Many progressives, including this writer, have been very angry with the President about his passive responses to Republican initiatives. He has often appeared to take the attitude: “You guys tell me what you want and I’ll go along with a few modifications in order to appear middle-of-the-road.”
That’s how it has looked to a lot of us, especially when it came to budget and tax issues. But maybe we’ve been wrong — or at least not totally right.
Maybe Mr. Obama is simply a far more savvy politician than we’ve given him credit for. Maybe he has just been waiting for Republicans to badly overplay their hand, ready to come alive and pounce when they did so.
He plays a mighty good possum. And Republicans have enjoyed taking advantage of it The greatest advantage accruing to the haughtily aggressive Tea Party fringe that came to prominence only after the victors claiming to be progressives surged to power in the 2008 elections and then failed to advance a truly progressive agenda, opening the door to a right-wing populist counter surge.
Mr. Obama seemed inclined to knuckle under to these people completely. They thought they read the man perfectly — they would say they won’t budge and he would. Always. Except… maybe he was just doing a political possum number.
Maybe the Empire (aka this Administration) is now striking back. Maybe, after all, this President has (you’ll forgive the expression) a titanium spine when it comes to at least a few things that are important to progressives.
Or maybe someone in an Administration that has often seemed deaf to happenings in the world beyond the Beltway has finally noticed that a progressive wave is a’building out here. You saw it in the ferocious opposition to Rep. Ryan’s Medicare plans. In the recalls in Wisconsin. In the falling popularity of Governor Christie in New Jersey who cut benefits for teachers while vetoing a millionaires’ surtax.
It’s doubtful at this juncture whether Mr. Obama will ever again be the darling of progressives on a host of important issues. But he might perhaps gain our respect as a savvy pol who knows when enough is enough from a fringe group that has well understood the anger and disappointment of the American people, but has only wacky ideological notions about how to make things better.
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