I hope someday soon Barack Obama will ask himself what the past five years could have been like if he'd not tried the incredibly stupid strategy of winning by caving, of negotiating by giving everything away as an opening, of courting the votes of Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Joesph Lieberman by surrendering the first years of his administration to them instead of playing hardball. Being a Democratic president isn't a position for on-the-job learning. That's the lesson for the rest of us.
If Obama can salvage what will be seen in history as a mediocre presidency of tragically wasted opportunities TWICE handed to him by the voters in his final three years remains to be seen. He might be able to get something worthy of the receding Democratic tradition of FDR and LBJ, though his continued talk about the obscene "grand bargain" selling out that tradition will only be a continuation of his betrayal of his supporters in his never ending quest to be liked by people who hate him and want to destroy him. I can't think of any better way for him to discourage Democrats from coming out in the always difficult mid-term election, why he was "shellacked" in 2010, I can't think of anything that would more empower his enemies and the enemies of The People.
A while back I said that we were in the post-Obama period already. I still think we are. It would be a very pleasant surprise to find out that was wrong. Obama is the only one who can prove it wrong. I have no confidence that's what he will do but I wish he would.
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