President Obama, architect of pain
It may be that this proposal was simply an extreme negotiating position that will be dramatically reshaped over the next 27 days. Or it may be that the president is, for political reasons, happy to have us go over the cliff. The calculation would be that he’s confident he can pin blame on Republicans for this having happened, portraying them as willing to increase taxes on the middle class and wreck the economy in order to keep taxes on the richest 1 percent from going up to Clinton-era rates.
The president, fresh off his re-election victory, does have a strong hand to play. But I agree with those (like Keith Hennessey and Charles Krauthammer) who believe Mr. Obama may well over-reach and in the process severely injure his second term. Because if we go over the fiscal cliff, and as a result unemployment rises to above 9 percent and we go into another recession, there is no way the president escapes responsibility for that. We saw a version of this during the 44-day debt negotiations in the summer of 2011, an ugly and unsatisfying process that left everyone associated with it — including the president — diminished and damaged (for more, see Bob Woodard’s instructive book, The Price of Politics). If we go over the fiscal cliff, it will make that episode look like a model of good government. The public will be enraged at everyone who played a part in this failure — and the most conspicuous person of all will be Mr. Obama.
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Pass the bong.
Kataklysmic on December 4, 2012 at 8:34 PM
Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night. Polls say otherwise and people voted for Obama’s plan which was very clearly part of his campaign for many months.
lester on December 4, 2012 at 8:37 PM
So its OK to destroy America because he can pin the destruction on someone else.
But since the destruction of America is Obama’s life goal anyway it makes no difference, he gets to destroy America AND blame someone else. Bottom line is America is destroyed which is what he wanted anyway.
clippermiami on December 4, 2012 at 8:40 PM
The political hit Democrats would take from another recession is no worse than the fallout that would ensue were they to join Republicans in attacking entitlements. A large portion of the Democrat base is disproportionately dependent on government payments.
Sorry folks, looks like the Russian front.
Seth Halpern on December 4, 2012 at 8:58 PM
I think the Republicans would get most of the blame but Obama would still get some. And he’d have to deal with a recession or downturn.
One step forward, two steps back.
But he clearly has the upper hand right now and he knows it. His first goal is to split the Republicans. Dealing with entitlements isn’t even on his list of worries.
SteveMG on December 4, 2012 at 8:59 PM
Why do you think he was meeting with MSNBC crew? They are getting the narrative ready to pin the blame on Republicans no matter what happens.
RedRedRice on December 4, 2012 at 9:00 PM
I don’t think he needed to bring that crowd in to tell them want to say about Republicans. Hell, they probably gave him a few talking points.
But I get your point.
SteveMG on December 4, 2012 at 9:03 PM
Obama never had a plan, and he won based solely on the votes of people didn’t know anything except the lies he told about Romney. Give it up.
Count to 10 on December 4, 2012 at 9:13 PM
precisely
Rs will go thru a prolonged winter in the wilderness…just like with FDR….regrettably the left has thousands of planners and policy makers that will make this country stagnate at best for a generation.
but it will be ‘fair’
r keller on December 4, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Kataklysmic and r keller, you are both right. Even being considered for the nomination in 2008 was absurd for someone of Obama’s non-career, and obvious lack of ability or talent. Being re-elected definitively beclowned the country.
There is no “accountability”, politically or otherwise, for massive, histrionic, ridiculous incompetence and failure. Even for bizarre, un-American, ignorant, un-presidential behavior (“you didn’t build that” “clinging bitterly” “vote for revenge”). NONE.
It’s almost quaint, the way Wehner and other actually quite smart and right-thinking guys keep dissecting the play-by-play politics of tall this as if they were in a different epoch (probably just 15 years ago). They’re not (we’re not). A president with 1/10 of Obama’s gaffes, weirdness, failures, and alien sensibilities would have been flushed out of the WH by a landslide, not long ago.
The mouse (the electorate, or at least a working majority of it) does not understand its universe. It will be shocked by the handle on the left, then go desperately cling to it in response, as opposed to running the other way.
IceCold on December 4, 2012 at 10:22 PM
King of Pain was taken.
M2RB: The Police
Left Coast Right Mind on December 4, 2012 at 10:27 PM
Thanks to the disreputable, despicable and treasonous media.
Unless we conquer the media, the country is lost.
Will anyone have the guts to even significantly call them on their subterfuge? (Such as prominent Republicans laying out the case to the American people.)
Not a chance.
Will the remaining patriots in this country work against the media in some organized and substantial way?
Not a chance.
So we are left with a wretched, lying, traitorous, Marxist farce of a president who can basically do whatever he wants and in the most brazen manner possible- in essence, we are left with a malignant, anti-American tyrant.
And clearly what he wants is to punish America and bring it to its knees.
We are well on our way to the end.
When we get there fully, maybe there will be a relatively few patriots remaining who will give their all to restore a once great and benevolent nation. Don’t hold your breath.
justltl on December 5, 2012 at 12:03 AM
Son-of-a-gun, the apocalypse *is* here, I agree with lester.
GWB on December 5, 2012 at 8:39 AM
A question I’ve heard asked frequently over the years when studying German history of the 30′s and 40′s is “How could they allow someone like Hitler to take power?”
My answer to those who voted for Obama (especially a second time) is, “Sie sind Sie.” (They are you.)
GWB on December 5, 2012 at 8:44 AM
If the past 4 years have taught us anything, it’s that President Obama can do anything he wants and never get called on it. Better still, he automatically gets the credit for anything good that happens even if he had nothing to do with it or even actively resisted it. I’ve never seen anything like it.
JeremiahJohnson on December 5, 2012 at 9:05 AM