President Obama speaks at the Easter Prayer Breakfast (courtesy whitehouse.gov)

In a press conference yesterday following the overwhelming landslide election of Republicans to the House, Senate and Governors’ seats across America, President Obama laid out his vision for how he’ll govern over the next two years. Many were expecting him to strike a conciliatory tone, offering to work with a legislative branch dominated by the opposing party. What actually happened, though, was that the president pledged to do whatever he wants and ignore any legislation he doesn’t like . . .

From the White House official remarks:

I’m committed to making sure that I measure ideas not by whether they are from Democrats or Republicans, but whether they work for the American people.  And that’s not to say that we won’t disagree over some issues that we’re passionate about.  We will.  Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign.  I’m pretty sure I’ll take some actions that some in Congress will not like.  That’s natural.  That’s how our democracy works.  But we can surely find ways to work together on issues where there’s broad agreement among the American people.

I’m the kind of guy who believes that vox populi vox dei — the voice of the people is the voice of God — especially in a representative democracy like ours. Politicians are placed in power to carry out the will of the people, not impose their own personal will on the government. It looks to me like the American people made their voice heard loud and clear when they elected an overwhelmingly Republican legislature. They are fed up with his policies (especially those relating to gun control), but President Obama’s plan is to keep doing whatever he wants, only playing nice when it suits his agenda.

Remember all those hopes for national reciprocity and NFA reform? Yeah, no. It looks like gridlock is the best we can hope for during the next two years.

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99 COMMENTS

  1. Anybody who thought a hopeless narcissist like Obama would even attempt to work with anyone who disagrees with him was dreaming.

    • You nailed it. Every single thing he says is all about ‘me, me, me’ – like he was anointed a King.

      He has become exactly what he decried so loudly about Bush — a Tyrant. What a hypocrite liar.

      All he’s doing is enraging the populace more, setting up the Dems to get crushed again, in 2016

  2. Well, vets, better save your shekels . If you thought the budget fights recently were bad, just wait until the GOP majority submits a budget for his signature …..

    • It not like the Democrat-controlled senate had done anything resembling a good job for vets over the last several years.

      • Well, the Dems have done a great job of running the VA. Right? A vet can die waiting for an examination, but a spy can get his sex change operation at public expense. Bravo, Democrats!

    • The Dems haven’t passed a budget since they took control, even though the constitution requires it. They were too cowardly to do it, not that it helped them. Look at their massive losses. At least the Repubs will pass a budget.

      The VA needs to be completely douched out or abolished. No Dem dares to do that. Few Repubs would, but some would.

      • The Constitution does not require a budget. it only requires that Public Expenditures be recorded and reported.

  3. We do have a system of checks and balances. The President has the power to veto legislation, and that power applies whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat.

  4. Gridlock may be an improvement.

    This also gives Obama two more years to damage the Democrat’s brand.

    • +100 on that! I heard an interview on Varney yesterday, and this attitude may be the blow to Hillary and company in 2016. If he starts working with congress, she might have a chance, but he’s too much of a narcissist to concede on anything.

  5. Impeach his traitorist azz. Whatever…18 trillion in debt kinda’ limits the future anyway.

    • Not really… and it’s one reason why his approval rating may be lower than Bush’s by the team he leaves.

  7. If I were the Republican leadership, I’d make him veto a LOT of bills. Show the American public what you would get passed if Obama weren’t in charge.

    • Yes, it would be nice to see the Republicans actually submit some legislation. Maybe if they stop trying to repeal health care legislation.

      • That depends, if they vote to repeal and replace it with something that is true reform, then they will be going somewhere. Just trying to remove it in one fell swoop is the bad route.

        • Good legislation would be breaking up the medical monopoly and going on some trust-busting in the medical world. Hell, a LOT of companies can use some trust-busting. The GWB admin went way overboard in M&A in the 2000’s post dot.Bomb. There’s no reason a $200 dose of scorpion anti-venom should result in a $60K hospital bill – but that’s the reality of our health-care system. It’s time to go back to cash-on-the-barrelhead, not these stupid Insurance plans.

