The Daily 202: Teflon Trump gets blamed less by base for Obamacare fail than Senate GOP

[DonViejo]

By James Hohmann July 19 at 6:54 AM

THE BIG IDEA: President Trump has a funny way of talking about Republicans as if he’s not one of them, let alone the leader of the party.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Maybe it’s because he was a registered Democrat until as recently as 2009.

Or maybe he still sees himself as the outsider who hijacked the GOP from the establishment in a nominating contest that no one but him thought he could win.

Or maybe it’s because, until late in life, he was an outspoken advocate of universal health care. Trump heaped praise on Canada’s single-payer system and said the United States should emulate it in a book he wrote called “The America We Deserve” in 2000.

Another plausible explanation for why Trump doesn’t want his own brand too closely associated with Republicanism is that he likes to have scapegoats handy if things go poorly. He will happily take credit for legislative victories and run away from defeats.

As the Senate GOP all but admits defeat in its seven-year quest to overturn the Affordable Care Act, Trump’s reaction gives credence to this theory. “I’m not going to own it,” the president told reporters in the Roosevelt Room yesterday. “I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”

-- Whatever the reason, Trump has often talked about Republicans in the third person since taking office. Consider these examples specific to the health-care debate:

- “I say to the Republicans, if you really want to do politically something good, don't do anything,” Trump said in a speech to the National Governors Association meeting in February. “Sit back for a period of two years, because '17 is going to be a disaster—a disaster!—for Obamacare if we don't do something.”

- “Action is not a choice, it is a necessity,” he said the very next day in his address to a joint session of Congress. “So I am calling on all Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster. … On this and so many other things, Democrats and Republicans should get together and unite for the good of our country.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/07/19/daily-202-teflon-trump-gets-blamed-less-by-base-for-obamacare-fail-than-senate-gop/596e9f9c30fb04367954319f

[oasis]

1. If somehow Trump became my neighbor, I'd quickly move.

#cantstandassholes

[DetlefK]

2. This makes him look very bad to voters on a subconscious level. 2018 will be ugly for the GOP.

1. Voters want politicians who get shit done. They won't elect a party in disarray.
Trump won because he had this reputation of getting shit done.
But Trump is now revealing that he is not getting shit done and that the Republicans in fact are in disarray.

2. Remember the 2014 mid-terms?
When the democratic candidates ran away from Obama and didn't want to be associated with him?
Yes?
The Democrats got slaughtered in the 2014 mid-terms.
And now we have Trump running away from the Republicans.