President Obama sent out a letter to his increasingly frustrated supporters yesterday letting them know how frustrated he is with the way Republicans have rejected all of his job-creation policies.
Within hours the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, reinforced Obama’s point by rejecting his request to present his latest policies to a Joint Session of Congress next Wednesday, making this the first time in history Congress has rejected such a presidential request. A thusly humiliated Obama will now have to settle for Thursday, when most Americans will be tuned in to the opening night of the NFL season: Packers vs. The Saints!
More to the point, though, he must know that Republicans will just end up rejecting all of these policies too.
During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama was fond of paraphrasing Albert Einstein’s quixotic definition of crazy, which is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. One wonders therefore why he keeps trying over and over again to negotiate and compromise with (his supporters say cave in to) Republicans.
A few of us still love this president and support what he’s trying to do. And, of course, he is far from crazy. But the time has come for Obama to demonstrate he knows that, in politics, it’s better to be respected (even feared) than loved. Hell, even Ali didn’t wait until the final round to stop rope-a-doping and start counter punching. It’s time Obama….