          But the Repubs aren’t known for trust-busting lately, so I won’t hold my breath.

  9. Obama thinks he is fit to be a dictator. He is going to abuse and push the limits of presidential power until somebody stops him. The congress should be warning him that if he tries to issue a Executive Order on something that is clearly in the realm of legislation (like amnesty for millions of illegals) they will challenge the legality of the action with the Supreme Court or impeach him.

    • Defund his pet projects. Defund Air Force One. Defund his vacations and his golf outings. Defund his staffers and his security. Defund every goddamn thing the government does if that’s what it takes. Then, drag Holder and Lerner and Jarrett to Capitol Hill to testify under oath about their traitorous activities every single day until one of them breaks down. Keep diminishing his sphere of influence until he quits or goes full on Nero, then promptly remove him and put him in the nut house where he belongs.

  10. Obama is a ideologue. When he does not like a federal law, passed by both parties and signed by the POTUS, such as DOMA he and his sycophant AG Holder do not defend it. He says he loves democracy and defends the vote of the people without any ID, but when the people vote for traditional marriage, he disavows them and supports lawsuits against the people and against democracy in action. When he does not like that Congress can override his veto, or does not act as he wants them to act, he issues a decree or fiat (executive order) to by-pass them. Even the leftist jurists on the SCOTUS have unanimously slapped him down 9 times and voted him down as a majority even more when he superseded his authority. All of that from a former constitutional instructor.

    He will do what he wants. Congress and private citizens will have to override him, sue him and further disgrace him. Sixty-nine members of his own Democrat Party were voted out of Congress since he became president. In the voters booth, we can express our displeasure, as we have been doing, most recently on the 4th.

  11. It was pointed out in something I read that he and his staffers genuinely believe that the Dems lost like they did because they refused to defend Obama’s “achievements.”

    With that as an assumption, it’s impossible to realize you have been repudiated, because you will think the question hasn’t really been asked.

    So yeah, he’s going to be a arrogant pr*ck for the next two years

  12. Calling our republic a representative democracy is reprehensible. You get what you asked for. In a representative democracy the rights of the people (group, majority) are paramount, a republic values individual rights.

    • Yhea, whenever I see the word “Democracy” bantered about I always wonder what country folks are referring to, because it’s certainly not the United States…

      O2

    • The word “republic” refers to the structure of the government. The term “representative democracy” refers to the way citizens vote for people to represent them in that republic. Both terms are correct, but they refer to two different facets of the government.

      Rome was a republic. I assure you that nobody in that republic gave a sh!t about individual rights.

      • That’s why i say we are a Constitutional Representative Republic. No democracy mentioned at all. Even the name People’s Republic of China can show how in modern times the word Republic doesn’t mean representative form of government.

        • Any “republic” is by definition “representative”. The question is, representative of whom? When you say “representative democracy”, that question is answered: representative of the people (demos).

          There’s nothing wrong with the word “democracy”, and US sure as heck is one. It’s not contradictory to being a republic, or having a constitution. Most modern democracies are also republics and have constitutions.

  13. Further proof this election was not a win for gun people. The pres will veto anything we want, and the governors that passed big anti gun bills kept their jobs. This sends a clear message that it’s ok to trample 2A at a state level without repercussions. Oh, and we lost WA, probably forever. But keep talking about all those great 2A senators we gained that will do nothing for us.

      • Geez, I dunno, it kinda sounds like he’s got a point. Maybe now’s not the time to celebrate…?

    • @Vhyrus, NRA-endorsed candidates slaughtered their opposition. We won in a full-blown rout. Yeah, WA went full batshit crazy, but there are casualties in every battle. You can’t win them all.

      You seem like the kinda guy who would complain about finding a pound of gold buried in his backyard because he’d have to pay taxes on it.

      • A victory is when you actually win something. When I get a right or freedom back that I didn’t have at some previous point in my life, I will consider it a victory. Right now, all I’m seeing is red.

        fyi, if I found a pound of gold in my backyard, I sure as hell wouldn’t be telling anyone about it, especially someone who could legally chip a piece off for himself. Just sayin.

