,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 7. “Yet when the GOP was matched up against the Democrats on key political measures, it did not look so bad.”

A Pew Research poll cited by the Journal and taken on Oct. 15 — the height of the shutdown “crisis” — showed that respondents judged Republicans ”better able to deal with the economy” 44 percent to 37 percent, and “better able to manage the government” 42 to 39 percent. Just 11 months before, Pew’s results had Democrats “better able to manage the government” by 45 to 36 percent. Not bad, for the end of the world.

Additionally, a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed the Republicans hadn’t suffered any lasting damage for their stand against Obamacare: Voters are split 39 to 39 percent on which party they’d support in a congressional election today — a nine-point slide from the day the shutdown began, when Democrats were ahead 43 to 34 percent. And in that poll, Republicans won on independents, 37 to 26 percent.

But there is someone who has taken a lot of heat for the law, and that’s the president, who on Friday had an average approval rating of 41.5 percent.

It “isn’t a perfect relationship, but presidential job approval is still the most important variable for how his party fares in midterm elections,” Real Clear Politics reported on Friday.

“The best midterm showing for the party of a president with a sub-45 percent job approval came in 1950,” the article continues, “when the Democrats lost 11 percent of their caucus.”

Throughout September and October, Americans were forced to suffer the pundit class predicting doom for fractured Republicans and lamenting the Democrats’ united front. On Thursday, we saw Mr. Obama admit to failure, and apologize to the American people. On Friday, we saw 39 House Democrats vote for a Republican Obamacare bill the president has threatened to veto.

This isn’t to suggest that Messrs. Lee and Cruz get the credit for the Democrats’ Obamacare debacle — they took a bold public stand, but they don’t. But we dare suggest one thing: that Republican pundits come out from hiding underneath their covers, change their bed sheets, and not play Chicken Little again. It’s unbecoming. And it’s stupid.

And it just isn’t so.
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Offline Rapunzel

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Offline happyg

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Quote
they took a bold public stand

They not only took a bold stand, they stood by their convictions, something many republicans are wont to do. They will come out swinging, but back off when the heat is on. Then, they look like flip-floppers. They let the enemy get to them, and become overly-cautious.

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Would we all be in the same place today regarding Obamacare, had Cruz not filibustered?  If the Shutdown was avoided?

....just asking.   Cause I think so.....
"It aint what you don't know that kills you.  It's what you know that aint so!" ...Theodore Sturgeon

"Journalism is about covering the news.  With a pillow.  Until it stops moving."    - David Burge (Iowahawk)

"It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Offline Rapunzel

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Would we all be in the same place today regarding Obamacare, had Cruz not filibustered?  If the Shutdown was avoided?

....just asking.   Cause I think so.....


Cruz did not cause the shutdown. Yes, he filibustered in an attempt to show the GOP they could stop this.  And had they not been so willing to go along with Reid and Obama the GOP could have stopped this thing.    As a matter of fact it could have de-funded and stopped at least two years ago -  if they had actually wanted to stop it. 

Today Americans know Cruz and Lee was correct and this bill is a train-wreck.  They are on record as actually trying to do something while the rest of the go along get along in the senate went willingly down this road with the congress passing bills knowing full well the GOP senators would help kill it in the senate.  It's been nothing but Kabuki theater until Cruz and Lee came along and said why are we doing this - the people need to know how back it is.... at the time the media and even some here could do nothing but scream "they are making the GOP look bad"...... in fact they did make the GOP look bad, but not in the manner the nay-sayers were claiming, they made them all look like the finger in the wind cowards most of them are.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2013, 04:07:15 am by Rapunzel »
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline olde north church

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Sens Cruz and Lee framed Zippy's Folly.  It would not have been so focused on without those two.
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Offline Lipstick on a Hillary

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Exactly.

Cruz and Lee made conservative opposition's position on Obamacare crystal clear to the world--BEFORE it all crashed.   As more chaos ensues, they will look even more prophetic.  Cruz has said he will have a repeal plan ready in a couple of weeks.   

Offline aligncare

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Unfortunately, enemy journalism has a permanent ideological affliction: institutional amnesia. The paper of record seems incapable of recording any truth and electronic media are the editors of history.

And so, the right is forever straining to be heard. What can we do but soldier on.

Offline olde north church

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Unfortunately, enemy journalism has a permanent ideological affliction: institutional amnesia. The paper of record seems incapable of recording any truth and electronic media are the editors of history.

