It's almost funny to hear President Obama continue to act as if he has an unchallenged mandate to do as he pleases. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I think its pretty clear which party is really in control in DC right now, and it's not the progressive liberal branch of the West Wing and Capital Hill; it's the conservative base of the conservative party that's having a field day.
Some would say that's crazy. What, with Obama having won the election overwhelmingly in November and the Senate and House holding commanding majorities over Republicans. But if the Democrats are so in-charge, then why, with such a commanding power position in DC, can't they get anything passed? Why does Obama have to go on 5 Sunday show's this week, some 5-months into the healthcare debate that wasn't supposed to be a debate because it was what all American's wanted, to plead his case? Why does he have to continue to take up prime-time TV slots to craft his arguments? (Quite note to Obama: Be careful. It's football season now and if you start messing with the early Sunday or Monday night games or the Thursday night games post-Thanksgiving, you are going to be in a world of hurt in the polls.)
The fact of the matter is that Obama ran a clever middle of the road campaign at an opportune time when America turned its back on George Bush and John McCain stuttered his way through a terrible campaign (see my posts from last year when I routinely criticized the McCain camp for this.) However, as American's have a reality check about the direction of the so called Progressive movement, which is vastly different than the tax cutting middle of the road campaign, they are supporting the 'minority' conservative movement in an attempt to stop Obama from destroying the fabric of democracy.
This past week I spoke for about 30 minutes with someone who works at the most powerful progressive DC think-tank, one that has provided several cabinet members, Czar's, and ideas for the stimulus bill, health-care, energy policy, and social policy. The conversation underscored the naivete of the Progressive movement. While I challenged this person on the risks associated with demanding the more Progressive components of the health-care bill, I was quickly corrected on the points of Obama's lost mandate: "It's not like he was going to stay at 80% forever (note: was he ever actually at 80%?), he still has a big support base (note: really? apparently his support numbers fell faster than any post WWII President), and "failure just isn't an option" and "I can't imagine a world where we don't get these issues passed because the real cost is the melting ice-caps and dying polar-bears...."
As I had this conversation, I realized why, for much of the past 35 years, Republicans have held a commanding position in DC with only intermittent periods of Democrat control of the House and Senate and White House; Republicans have common sense and are living in reality where adjustments are made and you legislate the people's will, not what you wish the people's will was so that you can change the world to your ideal view (I take full credit for first comparing Obama's tactics to Hitler last year when I compared his campaign style tactics to those used by Hitler to brain-wash loyalists.)
So as Obama pushes ahead with healthcare, and he will push ahead and probably sign some meaningless bill to claim victory or else he risks losing the support to move energy, the next public mistake, and transportation, which is at least somewhat supportable, he has to be wondering whether making health-care, the most polarizing issue of his presidency so early(did he even talk much about healthcare reform on the campaign trail?), was a mistake. Energy would've had a little more support, and he could have quickly followed that up with transportation re-authorization in September. And then he would've had the support necessary to at least stage a legitimate fight on healthcare.
I will be watching the Gov. races in NJ and VA to see what America's position on Obama really is right now. I doubt its going to be as favorable as he would expect. But it probably wont phase the President, who continues to live in fantasy world where he thinks this country is left-leaning.
I think its pretty clear which party is really in control in DC right now, and it's not the progressive liberal branch of the West Wing and Capital Hill; it's the conservative base of the conservative party that's having a field day.
Some would say that's crazy. What, with Obama having won the election overwhelmingly in November and the Senate and House holding commanding majorities over Republicans. But if the Democrats are so in-charge, then why, with such a commanding power position in DC, can't they get anything passed? Why does Obama have to go on 5 Sunday show's this week, some 5-months into the healthcare debate that wasn't supposed to be a debate because it was what all American's wanted, to plead his case? Why does he have to continue to take up prime-time TV slots to craft his arguments? (Quite note to Obama: Be careful. It's football season now and if you start messing with the early Sunday or Monday night games or the Thursday night games post-Thanksgiving, you are going to be in a world of hurt in the polls.)
The fact of the matter is that Obama ran a clever middle of the road campaign at an opportune time when America turned its back on George Bush and John McCain stuttered his way through a terrible campaign (see my posts from last year when I routinely criticized the McCain camp for this.) However, as American's have a reality check about the direction of the so called Progressive movement, which is vastly different than the tax cutting middle of the road campaign, they are supporting the 'minority' conservative movement in an attempt to stop Obama from destroying the fabric of democracy.
This past week I spoke for about 30 minutes with someone who works at the most powerful progressive DC think-tank, one that has provided several cabinet members, Czar's, and ideas for the stimulus bill, health-care, energy policy, and social policy. The conversation underscored the naivete of the Progressive movement. While I challenged this person on the risks associated with demanding the more Progressive components of the health-care bill, I was quickly corrected on the points of Obama's lost mandate: "It's not like he was going to stay at 80% forever (note: was he ever actually at 80%?), he still has a big support base (note: really? apparently his support numbers fell faster than any post WWII President), and "failure just isn't an option" and "I can't imagine a world where we don't get these issues passed because the real cost is the melting ice-caps and dying polar-bears...."
As I had this conversation, I realized why, for much of the past 35 years, Republicans have held a commanding position in DC with only intermittent periods of Democrat control of the House and Senate and White House; Republicans have common sense and are living in reality where adjustments are made and you legislate the people's will, not what you wish the people's will was so that you can change the world to your ideal view (I take full credit for first comparing Obama's tactics to Hitler last year when I compared his campaign style tactics to those used by Hitler to brain-wash loyalists.)
So as Obama pushes ahead with healthcare, and he will push ahead and probably sign some meaningless bill to claim victory or else he risks losing the support to move energy, the next public mistake, and transportation, which is at least somewhat supportable, he has to be wondering whether making health-care, the most polarizing issue of his presidency so early(did he even talk much about healthcare reform on the campaign trail?), was a mistake. Energy would've had a little more support, and he could have quickly followed that up with transportation re-authorization in September. And then he would've had the support necessary to at least stage a legitimate fight on healthcare.
I will be watching the Gov. races in NJ and VA to see what America's position on Obama really is right now. I doubt its going to be as favorable as he would expect. But it probably wont phase the President, who continues to live in fantasy world where he thinks this country is left-leaning.
