I've decided finally that Obama is a much better politician than most people give him credit for.
His style reminds me a lot of General Ulysses S. Grant.
His opponent, General Robert E. Lee, thought his job was to defend Richmond. General Grant was not trying to take Richmond; he was trying to destroy Lee.
Ronald Reagan famously said something to the effect, you'd be surprised at what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. That's pretty high-minded and shows Reagan had a lot of class. Unfortunately, politics doesn't always reward the class act. There has, until Obama, always been an implicit understanding that your adversaries in the political process belong there just as much as you do, and at the end of the day some sort of compromise must be worked out -- hopefully, to your advantage. Ronald Reagan was something of a Robert E. Lee. He had actual policy goals and worked with anyone, Democrats or Republicans, to accomplish them.
Contrast that with Obama, who wouldn't breathe air if it meant acknowledging the GOP was right about something, anything.
This quote from Gov. Haley of South Carolina is instructive:
"I could not be more frustrated than I am right now,” Haley told reporters after the meeting. She said that when she asked Obama if he would consider a last-minute plan to shave about 2 percent from the annual federal budget without increasing taxes, the answer was “no.”“My kids could go and find $83 billion out of a $4 trillion budget,” Haley said. “This is not rocket science.”
Haley believes she's still operating under the Reagan paradigm. She's upset because she thinks the president's job is to do what's best for the country and doesn't understand his intransigence.
She's trying to defend Richmond.
Obama is not trying to take Richmond; he's trying to destroy the GOP.
I think he's doing a fine job of it.
Posts