      • UBC is annoying, but it’s a far cry from “batshit crazy”. We can still have “assault weapons” and proper-capacity magazines (just got a couple of Korean 100-rounders last week!), SBRs and silencers are legal, concealed carry is shall-issue and open carry is not licensed etc.

    • First of all vetoes can be overridden. Need a 2/3 majority but it can and does happen. And we smashed several libturd governors and senators that were solidly antigun. There’s nothing wrong with being happy about a decent victory. It wasn’t a complete monumental victory for gun rights, but it sent a big message, that gun and right wing voters can still bring the pain to the Liberal Elite. That is a cause to celebrate at least a little bit. Believe me, the democrats are reeling from this. They’ll be back, but enjoy this pain we’ve brought them. This kind of victory DOES matter, look at the last attempt at Di Fi’s AWB,- Harry Reid DID NOT support it. I remember clear as day him saying he supported the expanded background checks but not an AWB because he knew it would not pass and that he feared a republican backlash. That is a big statement, he remembers what happened in the 90’s, and he was afraid it would happen again. The more pain that’s brought to the democrats in relation the gun control, the more their party will be splintered in supporting it, and the better for us all.

  14. At least this time, if he wants a bill blocked he doesn’t like, he’ll actually have to put his name on it. No more weaseling out of it by using his allies in Congress. He wants a bill to fail, he has to veto it. He has to sign it. And when the whole world wonders why nothing is getting done, there will be his name, in ink, saying that he did not want to get anything done.

    • There will be legislative gridlock on gun controls, but our President is a vindictive and devious foe. Gun owners have risen to the top of his enemies list and we can expect a ferocious regulatory blitz.

    • Some say words like “gridlock and obstruction” when others won’t simply roll over and rubber-stamp progressive ideas. The proper terms I remember from civics class are “checks and balances”.

    • I wholeheartedly agree. When government is divided, broken, gridlocked, and stalemated, the people win. We don’t need any “new laws”, period. Bring on more government shutdowns. We can do just fine without their silly games. If the government doesn’t have money to do anything, then they don’t have the money to take away your rights. We can feed of off and even enjoy living off of their own incompetence.

  17. Correction: We are a Representative Republic, not a Representative Democracy. Democracy, at its best, mob rule and, in the time of the founding fathers, the term democrat was an epithet for one who does not think for oneself.

    • Unfortunately, that distinction-which is critical-is rarely made in the media or in our public education system.

    • in the time of the founding fathers, the term democrat was an epithet for one who does not think for oneself.

      This has changed how?

    • I don’t know what you thought you were going to get when your ancestors made suffrage universal, but what you got was a democracy. A sclerotic, slow-moving democracy, but a democracy indeed.

  19. “I’m the kind of guy who believes that vox populi vox dei — the voice of the people is the voice of God – especially in a representative democracy like ours.”

    If you consider the available evidence–both globally and in our own country–insufficient to condemn universal suffrage democracy as an adequate governmental system, then pray, what evidence would convince you?

      • I haven’t read or heard a Dorr War reference in some twenty years. I’d bet one couldn’t find one public high school senior out of one thousand chosen at random who could even identify that conflict. That’s a shame.

        Ironically, though, the places with the lowest homeownership rates, including California, New York, D.C., Hawaii, and, of course, Rhode Island, also tend to be among the most restrictive of firearms rights. So I’m not sure what the newly disenfranchised would go to war with, other than stale slogans and tersely worded tweets.

        • I had to look that one up, I graduated 6 years ago, and have never heard one mention of that once. Which is a damned shame.

        • I’m 34, graduated CA H.S. in ’98 and before your comment I’d never heard of that war. Most of my education has come in my free time after my school years. I’m going to look that one up as soon as I’m back by my computer.

      • The irresponsible are incapable of governing and so largely do not. The main question then, is what kind of elite will we be ruled by? I prefer one not tied to the vagaries of the mob. You may have Dorr the Harvard man if you like. His kind only grow more numerous in our current system, ruling various desks and agencies and bureaus.

