Obama's Best Hope: A GOP Congress ? Don't Think So (A rebuttal)
[Snip]
Obama's Best Hope: A GOP Congress <Real Clear Politics (Rich Lowry)
The undertakers of Bill Clinton's political doom showed up in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992 for a meeting with the president-elect two months before his inauguration. They were the leaders of the Democratic Congress, and they might as well have been draped in black crepe.
"You can trust us," House Speaker Tom Foley told Clinton, in an assurance as false as it was sincere. "We all want to make this administration succeed."
Two years later, Clinton stood among smoldering political ruins. Democrats had lost both houses of Congress. A Republican upstart had defeated Tom Foley. In trusting the Democratic leadership in Congress, Clinton had nearly destroyed his presidency.
He learned a bitter lesson in the perils of trying to govern a center-right country in league with a left-wing Congress. It's not an accident that the most sustained period of political success for any of the last three Democratic presidents, outside of their initial honeymoons, came after Clinton lost Congress. Only then was he forced to govern from the center.
If Pres. Barack Obama is ever going to regain the ground he's lost as a bipartisan healer determined to transcend ideological divisions, he'll need to have Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Majority Leader Harry Reid or both shunted back to the minority. For Obama, a Republican Congress could be a counterintuitive political boon.
Recent history suggests that there are two broad options for a Democratic president yoked to a Democratic Congress. He can, like Clinton and Obama, get along with Congress and ineluctably get pulled to the left of the electorate. Or he can, like Jimmy Carter, keep his distance and his relative moderation, and suffer an acrimonious relationship that brands him as ineffectual.
In theory, it should be possible to escape this double bind. But Democrats with control of both the executive and the legislative branches have an irresistible FDR complex. They consider it their duty to establish vast new programmatic edifices, or die in the trying. Truer to his moderate-sounding election campaign than Clinton or Obama, Carter resisted this urge - and got a primary challenge from Ted Kennedy
[/SNIP]
And then Mr. Lowry ends with this:
[Snip]
A Republican Congress would give him a handy foil and force him, right in time for his reelection campaign, into strategic bipartisanship. The Republican takeover in 1994 seemed the end for Bill Clinton. Long after Tom Foley had been forgotten, though, Clinton signed major bipartisan welfare-reform and deficit-reduction bills, while making incremental steps on health care that were popular and sustainable.
Obama probably doesn't consider a Republican Congress in his interest. But with all he's done to bring one about, who knows?
[/SNIP]
To the Emboldened part? Obama is about to UNDO all of that...SEE THIS ... How about that Stimulus? All I see is more dependence and WASTE courtesy of Obama.
What we see now are an entirely different set of circumstances under Obama, in present day.
As to Mr. Lowry?
___________________
I understand where Mr. lowry is going with this. But in my view? Obama is too head strong, his past associations are rooted in his actions of his first year in Office which were never investigated. It was "Anybody But Bush"...and the demonization of Bush by the Democrats for the majority of Bushs' two terms. Guess the window dressing was too strong for some to resist. They bargained for 'Change' but found out there were more hidden costs one biggie was their Liberty which they see they will lose with this man's ensconced Idealism.
Obama thought this was a green light to inflict his Socialist/Marxist beliefs on the nation and 'Rebuild' this Republic in that image. See " Stark Contrast: The Reagan / Obama Debate. " Even Clinton didn't have the arrogance displayed by this president. Clinton didn't take over two major auto companies, dictate to banks, try to dictate what CEO's could be paid, and have all the 'Czars' that this president has either.
And yes Healthcare was a giant topic in the Clinton administration and was defeated. The people are speaking even louder of the subject now, but Obama presses on in ignorance as well as the Congress. But this in my view is larger than just whom holds the seats in the Congress as to a sitting Potus' chances of re-election. May have been in the past. It doesn't apply any longer. Healthcare is ONE small part of the puzzle being put together by the people, and the picture emerging is one they recoil from.
Jobs, Deficits...mortgaging the futures of our children, grand-children for the Socialist ideals of just 20% of the population is a larger issue here. The people have gotten a taste of it and have spit it out. And the feigned, failed 'Bipartisanship' we were treated to a few weeks back in the guise of a 'Healthcare Summit' was a clear indicator that he isn't ready, NOR will ever be ready for 'Bipartisanship' Republicans came armed with the Bill in front of them to discuss...and Obama called them 'PROPS'. Bipartisanship went out the window with that display.
He had chided the Tea Party Movement and others like it, talked down to us. Even Clinton didn't do that nor did Jimmy Carter. Again? Neither tried what Obama has so far succeeded in doing. This is larger than politics as usual. He has already shown us his hand. A 'Simple Slide' against his demonstrted Marxist principles we don't buy. He is too ensconced in his own history, his own associations to be belivable, or changable.
Sorry Mr. Lowry. Your view is 'Politics' as usual. The people are sick of it, and I don't think Obama has a chance for term #2 no matter what happens in the Legislature. I think it more to the tune of Democrats losing power for several generations to come. Even the GOP is feeling the heat. The Conservative Revolution has come calling and I think it is stronger than even you realize. This isn't Party Politics any longer, this is the survival of a once proud, and Respected Republic making a resurgence at the insistance of The People.
We are tired of being bought and sold for Partisan Games at our expense.
[Snip]
Obama's Best Hope: A GOP Congress <Real Clear Politics (Rich Lowry)
The undertakers of Bill Clinton's political doom showed up in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992 for a meeting with the president-elect two months before his inauguration. They were the leaders of the Democratic Congress, and they might as well have been draped in black crepe.
"You can trust us," House Speaker Tom Foley told Clinton, in an assurance as false as it was sincere. "We all want to make this administration succeed."
Two years later, Clinton stood among smoldering political ruins. Democrats had lost both houses of Congress. A Republican upstart had defeated Tom Foley. In trusting the Democratic leadership in Congress, Clinton had nearly destroyed his presidency.
He learned a bitter lesson in the perils of trying to govern a center-right country in league with a left-wing Congress. It's not an accident that the most sustained period of political success for any of the last three Democratic presidents, outside of their initial honeymoons, came after Clinton lost Congress. Only then was he forced to govern from the center.
If Pres. Barack Obama is ever going to regain the ground he's lost as a bipartisan healer determined to transcend ideological divisions, he'll need to have Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Majority Leader Harry Reid or both shunted back to the minority. For Obama, a Republican Congress could be a counterintuitive political boon.
Recent history suggests that there are two broad options for a Democratic president yoked to a Democratic Congress. He can, like Clinton and Obama, get along with Congress and ineluctably get pulled to the left of the electorate. Or he can, like Jimmy Carter, keep his distance and his relative moderation, and suffer an acrimonious relationship that brands him as ineffectual.
In theory, it should be possible to escape this double bind. But Democrats with control of both the executive and the legislative branches have an irresistible FDR complex. They consider it their duty to establish vast new programmatic edifices, or die in the trying. Truer to his moderate-sounding election campaign than Clinton or Obama, Carter resisted this urge - and got a primary challenge from Ted Kennedy
[/SNIP]
And then Mr. Lowry ends with this:
[Snip]
A Republican Congress would give him a handy foil and force him, right in time for his reelection campaign, into strategic bipartisanship. The Republican takeover in 1994 seemed the end for Bill Clinton. Long after Tom Foley had been forgotten, though, Clinton signed major bipartisan welfare-reform and deficit-reduction bills, while making incremental steps on health care that were popular and sustainable.
Obama probably doesn't consider a Republican Congress in his interest. But with all he's done to bring one about, who knows?
[/SNIP]
To the Emboldened part? Obama is about to UNDO all of that...SEE THIS ... How about that Stimulus? All I see is more dependence and WASTE courtesy of Obama.
What we see now are an entirely different set of circumstances under Obama, in present day.
As to Mr. Lowry?
___________________
I understand where Mr. lowry is going with this. But in my view? Obama is too head strong, his past associations are rooted in his actions of his first year in Office which were never investigated. It was "Anybody But Bush"...and the demonization of Bush by the Democrats for the majority of Bushs' two terms. Guess the window dressing was too strong for some to resist. They bargained for 'Change' but found out there were more hidden costs one biggie was their Liberty which they see they will lose with this man's ensconced Idealism.
Obama thought this was a green light to inflict his Socialist/Marxist beliefs on the nation and 'Rebuild' this Republic in that image. See " Stark Contrast: The Reagan / Obama Debate. " Even Clinton didn't have the arrogance displayed by this president. Clinton didn't take over two major auto companies, dictate to banks, try to dictate what CEO's could be paid, and have all the 'Czars' that this president has either.
And yes Healthcare was a giant topic in the Clinton administration and was defeated. The people are speaking even louder of the subject now, but Obama presses on in ignorance as well as the Congress. But this in my view is larger than just whom holds the seats in the Congress as to a sitting Potus' chances of re-election. May have been in the past. It doesn't apply any longer. Healthcare is ONE small part of the puzzle being put together by the people, and the picture emerging is one they recoil from.
Jobs, Deficits...mortgaging the futures of our children, grand-children for the Socialist ideals of just 20% of the population is a larger issue here. The people have gotten a taste of it and have spit it out. And the feigned, failed 'Bipartisanship' we were treated to a few weeks back in the guise of a 'Healthcare Summit' was a clear indicator that he isn't ready, NOR will ever be ready for 'Bipartisanship' Republicans came armed with the Bill in front of them to discuss...and Obama called them 'PROPS'. Bipartisanship went out the window with that display.
He had chided the Tea Party Movement and others like it, talked down to us. Even Clinton didn't do that nor did Jimmy Carter. Again? Neither tried what Obama has so far succeeded in doing. This is larger than politics as usual. He has already shown us his hand. A 'Simple Slide' against his demonstrted Marxist principles we don't buy. He is too ensconced in his own history, his own associations to be belivable, or changable.
Sorry Mr. Lowry. Your view is 'Politics' as usual. The people are sick of it, and I don't think Obama has a chance for term #2 no matter what happens in the Legislature. I think it more to the tune of Democrats losing power for several generations to come. Even the GOP is feeling the heat. The Conservative Revolution has come calling and I think it is stronger than even you realize. This isn't Party Politics any longer, this is the survival of a once proud, and Respected Republic making a resurgence at the insistance of The People.
We are tired of being bought and sold for Partisan Games at our expense.
