Cigar
09-25-2013, 12:04 PM
Obama Is The Shrewdest Political Tactician Since LBJThe conventional view in Washington these days is that President Barack Obama is not having such a great second term and might already be suffering a bit of lame duckery. But here’s a Slate pitch: Obama is the most wily tactician in the nation’s capital since Lyndon Johnson. Consider what Obama has recently done to two of his most bothersome foes: Vladimir Putin and John Boehner.
The Russian leader was now acknowledging that Assad’s stockpile was indeed a problem and, more important, assuming the role of guarantor. Certainly, the subsequent negotiations would be difficult, with Assad likely to slow-walk and obfuscate. But having sucked Putin into the process, Obama had increased the odds of achieving his chief goal: preventing the further use of chemical weapons by the regime.
Back home, Obama has placed House Speaker Boehner in a different sort of hot seat. By declining to negotiate with Boehner about defunding Obamacare in order to prevent a government shutdown, the president has fueled the ongoing civil war within GOP ranks. True, this pitched battle would wage with or without Obama, as tea partiers try to hold the government hostage in order to destroy Obama’s health care program and less extreme Republicans contend that this act of political terrorism will backfire against their party. But sometimes in politics, it takes discipline to stand back and not get in the way when an opponent is self-immolating.
More here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/slate-pitch-obama-shrewd-political-strategist
:cheers::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
The Russian leader was now acknowledging that Assad’s stockpile was indeed a problem and, more important, assuming the role of guarantor. Certainly, the subsequent negotiations would be difficult, with Assad likely to slow-walk and obfuscate. But having sucked Putin into the process, Obama had increased the odds of achieving his chief goal: preventing the further use of chemical weapons by the regime.
Back home, Obama has placed House Speaker Boehner in a different sort of hot seat. By declining to negotiate with Boehner about defunding Obamacare in order to prevent a government shutdown, the president has fueled the ongoing civil war within GOP ranks. True, this pitched battle would wage with or without Obama, as tea partiers try to hold the government hostage in order to destroy Obama’s health care program and less extreme Republicans contend that this act of political terrorism will backfire against their party. But sometimes in politics, it takes discipline to stand back and not get in the way when an opponent is self-immolating.
More here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/slate-pitch-obama-shrewd-political-strategist
:cheers::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: