Integrity can be a double-edged sword. If you swear by it too much, it can come back and bite you. Obama seems more concerned about polishing his bipartisan credentials than getting anything serious done. The GOP has decided that he’s a liberal that they have to block while the President has decided he wants ‘cross the aisle’. Those two concepts aren’t compatible. He has to abandon this bipartisan obsession now or see his critical first hundred days go up in smoke.

The GOP must be loving this moment. Far from being hustled into obscurity, they’ve been courted and coddled. First, Obama genuflects to the GOP house caucus and gets nothing, then he nominates Judd Gregg for Commerce, after Richardson, a superb public servant gets dumped. And meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is demanding that the President get the Democratic caucus in order if he wants bipartisanship. The gall of that is stupendous, but does Obama respond with the derision it deserves? No, he jumps to it.

Things are getting out of hand. Obama needs to remember who he is. He’s a Democrat, elected by Democrats to bring real “change” to this country. Or was his election mantra just another clever slogan?

Share on Facebook

For a President apparently more politically savvy than most on arrival in the White House, he let himself down badly. He forgot that Bipartisanship BS is only meant to be trotted out for winning elections. After they’re over, you kick the losers when they’re down. But Obama’s flaw is that he hates the idea of being hated. So instead, the President got an earful of whining from the GOP who had ample opportunity to diss the plan, and Obama ends up looking like an unconvincin blowhard, after only a week on the job.

The lesson of the day is pretty simple. The GOP is more right-wing, doctrinaire and disagreeable than ever. They’re MO is very simple. If the President had ignored them they would have bleated on that nobody listens. If the President gives them the time of day, they give him the finger. Neither apporach is without costs, but the former is a far better alternative, considering that right now Republicans are more discredited than at virtually any time since Roosevelt.

Politics is not a pretty business. It never was and it never will be. The sooner Obama realizes that the better, because right now he’s at risk of becoming a victim of his own magnanimity. Most kids learn it in the school yard. There are certain people that are just dangerous to be friends with. Obama apparently missed that memo.

Share on Facebook

i want to be loved...

Obama is leading like a President who wants to be loved. In case he hasn’t noticed, he’s about as loved and admired as anyone can be without levitating.

It’s time to try something a little different. Like leading.

This morning the President announced that he’d ordered the EPA to ‘review’ the block on California’s strict emission regulations.

Everybody knows what that review is going to do. It’s going to remove the block on California’s strict emission regulations. By delaying he just gives his enemies a chance to rally their lobbyists.

Last week, Obama met with GOP house leaders and asked for their input on the economic stimulus package.

Everyone knew what was going to happen. The GOP did give Obama their input. It consisted of a single finger. With America on the brink in so many respects, we really don’t have time to chit chat, especially with a Republican party that’s on the verge of marginalizing itself. What they say isn’t important. We need to ignore them. That will make them look even more truculent and outmoded than ever.

The trend here is simple. Obama wants his enemies to be his friends. That’s very sweet, but it’s going to get frustrating real fast.

I’ve been hearing an awful lot of talk these days about how Obama is using bipartisanship as a Trojan horse to get good policies through the quagmire.

Not going to work. There isn’t a quagmire. We run the show. With the help of Senators Spector, Collins, and Snowe, and a strong whip in the Senate, we have total filibuster-proof control. The days when preventing the tyranny of the majority are gone. Bipartisanship is only good when the other side agree to what you want to do your way.

Now is not the time for offering compromises. We won. They lost. It’s our turn to lead. And if the people don’t like it. They can vote us out next time.

It’s called democracy.

I once directed a feature film. The experience taught me more about leadership than anything I’ve ever done. These are the rules; 1. Keep your mouth shut unless it matters. 2. Be decisive. 3. Keep it brief. 4. Never ask for advice. Keep your game face on. 5. Forget about being liked.

Great film directors are not nice people on set.

Presidents are always on set.

Share on Facebook

Barack Goes Nuclear

Obama’s got it. McCain don’t got it. Bill Clinton had it. Sarah Palin can’t spell it.

It’s 2008’s special sauce.

Charm.

If there’s one phrase that can truly chart Obama’s rise to glory it’s charm offensive. He never gets angry, he never gets mad, he always forgives, he’s always polite. In about three years time Obama’s charm is going to drive us all nuts, but right now, it’s the best way as “That One” would describe it, to get things done.

Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I don’t for one minute think that Obama really believes all that bipartisanship BS he keeps spouting. It’s great to get you elected, but it’s a terrible way to run a country. Any mere mortal, of course, would be sticking it to the GOP right now. The idea that Obama could even bear to be in the same room as McCain after the latter basically accused him of being public enemy number one in about fifty-two different ways during the campaign seems extraordinary. But there they were today in Chicago, sitting side by side in weird tasteless chairs that looked as though they belonged in the Syrian presidential palace. But it was a brilliant move, because Obama’s magnanimity forced McCain to play nice and do the new boss’ bidding. Obama is the kind of guy who has no compunction about kicking a man when he’s down. He does it with a warm enigmatic smile on his face. That hurts.

I have a feeling that Obama’s killer smile is going to come in very handy for a very long time. With the Democrats in the ascendancy, it’s easy to reach out the hand of friendship to the other side. Obama knows that the kneejerk knuckledraggers who run the GOP these days will turn down the new President’s overtures. And Obama will accept the snub at face value and freeze them out. Hey, they had their chance, he’ll say. And he’ll be right. All he needs are the two ladies of Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and he can break any filibuster. And he’ll charm them too.

Take the decision not to punish Lieberman. Think about it. Sure it was a Senate call, but the hand of Obama is clearly on the decision. And now, well he owns Lieberman. This is a classic case of forgiveness as weapon.

Obama’s charm will also play very well in foreign policy. The Europeans are already enamored of his intelligence, and the Arabs will buckle at the knees when the boy called Hussein takes tea in their tents. But when Obama makes overtures of peace, he’ll be cutting off the Arabs at the knees. Iran in particular wants respect, and if it takes the bait which I’m sure it will, then it will be forced to talk peace, which will devastate Ahmadinejad’s and the Mullah’s popular power base.

There’s only one place the weapon won’t work. Moscow. He’ll have to try another tack there.

Share on Facebook

The truth is that attempting bipartisanship is a recipe for total disaster. The nation is in deep trouble on all fronts. It needs real change (not just the half-baked rhetorical kind). To make the truly progressive advances the country needs means breaking some eggs and seriously pissing off some vested interests. And with the mandate that the Democrats have there’s no need to even talk to the GOP, let alone bring them aboard on the process. They are in the wilderness and that’s where they deserve to stay.

We have to hope that Obama is smart enough not to embrace his own Bipartisan BS. The choice of Rahm Emmanuel as White House Chief of Staff is clearly a very good sign that the next President is ahead of the curve. Emmanuel is a true attack dog, just the kind of enforcer to strike fear into recalcitrant Blue Dog Democrats looking over their shoulder. When Emmanuel is on the prowl, there are going to be casualties. And that is a good thing.

If Obama governs from the center, like he suggests he will, there is no question he will fail to halt the decline of this country. He’s talked a great deal of “sacrifice”. The sacrifice required to transform the nation might include his own popularity. Nothing less than sweeping legislation on all fronts is needed. If he doesn’t enrage large chunks of the population he’s not going far enough.

Share on Facebook