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The Weight Around the Democrats' Ankles: Barack Obama
President Obama has attempted, through his health care plan, one of the most ambitious government takeovers of the private economy in our lifetime. Republican lawmakers have, to a person, declined to assist Obama in this effort. Opposition by the out-of-power party is not unusual -- although the degree of polarization we have seen during the Obama presidency is unprecedented. Barack Obama is the most polarizing first year president since the 1950s, when Gallup first began polling on this issue.What is unusual, and politically worrisome for Obama, is for a president this early in his tenure to see his own party increasingly pay little heed to his wishes. For example, the Obama administration took great pride in announcing that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be given a civilian trial in New York City, just a few blocks from where the World Trade Center buildings were attacked and destroyed. This was supposed to be emblematic of what a law-abiding, image-changing administration it is. Yet late last week most of the New York Congressional delegation and other New York officials told the president that he best find a new venue. Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of the administration's closest allies on Capitol Hill, said that he was hopeful the administration could "find suitable alternatives." Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein agreed that the trial should be moved, saying, "from an intelligence perspective, the situation has changed with the Christmas attack . . . and the administration should take note of that and make a change as well." And on Sunday, Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh said that the KSM trial "sounded good in theory way back when but, in practice, it just was not the right thing to do." Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-10 |
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