Obama’s Last Chance

Future historians are likely to look back on this week as the period Obama passed the point of no return for his presidency, and they may identify today, September 16, as the single most important day in his undoing.  I wonder if Obama has any clue that his presidency is collapsing in real time?  Dumb question: of course he doesn’t.

Yes, I was obviously playing around with my post earlier today on “Operation Chaos,” but then something deeply serious occurred here in Washington that I didn’t notice until the evening news: 36 Senators from both parties held a big press conference calling on the debt ceiling supercommittee to “go big” with sweeping pro-growth tax reform—one that would slash deductions and lower rates dramatically.  In particular, I was struck by Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden, a smart liberal, who cited the 1986 Reagan-tax reform that he said created millions of jobs.  He may not be correct strictly speaking about the job creation bit, but that misses the point:

This press conference was not meant for the supercommittee.  It was meant for Obama. 

It is already crystal clear that Obama’s jobs bill Stimulus II can’t even pass the Democratic Senate, let alone the House.  It is such an obviously transparent play to try to set up his own re-election as Harry Truman redivivus, but the political mistake Obama has made is thinking that Democratic Senators whose own poll numbers are collapsing (78-year-old Dianne Feinstein is 60 percent closer to retiring next year according to the latest California polls) will want to be his advance guard and vote for a suicidal measure on his behalf.  The Senate press conference today was as close as you’ll get to a political intervention—they are trying to tell Obama, in the midst of his “you-love-me-pass-this-bill” tour, that he has one chance to save his presidency.

Conservatives like to ask: What would Reagan do?  How about this: What would Bill Clinton do?  Clinton would grab this opportunity with both hands, and cruise to re-election.

Obama is so besotted with class warfare mentality that he is unwilling to grasp the one huge bipartisan opportunity that is in front if him—an opportunity that has been in front of him for months.  He doesn’t care about economic growth; he cares only about redistribution and gaining more political control over the economy.  His dismissal of his own deficit commission last year showed his inclinations on this.

I reckon Obama has only about four days to see the light on this.  Harry Reid has said the Senate won’t take up his urgent jobs bill Stimulus bill until after their next recess.  If Democratic Senators go home without a course change from Obama, you can count on them coming back to DC with the attitude of “Obama jobs bill?  What Obama jobs bill?  Obama?  Obama who?”

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