And so, the right is forever straining to be heard. What can we do but soldier on.

Certain event transcend chronicle, this is one of them.  Do you recall President Reagan's passing?  Those weren't all Republicans on the side of the roads and highways.
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Online DCPatriot

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DCPatriot said:

Quote

Would we all be in the same place today regarding Obamacare, had Cruz not filibustered?  If the Shutdown was avoided?

....just asking.   Cause I think so.....


Quote


Cruz did not cause the shutdown. Yes, he filibustered in an attempt to show the GOP they could stop this.  And had they not been so willing to go along with Reid and Obama the GOP could have stopped this thing.    As a matter of fact it could have de-funded and stopped at least two years ago -  if they had actually wanted to stop it. 

Today Americans know Cruz and Lee was correct and this bill is a train-wreck.  They are on record as actually trying to do something while the rest of the go along get along in the senate went willingly down this road with the congress passing bills knowing full well the GOP senators would help kill it in the senate.  It's been nothing but Kabuki theater until Cruz and Lee came along and said why are we doing this - the people need to know how back it is.... at the time the media and even some here could do nothing but scream "they are making the GOP look bad"...... in fact they did make the GOP look bad, but not in the manner the nay-sayers were claiming, they made them all look like the finger in the wind cowards most of them are.

Once again, right out of the box, you purposely misinterpret what somebody types.   Where the heck did I say that Cruz was responsible for the 2 week shutdown?

What I said was that now that the smoke has cleared a bit, it's obvious to everybody that we'd be reading the same exact headlines we're reading today had Cruz and Lee not even existed.

Yes, it provides a feeling of Schadenfreude for some...but be honest...it was a non-event for everybody except Cruz and Lee.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2013, 01:57:04 pm by DCPatriot »
"It aint what you don't know that kills you.  It's what you know that aint so!" ...Theodore Sturgeon

"Journalism is about covering the news.  With a pillow.  Until it stops moving."    - David Burge (Iowahawk)

"It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Offline Slide Rule

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Cruz is a bright guy and persistent.

He labeled for the dull that Conservatives were opposed to Obysmal Care.


And with impeccable timing.

« Last Edit: November 17, 2013, 03:03:20 pm by Slide Rule »
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Offline Lipstick on a Hillary

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What I said was that now that the smoke has cleared a bit, it's obvious to everybody that we'd be reading the same exact headlines we're reading today had Cruz and Lee not even existed.

Yes, it provides a feeling of Schadenfreude for some...but be honest...it was a non-event for everybody except Cruz and Lee.

I think it is way too early to make that pronouncement. 

Offline Rapunzel

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Once again, right out of the box, you purposely misinterpret what somebody types.   Where the heck did I say that Cruz was responsible for the 2 week shutdown?

Actually, with all due respect, I did not misinterpret anything.  You asked:

Would we all be in the same place today regarding Obamacare, had Cruz not filibustered?  If the Shutdown was avoided?


Your question included Cruz in the same paragraph as the shutdown and Obamacare.

All I said is Cruz was not responsible for the shutdown. Sorry if stating the obvious upsets you.   I guess I could have said your question was apples and oranges.   

 If you did not mean to intimate Cruz was responsible for the shutdown then your question makes little sense to me.  A different way of interpreting your question could be:

"would the GOP be in the same place in the eyes of voters today regarding Obamacare had Cruz not filibustered or the shutdown had been avoided..."

The answer to that question would be

a) yes the country would be in the same place, but the GOP, in MY view, would not be viewed as positively as they are today in this point in history - in particular Cruz and Lee - had the filibuster not taken place.

b) As for the shutdown, that was the administrations doing and according to polls both parties take equal blame on it so the shutdown is past history and is a wash.

c) What people remember today is Cruz and Lee tried to warn everyone the time was short to save us all from the disaster that was coming October 1st.  Today they see that while Cruz and Lee were working for everyday Americans  Obama, and even a lot of Republicans, tried to throw darts and arrows at them. We need little more in the way of proof than the biggest arrow-thrower - John McCain suddenly getting on the kill the bill bandwagon last Thursday on Greta.

d) I would say Cruz and Lee were basically today's version of Paul Revere.  They saw this train-wreck coming and tried to warn everyone how bad this was going to be.  They were right.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776