..just how much, I'll leave to others to discuss...

I just think he's publicly showing that he's providing the Opposition with due respect (something the Dems didn't get when the shoe was on the other foot).
What's not getting airtime is what's getting passed to the Congressional committee heads coming out of these GOP tete-a-tete's.

Seems to me He could just provide particulars, and leave it up to the Congress-critters to decide if it's worth further consideration.

Shows the Public and the Press he's listening, and when the GOP still votes against, it shows the GOP in poorer light, as legislating in bad faith.

I'm no dummy, but this kind of maneuvering gives me a headache after a while....I'm not *that* good a Chess-player

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

Obama pissed off his base for giving up something valuable at a time when he's got one shot at getting it right, weakening trust in his judgment.

Most importantly from the political perspective, he blink on the contraception issue, arguably one of the most important elements not only for poor women but also population control when the poor are getting crammed down. Blinking right at the beginning is sign of real weakness that the GOP will be encouraged by.

would take family planning out is beyond me, playing politics with the poor is horrible. He says he wants it in another bill, but why take it out of a guaranteed vote when he knows any healthcare bill will be a battle.

What does contraception have to do with to putting people back to work? It was a christmas tree ornament, and an obvious "gimme": something to drop in negotiation.

The time has come to ditch the bill and replace it with no damn tax cuts & all infrastructure. "We tried, F you, now you lose everything!"

“The Playboy reader invites a female acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.” - Hugh Hefner

Unwanted babies born to poor mothers are expensive for the state to support.

TW, let me guess you've never been unexpectedly pregnant. in case you don't know, it's much harder to get, and keep a job if you're dealing with the rigors of pregnancy, birth, and caring for an infant of young child. pregnancy can also interfere with schooling and job training, and the physical ability to perform even "simple" jobs that require standing, lifting, or carrying things for long periods.

poor women are the ones who need contraception easily available the most. poor women are the ones most often left with few or no abortion options; in some states there are only a handful of clinics which perform them, and sometimes poor women have no way of getting to them. poor women are the ones most frequently discriminated against, illegally even, in terms of being hired in difficult economic times and competitive job markets. pregnancy just complicates all that, if unplanned.

it's an incredibly ignorant thing to suggest that reproductive freedom and choice have "nothing" to do with "getting people back to work." and i haven't even listed the ways an unexpected pregnancy can get in the way of a man, or young teen, being employed or finding a job.

you inspired me.

"something for nothing" is only a game men expect women to play, yo. hope that Hefner sig line gets you lots of dates.

poor women need to keep their goddam legs shut. free contraceptives? nothing's free w/o a catch.
what about "personal responsibilty"? what do you think Obama's talking about? maybe you don't know the white man's code words for "slut" & "lazy niggers, spics and white trash". you only get 2 years of welfare now. oh, and that WIC card only goes so far, and no one takes section 8, unless the place is a POS.
shit, don't you realize more unplanned poor children just means more underpaid nursing home attendants and cannon & prison fodder?

CD, get out of the northside. you've been brainwashed against reality.
Just show me one poor Hispanic or Black woman that would willingly get an abortion. It's against their culture. and thanks to the religious right, it's against the culture of poor white women as well.

What is the typical age of a woman having an abortion?

* The majority of U.S. women having abortions (56%) are in their 20s.

Do women who have an abortion want children?

* Six in 10 U.S. women having abortions are already mothers. More than half intend to have (more) children in the future.

Do women with religious affiliations have abortions?

* Nearly eight in 10 U.S. women obtaining an abortion report a religious affiliation (43% are Protestant, 27% Catholic and 8% another religion). Among all women aged 15–44, 51% are Protestant, 28% are Catholic and 5% belong to other religions.

Are there rural-urban differences in abortion?

* Most reproductive-age women in the United States (79%) live in metropolitan areas; women in these areas account for 88% of all U.S. abortions. Most abortion providers (95%) are also located in metropolitan areas, increasing access to abortion there.

What is the racial or ethnic background of women who have abortions?

* No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of women having abortions: 41% are white, 32% are black and 20% are Hispanic.

What racial or ethnic group has the highest abortion rate?

* The overall abortion rate is 21 per 1,000 U.S. women (i.e., each year 2.1% of all women of reproductive age have an abortion). Black and Hispanic women have higher abortion rates than non-Hispanic white women do. (The rates are 49 per 1,000 and 33 per 1,000 among black and Hispanic women, respectively, vs. 13 per 1,000 among non-Hispanic white women.) Black and Hispanic women have higher abortion rates primarily because they have higher rates of unintended pregnancy.

What are the trends in the characteristics of women having abortions?

* Over time, women having abortions have become increasingly likely to be poor, nonwhite and unmarried, and to already have one or more children.

Why do women have abortions?

* Most U.S. women cite more than one factor contributing to their decision to have an abortion: Almost three-quarters say that having a baby would interfere with work school or other responsibilities; about three-quarters say they cannot afford to have a child; and almost half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner (You know the kind of men that show no personal responsibility). Source

_{Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.}

Blame Captain Carnage, Paulson, Geithner, Summers, Obama and Bush.

Rubin's last act of public silliness was pushing for an end to mark to market, which wasn't particularly smart.

The Huff Post headline on Clemons story naming Rubin is actually quite a bit stronger than the article. Clemon's calls the Obama economic team "Rubin's acolytes."

The deep ideological divide that is emerging in the economics profession between those who worried about manic neoliberalism and Bob Rubin-style turbo-charged tilts towards an increasing unregulated finance industry is not hitting the Obama administration - because it is only hiring one side of that divide.

As best I can tell Obama is stacking his team with those who George Soros disdainfully calls "market fundamentalists."

[snip]

There were names here and there who might have kept some balance between those who could think through the micro-economic dimensions of economic policy and the macro types who helped contribute to today's problems -- but Obama's selections have mostly been the latter type of Robert Rubin acolytes. I would count Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer in that mix as well as both National Economic Council Chair Lawrence Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

There was the author who pointed out the reduction in crime some 18-20 years after abortion became legal, and the possible causation caused a big denial for the Republicans...freakonomics perhaps?

It caused a big denial for Democrats too, because it talked about dropping the black inner-city population. Just generally radioactive. Like me.

“The Playboy reader invites a female acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.” - Hugh Hefner

that the capital of the country is not sufficient to sustain it. That's the case with the US now. We are soaking up the world's capital and going deeper and deeper in debt to do it. This is clearly unsustainable, and there is no indication that the US is capable of pulling out of this spiral while it continues on the present course.

As you say, there is no indication that the ruling elite are planning to change course.