Here it comes, Phase II of the Great Collectivization of 2010:
President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress.
On Thursday, the president challenged Republicans who planned to campaign on repealing his health-care bill with, “Go for it.” Two days later, he made 15 senior appointments without Senate consent, including a union lawyer whose nomination had been blocked by a filibuster.
AdvertisementPresident Obama is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress, Jonathan Weisman reports.
At a bill-signing event Tuesday, he is set to laud passage of higher-education legislation that was approved despite Republican objections through a parliamentary maneuver that neutralized the party’s filibuster threat.
So much for healing the divisions and all that. But one line from the first graf stuck out. The one that claims Obama is “hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress.”
At this point, I’d say those two goals are mutually exclusive. It’s one thing to claim that there are over 200 Republican amendments in the Health Care Fiasco, but it’s quite another to find one of actual substance. (Hint: Uhhhhh.) The GOP has been treated like… well, even worse than the Republican Congress treated the Democratic minority just a few years ago — and that’s saying something. So any expectation of getting Republican votes on left-wing bills, whether through “muscle” or bribes, has got to be little more than posturing for the press.
And I’m surprised the Wall Street Journal fell for it.
“And I’m surprised the Wall Street Journal fell for it.”
I thought the exact same thing when I read it. Are they not paying attention today?
I’m still not sure of the context for the “go for it” comment. Was he referring to campaigning on the promise repealing healthcare, or actually repealing it? It makes a difference.
Fighting the “kill the bill” campaign platform, selling the bill to the people and keeping the Democrat party is all part of the process. Although the majority of Americans were against the bill, there were millions on favor of it. Convincing a few million more will keep then in power and put the whole fight behind them.
But if the Republicans, or whomever, campaign on a platform of repealing Obamacare, and are elected, well, that changes things. Fighting a group of representatives elected to repeal healthcare, that’s defying the will of the people.
Wonder which he meant?
BHO has been saying it since his inauguration – “I won.” He has all the post-partisanship leanings of Joe Stalin or Hugo Chavez. I figure all the opposition should be Kristallnachted to the Happy Hunting Ground in about 18 months, leaving us with a nice compliant Government, more flaccid than, well, I’ll leave that analogy alone…