A Statesman Stands Up
Just when I was about to lose all confidence in President Obama for his tame demeanor before the GOP, just when we thought his base was about to abandon him for not fighting more aggressively on health care, he goes off and proves again that he is one of the most skilled politicians to ever hold the office. The encounter with Republican leaders at their retreat in Baltimore was an uncanny bit of impromptu political theater where the President boldly confronted political opponents who have demonstrated their ideological mindlessness and disdain for the current occupant of the White House. Clearly expecting to use the opportunity to sand-bag Obama with ideologically charged set-up questions, GOP leaders found the tables adroitly turned by the president who swiftly and easily showed himself to be not only a master of the issues, but surprisingly skilled in the art of political gamesmanship as well.
Mr. Obama had been broadly criticized by progressives for his continuing attempt to achieve bi-partisan consensus with a group that has clearly shown to be using non-cooperation and legislative rejectionism as an electoral tactic. Conjuring the ghosts of Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Kennedy in his State of the Union address, the president continued to call for a bi-partisan approach as the best method of governance while taking advantage of the opportunity to roundly castigate his Republican opponents when they distorted the facts.
In the chess game of contemporary American politics, the White House may be showing that it is, at last, ready to use its most powerful piece to hold the forces of rejection in check as it plans its long-term strategy.
Just when I was about to lose all confidence in President Obama for his tame demeanor before the GOP, just when we thought his base was about to abandon him for not fighting more aggressively on health care, he goes off and proves again that he is one of the most skilled politicians to ever hold the office. The encounter with Republican leaders at their retreat in Baltimore was an uncanny bit of impromptu political theater where the President boldly confronted political opponents who have demonstrated their ideological mindlessness and disdain for the current occupant of the White House. Clearly expecting to use the opportunity to sand-bag Obama with ideologically charged set-up questions, GOP leaders found the tables adroitly turned by the president who swiftly and easily showed himself to be not only a master of the issues, but surprisingly skilled in the art of political gamesmanship as well.
Mr. Obama had been broadly criticized by progressives for his continuing attempt to achieve bi-partisan consensus with a group that has clearly shown to be using non-cooperation and legislative rejectionism as an electoral tactic. Conjuring the ghosts of Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Kennedy in his State of the Union address, the president continued to call for a bi-partisan approach as the best method of governance while taking advantage of the opportunity to roundly castigate his Republican opponents when they distorted the facts.
In the chess game of contemporary American politics, the White House may be showing that it is, at last, ready to use its most powerful piece to hold the forces of rejection in check as it plans its long-term strategy.
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