Reviewing some of Mr. Galston's comments, I realized: Obama has and is trying to tear down an entire section of the citizens of this country, so that he can rebuild them to the everyone-is-equal image in his head. This has made many people angry, and left the rest with their hands out.
That's how a machine pol operates, he counts on being able to spend other people's money filling those outstretched hands just before the next election. You can take the pol out of Chicago, but you can't take Chicago out of this pol, it seems. Obama makes bad calculations because he is a creature of urban blue state politics, and he doesn't get that most of the America runs on a very different model.
Yuval Levin of NRO has read the bill that just passed the House, and concluded that while it is only a minor win for the right, since it doesn't come close to solving the debt problem, it is a major loss for the left. All the clever tricks about commissions and triggers and two-stage implementation aside, the bill contains statutory caps on discretionary spending and no new taxes. Levin says that's more than he expected to be able to get while Obama remains in office.
Judging from the hissing and spitting coming from the left, they agree with Yuval Levin's assessment. Joe Nocera of the NYT has a column today called "The Tea Party's War on America". After they get done cursing the Tea Party, I suspect the wrath of the left will fall on the President who let them down in the pinch. The fate of fallen messiahs is not pretty.
Pass the popcorn, this should be entertaining. |
