Obama and the "Republican Congress"

At the debate last night, the president said: “You know when members of the Republican Congress say, `We're going to sign a no tax pledge, so that we don't ask a dime for millionaires and billionaires to reduce our deficit so we can still invest in education, and helping kids go to college,’ he said, `Me too.’”

The phrase "Republican Congress" is not accurate, because Democrats have controlled the Senate since the midterm election of 2006.  But the president was not making a slip of the tongue.  A previous post cited several occasions on which he has referred to "the Republicans who run Congress."  And as we see below, he has spoken of a "Republican Congress" on at least 13 occasions this year.  Apparently he is following President Truman's model and using the opposition on Capitol Hill as a rhetorical foil.   

• Obama Victory Fund 2012 Fundraiser in New York City, May 14: "What we've got this time out is a candidate who said he'd basically rubber stamp a Republican Congress who wants us to go backwards and not forwards on a whole range of issues."
• Obama Victory Fund 2012 Fundraiser in View Park, California, June 7: "But along with this Republican Congress, they've got a vision that doesn't say we work together; it says everybody is on their own."
• Obama Victory Fund 2012 Fundraiser in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 12: "And I guess he thinks either it would result in a different outcome than it did when we just tried this 10 years ago, or he and the Republican Congress are counting on the notion that we forgot how it turned out."
• Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, June 14: "It's this vision that Democrats and Republicans used to share that Mr. Romney and the current Republican Congress have rejected in favor of a `no holds barred'" `government is the enemy,' `market is everything' approach."
• Obama Victory Fund 2012 Fundraiser in Tampa, Florida, June 22: "But if somebody out there thinks that's a good idea, if they want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then they should vote for Mr. Romney. That's how our democracy works. They should reelect the Republicans who've been running for Congress. That's what our democracy is all about. And together, Mr. Romney and a Republican Congress will take America back down this path that we've tried and didn't work the last time."
• Obama Victory Fund 2012 Fundraiser in Stamford, Connecticut, August 6: "That's their theory. That's the path they're proposing. That's where they will take us if we [they; White House correction.] win. It is on Mr. Romney's web site. It is in the form of a bill that passed through the House of Representatives by this Republican Congress."
• Campaign Rally in Davenport, Iowa, August 15: "And look, Congressman Ryan, I know him, he's a good man, a family man. But he is the ideological leader of this Republican Congress."
• Campaign Rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, September 21: "What kind of inside job is he talking about? Is it the job of rubberstamping the top-down, you're-on-your-own agenda of this Republican Congress?"
• Campaign Rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 22: "What kind of inside job is he talking about? [Laughter] Inside job rubberstamping a top-down agenda from thisRepublican Congress? We don't want that."
• Another Campaign Rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 22:  "We don't—if it's one of those inside jobs where he's rubberstamping the agenda of this Republican Congress, we don't want that."
• Campaign Rally in Bowling Green, Ohio, September 26: "Is he talking about the inside job to rubberstamp the agenda of this Republican Congress?"
• Campaign Rally in Kent, Ohio, September 26: Is he talking about an inside job of rubberstamping a top-down agenda from this Republican Congress?
• Campaign Rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia, September 27:  "Because if it's the inside job of rubberstamping the top-down, lobbyist-driven agenda of this Republican Congress, we don't want that."