Required Reading
January 29th, 2013 - 9:53 am
Charlie Martin had a brilliant insight at the Tatler this morning: “Obama doesn’t really want to pass legislation. He wants to propose legislation that fails.”
Charlie Martin had a brilliant insight at the Tatler this morning: “Obama doesn’t really want to pass legislation. He wants to propose legislation that fails.”
This would make sense, except for a few problems:
1. Marco Rubio.
2. The backlash against Obama that he can’t predict (we can start with the debt ceiling and sequestration).
3. Other than California, the GOP has governors in EVERY border state (including Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida) with Mexico. They can ignore the President and go the federalist route.
1. You say “Marco Rubio” like it’s an incantation. It isn’t. He’s a politician subject to the same forces and pressures as anyone else.
2. Backlash? The Tea Party couldn’t even carry forward from 2010 to 2012.
3. I think you’ve missed the point; this calls for more of Obama’s caudillo actions.
My point with Rubio is that he lends the GOP some gravitas that other political figures don’t. Also, Obama and the Dems can’t just say “Some Republican white guy is trying to mess with immigrants!” I just think it’s hard for the Dems to concern troll Rubio in this case.
And what I mean by backlash is that each negotiation has consequences (for both/all sides) and they bleed into the next round of negotiations (for other topics). And while your point about the Tea Party is true, it’s a nascent political party/faction.
And while I agree about Obama’s “Caudillo” strategy, the GOP can effectively lock him out of all Southern states along the border other than Cali. In theory, federal jurisdiction trumps local when it comes to immigration, but when no one on the federal level wants to bother with enforcing border protection, the local will win out.
Jason, one of the points here is that there is the framework of a compromise, with Rubio involved. What is Obama demanding? A “compromise” that requires the Republicans to give up everything that came toward their side. Think about some of his other maneuvers, like when he made an agreement with Boehner and then at the last minute demanded more. This isn’t the behavior of someone who wants adeal.
Charlie, I’m not disagreeing with you; I’m simply wargaming out the political strategy and cost-benefit nature of it.
There are few problems with America’s political class that couldn’t be solved by the proper utilization of lamp posts.
Or some strong tree limbs, Larry. Tar…feathers…ducking stools…stocks…for them and their media enablers.
I have to keep reminding myself of one thing–Obama (or somebody on his team) is an excellent political tactician, but there’s not a strategist in the bunch.
Don’t forget, this is the crowd that ramped up the “good” war in Afghanistan, in order to not look weak on terrorism, never thinking about the consequences of putting an army in a land-locked country dependent on the enemy’s good graces for the supply line. They’ve paid a price for that in lost opportunities, and the price will get much higher.
This is also the crowd that helped overthrow Mubarak, Ghadaffi, and nearly Assad–with nary a suspicion that they were reviving Al Qaeda by doing so. We’re all going to pay a horrible price for that, and any “legacy” Obama hopes for will get washed away in the fallout.
So, maybe they think they’re being tricky. Heck, maybe they really are tricky. But their record doesn’t indicate that it’s going to do them a whole lot of good.
Charlie’s right, and I called this a while back (don’t remember where, unfortunately): Obama prefers legislation that never passes because that he can blame on somebody else. If his plans get adopted and then fail, the blame comes straight to the Resolute desk.
I vote Present.
Incorrect: “Obama doesn’t really want to pass legislation. He wants to propose legislation that fails.”
Correct: “Obama doesn’t really want to pass legislation. He wants to dictate legislation that passes automatically.”
Actually, since he’s not a legislator he can’t pass anything except waste products. I think his real wish is that he ruled the world and everyone had to do as he said until he changed his “mind”.
Obama is so incompetent throughout his time warming the chair in the Oval Office at getting his legislative agenda passed, that I don’t think you can tell the difference between Obama’s actions when he wants legislation to pass and his actions when he doesn’t.