…and consider the situation the President is in, one step at a time:
1) From day one – literally, from the moment he was inaugurated – Obama has faced a unified front of opposition. Uniform and unbending, focused on one thing and one thing only: NO. For all the talk about “moderates” like the two idiots from Maine, or speculation around a Scott Brown, there has been no meaningful instance of any – ANY – Republican Senator breaking ranks to side with the Democrats. And make no mistake, the Senate is where the action is, because it’s the only place in the political system where a minority with 2/5 of the vote plus one has the power to dictate what can even come up for a vote.
2) In the face of this opposition, the only way to get anything at all done is to put together sixty votes in the Senate. And thanks to the huge wins in 2006 and 2008, the numbers were there once Arlen Specter defected – barely. With exactly sixty votes, the Senate Democrats were at the mercy of the most conservative of their members – so for all the talk about out-of-control liberals from the retarded media hyenas on the right, the Obama Administration has spent two years with the tune being called by the likes of Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln and Joe Lieberman. Forget about the wild-eyed radicalism of a Ted Kennedy (RIP) or Barbara Boxer or Al Franken or, hell, pick any talk-radio-boogeyman you like – inasmuch as the Democrats were falling in line, the ones doing the falling were the ones on the left, giving in to the most conservative Democrats just for the sake of getting something, anything, through the process.
3) If the left wants to lash out at some Democrat, there’s one target and only one: Harry Reid. Harry Reid, who did nothing to squeeze a loyalty commitment on cloture votes out of his caucus. Harry Reid, who chose to leave the filibuster rules intact knowing full well that the GOP had shattered the filibuster record in the previous Congress – and watched as they went on to shatter that record. Harry Reid, who had to pull out a miracle finish to beat an opponent who was advocating armed revolt against the federal government. Harry Reid, the man who shit the bed.
4) The GOP’s plan worked brilliantly. It was predicated on the absolute loyalty of their base, the absolute incompetence of the press and the absolute ignorance of the public. They were able to sandbag the entire political process in the Senate, the press duly reported that the Democrats couldn’t get anything done in Congress, and the public promptly punished them for their shortcomings.
5) Obama is now faced with a House in the hands of the enemy and a Senate that no longer has the option of begging together sixty votes – in short, the Congress is closed for business vis-a-vis the Democratic agenda. Any grand vision for the progressive future is officially dead on arrival.
6) Obama has two choices now. He can hew to the good line, thump the bully pulpit, raise hell at every opportunity – and hope against hope that his battle cries will get a hearing in the press above and beyond “President rages impotently while nation’s economy burns to the ground.” Or he can try to hammer out the best deals he can get, while he still can, and try to do something to move the needle while hoping against hope that things rebound in time for 2012.
Now, the usual suspects on the bong-watered granola-shaver left are screaming about a primary challenge, maybe Kucinich or Feingold or something like that. No. Grow the fuck up, hippies. The alternative to Obama isn’t Rachel Maddow, the alternative to Obama is Mike Huckabee. If you’re very lucky. If you’re not, well, let’s hope your visa application comes through before Sarah Palin gets sworn in.
Unless.
If everybody to the left of, I don’t know, Richard Lugar can somehow get it together and figure out who the problem really is, we might get somewhere. Obama’s not the problem, hippies. And the dirty fucking hippies are not the real problem, Mr. President. You know who IS the problem? The army of bloated redneck zombies known as Republicans. Put one-fifth as much firepower into shooting the zombies as each other, and maybe, just maybe, you can attract enough attention to move the needle on public opinion.
But for now, Obama managed to get the middle-class tax cuts extended, plus a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits and some other stimulus, in exchange for $120 billion worth of tax cuts for people who don’t need them or deserve them after the last ten years. It sucks, but that’s the price of doing business right now. That price may change later. Until then, everybody needs to take a deep breath, grow up, and focus on who the actual party at fault is here. Hint: it’s largely white and old with an annoying Southern accent.