I really have to disagree w/ Charles on this one. The repeal was merely repayment to a small constituency. The One's most important social-policy objective was the DREAM Act, which looks less likely than ever to become law.
He fulfilled them, but at what cost? He has alienated most normal Americans.
0 Failed on Amnesty act and the 1.1 Trillion megapork.
The Dem majorities looted on the rest of it. Its going to be payback when the new House shows up for work. Charles is having mental issues this week.
Agreed, and it was done right after an election cycle with a lame-duck congress, so no lost skin from the departing libs and it's two years until the next election--plenty of time for the fickle public to forget all about it.
What is this guy smoking lately?
It was bipartisan in nature because Republican fiscal policy has been proven right in the minds of the people who vote; Democrats, and Obama, recognized that they could have a chance at keeping their job if they voted for it.
Obama was dragged kicking and screaming to this point. He is no longer trusted by the people, so he can move left, right, center, it won't matter. For Charles, it's like the election didn't happen.
I don’t think Bambi himself did anything. The Dems realized that the tax thing was going to be wildly unpopular, and their supposed opposition was on the “don’t throw me in the briarpatch” side, because they wanted it and on top of that, the dumb GOP gave them big bucks on the side.
But perhaps dumb isn’t the word. What the lame duck congress was in reality was a festival of revenge. Dems getting kicked out teamed with GOPers who were either getting kicked out or had been heavily opposed (Murkowski, who voted for EVERY Dem bill) and decided to punish the rest of the country while the still could.
Bambi was invisible during all of this and emerged only when Clinton came out to handle things (and believe me, Clinton had probably spent days working the Dems and explaining the program to them). So this was a dying Dem/RINO last gasp stab to the vitals, and both of them were so furious with American voters that they managed to pull it off. They punished us for getting rid of them.
I agree with you on this.
DADT was a kind of nothing burger but it was a big deal to a very few people.
DADT will be completely forgotten in March of 2011 and there probably will never be blatantly open homosexuals sharing bunks, showers and foxholes.
The thing is more a symbolic thing, one more rung in the climb to total acceptance, eventually marriage. Who’s to say where it will all go but so far they don’t seem to get much of nothing done without cheating through the courts and such.
But to call it a major social thing is to stretch waaaaay far its import.
In fact, Krauthammer’s been making a bit of a nuisance of himself these past few weeks with his constant declarations of Obama victories. Which is not to say that the Repubs didn’t give him way more leeway than he deserved, I do think there’s more to this picture than we know.
Everyone knows this new congress is going to be a bit more, ahem, conservative. In fact, I think that Obama’s going to be back-seated pretty much for the next two years. America’s all busy prepping for the holidays so the congress threw him a few nothing burger bones...DADT and the START treaty. I didn’t like either of them but I think it was a plan, part of a strategy adapted by both the Dems and the Repubs.
Some things would not do. That budget wasn’t going to happen or would allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. The Repubs doubled-down on that and they would have won. The Repubs COULD have doubled-down on DADT and START and with some proper PR I think the American public would have shrugged over both of these things.
I think the Democrats are a bit sick of this guy and the Repubs know the new calvary ain’t gonna have none of it. The deal was to give Obama DADT to appease his homosexual base....very few folk in the scheme of things and the entire thing means pretty much nothing. As for the START treaty, another nothing burger but hey, someday twenty years from now, if there’s no nuclear war between America and Russia, which there will NOT be, give me a break, then history will point to Obama for negotiating the deal that prevented it.
Obama got where he is via an ultimatum issued by the Black congressional caucus and the Democratic party. The CBC went out and found a perfect guy, half white, half black, what don’t talk in ghetto slang. America was ready to elect such a nice young man, a normal turndown in the economy was hyped as the end of the world, the Repubs had a simply awful candidate...yep, it was orchestrated.
The Dems were told that they either support their guy or they’ll alienate the black population from the Dems. This would be devistating for the Democrats.
It was a case of careful orchestration aided by Soros/World Bank/Arab money added to some American guilt that created the Perfect Storm to elect their guy.
Only their guy is turning out not so good and I’m not convinced they expected him to. They just wanted to try and cover those many years of using the Feds to try and implement a sharing of wealth thing by allowing the totally unable to buy houses they couldn’t afford, to implement socialized health care, the DADT for the homosexuals...yes.
The goal is to put Obama on the back burner for the next two years, let him and Moochelle travel the world and bow to world leaders, and for the Repubs to straighten out the mess. Neither the Dems or Repubs really want America’s first black president to go down in history as such a big failure that he has, indeed, been. So they used the lame duck to throw him a few bones that can be spun as major accomplishments.
In keeping with my theory above, which IS a theory folks, I also believe that the Obamer health care thing will NOT be repealed. I do think it will be dismantled and reconfigured in a manner that makes sense so that it will work better and again, Obamer gets the credit.
We, of course, know that the man was a loser but history is being re-written even as it occurs.
It’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I will go one step further. Such short term memories the media has. Health care "reform" was as well heralded a great victory for 0bamarX0. -the rest of the story --IT was catalyst for Tea Party.
In my opinion, I would trade short term lame duck victory headlines for long term seats in the house and senate any time. I think we will see a Tea Party on steroids in 2012 now...
He's gone nuts!
Look, there are folks out there with borderline personality disorder. They like to take people in wheelchairs and flip them down stairs. They can't help themselves. If Obama had gotten legislation through to allow them to do that without penalty of law Krauthammer would probably not consider that a civil rights victory ~ at least not for long.
“The repeal was merely repayment to a small constituency.”
Yes, it was a key goal for the gay lobby, who will now be unsatisfied and will ask for their next favored gimme.
“The One’s most important social-policy objective was the DREAM Act,”
Yes, in terms of power dynamics, this was more consequential.
Charles is hittingthe sauce here.
Obama merely salvaged what he could from the long liberal agenda of his. The bad news - he got some items.
The GOOD news ... THIS IS IT. THIS IS THE END OF THE LIBERAL EXPERIMENT FOR OUR ERA. Short, ugly, dangerous, and expensive. But OVER.
I swear I am totally baffled by how the refusal to allow Obama to RAISE taxes in the teeth of the worst economic downturn since the great depression accrues to a “win” for him.
Were rates allowed to increase it would have been nothing short of catastrophic for the economy. If the thinking is that keeping rates down would improve the economy (or keep it from worsening) and that would benefit the libs, then fine. BUT, let’s keep in mind that Obama’s promise since he began running in 2007 was to REPEAL, or allow to sunset the Bush tax cuts and he failed to do this to the benefit of the country.His base was and still is furious with him which lends credence to the idea he was soundly trounced, politically on this.
I expect the left, desperate as they are to attempt to spin this to their favor but I wonder about Krauthammer’s take on this and see no logic to his thinking.
Politically he lost and America won. As the economy improves he surely will take the credit for it, or will attempt to anyway.
All this just proves that the fix is in,the elites have stuck a Finger in the eye of the Tea party Movement.
They are not going to Relinquish Power too The Great Unwashed,Tell me another reason why after the drubbing the Marxist took in November that so Many So called Republicans as Krauthammer says took the wind out of their own sails.
IMHO they are all in on this Democrats and Republicans,we all were waitng for January,well we have all been suckered,Sarah Palin watch Out ,E tu Brute
This constituency is much larger than militant homosexuals. It is comprised by all radical leftists, most mind-numbed government-school teenagers, (re)education, the media and the entertainment/porn industry.