There are many instances you could point to as examples of Barack Obama's political ineptitude. His holding onto the false prospects of Republican cooperation through two years and more of them proving, over and again, that they will not cooperate is among the most bizarre. Even as he was giving speech after speech, far, far too late to save Democratic control of the House, he was reciting the rote formula of HIM seeking bi-partisan cooperation. Just whydid he and his idiotic handlers think that the Democratic base would be motivated by the prospects of two more years of Obama selling out a real, effective Democratic agenda to the Republicans he was supposed to be warning against? And he wasn't the only one. Trying to save his seat in Nevada, Harry Reid was saying the same thing. Apparently his Republican opponent intimating that her supporters would start shooting if they didn't get what they wanted in the election wasn't enough for Reid and Obama to twig onto the fact that they weren't going to cooperate. Why both of them are continuing to mouth what both of them certainly know is a lie only has a few explanations. I won't choose one just yet.
Barack Obama has gone from being the hope of progressives here and of rational people around the world into a rather ignominious disappointment in two years. The man has no real understanding of politics, all that propaganda about his mastery turns out to be a huckster's come on. He's far more place holder than leader, by his own choice, through his own inexperience and lack of vision. This morning, his place in the long list of mediocre presidents seems certain. I might have mentioned before that when we needed a Franklin Roosevelt, we seem to have gotten a Franklin Pierce.
In choosing to retain Nancy Pelosi as their leader, House Democrats have gone against the massive Republican hate campaign against her, the enormous reservoir of sexism which characterizes even much of the talk about her on the left, the brick wall of opposition to her in the punditocracy and some opposition from blue dogs within the house. They did it because she has been excellent, doing her part in the face of obstacles put in her path from Republicans and their kept media, with little backup from the President and with full prospects that Harry Reid and the corporate Democrats in the Senate would block huge parts of what she got passed in the House. When this congress finally ends, hundreds of bills, many of them major pieces of legislation that Barack Obama was elected to put into effect, will die in the Senate without Obama and Reid pushing them to completion.
In the coming congress Nancy Pelosi will not be in a position to pass bills, the Republicans who voted as a bloc during her time leading the congress will continue to vote as a bloc, passing a series of obscene measures. Of course, if the Democrats in the Senate don't pass those they will die, or if the President doesn't sign those which come to his desk, they might die by veto. And that's where Nancy Pelosi might have some ability prevent the catastrophe that Obama and Reid will be willing to enable. They've allowed a handful of blue-dogs and a couple of Republicans rule in most cases, they'll certainly bend and bow to House Republicans how that they'll hold that body.
As we've seen for the past two years, Obama and Reid's idea of bipartisanship has consisted of selling out even the most rational and exigent parts of the Democratic agenda for the mere possibility that they can break Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins loose from the Republican brick wall. Their cowardly desire to be able to impotently claim that the results are "bipartisan" was figured out almost immediately by Republicans who have succeeded with it on those occasions when they couldn't stop legislation. Healthcare, with its business friendly mandates and its insanely gradual implementation is the clearest case of this. The crippled stimulus, much of which was traded away as non-stimulating tax breaks to ineffectively woo Susan Collins, is another of the more important ones. Apparently the Senate is going to keep on Harry Reid, who is grooming the extremely compromised Chuck Schumer as his successor.
If there is an accurate history of the past two years, Nancy Pelosi is going to emerge as the real Democratic leader, working like anything to drag Obama and Reid along as they dug in their heels against the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
Update: Thank you to the reader who pointed out my mistake of typing "Arizona" when I should have said, "Nevada".