It hasn’t taken long and the Republicans are harping back on their lifeline for the past 6 years - attack Obama. Everyone who wondered how long they would hold out before they would be at it again were not kept in suspense very long. As E. J. Dione said in the Washington Post, the GOP wouldn’t be able to resist their vitriolic criticism of the Commander in Chief because it is in their DNA. There is always a rationalization as to why they should attack the POTUS. Up till now it was because Obama wanted them to govern and now it is because Obama wants to govern. The Republicans have finally decided that this is their party and they will "cry if they want to", venting their anger at the President, who instead of fading politely into the sunset has come out of the midterms with guns blazing.
Jay H. Ell believes that the GOP rage is phony as they refuse to legislate themselves because any move on the major issues would split their party. (Blog: “Midterm’s Aftermath: Iran, Israel and the Implosion of the GOP”).
OBAMA’S TAKE
Obama has defiantly interpreted the midterm elections his way. (Blog: “2014: The Smoke and Mirrors Election”). He concedes that the electorate is disillusioned but he doesn’t interpret it similarly to the cock of the hoop Republicans or the paralyzed Democrats. He believes that two - thirds of the electorate voted with their feet by not moving them to the polls. He argues that their rationale was the gridlock of the no government GOP, not him. He apparently remains singularly unimpressed that the Republicans garnered 17 percent of the electorate to the Dems 16 percent, however many seats that translated into. So its all systems go to the drumbeat of the unmitigated fury of the GOP who are now threatening all those counterproductive actions, that they promised not to embrace, such as shutting the government and not voting money to fund it while their talk of impeachment grows louder and louder fanned on by the usual suspects and even .
If one looks back Obama started off 2014 with a bang, (Blog: Obama Bounces Back With A Bang). He was upbeat in his State of the Union speech but it was his own party that made him bow out the midterms, ostensibly, not to hinder his party’s chances. He temporarily bought into the narrative that he was the problem. A narrative that Jay H. Ell believes was a myth. (Blog: 2014:” The Smoke and Mirrors Election”).
Obama in an interview, prior to his Asian trip, on CBS beamed that he was going to enjoy every last minute of his Presidency so sucks to everyone.
THE MEDIA’S TAKE
The media have not been slow to acknowledge the new and bold Obama. The New York Times argued that he was defying the label of a lame duck President. The Washington Post maintained that Obama, in the final years of his Presidency, wants to squeeze every last bit of opportunity to further his agenda and has acted as if he meant every bit of it. Politico argued that there was now a swagger in his step. These were some of the few comments that interpreted Obama’s offensive in a positive way.
THE NAYSAYERS.
Zachary Goldblatt, writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post, maintained that Obama’s comeback was hype. He offered that his job approval was still in the tank without looking at the disconnect between the support for his policies and the fact that his job approval rating was still above that of Congress and eons higher than the Republicans and their leaders. Goldblatt pooh poohed Obama’s support of net neutrality maintaining it was no big deal. Goldblatt should tell that to the consumer that have voted the telecommunications companies including Verizon and Comcast as their biggest bogeymen - even worse than the IRS.
Goldblatt downplayed the China agreement prophesying that it wasn’t enough. Well there are several fundis who have opposite opinions and he is ignoring the propaganda impact that the accord will have on other emerging nations. The immigrant executive action, he maintained, was no breakthrough as Obama had promised it a long time ago. Finally, he implied that Obama had had his turn and the Americans were looking to the Republicans to make the difference. Wah fight fare was the guist of his piece - its our turn to bat.
Goldblatt’s criticisms remind Jay H. Ell of the British Conservative Party attack on the Labour Minister, Nye Bevan, after the war. Bevan was scoffed at with the barb that, “ Any bloody fool can just build several thousand homes”. To which he retorted that he knew several bloody fools sitting across the aisle that didn’t!
The no lesser light than GOP former Presidential candidate and House Speaker, Newt Gingrich argued that it will be the death knell of the Democratic Party if Obama acts unilaterally. He sites as a precedent Woodrow Wilson who post World War 1 founded the League of Nations, with no buy in from the Republicans who were nowhere in sight. (Well that is not strictly true as Herbert Hoover was very much around and actually resigned from the Wilson’s delegation, not because of the League of Nations issue but because he like, Keynes of the British delegation and Smuts of South Africa, for example, thought that the reparations foist on the Germans would lead to another World War. But who is Jay H. Ell to challenge Gingrich on American history?)
To get back to Wilson and the League of Nations one cannot imagine that was the issue that brought down the Democratic party in the twenties. Unless that American electorate had an unprecedented interest in International Affairs never paralleled before or since. In spite of 24 - 7 coverage on everything and anything and an internet with infinity news nobody takes any notice of the United Nations let alone the possibility of it being the central issue in two successive Presidential elections? One wonders what Gingrich has been smoking?
It would be better for Gingrich to analyze the situation in the here and now rather than rely on his faulty memory of history. The burning question is when or if the GOP are ever going to enunciate alternative policies for the central issues of the day or will they go into 2016 attacking Obama when he is not only not on the ballot but out of office. The GOP won the midterms control both houses and as yet all there has been in terms of policy statements are generalities and no specifics other than they want the Keystone pipeline project sanctioned.
Jay H. Ell will predict here and now that, whoever gets the Democratic nomination, will be vilified as running for Obama’s third term in office.
IMMIGRATION
So Obama is going for broke and is moving on issues that the body politic support him on. Now Obama has plenty of basis for this stance. In addition nothing stops the GOP from taking the initiative on immigration lets say, but they won’t. They won’t because that will split the party. So Obama has allowed them to move straight back into their comfort zone, attacking him. They will not brand him so much for what he does but for doing it. Obama has signaled that he will lift the deportation orders on 5 million Latinos that are the families of the undocumented children whom he has already reprieved. Now if the GOP so pleased they could come up with some alternative plan and put it forward as legislation or even go to Obama with it. There is no reason to believe they will.
