country, resort fees and how much money people were going to save on hotel overcharges got more than immigration and china combined. so i think there was some criticism of the speech. democrats came away saying it is a president who fights. republicans came away saying he overstates some things and accused us of trying to kill medicare and social security and it didn t work out for him. harris: he missed an opportunity. if you were struggling to put food on the table now because prices are so high and blessed enough to have a job that has given you a raise you are spending it on what you used to spend less on, food and heating right now. resort fees, probably not first on your list because you try to put food on your table, not the resort s. exactly. i think it was there were some chuckles in the crowd. i don t think it was meant to be a laugh line. the president did say a number
rick scott, the guy that wanted to do away with medicare calling it a political suicide if republicans go in that direction. what do you think about it, lee? well, you know, i think that some of these big these big threats or these big ideas a lot of people saying, the republicans will kill medicare, cut spending and all of these things. that is not necessarily what matters to most of the american people. what the american people want to hear about is what will be done to make things better than they are today. medicare obviously is a popular thing. social security, all of these things are really controversial. at the bottom line right now, american people feel worse today than they have and did three months ago. things are not good. they re feeling worse. it s not going to help to fight and individual programs. what are we going to do to lift the whole economy up. part of that will be republicans cutting spending, but they need to shift the conversation to what that means. what do
budget guy who wanted to kill medicare. paul ryan released budget after budget after budget over a period of years that called for the dismantling of medicare. and mitt romney didn t want to be known as the presidential candidate wanting to kill medicare. so the romney camp came up with a solution, i m rubber, you re glue solution. look, mitt romney claims president obama will end medicare. oh, he ll i see. problem solved. in politics, this is a classic. when you re getting attacked for something, just accuse your opponent of being guilty of the same thing. whatever the attack is, if it s sticking to you, just apply those words in a substantively meaningless way to whoever s saying it about you so it seems to start seem confusing to people or the words losing their meaning. it s in that tradition that last night came to this. look. rachel maddow mocked rand paul for plagiarism, but she s been accused of it too. this article on the conservative website which includes input
president obama will end medicare. oh, he ll i see. problem solved. in politics, this is a classic. when you re getting attacked for something, just accuse your opponent of being guilty of the same thing. whatever the attack is, if it s sticking to you, just apply those words in a substantively meaningless way to whoever s saying it about you so it seems to start seem confusing to people or the words losing their meaning. it s in that tradition that last night came to this. look. rachel maddow mocked rand paul for plagiarism, but she s been accused of it too. this article on the conservative website which includes input from senator paul s representatives and even a statement from a rand paul adviser presents no evidence at all of plagiarism by the show. the closest it gets to accusing the show of plagiarism is noting other people on the internet made similar analogies in stories to the news we covered. but look at the headline, maddow s guilty of it too. i m rubber, you re glue. so
about political realities. they thought he argued that if you truly were interested in an above all else in defeating republicans in 2014, why why he try to reach a deal on immigration reform? why push democrats on entitlements instead of beating up republicans saying they wanted to kill medicare or hostile to latinos. republican leaders issued a statement that sounded like one from a tense bilateral meeting between the u.s. and a country that isn t quite an ally but isn t quite an enemy. i thought we had a very frank and candid exchange of ideas and frankly i think it was productive. it was good that the president came. it s something that should have happened many times before. you know, again, if the president wants to let our unwillingness to raise taxes get in the way, then we re not going to be able to set differences aside and focus on what we agree on. and my take away was that.