Reports the Wall Street Journal:
On the Michael Smerconish radio show Thursday, the president said: “Early on a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, ‘Look, let’s not give them a victory and maybe we can have a replay of 1993-94 when Clinton came in. He failed on health care, and then we won in the midterm elections, and we got the majority.’”
.It was the most direct shot he has taken at Republican leaders, and it came as the president was trying to reassure liberal activists that his knees weren’t buckling, as one supporter suggested.
“I guarantee you,” he told the radio show caller, “we are going to get health-care reform done.”
In his meeting later with Organizing for America, the president’s grass-roots political arm, he told a similarly vexed supporter: “I have no control over what the other side decides is their political strategy. And my obligation to the American people says we’re going to get this done one way or another.”
The story goes on to say Republican leaders point out they’ve not been invited to the White House to talk on this issue since April.
This has passed from the realm of funny to just plain sad.
Obama has the votes to pass any plan he wants right now. He doesn’t need a single Republican vote. Not. One.
Why does he keep going on like this? We’re not buying it Mr. President. If you want this turd it will have your name, and only your name, on it. If you don’t like that, well, maybe you ought to, to borrow a phrase from my liberal friends, move on.
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Wee-wee on him.
The claim that the President hasn’t even met with the Republicans on this in months is interesting.
If the leadership–i.e. the minority leader and whip & such–have already made it clear to the President that they will utterly oppose the whole thing, then, he may be right not to waste time with them (from his frame of reference). If they’ve made it abundantly clear that they’re going to oppose, period, then, what would the point of a public meeting be? For a photo-op?
In that scenario, the President would likely concentrate on talking behind the scenes with key Republicans who he thinks he can get support from. Direct or indirect support, either way, he’d do it quietly.
Right now it seems obvious that to make the Republican activist base happy, the Republican leadership has to completely oppose Obama on this no matter what. And if that’s the public game they’re playing, then why would he meet with them? For what? To hear again that they’re just going to oppose him no matter what?
His energy would best be spent on talking to Republicans behind the scenes who he thinks he has some sympathy from. That’s just how things usually work in Washington.
(Oh, did anyone REALLY think Obama was anything but just another politician? HAHAHAHAHAHA, those poor saps. Of course he’s just another politician, and is playing the game exactly like everyone in Washington always plays it.)
Dean:
So, in other words, all that talk and hype about how Obama was post-partisan and could sway anybody with his staggering intellect and powerful oratory was just a bunch of hooey then. He is either incapable of convincing Republicans (and thus lacks the intellect and oratorical skills advertised) or is unwilling to (and thus lacks the post-partisan ideology). Either way it is an absolute broken promise not to even TRY. Of course we all know that an Obama promise is not in any way an obligation for Obama, it is merely a ruse to fool the rubes. And it works. But it’s not working as much as it used to.
Other Presidents in the same situation have tried. Even with similar majorities. In fact one of GW Bush’s greatest failings was that he tried too much to reach out to Democrats. Obama is the anti-Bush in many ways, and this is a big one. Obama has neither the inclination nor the ability to convince Republicans to follow his lead. And he has the arrogance to believe that he doesn’t need to. And he may be right on that last bit, but we’ll have to see.
This though, is beyond simply not reaching out to Republicans. This is vilification of his political opponents. If Republicans see any actual gains in the House or Senate in 2010 I suspect Barack Obama is going to pay dearly for his overarching arrogance.
Well, he’s certainly not post-partisan. On the other hand? When Bush first came to office he did indeed reach out to Democrats, but in 2002 he campaigned very hard against them and worked hard to win majorities for his party in both chambers–successfully. And Democrats were mighty steamed at him for it. That, in truth, is probably what drove most of the Democratic rage from 2002-2004, and not so much all the other stuff they said.
Today, it’s not at all clear to me that Obama isn’t reaching out to Republicans. He’s embroiled in a very public fight with their leadership. That’s not the same thing. We can’t know for sure right now, but we’ll probably find out eventually that he’s been busy working with phone calls and private meetings with friendly (or at least non-hostile) Republicans with some pull. He’d be a fool not to, and he’s not a fool–and more importantly, the people in his administration with actual Washington experience are also by and large not fools. His Chief of Staff is too smart, if no one else.