The immigration impasse is not new it has been going on for at least the six years. The Senate has passed a Bill that has been languishing in the House for years. Why doesn’t Boehner bring it to the floor? Obama said he would sign it. Why if Boehner doesn’t like the Senate Bill doesn’t he amend it and bring it to the floor? Why hasn’t he brought any plan to the floor or to the President for six years. The reason is obvious - it would split the GOP.
So for Obama the downside of taking a gamble by acting unilaterally is that he allows the GOP to carry on running against him. If anything is not new that stratagem is it.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND KEYSTONE
The President surprised all and sundry by making an historic accord with the Chinese on the reduction of carbon emissions. This is really a big deal as up till now the Chinese had been absolutely stoic and unbudging about the problem of climate change. Outside of shunning any conversation on human rights, climate change was the next most verboten topic. As far as Peking was concerned attempting to coerce them into a deal on limiting fossil fuel utilization was akin to sabotaging their great march forward into being a major economic power. Apparently Obama has been working on this deal for months and kudus to his him that his sievelike administration did not leak the negotiations as they do on everything else.
This accord is a game changer as it removes all the cover other nations have used not to go along with emissions reduction. Ahead of the 21st United Nations Framework For Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in 2015 these two major powers entering the proceedings with a unified stance will alter the dynamic and course of the debate. This pact will go a long way in preventing dissolution and breakdown on the world thrust to save the planet from destruction. The reason for the boom or bust nature of the Paris meeting is that it had been already resolved that all nations would abide by the decision of the deliberations. The French have taken the lead in Europe aiming for a 40% reduction in green houses from 1990 by 2030 and a 60% reduction by 2040.
The GOP response to this is to enact legislation to proceed with the Keystone Pipeline. In fact a Democrat, Mary Landrieu, who is in a tense run off struggle for the Louisiana oil rich Senate seat already has moved a motion to that effect. Getting 60 votes for this project in the Senate is a strong possibility and it will be considered a GOP achievement. It is somewhat of a pyrrhic victory as what does the pipeline achieve for the USA? It is going to be used to pump Canadian oil to the gulf to be exported to other countries. This at a time when the world is awash with cheap energy. If a veto proof majority is attained Obama may well still symbolically send it back for a final ratification and then wait for the sad inevitable reality of a spill sooner or later. In fact nobody cares about Keystone any more even the billionaire head of Continental Resources and Romney’s energy advisor, Harold Hamm, maintains it is “irrelevant” and he “cannot see why Congress is making it relevant now”.
The Republican argument that it will produce jobs is a bit hollow as they are temporary jobs and only fifty jobs will be needed to maintain the finished project. Also the jobs cry has to be juxtaposed with them having nixed every Obama initiative to create work opportunities with infrastructure projects in the USA.
NET NEUTRALITY
This is highly controversial area and the major communication companies are more than a bit miffed that Obama has said you cannot shortchange the ordinary computer user by making him or her a second class citizen by relegating him or her in the slow lane as a few fat cats cruise in the fast lane. He has done this by declaring the internet a utility like the telephones and therefore subject to regulation. While technically he has not the final say on this matter, the Federal Communications Commission has, his argument that Verizon and Comcast, two of the consumers biggest bogeymen, have got to be regulated resonates to a very broad base,
THE EFFECT OF THESE THREE MOVES AND OTHER PRESIDENTIAL ORDERS
Obama in one fell swoop has pumped up three key constituencies - the left, the man in the street and the Latinos. The more the GOP oppose the Latino proclamation the further they will distance themselves from that constituency. The Latinos will not be persuaded that the fact that the “do nothing” GOP were not involved in the decision. Nor will Romney's argument that a comprehensive solution is needed as the Latinos are tired of waiting around for the Republican Godot.
As far as climate change is concerned the activists in the Democratic Party have been very dissatisfied, to date, with the progress made in this arena. The POTUS has reconnected with these in a dramatic fashion and will be a national and a world leader in this endeavor. With the populist move on net neutrality he has placed himself firmly back on the side of the voiceless and powerless in the big business world that they usually end up on the losing side.
These three moves must be seen in relation to his successful positions on such subjects as Ebola, Student Loans, support of Gay marriage and Increasing the pressure on ISIS. And sooner or later someone will remember that it was he who saved the motor industry and bailed the country out from brink of financial disaster. There have to be more to come that are topical hot button issues. It is pertinent to reflect, in the light of the smear that he is an imperial President, that to date Obama has used the Executive order less often than previous Presidents.
Obama by going on the offensive has taken a calculated risk and the GOP would be well advised to respond and take on the legislative initiative even if it results in a splintering of the Party or they will, as Jay H. Ell has blogged again and again, stagnate into oblivion.
The GOP thus is left on falling back on their mantra that Obama has shown, once again, that he is not into bipartisanship. No doubt this will ring true with their base but who else will be persuaded? Boehner and McConnell can rant and rave that Obama is poisoning the well but again who is going to take notice - the same 17% that voted in November? If they shut the government in anger or go as far as to make impeachment moves they may just help further to get the Democratic majority to go to the polls in 2016.
Also there is the ongoing battle on Obamacare, with the Supreme Court as a key player. The GOP abandoned it as a lost cause for the midterms but have rejuvenated the idea of repealing it again!. This tactic from a distance does not make any sense but Jay H. Ell does not think he would make a good Republican strategist. He just cannot get in sync with their long term strategy for governing America.
IRAN DEAL CAN UNDO IT ALL
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