The public elected President Obama on the basis of his persistent invocation of bipartisanship or a “new kind of politics,”. While a President getting elected on promises of bipartisanship, or working with “the other side of the isle” is nothing new, it was foreseeable that Obama had a slim to none chance of success. I do not blame or criticize Republicans for sticking to their principles (tax cuts are the universal elixir), misguided though I believe they are, but the more I think about this the more I agree that Martha Coakley’s defeat in Massachusetts should mark the end of Obama’s efforts to create a new, bipartisan climate in Washington.
Consider last spring’s $787 Billion stimulus bill which was heavily weighted toward tax cuts in an effort to win some Republican support. In the end, the bill received not a single Republican vote.
Consider that he nominated a moderate, pro-prosecution Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, only to see her tagged as a racist over some rather harmless remarks she made about being a “wise Latina”.
Consider that healthcare reform became bogged down in such a compromise-ridden mess to try an woo Senator Olympia Snow, and appease Senator’s Landrieu, Nelson, and Lincoln. Let’s include the fact that President Obama never truly fought hard for a public option to compete with private insurance companies because those in his inner circle knew it would never get passed.
Obama has done precisely what he condemned while campaigning for the presidency: he has played the old Washington game of compromising on basics to win a few votes. Now the idea was to bring along a few Republican senators thought to hold reasonable views, I get that, but NO Republican support was offered by the other side…none…NADA.
Instead we got calls for this becoming Obama’s “waterloo”. Obama’s attempts to find compromise solutions did not stop Republicans from labelling him as a radical – or their nutty tea-party allies from calling him a “socialist” and citing scripture (Psalm 109:8) calling for his death. He’s being called a radical though he’s doing nothing radical, and yet alienating radicals because he’s doing nothing radical. It’s an old paradox: you can’t chase with the hounds and run with the foxes.
The House should pass the Senate Health care bill and fix it later through reconciliation. Put a “W” in the Win column and move on.
Then he needs to pick another fight….. and then FIGHT, and stop going for these half-assed measures by watering down legislation to get any GOP votes. Maybe he is finally starting with his proposing a tax to recoup some of the billions of dollars in bailout money the bankers received, and has referred to bonus payments as “obscene” at a time when many “continue to face real hardship in this recession.”
The White House and the Democratic Party still have time to change course. Surely Obama knows his strategy of reaching out to Republicans was an utter failure. It’s time to try something new.
I hope he is ready for it.
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