        Kudos to you, I had never heard of Dorr or his war, despite a good and proper Progressive indoctrination one state to the north.

    • Being a resident of Washington state, I can tell you that vox populi has a definite downside. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

  20. While the election was a Republican victory, there is still a lot of work to be done. Wouldn’t it be nice if those who pushed anti-gun laws got thrown in prison? That’s exactly what would happen to John Q. Taxpayer for the egregious offense of have a shell casing in DC.

  21. It is a pipe dream to end all pipe dreams, but I want to see what he’d say as the US Marshalls drag Obama’s impeached behind away.

  22. I listened to the Pres and he and Mitch said the same thing. That there were things they would disagree on and things they could work on.

    The Dept of Veteran Affairs has been dysfunctional for decades. I know vets that have had great difficulty navigating that system way before this Pres.

    Perhaps we the people would get what we want if we would stop treating all this as the Super Bowl between to teams. Let’s be we the people. Why? Because You hate it when antis misunderstand you and think you are crazy and irresponsible and have no right to your rights.

    Just as they have a lot to learn about you, you can open your eyes and ears and learn about them. No one has it all correct. We, We, We.

  23. In my dreams I see 2A supporters and their families surrounding 1600 Pennsylvania Ave 100 yards deep, engaged in a very civilized combination of Occupy Wall Street and 1968 Democratic National Convention activity, leaving no doubt as to who is in charge. I hear shouts of “Unfair! Unfair!” lol

    • Yes, but someone would have to bring a bunch of Colombian hookers to keep the Secret Service busy. And some dog biscuits too.

      • Colombian hookers are kinda expensive…Just trying to negotiate a good price gets the cops involved…

  25. I’m listening to the story about the marine that was stuck in a Mexican prison for 200 days. A president with a conscience and balls would call the Mexican President and say, “you let him out or we’ll send Marines down and take him out”.
    So what does Obama do? Nothing, that’s what. Nothing. He doesn’t give a damn about anyone other than himself.

  28. Vox populi? Since when has politician listened to the voice of the people? Rather, to be a “leader”, politicians say what THEY think people want to hear, their “vision” of where the country should go, and then go off and do pretty much whatever they damn well please. If people don’t like it, well then there is always another election a few years off.

  30. “I’m the kind of guy who believes that vox populi vox dei — the voice of the people is the voice of God – especially in a representative democracy like ours.” – Nick Leghorn

    “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.” – James Madison Federalist Paper #55

    Look at Washington state, and I will show you where you’re wrong.

  31. I’ve just learned to tune this guy out completely. Honestly, how narcissistic do you have to be to still stamp your feet in a childish temper tantrum after the entirety of congress, most of the supreme court, and the voting public have said, “I’m sorry Mr. President, but you just can’t do that,” multiple times? I may be young, but I doubt any president in history has held the level contempt this man has for his own country.

      • really? I feel that Bush Jr. was a true patriot trying to do right for the country during a terrible time, he made mistakes, but he had respect. But you are entitled to your opinion, much like other body parts, everyone has one and each one is full of something.

      • @Drew – way to think that answer out. You had to go deep into the liberal playbook to make the comparison to “Bush jr.” Clap..clap…clap…..

  33. Mr. Obama is a CHILD. He needs to be summarily spanked by congress and senate majorities in the next 2 years.

  35. i dunno, it was pretty obvious that many Dems were distancing themselves from Obama during the election run up. If he thinks his magic veto pen is inviolate, he may have a surprise. I suspect there might be enough Dems keen to keep their jobs that will play along with an override of a veto.

  36. What? Democrats were distancing themselves from Barack Ebola? Do they really think there’s something wrong with him?

  37. What actually happened, though, was that the president pledged to do whatever he wants and ignore any legislation he doesn’t like . . .sounds like Eric Cartman on South Park.

  38. I actually thought the documentary America hit the nail on the head concerning Obozo and Hellary being products of International Bolshevism in the form of Saul Alinsky.

  39. The president has veto powers for a reason. When “your” guy is in the office, you’ll remember what that reason is.

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