Have you noticed something about statements or tweets made by President Obama since the government shutdown on October 1? They all follow the message: Blame Boehner and the Tea Party. Checkout one of the tweets sent out on October 2: "Day two of @SpeakerBoehner's shutdown. Don’t put our economy or the American people through this any longer: #EnoughAlready" and on October 4: "Day four of the #TeaPartyShutdown. @SpeakerBoehner, stop letting extremists threaten our economy."
Notice it? They both say practically the same thing, Boehner is freely letting this shutdown happen because he's bowing down to an unpopular portion of his party that want nothing more than to threaten the faith and credit of the United States. And every statement or tweet by the President has been the same way. In a CNBCinterview earlier this week, the President said: "The only thing that's stopping it is that John Boehner right now has not been willing to say no to a faction of the Republican party that are willing to burn the house down because of an obsession over my health care initiative." and he said something along those lines about six times throughout the interview.
Again and again, President Obama is following the same message: John Boehner is failing as Speaker and as a representative by doing whatever the Tea Partiers want, even though he has the votes to pass a clean bill.
The shutdown in 95 was blamed mostly on the Republicans, it's a fact we all a know and accept. It put President Clinton on the path to an easy re-election in 1996, but he didn't pick up much help in Congress. What sort of impacts this shutdown and debt debacle will have on next years election is yet to be seen, but one thing we do know for sure at this point -- John Boehner isn't liked.
The Speaker was only re-elected by a few votes back in January with Democrats going for Nancy Pelosi, and several Republicans voting for various people like "The Honorable Allen West of Florida." Speaker Boehner isn't able to get things done with his party. He is currently doing what a faction of his group wants, when most of his members want and were planning to vote for a clean funding bill and use their leverage on the October 17 deadline for the debt ceiling. And this is nothing new. For a couple years now, Boehner has been attempting to put down bills and fail to get enough votes in a headcount to bring them down to the floor.
This got me wondering, is President Obama really pushing for a Democratic House next year? He obviously would like a Democratic controlled Congress, like any other Democrat, but thinking ahead, what if it doesn't happen? If enough Democrats aren't voted in for majority, the next best thing would be a group of Republicans that are at least willing to talk with Obama like adults. The issue with this, the party is fleeing right and they are running out of moderate candidates. Another option in this area is a Speaker that is able to get his party to fall in line and vote together. Again, the issue at hand is the GOP is running right and running out of reasonable candidates.
This theory is probably a little out there, but just think about it and watch the coming days as more statements are made along the lines "Tea Party Bad, John Boehner Weak".