Washington (CNN) – House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday described his amped-up rhetoric toward President Barack Obama in recent days as advice.
"The president is getting … some bad advice," Boehner said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Somebody needed to help him out, so I thought I would."
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In the past week the top Republican accused Obama of losing courage and decreasing the standing of the presidency.
Boehner reiterated the opinions to CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley on Sunday, saying Obama is "diminishing the presidency by picking fake fights, going after straw men every day."
The Ohio Republican said political gimmicks recently employed by the White House include support for the so-called Buffett Rule, a plan to apply a minimum tax rate of 30% on higher income earners; the president's rhetoric surrounding manipulation of the oil markets; and the debate over the extension of low student loan rates.
Looking to the 2012 election, he made the case for Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, by pointing to his success in business and pushed back against the suggestion that Romney's privilege would be an obstacle in the November election.
"The American people don't want to vote for a loser. They don't want to vote for someone that hasn't been successful," Boehner said. "I think Mitt Romney has an opportunity to show the American people that they too can succeed."
Boehner also indicated he is optimistic Republicans will hold onto the majority in the House.
He recently said Democrats have a "one in three chance" of regaining control of the lower chamber, after previously saying it was "nearly impossible."
But Boehner said nothing has changed.
"Listen, if the election were held today, I'm very optimistic that we will hold onto the majority," Boehner said. "But my job is to make sure that even under the worst-case scenario, we're able to hold onto our majority."
Also see:
2012 race makes fodder for Obama, Kimmel
Gingrich to quit presidential race Wednesday
Romney to appear with possible VP pick Ayotte in New Hampshire
McCain: Obama campaign video invoking bin Laden is 'pathetic'
Watch State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sundays at 9am ET. For the latest from State of the Union click here.
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No John Boehner, you're the loser and your entire republican/tea party are a delusional cluster of losers! Since President Obama has taken office, you people have done everything withing your means to stall progress and support the very same policies that led to our downfall at home and abroad! Mitt Romney may have been successful as a businessman but he doesn't have a clue how to be successful in running the country and being a successful leader of the free world!
does he think he is? Just hope nothing happens to the Pres and VP as he is unfit to be president. So why is he trying to act like one?
I love the circuitous, meandering logic here. Obama is an incumbent president, and the fight is on to save his job. Part I of the fight is defining the differences between you and the other guy. Romney and the former Clown Posse known as the primary candidates all sang one song. It went something like, "BE VERY AFRAID OF OBAMA AND WHAT HE REALLY WANTS TO DO TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY!" Talk about losers. We haven't heard one positive proposal from any Republican about WHAT THEY WILL DO TO FIX THINGS (besides taking care of the wealthy's sacred tax cuts and slashing aid to the poor and social services, etc.). Boehner knows his days as House Speaker could be numbered, first and foremost.
Boehner's trying to 'help' by stymieing all of the President's efforts to get America back on track?
Boehner's only other contribution has been to advocate for putting all of the discredited policies in place that got us into this mess in the first place.
Boehner and his tortured rhetoric are (to steal McCain's term) "pathetic".
"But my job is to make sure that even under the worst-case scenario, we're able to hold onto our majority."
No its not.. he obviously puts politics before his duty to the country, he needs "fired"
I'm not rich but I'm no loser.
Has Boehner not looked into the mirror the past 2 years? His GOP goons have fought everything brought before Congress and now he wants to give the President advice? This guy's a nut! He still refuses to accept that the American public gives the lowest scores to the House than in it's entire history, and HE wants to give advice? If anything, Boehner and his GOP counterparts have brought down the standards of the Congress by signing those stupid GOP pledges that puts the GOP above running the government!
Boehner, your job is not to hold onto the majority, your job is to help govern the country. Stop putting party before country, you loser.
@ BLAH BLAH THE WHEEL'S OFF YOUR TRAILER:
I've been meaning to tell you for quite sometime that your moniker is to die for!! Absolutely hilarious!!
In regards to Boo-Hoo rationalizing his criticism of ANYTHING this President does as a way of helping the brother out, he can keep his "help" to himself. Criticism without alternative courses of actions is just that: criticism.
Helping the President my left foot!
I'm waiting to see if he boo hoos big time when he looses that gavel.
Wow, this guy is really pathetic. Who actually believes that these people really wanted to see America prosper? If you believe, than you are a SUCKER!! Its all politics and what ever they can do to make Obama look bad.
Mr Boehner, Go back in your hole and cry! You big cry baby
Well, based on Boehner's reasoning, a drive-by shooting is actually business consulting in the pharmaceutical industry. His whole tenure as Speaker has been nothing more than an exercise in meaningless posturing.
"Oh yeah; don't forget; the economy only started it's downward spiral when the dems took control of congress. You all seem to like to overlook that fact."
And here we have even more proof that the rightwing extremists have no idea what the difference is between causation and correlation. The CAUSE of the economic meltdown was the GOBP cult's insane belief in disproven policies like deregulation and tax cuts for the filthy rich.
"republicans dont want the country to fail,they want obama to fail at destroying the country.unemployment was never this high under bush.obama has tripled welfare spending.bush never bragged that he wanted energy prices to skyrocket.it took a hurricane to shut down the oil industry for the price of gas to be this high under bush and that was just a month not an entire 4 year term."
Wow. that's a whole bunch of lies in there. You need to turn off Fakes News and hate radio, it's destroying your mind. Need proof? Only an insane person would think the President gets up in the morning thinking "hmmmm, how can I raise gas prices even higher?"
This is the kind of talk bullies use when exclusing their behavor. "Well, I was just trying to toughen him up! It's his fault that I made things worse!" It would be great if we lost Boehner come November.