Looking like a winner!
President Obama, sick and tired of constantly being that 'adult in the room' and constantly giving things up to bullies and getting little to nothing in return, has turned a corner in his presidency. He's done with winning niceness points with schoolmarms and Miss Manners types. Now he's ready to kick some goddamn ass and by god he's doing it. Fuck being an adult in a room. Its time to be a politician in Washington.
Rightly, both morally and politically, President Obama has fixed himself in position and isn't moving or bending. He offers nothing. He commends nobody for doing their ordinary jobs. Republicans are surprised by his sudden burst of strength. So much so, they are backtracking, divided, and negotiating with themselves. Big business is scared. The GOP establishment is confused. Ted Cruz and the nutcase fringe that started all this have no idea how this ends. The one thing Republicans know is that they want out of this mess, in a way that isn't completely humiliating.
Let me be clear (as the President would say): The result will be humiliating. Republicans shutdown the government to stop ObamaCare. ObamaCare isn't stopped. They failed and that will be apparent just as soon as this ends. President Obama can bank this victory plus a few others: a divided, beaten GOP; a rump Speaker headed towards oblivion; and a perfect foil for the next six months, newly minted GOP leader Ted Cruz.
So, to finish this in a flourish, here is all President Obama needs to do next:
1. Throw the GOP a life jacket riddled with Smallpox.
No budget negotiations at all, but a minor concession would be appropriate. Something that includes a bit of a poison pill. My idea would be small corporate tax cut. They don't pay any taxes now anyway, so cutting them wouldn't cost us anything. But more importantly, it allows us to say that the GOP brought us to the brink of the default and shut down the government all on behalf of Big Corporations and Wall Street. That should be enough to allow a stupid face saving, piss off the Tea Party nutcases into turning on their own leadership, and get Big Business to keep some of their cash on the sidelines for a while.
2. Frame the reopening of the government and approval of the debt increase for the 2014 elections.
The last thing President Obama should do is give the kind of ridiculous speech he gave at the end of the 2011 mess. He was absolutely right to clear the decks among his senior staff after that fiasco. Instead, he should make it clear that this kind of governing can only be resolved by the American people next year. That only they can put a stop to this foolishness by throwing Republicans out. Repeat what he said the other day in Maryland: this is going to keep happening until the American people get rid of Republicans. He should offer absolutely no praise for Boehner or any of the Republicans who help re-open government. Instead, they should be told in no uncertain terms that the 2014 election begins NOW and their behavior is whats on the ballot.
Finally, I want to commend Washington Democrats and the White House for finally acting like a majority party that has the right to rule. When the Republican Party is down, you don't offer them the hand of the Good Samaratan. Instead, you see them lying in the gutter, you go ahead and kick them in the teeth and stomp repeatedly on their sternum. Then throw them a wet towelette and tell em 'Now clean yourself up.'