An American Lion

Shameless blame shifting and navel gazing at work here:

The smarter elements in Washington DC are starting to pick up on the fact that it’s not tactical errors on the part of the president that make it hard to get things done, it’s the fact that the country has become ungovernable. For example, here’s Steven Pearlstein on minority leader Mitch McConnell:

The bad Mitch, as most Americans know by now, is the charmless and shameless hypocrite who offers up a steady stream of stale ideology and snarky talking points but almost never a constructive idea. McConnell has decided that the only way for Republicans to win is for President Obama to lose, and he will use lies, threats and all manner of parliamentary subterfuge to obstruct the president’s programs.

Pearlstein contrasts McConnell with the good Mitch, Mitch Daniels, “a principled but practical conservative who respects the intelligence of voters and would rather get something done than score political points.”

One can only imagine how Republicans could have reshaped health-reform legislation in the Senate if it had been Mitch Daniels rather than Mitch McConnell running the show, striking deals with the White House and moderate Democrats to win concessions in exchange for a pledge not to filibuster.

I think this is largely right, but I agree with Ezra Klein that it vastly underrates the structural issues at work: “Governors have to make their state work. Minority leaders have to win seats in the next election. Telling this story in terms of good people and bad people doesn’t give enough weight to the structural incentives that make people of all sorts do good and bad things.”

This is what happens when people are not comfortable explaining what really happened in 2009.

A popular President, who won an election and earned a mandate for change, blew it.

Had he not delegated Health Care reform to dishonest brokers, this deal would have been done by now. If this President had been an experienced United States Senator, he would have already figured out how to cajole five to ten moderate Republicans into signing onto reform. He would have denied Mitch McConnell his rightful place at the table by weakening him. When was the last time President Obama even said McConnell’s name? Why isn’t he going out and explaining obstructionist tendencies to the American people? If you have no fear of being held accountable for obstructionism, then that’s the tactic you’re going to use. If the President won’t use the bully pulpit to advance his agenda, then his agenda must not be worth a damn. When was the last time the President went to Kentucky and put his arm around the most popular Democrat in Kentucky and told fifty local news reporters that so-and-so was the best thing since sliced bread and was someone who could deliver for small business and working people in the Bluegrass state? How much money has President Obama gone out and raised for the Democrat who might challenge Mitch McConnell? If the answer is zero or less, then that’s a damned good reason for Mitch McConnell to continue his obstructionist ways.

Never forget that it was the Bush-era Republian Party that destroyed Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and got him thrown out of the United States Senate. Where’s the payback? Where’s the response to that? If that’s what it takes to advance the agenda, then why isn’t there a fundraiser scheduled for the Democrat Party in Kentucky? Is it because it would force the President to depart from lofty rhetoric and a shopworn message of hope and do some real politicking?

It takes disciplined legislating to win things, and Bill Clinton won quite a few of those battles. He won well after the 1994 elections and kept on chipping away at what he wanted to accomplish, despite having to work with a Republican majority in the House. He horse-traded, triangulated, and negotiated. He also campaigned, politicked, and raised money for people. He knew the game. President Obama is great at giving speeches, lousy at substance.

President Obama cannot even control his own base. He cannot do one thing to keep his base in his corner. He keeps pandering to people who are not honest brokers. He has failed to do the simple things, like calling a United States Senator out in the media when he needs to keep his party in line, and he has failed to charm the egos of the greedy whores who make up both houses of Congress. He has huge majorities and he acts like he’s bound and gagged and stuffed in the closet.

It’s not entirely the fault of the President, but he has failed to lead and control the Democratic Party. The media exalts discredited fools, giving them badly-needed Sunday talk show time to control the debate and the agenda. There isn’t a single Republican in Congress with the legislative track record to stand up to the Democrat Party, simply because every single one of them was co-opted by the Bush Administration.

Imagine if President Bush had had these majorities in Congress. Social Security would be gone. Medicare and Medicaid would be history. This country would have a flat tax of 12% and we’d be finishing our seventh war by now.

Somehow, President Bush was able to govern. Why can’t President Obama? The answer is simple. He has no control over the Democrat Party. QED.