Will It Fly?

The “It” here being perhaps one of the greatest political hoaxes of all time, the question of jobs and the creation and responsibility for them. Republicans, especially Boehner, Cantor, and others keep asking where are the jobs, inferring that President Obama has failed to provide them. Thus they hope to make people believe that Obama is at fault when it comes to jobs. However, the Republicans have advanced no bills to create jobs and have, in fact, opposed every attempt Obama has made to create jobs. This is somewhat analogous to the situation when children kill their parents and then plead forgiveness on the grounds of being orphans. I have no doubt whatsoever that this has been the Republican plan all along, keep Obama from creating jobs or moving the country forward in any way and then blame it on him. As the Democrats rarely if ever seem to counter this with the truth it appears the Republicans may well pull it off, one of the greatest con jobs in political history that might actually fly.

Yes, I watched the State of the Union speech. There was nothing new. President Obama held forth with all kinds of ideas to move the country forward, reduce the debt, create jobs, and preserve our freedoms and so forth. Ever the optimist, he still clings to the idea that Republicans are eventually going to cooperate with him. I think he may be constitutionally unable to understand that any Americans, Republicans or not, would knowingly resist doing the right things by the country. He underestimates their hatred for him and refuses to believe they would sink the Republic rather than see him succeed. What Obama says is basically true, if we all come together there is nothing we can’t accomplish, but we are not going to come together to accomplish anything as long as Mitch McConnell’s single goal is to bring down Obama. Of course the President cannot moan and groan and talk doom and gloom, he has to paint a positive picture no matter what.

If anyone thought otherwise about bipartisanship, Mitch Daniels in his rebuttal speech made it quite clear there is simply no agreement on the part of Republicans for anything Obama suggested. