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The
President is Missing
by Paul Krugman
Excerpt:
What have they done
with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his
supporters
thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to
stand for anything in particular?
I realize that with
hostile Republicans controlling the House, there’s not much Mr. Obama
can get done
in the way of concrete policy. Arguably, all he has left is the bully
pulpit. But he isn’t even using that
— or, rather, he’s using it to reinforce his enemies’ narrative.
His remarks after last week’s budget deal were a case in point.
Maybe that terrible deal, in which Republicans ended up getting more
than their opening bid, was the best
he could achieve — although it looks from here as if the president’s
idea of how to bargain is to start by
negotiating with himself, making pre-emptive concessions, then pursue a
second round of negotiation with
the G.O.P., leading to further concessions.
And bear in mind that this was just the first of several chances for
Republicans to hold the budget hostage
and threaten a government shutdown; by caving in so completely on the
first round, Mr. Obama set a
baseline for even bigger concessions over the next few months.
Obama gives the bastards everything they want - then they say, "No, we want more than that."
Then Obama gives them that and then turns around and tells us "We were sent here to work together."
How much more of this can we take?
Is there some kind of scare we could put into Obama?
What if Democrats pooled together and put up the money for Hillary's presidential filing fees?
What if word got out that Hillary was on the ballot on 5 states, then 10 states, then 20 states?
Could we get Obama's attention that way?
Or do we just let him continue to give away our precious cows
when all he ever gets in return is a handfull of silly beans?