Sunday, February 01, 2009

Editorial: The fear paralysis

President Barack Obama stabbed women in the back by catering to Republicans and ditching family planning from his proposed stimulus package. Before the knife wounds had healed, House Republicans made clear they weren't interested in bi-partisanship or even in bonding over sexist attacks.

And at the time that Barack should have been loudly called out (or at least suffered a lot of nah-nah-nah-nah taunting), what happened instead were attempts to 'understand' Barack.

He's just caught in the bi-partisan model.

He's just trying to get along.

He wants the press to like him.

It was hilarious to hear all the excuses for Barack.

None of them made a great deal of sense.

Take the "wants the press to like him." Barack's always acted with a sense of entitlement when it comes to the press. They finally try to ask him tough questions about Tony Rezko? He scolds them and disappears to the other end of the plane. He shows up at the White House press room and they try to ask him questions? He scolds them and slinks away. He has no respect for the press and no fear of the press. He has no fear of it because he's been built by the press. He'll transition from diapers to pull-ups shortly but he's still not learned that the press buildeth and the press teareth down.

A best-guess on why he did what he did would have to be based on past actions.

The most likely reason for Barack to reach out to the Republicans?

Barack doesn't make difficult decision. Barack has no record. It's why he voted present so many times in the Illinois legislature and why he skipped out on the tough votes during his brief stint as a US Senator.

You can't repeatedly cite your fabled judgment -- you'd have thought he predicted 9-11 the way he went on -- and build your campaign on that and then start taking responsibility. Better to spread it around. For example, had any Republicans crossed over, if the stimulus turns out to be a failure, it's not Barack's fault, it was a bi-partisan measure! Even Republicans came to the table on that!

And besides, to get them to the table, Barack had to show 'maturity' and cut some things out. And so the bill was flawed due to the process and, therefore, it's failure is not Barack's fault.

What you most likely saw last week was a kid who bragged about himself one time to many suddenly being expected to deliver and wanting to be sure that, if he failed, everyone took the fall on it.
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