Since the November 2012 elections, President Obama’s popularity has declined across the United States. He won the election with 51 per cent of registered votes. Immediately following the election polls ran as high as 60 per cent. Now Obama is rated positively by only 45 per cent, while his negatives are higher, at 46 per cent.
If Obama is to achieve much of his second-term agenda, he must hold the U.S. Senate and win the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. To have any chance of such victories, he must shift back to the political center having moved far left following his re-election.
So it should surprise no one to learn that Barack Obama is now making overtures to select members of the GOP. Last week, he invited 12 GOP senators to dinner at Washington’s exclusive Jefferson Hotel, paying for the event out of his own pocket. On Thursday, he invited House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, and ranking Democrat, Christopher Van Hollen, to lunch at the White House. Ryan remember, is the young man whom President Obama insulted after inviting him to a presidential speech at George Washington University.Presumably, the White House lunch was insult-free.
So what does President Obama want from his new ‘friends’? Well, I have already provided you with the answer to that question. Obama wants complete control over the legislature for the final two years of his incumbency. And, should the GOP help him to achieve that goal, they will be certifiably insane.
‘I fear the Greeks when they bring presents’, should be the historical lesson carved into the hearts of the GOP. My name may not be Cassandra, but my message is exactly the same. Throw that Obama wooden horse into the Potomac and return to your barricades. Troy is too precious a jewel to be sacrificed to false gestures from a flailing enemy.
Hat Tip: Michael Barone, ‘Obama flails as Republicans stand firm on sequester’, Sunday Examiner, March 10, 2013
March 10, 2013 at 5:01 pm |
“[S]hould the GOP help him to achieve that goal, they will be certifiably insane.”
Alas, “the GOP” doesn’t do anything–it’s an unincorporated body. The RNC is incorporated, but has negligible influence over individual office-holders, whose incentives and constraints, not to say motives, often do not seem driven by the interests of the GOP, or of America.
John McCain boasted during the 2008 election, and I think previously, that he had spent his entire career battling Republicans. Well, he certainly beat us that year. And why not again?
Democratic party hack John Glenn was a hero, too. So were corruption-tolerant Ulysses Grant, racist Audie Murphy, and Jew-hater George Patton. John Kerry has some medals to his credit. Pioneer “anti-war activist” Smedley Butler was a great hero. So, for that matter, were traitors Benedict Arnold and Marshall Petain.
That doesn’t prove anything–data is not the plural of anecdote. But it suggests that, unfortunately, heroism is not a strong predictor of political wisdom.