Detroit Monster
Pamela Hilliard Owens
While the Republican candidates continue to gnaw at each other's ankles as they try repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - to claw their way out of a barrel, and as the rest of the Republican party continues to meekly bend over, close eyes, and spread cheeks before the unrelenting onslaught of the Tea Party, President Obama's long term strategy of backing the enemy into a corner with nowhere left to turn continues to unfold. A good friend of mine recently questioned the often debated point about whether Obama is actually a three-dimensional chess player who thinks and acts several moves ahead, or is he being given too much credit by the Obamabots who refuse to face the fact that the president would rather sell the family store and call it a day than stand and fight for what's right. And for what's ours.
At least in this instance - and I would argue there have been others as well - it is becoming clear Obama has seen much further down the road than the opposition. With the unveiling this week of the 'Can't Wait' strategy, where Obama has essentially announced plans to toss the let-us-reason-together approach overboard, bound and gagged, into the cold waters below in favor of the far simpler middle-finger extended approach, my guess is it may just now be dawning on the Republicans who they're dealing with.
Here's the abbreviated version of how we got here: Obama first announced his $447 billion jobs bill on September 8 with one of his more masterful media performances given before the full Congress. Possibly his best to date. He knew he had a good plan, a great plan, but he also knew by now that it didn't matter if God Himself had co-written the bill because so long as Obama's name was anywhere to be seen on it then the Republicans were going to shoot it out of the sky and then torch it. And so they did. But it was during that address to Congress when Obama offered a glimpse of where he was headed when he instructed Republicans in the obvious, that Americans did not have the luxury of waiting until 2013 before any action could be taken to offer them jobs relief. He knew the Republicans didn't want to give him a win, but this wasn't about giving Obama a win so much as it was about addressing the jobs crisis. People need jobs right now, and they can't afford to wait and gamble their lives on the slim possibility that one of the Republican presidential candidates just might succeed in unseating him - and then come to the rescue of the struggling middle class whom they have scorned and ignored for so long.
"Pass this jobs bill," said Obama.
Kiss our ass, replied the Republicans.
But for awhile now the polls have shown that a majority of the American people are growing more and more in favor of Obama's jobs bill the more they learn about it. One, because it's a good bill that offers quite a few good things, and two, because the Republicans have no plan of their own. They rarely do. The primary two reasons Republicans can't support the bill are that it's an Obama bill and that rich folks will be required to pay their fare share in taxes to help fund the program. Republicans claim Obama is engaging in class warfare, but an increasing number of Americans are beginning to realize that this is Grade A bullshit. As disorganized as the Occupy Wall Street movement may be, I think it's safe to say the sheer numbers of pissed off Americans involved is either inspiring or intimidating, depending which side of the fence you're on. And I think it's also safe to say the Republicans will not be the beneficiaries of this movement - a movement which currently enjoys much more popularity and support than either the Tea Party or the Congress. A movement which most definitely lists as one of its many demands that the wealthy corporations start handing over their fair share.
So now, feeling the momentum gaining, Obama announces that since it appears the Republicans are determined to obstruct anything he does to help the American people, he plans to take matters into his own hands and begin implementing as much of his agenda as possible via executive orders. In other words, taunting Republicans into a direct, full-on, come on mf show me what you got kinda battle. Do the Republicans really want to be on record vetoing the president's attempt to offer relief to the majority of American people so desperately in need? Truth is - and Obama knows this - they very possibly will have no problem being that coldly calculating. But if so, Obama more than likely wins. And if they cave and say, "Fine. Bread for the masses. Whatever." then Obama wins.
Obama has laid the Compromiser-In-Chief to rest, and has very possibly buried Republican hopes for an Obama one-term presidency right along with him.
