How Adam Lanza Wrecked Obama's Second Term: Don't blame the catastrophic health care rollout

National Journal ^ | December 9, 2013 | Alex Seitz-Wald

[2ndDivisionVet]

There are plenty of reasons this is the lowest point of Barack Obama's presidency. He hasn't fulfilled a major legislative campaign promise, his signature second-term immigration initiative is paralyzed, and the administration may never entirely recover from the unforced errors surrounding the Affordable Care Act's rollout. But don't blame these problems alone for Obama's record-low 40 percent approval rating. In truth, his agenda went off the rails on a crisp December morning last year, when Adam Lanza strolled into Sandy Hook Elementary and killed 20 children and six adults. Obama hasn't gotten back on track since.

The Connecticut massacre set in motion a cascade of events that led the White House to burn through its only real window to accomplish its goals. The month before the shooting, Obama had won a convincing reelection and a modest popular mandate. One major liberal wish-list entry, immigration reform, seemed not only within reach but almost inevitable.

Immigration was in an almost impossible bipartisan sweet spot: a singularly important policy goal for Democrats that could be a political boon for both parties. For Republicans, it was a way to fix a demographic problem revealed by the 2012 election. Still, they'd have to move quickly. The populist Right that had torpedoed immigration reform under George W. Bush seemed quieted by defeat, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Then Lanza's rampage altered the debate in Washington. Suddenly, priority No. 1 wasn't immigration reform but gun control. The base that had just elected Obama was clamoring for background checks and magazine-clip restrictions, threatening to desert the president before his second inauguration. Many in Washington, including Connecticut's Democratic senators, were convinced that the much-feared National Rifle Association had become a "paper tiger." The gun lobby's muscle hadn't been truly tested in almost a decade...

[kcvl]

Center for American Progress (CAP) is a George Soros-funded, liberal, supposedly “progressive,” Beltway think tank founded by ex-Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta.

Since the 2008 elections, it has become a mouthpiece for Barack Obama.

[marktwain]

I read the first 4 paragraphs and saw two glaring errors.

You are exactly correct. Remember, leftists are not concerned with truth. They believe they can create the “truth” they want. So they right what they want the past to be, or what they think best serves them for the future.

[GOPJ]

There are plenty of reasons this is the lowest point of Barack Obama's presidency.

It's going MUCH lower. This is nothing...

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] The populist Right that had torpedoed immigration reform under George W. Bush seemed quieted by defeat, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Excuse me? "Quieted"? I remember instead a chorus of "I told you so!" and energization of the Right at the expense of the cocksure, totally-pwned-and-played RiNO's.

Fail.

[lentulusgracchus]

Thanks for outing this leftist punk.

One must always adjust for source bias when the subject is politics, news, history, or constitutional law.

[Peet]

For Republicans, it was a way to fix a demographic problem revealed by the 2012 election.

I feel like I'm reading something Lewis Carroll wrote...

 "JUST the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
    As he landed his crew with care;
  Supporting each man on the top of the tide
    By a finger entwined in his hair.

 "Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
    That alone should encourage the crew.
  Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
    What I tell you three times is true."

 From:  "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll

That whole article is full of that kind of proglodyte psychosis...