Posted on 10/06/2010 8:03:55 PM PDT by neverdem
Had the Obamites been sober and circumspect after the 2008 election they would have realized that Obama had pulled off what McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry had not, due to a once-in-a-century perfect storm of about six events:
1) The September 15, 2008 financial meltdown that destroyed John McCains small, but steady lead.
2) The fascination with a possible landmark election of an African American candidate.
3) The inept McCain campaign that at times seemed more to wish to lose nobly than to win in a messy fashion.
4) The adroit Obama campaign that stressed centrist, across the aisle issues and style.
5) The tingle in the leg biased media coverage.
6) The first election without an incumbent or vice president since 1952 in which both candidates ran against the status quo Republican record.
Instead, Obama egged on by obsequious advisers, an out-of-touch, hard-left base, and a toady media decided that he had done what other Northern liberals had not, either because (a) the country was at last ready for European-style socialism, or (b) his singular charisma and talents could convince it that it was even when it was clearly not.
The result was that our Oedipus/Pentheus rushed headlong into socialized medicine, mega-deficits, needlessly polarizing appointments of the Van Jones type, and various federal takeovers, coupled with quite unnecessary editorializing about largely local matters from the Skip Gates mess to the Arizona immigration law and Ground Zero mosque.
In each case, the supposed uniter deliberately weighed in on these controversies to quite unfairly demonize his opponents stupidly acting police, Arizona xenophobes picking up children on the way to buy ice cream, Islamophobes wanting to deny religious liberty, etc. A thousand other nicks, from Eric Holders nation of cowards to Obamas musings that at some point one needs no more income, ensured continual bleeding as his poll numbers fell by nearly 30 points in just 20 months.
The result was that the president soon lost the moral capital to push through an unpopular agenda to such a degree that his out-of-the-mainstream views and his polarizing style of governance might well destroy Democratic congressional majorities for a decade.
As in all Greek tragedies, we the audience can see what might have happened had Obama avoided hubris and its attendant nemesis: If, from the get-go, he had focused on jobs; avoided talking about tax hikes; postponed health care; controlled spending; worried about rising deficits; avoided the them vs. us rhetoric; and stayed Olympian and aloof when polarizing local controversies grabbed the cable TV headlines.
And now? After November, Obama can only hope that he can outsource the messy work of cuts and budget balancing to the congressional Republicans. Chances are he will demagogue them as heartless while taking credit for an economic rebound once investors, businesses, and corporations see an end to Obamism and its gratuitous slurs against the wealthy, and thus start using their stockpiled trillions to rehire and buy equipment in 2011.
In the meantime, an entire generation of Democratic House members and senators are going to pay a heavy price for falling for a clearly inexperienced, untried, and often petulant candidate amid the exuberance of the 2008 hope and change wave.
If the GOP gets the majority, the smart move would be to send bill, after bill, after bill, all dealing with government waste and entitlements, to Obama to veto. This would effectively make him the President of No. Let Obama be the guy behind "hope and change" but insure the GOP is labeled the party of "restore and renew."
Of course, the GOP will not do this, because they have not yet learned that everyone can distinguish between black and white, while most have difficulty distinguishing between shades of gray.
“I would really be surprised if the Rats don’t steal the election. REALLY surprised.”
They will attempt to steal this election in any way possible and they will get away with it.
IMHO
NOVEMBER.
I do think the TEA PARTIES are going to have to mobilize for even more DIRECT ACTION (Congressional Offices, Town Halls, airports, legally in front of residences, Capitol Hill, ANYWHERE an outgoing Democrat legislator can be spotted going to and fro, who will be voting for Obama-led socialist schemes like crazy during those dangerous two months of November and December 2010, while they realize their power is evaporating).
Don't leave it up to the Republican National Committee. The grassroots must stay strong, ramped up, and in their faces.
I doubt most Republicans and even fewer rinos realize and understand just how much hatred and distrust they've earned thanks to McCain.
To see some of the rinos now wrap themselves in their anti-obama righteousness makes me seethe. Without them and their big spending ways, obama, Reid and Pelousy would still be throwing stones from the cheap seats instead of putting us into the wall.
“the reality that their country is being slowly destroyed.”
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Slowly?
“My fear is that the Republicans will be as idle and vapid as when they did hold a commanding majority.”
When they did hold a commanding majority? You need 60 votes in the Senate to end debate in order to get anything new and significant done.
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From 2000 to 2006, when RINOsaurs ruled the earth.
Ruled my @ss. Folks elected in November usually don't take office until the next January. Remember Jumpin' Jim Jeffords and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle during most of 2001 until January 2003? Remember Miguel Estrada, Janice Rogers Brown and the Gang of Fourteen, when 55 pubbies in the Senate couldn't get a vote to confirm either Estrada or Brown as circuit judges?
“My fear is that the Republicans will be as idle and vapid as when they did hold a commanding majority.”
Republicans never held a commanding majority during the Bush administration. Conservatives have NEVER held a commanding majority during my life (and I’m pretty old).
By “commanding”, I mean able to pass stuff over a concerted rat and RINO filibuster. Even that majority would not necessarily be enough to pass legislation over a presidential veto.
“Has this been retained in the US? “
Yes. But the power will be hard to exercise. The house initiates spending legislation. But if the Senate does not pass the same legislation, there is no spending authorization and government will shut down.
Thus, if the house passes a spending bill as part of a typically large spending bill and it defunds Obamacare and prohibits spending any money to implement it but the senate refuses to pass it because it defunds obamacare, the consequence is there is no spending authorization.
So it’s like a nuclear weapon. You force the Senate and Obama to swallow something they hate because the alternative is to shut down the government. And make no mistake, even if the R’s win control in the Senate, at least 40 senators will hate defunding Obamacare and that’s enough to block the spending bill.
I remember a conservative and effective executive from a quarter century ago who was able to do a great deal despite a hostile congress, without a majority in either house.
But, as mentioned, he was actually conservative, and he was actually effective. It is odd that he is the one who is dismissed as an actor.
By commanding, I mean able to pass stuff over a concerted rat and RINO filibuster. Even that majority would not necessarily be enough to pass legislation over a presidential veto.
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We differ in our definitions then. A persuasive, principled, focused and determined president could do much with simple majorities in the house and senate.
“Don’t leave it up to the Republican National Committee. The grassroots must stay strong, ramped up, and in their faces.”
Absolutely essential.
IMHO
perform > describe
Bah.
Ronald Reagan had a majority in the Senate from January 1981 until January 1987.
We differ in our definitions then. A persuasive, principled, focused and determined president could do much with simple majorities in the house and senate.
Other than budget reconciliation bills which only need a simple majority vote, you need 60 votes in the Senate to end debate! A majority can rule in the House. The Senate has its own rules.
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