Apparently I am not the only one that has had some concerns with President Obama's negotiating skills.
Having pissed away the greatest opportunity in a generation to completely overhaul the health care system in the US, and once and for all crush the stranglehold of Big Pharma and Big Insurance companies, coupled with his abject failure to step boldly forward on civil rights and civil liberties issues, or mandate sweeping environmental changes from coast-to-coast, even 'regular Dems' are starting to get more than a little worried about what is in store for us when it gets to crunch time on the debt-ceiling debate.
Whilst 'Big-O' does his bi-partisan two-step, party-trick thang, a number of his congressional Democratic counterparts are deeply worried that he's going to give away the farm. Again. In a meeting described as 'tense' Henry Waxman, as dependable a liberal Democrat as you can find, asked the President point-blank, 'are you going to cave again, because if you are we need to know'. The response was "I am President of the United States, and my words have weight". That is almost as obtuse and petulant a response as G.W. Bush's "I'm the decider" line. The very fact that a Senior Dem had to ask his own President if he is going to fold like a cheap deck-chair is depressing enough, the fact that the reply was a total non-answer and smacked more of prideful boasting rather than an affirmation or denial, leads me to believe that the real answer is actually 'yes'.
I simply don't understand why a President that still has decent popularity numbers continues to insist on trying to reason with people that are anything but reasonable themselves. He must be in some sort of bubble in the White House, because if he were outside looking in, instead of the other way around, he would realise in an instant that he has been getting his ass kicked for two years now. He would also realize that to the rest of us 'bi-partisanship' is simply Obama-Speak for 'Give the republicans what they want, when they want it, and sod the people that actually put him there'.
As it stands right now, the republicans are currently threatening to hold their breath until the President caves and makes cuts in Medicare and Medicaid before they'll sign off on increasing the debt-ceiling. Now would be the perfect time for him to grab them by the scruff of their necks, put them on a stage somewhere, shine a great big spotlight on them and from the bully-pulpit state very clearly (and very slowly for the folks in the South) that these are the people that want to screw the American people out of healthcare in their twilight years but at the same time want to keep giving billions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil. THAT would be something to behold. A President that finally stood up to the schoolyard bullies and kicked them squarely in the nads on national telly. It would be a magical and inspirational moment. We would be able to say that we were alive when a Democratic President grew a spine right in front of our eyes, and not only told the republicans to go to hell, but offered to give them directions as well.
Back here in reality I understand that ain't likely to happen, in fact what is more likely to occur is that in order to get the republicans to do what they have done automatically in the past without so much as batting an eyelid, Obama will give away yet another part of the social safety net so carefully built over the last 60 years by his Democratic predecessors.
I hope I am wrong. I would be thrilled to be dead wrong on this one, but I have to tell you I am not encouraged looking at the recent track-record.
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