Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Contact
Ace:aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com Recent Entries
America's Worst Previous President, Jimmy Carter, Dead at 100
THE MORNING RANT: Government is Paying Manufacturers to Produce Electric School Buses, and Then Paying School Districts to Buy Them Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 12/30/24 Daily Tech News 30 December 2024 Sunday Overnight Open Thread - December 29, 2024 [Doof] Gun Thread: Post Christmas and Pre-New Year 2024 Edition! Food Thread: Raccoons, Brisket, And Latkes...A Match Made In Heaven! First-World Problems... The Progressives Love Lawfare...Payback Is A B*tch! Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« Breaking: David Petraeus Resigns As CIA Head |
Main
| Important Information: James Bond Isn't Gay »
November 09, 2012
John Boehner, WeakstickThere are certain hard and fast rules in negotiating, and if you don't know those, you can't do it. I'm not saying John Boehner isn't a nice, intelligent man. But he is risky business adverse, even when it's not that risky. Some people are just like that. Some people would rather buy a Saturn, where you go in and pay the price--where you don't have to negotiate with the salesman. (That was one of the selling points of the Saturn; you paid a set price, no haggling.) A lot of people just don't like the pressure of negotiating, even when it doesn't hurt. They're not wired that way. Remember last week when it seemed like Romney would win? Harry Reid put down his marker immediately: "I just can't work with Romney." Now, that's not necessarily true, but that's what you do in a tough negotiation; you stake out a tough position. You prep the battlefield. You take the hardest-line posture and then work back from there. What did John Boehner do after the election? He talked immediately about raising revenue. "[T]he American people expect us to find common ground, we are willing to accept some additional revenues, via tax reform." See the difference? Reid knows how to deal. Speaker Boehner should have matched Harry Reid: "President Obama is too extreme, and unless he's willing to finally give a little and bring a plan to the table, I don't see how anything will change." Although that's not necessarily true, that's what you would say. Then you would work back from the hardline ground that you've occupied. Speaker Boehner did the same thing in July of 2011 when he blurted out in an interview, to paraphrase, "Oh, no, we won't shut down the government." Whether or not that was true, it's not something he should have said out loud. In The Godfather Don Corleone gets angry with Santino when he speaks out of turn during a negotiation: "You never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking again!" Speaker Boehner's natural impulse is to be honest. That isn't always helpful at the beginning of a negotiation. This is one area where Donald Trump speaks with authority. He's fond of saying, from memory, "The right guy can get the deal. You can send one guy in who can't get anything done and then send in another guy with the same deal and he can get the deal. The only difference is the guy you sent in." Here's another contrast: Remember Ronald Reagan's first meeting with Gorbachev at Reykjavik? Reagan blew Gorbachev out of his chair in the first minutes of the first day. He put a stranglehold on the hardliner ground and put Gorbachev on the defensive. Gorbachev shot back, "Mr. President, I am not a student, you are not a teacher." Well, as soon as Gorbachev said that, Ronald Reagan was the teacher. It was over. The proper response was to try to reclaim the hardline ground. It's just posturing, but it's effective. Ronald Reagan was a master negotiator. He had the natural ability plus all those years as president of SAG and dealing with Hollywood lawyers. Gorbachev didn't stand a chance. One last contrast: Obama is not a negotiator either, but he does have people who do know what they're doing. He pwned the hardliner ground today. Ace has already written about it: Give Me My Tax Hikes On Those Making $250,000 Or More Right Now, Before Anything Else, As a Show of Good Faith. Does Obama appear to be "seeking common ground" here? No, of course not. As with the Harry Reid and Ronald Reagan examples above, it's just starting point for negotiating. But it's what you do. Why must we sound conciliatory while they never do? Granted, we're not going to get a headline from the New York Times that says "If Harry Reid is trying to seem conciliatory, he’s not doing a great job of it." But that shouldn't dictate our approach. Take the hardline stance and work back from there. Be conciliatory at the end, not at the beginning. All this is to say Boehner has to go. I like him, and he's a good man, but he has been out of his depth with Reid, and Pelosi, and the White House. High stakes deal-making is not something he is well-suited for. It comes naturally to some people. To others, it does not. Coffee is for closers (NSFW). | Recent Comments
Seems Legit:
"How odd, I thought everyone understood that electr ..."
rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices [s][/b][/i][/u]: "You’d think they would’ve come up with ..." Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle : "MiG-29 has two sets of intakes Bonus hole. ..." It's me donna : "270 242 To be fair, Elon did advise that there isn ..." West Frisian Women's Auxiliary : "The red head gene mutation also enables them to dr ..." eleven: "If there wasn't a steel re-enforced concrete wall ..." SMOD: "DC_Draino @DC_Draino Think about this If Tr ..." Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]thus, his push to ship congolese lithium mining ..." garrett: "What is the increased Mass of an Electric School B ..." Thomas Paine: "242 To be fair, Elon did advise that there isn't e ..." Skip : "Bet they won't get 10 years of use out of a EV Bus ..." Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]They handle 25% more pain than others, and repo ..." Recent Entries
America's Worst Previous President, Jimmy Carter, Dead at 100
THE MORNING RANT: Government is Paying Manufacturers to Produce Electric School Buses, and Then Paying School Districts to Buy Them Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 12/30/24 Daily Tech News 30 December 2024 Sunday Overnight Open Thread - December 29, 2024 [Doof] Gun Thread: Post Christmas and Pre-New Year 2024 Edition! Food Thread: Raccoons, Brisket, And Latkes...A Match Made In Heaven! First-World Problems... The Progressives Love Lawfare...Payback Is A B*tch! Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |