Obama's shot across the GOP's bow

One would think that by now Republicans would have had enough of their vapid "gotcha-ism"--their diabolically clever thrusting and parrying, or anyway what they perceive as diabolically clever thrusting and parrying. Sadly, their capacity for self-mortification seems unlimited. For right smack on the heels of their (soon realized) insipid assault on Obama's "redistributionism" comes their madly creative attack on the president's comment that "I’ve learned some lessons. Most important is you can’t change Washington from inside, only from the outside. That’s how some of our biggest accomplishments like healthcare got done--mobilizing the American people."

Aha! Gothcha! bellows the small and merely pesky Mitt Romney from the stump in that hernial-soprana screech of his--"we'll give him that [outsider] chance in November!"; bellowing and screeching accompanied, of course, by another monotonous, game-unchanging "statement" from the quite possibly brain-damaged Reince Priebus: 

"Yes We Can" was appealing to so many four years ago, but four years later, it's turned into "No I Can't." Barack Obama's campaign rationale in 2008 was his ability to change how things are done in Washington, but now he says that he can't change things at all and has instead become part of the problem. Washington is more broken, more divisive, and less respected than when Barack Obama was elected four years ago.

Well, as they say, duh. That's precisely what Obama in so many words said--that Washington is an obstructed sewer overpopulated by scurrying hordes of the Preibus-like rattus norvegicus--excepting of course the part that you, Reince, simply made up: that Obama has conceded complicity. But golly, Reince, that thrust was so very clever of you.

Notwithstanding the GOP's schoolyard taunts (dysphemism for "The Romney Strategy"), there is in all this something of some rather profound importance. In his Univision-forum comments President Obama unambiguously signaled his second-term m.o.: "I want to concentrate having a much more constant conversation with the American people so they can put pressure on Congress to move issues forward."

That was a shot across the bow--you GOP boys had better start giving this some sober thought now--because in 2013, should the warning shot go unheeded, Obama intends to exploit the electoral fury that is damn sick and tired of the GOP's broken Washington. The GOP's response will determine its future as a party; whether regional or national.

Comments

[japa21]

And of course, Obama never said he woudl change DC. He said we can change DC and he always, always, always said that change was not soemthing he could do alone.
And, of course, there is tape of Romney in 07/08 saying that DC could not be changed from the inside, but that he, being from the outside, could make that change.
BTW< Obama did create one change. He demonstrated to the public that the GOP could care less about the country if helping the country meant helping the opposition.

[Peter G]

An unmistakable shot. Can't change it from the inside then change it from the outside. If the Republicans lose this election, as seems likely, they are going to strike out in all directions, and everyone will create an opportunity to deconstruct their governing philosophy, if you want to call it that. Oh, and Rheince Priebus is an odious little shit. That's my cacaphemism if you'll pardon the pun.

[AnneJ]

Another GOP self-contradicting argument. They love to brag about being Washington outsiders even the ones that have been in there for more than a decade. Then they accuse Barack Obama of not being able to change it from the inside only the outside something they themselves love to brag about. Is it possible that Obama Derangement Syndrome is a degenerative brain disease with no known cure?

[Robert Lipscomb]

Good catch PM. This is also beginning to look like a coattails election. Regardless of whether my 6% prediction holds, more and more Democratic congressional and senate candidates are explicitly falling in line with and parroting Obama doctrine.

Bill Clinton's speech was but a cog in the presentation of the Obama doctrine. Even so, it was a pretty thorough and understandable presentation of that doctrine. Further (and symbolism matters) the following embrace between the two conveyed that this doctrine is the unified theory of governance held by all Democrats.

It is important to note that this unified theory is embraced by a group of Americans (Dems) comprised of a diverse political philosophies (conservative to socialist). In contrast, the Republicans cannot unify within a narrowly defined political philosophy.

So, Obama's threat is a political flanking move. During his second administration, Dems in the congress and the senate will be loyal foot soldiers with almost all independents in support.

Obama is amasing a a hue pile of cash even as Rahm Emanuel is giving Wall Street one last chance to make amends. the next 6 weeks will be an attack on congressional and senate races.

[SueMe]

I have already been approached by the Democratic senate election committee and while I cannot afford much in the way of a donation...I scraped together $47 for the effort....took the caller but a second to grasp the significance.

[Beauzeaux]

It really is quite wonderful to see. Of course we've seen "Mitt" before: the dumb guy who thinks he's brilliant. All posturing smirk. He's rich! He's white! The presidency is like finding a gold nugget in the street -- all he has to do is pick it up.

But the campaign this year turned into a slow-motion train wreck. Mitt has the look of someone who definitely didn't see the train a'coming. He's rich! He's white! How could be be beaten by a black guy?

And of course, the Mitthology will be that he wasn't -- because a black guy couldn't win unless he cheated because ACORN!

[Beulahmo]

They won't change. They can't -- they're backed into a corner. Their biggest contributions come from unyielding and narrowly-focused interest groups or super-wealthy sociopaths; their "grassroots" support is reduced to a group of right-wing-pop-politics-consuming fans who have been addicted to tales of righteous outrage for so long, they now require ever-increasing levels of spiteful intransigence or else face their own worthlessness caused by committing the unpardonable sin of "backing down", otherwise known as compromising.