Thursday, July 14, 2011

Unclear on the concept

That would be President Barack Obama, who today told Republican leaders, with respect to the debt ceiling increase, "Don't call my bluff."


You'd think a poker-playing president wouldn't be so clueless.

If it's a bluff, calling is exactly what one is supposed to do!

Who voted for this idiot anyway?

12 comments:

Andy "zzjitterzz" said...

At that point, I would have liked if one of the GOP leaders had said "You're bluffing? I'm all in!"

To answer your closing question, a lot of people did, sadly. I'm guessing they feel like they got bluffed, too.

DuggleBogey said...

Actually, if someone at a poker table said "Don't call my bluff" wouldn't he be trying to talk you into calling because he's really not bluffing?

Stop with the first level thinking.

NT (aka Cardgrrl) said...

I did.

Isn't that classic table talk? "Don't call my bluff..." when you hold the nuts.

Rakewell said...

The full quotation:

“He said to me, ‘Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this,’ “ Cantor said. “I was somewhat taken aback,” he added, with a smile.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/171403-obama-warns-cantor-dont-call-my-bluff-in-debt-talks

The second part of it is clearly meant to imply, "You'll regret it if you call." But if that's the message, then his point is that he is not bluffing. The two parts of the message are incongruent.

I don't think it's reasonable to see this as a clever attempt to get somebody to do the opposite of the literal meaning of the words, like Brer Rabbit saying "Don't throw me into that briar patch." It was just an inept choice of words, not thought through.

NT (aka Cardgrrl) said...

If you punctuate it like this:

Don't call my "bluff." I'm going to the American people with this.

you get the sense he was trying to convey, i.e.: "you may think I'm bluffing here, but I'm not."

Rakewell said...

Maybe it's just me, but if I intended to convey the message, "You may think I'm bluffing here, but I'm not," I would probably say something like, "You may think I'm bluffing here, but I'm not."

In other words, I agree that that is most likely approximately what was intended. The word choice, however, was awkward at best.

NT (aka Cardgrrl) said...

Huh, this is odd. I followed the link to read your source for myself.

The quotation you cited is nowhere to be found in the article now (although it lingers in the URL).

I wanted to check because I noticed that they were reporting what SOMEONE ELSE SAID that Obama said (and not someone who's exactly a fan, either).

Was it removed, or was it in some other article?

Rakewell said...

It's still there, 13th paragraph of article from "The Hill."

NT (aka Cardgrrl) said...

I don't see it. This is the link in your piece:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/137835875/obama-to-gop-dont-call-my-bluff

That's NPR, not "The Hill."

Rakewell said...

Read comment thread.

NT said...

Sorry, I missed that.

You might want to change your link in the main post to that one, since it's where the quotation from Cantor actually appears.

shju2 said...

The poker analogy of Colbert is more apt:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/391826/july-13-2011/obama-calls-the-republican-bluff