No reset for Obama presidency

posted at 8:42 am on March 19, 2010 by Pundette
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RS McCain in his Spectator piece this morning:

“They’re obviously not doing this for policy reasons,” one GOP operative who worked on the Brown campaign said last night. “This is political, but nobody can figure out the politics of it.”

Call it the politics of personal self-destruction.

How the Democrats must be privately cursing Obama right now. Things could have been so different. If he had had more political sense and less personal hubris they could have passed a healthcare bill with bipartisan (read RINO) support that would have served as a nifty foundation for an American NHS. Instead, he has squandered his political capital and imperiled his party’s majority. How can they not be blaming him for the gathering tsunami of 2010?

It would be diverting to read some of their minds as the president makes his appeal for their suicide based on the need to save his presidency. True, some House members, perhaps not our sharpest minds, have gone along with Obama’s formulation that there is still something to be saved:

One caucus member told POLITICO that Obama won him over by “essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency” hinged on this week’s health reform vote in the House. The member, who requested anonymity, likened Obama’s remarks to an earlier meeting with progressives when the president said a victory was necessary to keep him “strong” for the next three years of his term.

Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), said, “We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss.”

Added Serrano: “He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting — the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency.”

White House officials said Obama’s recent remarks aren’t intended to personalize the debate or rally undecided Democratic members with an egocentric, “win one for Barry” message. They said Obama’s point is to hammer home the idea that all Democrats would benefit from a health care win and that the party’s larger policy agenda would be damaged if the president were to lose.

“Would be damaged”? Obama has already totaled his presidency and his majority, regardless of what happens with healthcare reform. Thanks to him, there is no “good” way for House Democrats to vote. Either choice leads to heartache, and, though he had ample help from Pelosi, Reid, and friends, Obama is the one to blame. Passing healthcare now will not hit the reset button for the Democrats and transport them back to January 20, 2009, when they were riding the giant wave instead of waiting to be swept away by it.

And what’s worse, in addition to ruining his own party, Obama has created a backlash, a populace hypersensitized to and willing to fight against government overreaching. We’re taking part in a national civics lesson — call it No Citizen Left Behind. We’re reviewing how a bill becomes law (because the new way just doesn’t sound right). We’re reading the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Hayek and Milton Friedman. This isn’t what the statists expected from Barack Obama. And a “win” on healthcare reform, if it happens, will only make matters worse for them as the reality of this violation sets off its own waves of protest.

Cross-posted here.

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