Obama, Going for It All

ITS INTERESTING TO LISTEN to both sides of the government shut down feud, and hear them both accusing each other of the same things stubbornness, unreasonableness, etc. You can see both points of view, really, if you give it a try. By now they should have reached an agreement, because by now both sides should have surrendered to the other side. But all that would do would be to do it in reverse, wouldn't it...at first, and for a long time, I was convinced that the tea party republicans in the House were to blame, and, for the most part I still am. But now I'm not so sure. the latest offers made by the republicans seem pretty close to what Obama wants, and seem to be a real compromise in their part. GOP Senator Olympia Snow offered to reopen the government for the rest of the year, and to raise the debt ceiling, with apparently nothing in return. But Obama turned it down, saying that merely postponing the final solution to the impasse will only create another crisis at the end of the year. He smells blood. He wants the whole enchilada, right now. He sees how the republicans are taking a pounding in the polls, and, desperate, and trapped in a corner, how they are making better and better offers, day by day. And he knows he can afford to wait. Soon enough, obama knows, the republicans will come, hat in hand, and agree to exactly what the President wants, hook, line and sinker,no strings. They'll have to, or their popularity will be zero, and it will be a disaster for the republican party. So the President is in the driver's seat. He could end it all right this moment, and get everything he wants, for two and a half months, while he and the republicans keep on talking, with ten extra weeks to work it out. But Obama won't do it, because he's going for the jugular, wanting to end it once and for all, now. On the one hand you can understand that, on the other hand, you kind of roll your eyes, because of the level of hardball, with no thought in mind of cooperation. Shame on them all for that. Using the debt ceiling and funding of the government as political blackmail has been happening for a long time, and many times, true enough. But that doesn't mean its a good idea. Six years ago Obama used the same trick to try to stop the war in Iraq, but failed. At least he was trying to stop war, not health care. But there's enough guilt and hypocrisy to go around. However, one cannot logically justify bad behavior merely by pointing to other bad behavior of the same sort. Cooperation and compromise never hurt anybody, but in modern America, we seem to have forgotten that.