When I first heard about the Obama deficit deal
neither the press nor the liberal blogosphere had reacted. My wife had some friends from out of town visiting, so soon after we spent the day walking around, sight seeing, etc. I got to think about the deal without outside influences screaming at me that the President folded, lacks courage, etc. I thought it was a good deal. I get all the arguments against it and I believe in them more strongly than anyone. But I was dealing with the reality. So despite all the public reasons (which I could anticipate) that is not what I concentrated on. Thinking on my own, I concluded that it's foolish to have any reasonable expectation of anything reasonable from a Republican Congress. They can't govern. And they make governing impossible. So these types of things will happen when Republicans win in MASSIVE numbers. It is that simple. But I did focus on the politics. And I found it interesting. I found it very interesting. Democrats will eat their peas now. But in November and December of this year, right before the first Republican primaries, Republicans must decide whether they want tax hikes or defense cuts. They must decide how they can line up behind a bi partisian commission on deficit reduction. They must explain if they want hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts. Obama offered them a PR victory today, which they grabbed and which in a lot of ways they had no choice but to grab. After all the chaos in their party, they are overjoyed at this. But they have only bought time and the worst possible time at that.
How can you possibly have a primary with this sort of vote taking and budget cuts and committee reports going on? How does anybody sane now win the GOP nomination? How does the GOP handle responsible governing obligations in the middle of their primary? Why would anybody want to impose that type of wound upon themselves? That was the major concession. If you want all this, maybe we have to give it to you. But you folks have to run on it. Mitt Romney cant flip flop his way through that. It is a gift to Michelle Bachman if you ask me. What this deal means is that if the Republicans want the tea party they can have them, as leveraged and as powerful as they will ever be, smack dab in the middle of a primary season. Again, I'm not saying I like this, and I spent a lot of time and money trying to prevent it. I'm just saying that is a tough hand for the GOP to play come November.