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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
For all of Barack Obama's acknowledged erudition and brilliance, he apparently is a very slow learner in one respect. He doesn't seem to grasp that the Republicans with whom he strives to work are not his friends, and in fact seek him ill.
It's a fact that has not gotten through to him for nearly two years in the
His rationale now seems to be that the Republican takeover of the House and increased strength in the
During the late lamented midterm congressional campaign, the veil seemed temporarily to be lifted from Obama's his eyes as he lashed out in, for him, harsh terms about the opposition party that had stonewalled him since his inauguration.
With a kind of incredulity, he hammered at the reality that much of the economic mess on his plate had been left there by his Republican predecessor. But the "blame Bush" argument got him nowhere with the voters, as justifiable as it was. Harry Truman's "the buck stops here" easily trumped it.
Neither did his repeated analogy of a car driven into a ditch by the Republicans who then just stood by and refused to help push it out. Still, in one of the ugliest campaigns ever, Obama himself never really got down and dirty.
The Republican leaders for their part didn't bother to hide their objective of obstructionism leading toward political annihilation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it all when he proclaimed that his prime objective was to see to it that Obama became "a one-term president."
McConnell's only concession on the day after the election was to say the Republicans were now ready to do business with him if "the president comes in our direction." The first test will be in the lame-duck congressional session, and there are signs already that Obama may cave on his campaign position that the Bush tax cuts be extended only to middle-class Americans.
If he wants to go to the mat with the opposition, he has no better case on which to do so than to fight against extension to the richest Americans, which would add an estimated
Liberal Democrats in and out of
Those Democrats who were quick to deplore the decision of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to seek the role of House minority leader on grounds she would be an excessively disruptive force in a new era of congressional comity have had it all wrong. Her presence should remind Obama that he still has clout, and allies with which to assert it, along with his veto power.
Another Harry Truman lesson that would stand Obama in good stead is that this country loves a fighter. It's fine to face the reality of diminished congressional support, but if a president comes to be seen as weak, as may be beginning to take hold now in dealing with the Republicans, he soon finds himself on a slippery slope.
Bill Clinton found himself in a similar position after heavy House losses at his first midterm, leading him among other things to argue lamely that he was still "relevant." He accommodated himself by moving more to the center, and Obama for all his talk of change may be obliged to do the same. But before then, he would be well served to show a little more willingness to slug it out with his contemptuous foes.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Obama's Blind Side | Politics
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