This is all likely a kabuki dance on both sides. It’s been clear for months that the Republican leadership wishes to appear to be absolutely stonewalling. They want this fight with the President. So he’s fighting back. Privately, what’s happening is probably not quite so stark, just because if you know how Washington works you know that’s really pretty rare. Most likely there’s private wheeling and dealing going on to short-circuit threatened filibusters, to get key influential committee members to make certain concessions, etc. He’s likely even seeking cooperation on certain things from members he knows are going to vote against this but getting them to avoid doing certain things that would gum up passage.
So no, he’s not post-partisan at all, and he’s not “a different kind of politician.” But if he and his team are any good at all, what I describe is likely happening.
I would agree, by the way, that his party is likely to face losses in 2010. During midterms, the President’s party -usually- loses seats. Usually. But there are occasional exceptions. 2002 was one such exception. If the economy isn’t showing obvious turnaround–not “signs of impending” turnaround, but very visible turnaround–expect voters to punish the President’s party for it. On the other hand, I expect the President to likely do what Bush did and start campaigning around the country for his party’s candidates, and trying to blame the Republicans for whatever voters are mad about. Whether that will work or not, we’ll see.
I wouldn’t so quickly dismiss it just because it is rare. Remember who this crew is. It’s 100% Chicago, and they thought they had a “mandate.” They don’t know “how Washington works”. They know how Chicago works, and they are trying to run Washington the same way. They don’t seem to understand that there can be a lot more than one Capo in DC.
Phelps, I think you’re right, but the real danger there is not that Obama will fail to learn how to operate in Washington, but that he’ll do what Clinton did, which is to change the way things “work” in Washington until they resembled Little Rock more than anything else. If Obama manages the same thing, we may be in for a long period of “capo” Presidents.
Rahm Emmanuel did not rise to where he did in the House leadership by refusing to talk to Republicans. He was very hard-nosed and partisan, but he was well-liked privately by a number of Republicans.
Dean:
Now you are an apologist for Rahm Emmanuel?
It is my opinion that Rahm’s tactics which “worked” as a House member are not likely to be as effective as a member of the administration. A big part of Obama’s problems so far is that he and his main advisers have not yet figured out that BEING President is a lot different than RUNNING FOR President.
I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again. Obama may learn how to be an effective President. He’s smart enough to learn. But after seven months, he and his team have shown me no indication whatsoever that they ARE learning. Quite the reverse, they are doubling down on their ineffective strategies instead of changing to new ones.
Obama is very seriously at risk of becoming a completely irrelevant President. And nothing would make me happier.
By the way, I haven’t hammered on Obama’s incompetence in filling his key positions for a while, but at least the New York Times is taking notice now:
“Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled so far — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious after several nominations blew up last spring, a Senate that is intensively investigating nominees and a legislative agenda that has consumed both. The sluggish pace has kept Mr. Obama from having his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.”
The man is an incompetent ideologue who thinks that his mere presence will cause things to happen. He’s been so burned by his incompetent efforts at finding talent that he has SLOWED his attempt to find talent, while his team continues to flounder with lack of key personnel, which is simply MORE incompetence.
I sincerely mean this. I have not seen a man or an administration so breathtakingly incompetent in my lifetime. Jimmy Carter looks like an executive genius compared to Obama.
As the Instapundit likes to ironically put it: “The country is in the very best of hands.”
… oh.. I may as well throw in his sudden realization that his deficit estimate was off by TWO FRICKIN TRILLION DOLLARS, a little tidbit his press office threw out as he headed off to vacation at Martha’s Vinyard.
Can. You. Imagine. If. A. Republican. Did. That.?!?
OMFG the howls of “out of touch!” “Elitist!” “fiddling while Rome burns!”
If there is any justice in the world, one of these days the press is actually going to stop being Obama’s PR arm, and when that happens, Obama may as well sleep in every day.
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