Finally, a Democrat That Gets It?
If I learned anything from watching the campaign, it was that Obama was really good at making judgments that were two or three steps ahead of what his opponents were doing, and that in general it was best to just watch things unfold and chill.
Here's the beginnings of a strategy that I see happening, and it's encouraging because I think he has begun to understand the Versailles mentality that surrounds the beltway. The right wing (and Village) caution to him is that as a Democrat, he must govern from the center. (The Village, of course, spoke of "MANDATES" after Bush won a razor-thin 2004 election and subsequently lost control of the House). So he puts out a plan that he knows is going to be smaller than necessary, complete with tax cuts. This puts his political opponents in a box, as he knows (I hope) that the tax cuts are due to shrink in the finance committee because of objections from the Senate and House D's. The Republicans, however, can't get in the way because (1) the bill contains tax cuts; and (2) the stimulus plan is, as a whole, immensely popular. The R's are then left in the position of obstructing the people's will, and he will have the bully pulpit.
Over and over in the primary and elsewhere, he used the predictability of his opponents (and their media enablers) to get them. I hope I'm beginning to see the same pattern emerge again. The X factor in all this is, I think, the stupidity of the Blue Dogs.
