Quote:
Originally Posted by Piscator
If one just reads the HEADLINE of the article “Senate Republicans Vow to Block Dem Legislation Until Tax Cuts, Budget Pass”, There is a sinister tone to it (surprised it was from Fox News). There is basically one quote in this article from the Republican side and it is:
"While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike," they wrote. "Given our struggling economy, preventing the tax increase and providing economic certainty should be our top priority."
This title could have also read “Republicans vow to focus on Legislation for 2011 Tax/Budget before all other Legislation”
So, how will this affect public image of Republicans in an Independents eye?
I think if the Independent just read the Headline it might be negative. If they read the article and actually thought about it, I would think they would not view it as negative at all, but as “prioritization”.
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Bingo!
In trying to dig up some more information about the Republican's stance (couldn't find a copy of the letter last night), it was difficult to really find any decent reports from the Republican side of the coin. The emphasis of most articles I dug up last night and this morning either had little information on the Republican's stance or focused a fair amount on Reid's response that was basically, "This strategy is very cynical but very obvious and transparent." A recurring theme from both left and right leaning news outlets was the same as the first paragraph in the above article, "Every Senate Republican has signed onto a letter
vowing to block all Democratic-backed legislation until the chamber extends the Bush tax cuts and approves a spending bill to keep the government running, Fox News has learned." (Emphasis mine.)
It was because of the consistent theme across news outlets focusing on Senate Republican's vowing to block all the Dem-backed legislation that made me think about how the Republican's vow is being presented to the public as obstructionist.
As Piscator stated above, most voters probably don't take the time to look further into political situations or reports. In the 24-hour news cycle we live in now, I believe that public image pays more dividends to politicians than their intent or even voting history (just look at how the landslides Frank keeps getting elected by). It's a shame.
Contrary to the words others try to put in my mouth ("You view the action by the repubs as obstruction, I view it as getting it done."), I don't view this vow as obstruction but I do think the people who watch left-leaning news outlets like MSNBC or CNN and even those that read the article above from Fox might.
As I stated in my initial post, the two issues that Republicans are declaring as their top priority should be everyone's top priority. Allowing people to continue sitting on their ass by extending Unemployment, allowing gays in the military, giving $4.5 billion in reparations to black farmers and American Indians and passing Food Bills have no where near the importance as settling if and how the Bush Tax breaks will be extended and funding the government free of pork.