THE BULLY PULPIT VS. THE SCHOOLYARD BULLIES
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:12:30
There's been a lot of whinging and whining from the left end of the Democratic party. "Obama gave away the store; he's not a strong leader; he should have stood up to the GOP; he's not the man I voted for," and on and on.
You think he enjoyed giving up $38 billion dollars worth of well thought out and well led social programs? You think he had a choice? The majority over in House of Representatives are smoking loco weed and cow towing to those empty headed, Tea Party loud mouths. He may be the Speaker Of The House, but The Tan Woodman is scared to death of the trailer court crowd in the tri-corner hats. Boehner's the one who's shown a lack of leadership. He's the one who's been rolled by the likes of Michelle Bachmann and Trump The Toupee.
Most of the pundits-on-demand and barons of the blogoisie totally underestimate Obama's strategic acumen, or they're simply too busy blowing hard to thoroughly analyze the arena in which the President is engaged. He could have let the Republicans close down the government and take the heat for it, but to what end? Throw 800,000 federal workers on the street, disrupt the economy and frighten half the seniors to death to make a point, and a minor point at that?
In the struggle between the Democrats and the renegade right wing, the recent skirmish over funding the government through next September was strictly minor league. The Big Show is coming up-raising the debt ceiling and cobbling together a budget for 2012. Obama is positioning himself for these battle because he knows they really matter. He's going to fight them on his own terms with his weapons of choice. He's going to frame the debt ceiling fight in simple terms; make the rich pay their fair share of taxes or turn our Treasury notes into worthless T-Party bills.
The Republicans didn't score any points outside their base with their "my way and no highways" approach to negotiating with the Democrats. Independents know schoolyard bullies when they see them. And they ain't seen nothin' yet. John Boehner has already warned us he's willing to let the ceiling collapse, unless we wantonly slash the budget and wave goodbye to any programs the GOP's Moral Police abhor.
The American public got a good look at the Republican brinkmanship that nearly brought the government to a halt. They aren't going to cut them any slack when the time comes to stare default in the eye. The GOP, flushed with false victory, have won the bracelet and lost the high ground. They are about to get a lesson in The Art Of War, Obama style.