Looking back, a key domestic moment in this presidency occurred only eight days after his inauguration, when Mr. Obama won House passage of his stimulus bill. It was a bad bill””off point, porky and philosophically incoherent. He won 244-188, a rousing victory for a new president. But he won without a single Republican vote. That was the moment the new division took hold. The Democrats of the House pushed it through, and not one Republican, even those from swing districts, even those eager to work with the administration, could support it.
This, of course, was politics as usual. But in 2008 people voted against politics as usual.
It was a real lost opportunity. It marked the moment congressional Republicans felt free to be in full opposition. It gave congressional Democrats the impression that they were in full control, that no one could stop their train. And it was the moment the president, looking at the lay of the land, seemed to reveal he would not govern in a vaguely center-left way, as a unifying figure even if a beset one being beaten ’round the head by the left, but in a left way, without the modifying “center.” Or at least as one who happily cedes to the left in Congress each day.
Things got all too vividly divided. It was a harbinger of the health-care debate.
I always now think of a good president as sitting at the big desk and reaching out with his long arms and holding on to the left, and holding on to the right, and trying mightily to hold it together, letting neither spin out of control, holding on for dear life. I wish we were seeing that. I don’t think we are.
Peggy’s last 2 columns have been spot-on. If you can stand it (skip the stomach-churning 3rd page), try Camille Paglia’s current Salon column — its interesting to see her critique Obama while maintaining her fan status.
And why Peggy Noonan thought it would be different, I have no idea. I will never understand the myopia that the took hold during the last election – or perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but it was based on no reality, just words.
I find Dorothy Rabinowitz’s analysis even more trenchant. The boy king and his court are incredibly tone-deaf, and ignorant of American history, as well. What do they think happened at the original tea parties and other “community organizing events” in pre-Revolutionary America?