Obama Continues to Box In His Opposition
http://open.salon.com/blog/the_flylooper/2012/02/14/obama_continues_to_box_in_his_oppositionObama Continues to Box In His Opposition
Nothing could be more obvious – and to a progressive, encouraging. Barack Obama has managed, particularly since the disaster of the 2010 midterm elections, to box in the GOP into narrower and narrower confines. And in doing so he has opened up a 15 point lead in some polls over his likely challenger, the erstwhile “severely conservative” Mitt Romney. Obama, by luck or design, is beginning to stand out as the only sane guy in the room.
On issue after issue, the GOP exposes itself with out-of-touch positions on nearly everything from a woman's sexual health, to extended payroll tax cuts, to foreign policy, to jobs creation, and darned near anything else of major or minor importance. Whatever position the President stakes out, the GOP can dependably be certain to not only disagree with, but press it home, bullhorn in hand (aided by Fox News Channel and Rush Limbaugh (along with a host of minor media “conservalebrities”) with the electorate.
And the electorate seems to be responding in ways in which the Grand Old Party may pay a significant price in November. Though 9 months is an eternity in politics, the trend is working for the President at this juncture, and may even work for the Democrats in general come November
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Has Obama resorted to “Rope-a-Dope” in the year of his running for a 2nd term? It may be that the GOP - and even the Catholic hierarchy - is punching itself out. There is no groundswell for any of its current positions. The anger and discontent of 2010 has perhaps made them realize that they threw the baby out with the bathwater (with current congressional approval at around 9%). And while Mitt, Rick and Newt decree that the imminent destruction of America is at hand, there has never been a politician who has been elected without something positive to ask the voter to imagine.
So far, all they ask of us is to allow them and their obscenely rich friends to keep their hands in the cookie jar a while longer, while we all sing “America the Beautiful.”
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The GOP "candidates" (I prefer the term "clowns"
are mired in the politics of the early to mid 90s , or the early Dubya years. America's political landscape has radically changed in the interim, regardless of which point of delineation one chooses. They simply have no other platform than what has worked in the past. But that won't work this time around. Despite many people's disappointment with President Obama, there is a fundamental recognition, and not just among committed Democrats, that he presents a vastly better alternative to governance than any clown, er, uh, "candidate" who currently opposes him. The only one who would stand even a remote chance is Ron Paul, but the GOP establishment will never allow that. For that matter, as committed and enthusiastic as his supporters are, they simply are too few in number to appreciably influence the GOP primaries.
President Obama, at this juncture, is virtually assured of winning a second term. The real question is, how will he choose to govern in his second term? As a sometimes capitulating champion of bipartisanship, or as a lean and mean capital "D" Democrat? We all know that the reality will lie somewhere between those points, but the real question is, to which direction will he bend...
I had high hopes for the emergence of progressive media (radio, blogosphere, message boards, etc.), but while it certainly has it's good points, it has polarized the country even more than the Clinton years. Everyone in DC is scared to death to step out from behind their "D" or "R" for fear that they'll be eviscerated on talk radio & in the blogosphere the next day. Compromise has become "caving", and bipartisanship, a four letter word. The tragedy of this new hyperpartisan dynamic, is the loss of true statesmenship.
The country remains mired in intransigence & gridlock, and the partisans in the media are laughing all the way to the bank. It's ratings driven nonsense, and it's sad that we play along.
In the president's own words, "we are not blue states, or red states, we are the United States of America". Did you not believe him? 
I did, and it's what Independents overwhelmingly liked about him. Even if he doesn't mean it, I think the symbolism of even being willing to reach across the aisle is important with a crucial voting bloc. I also think it's imperative for us & the president to remember that neither party can win just playing to their respective bases.
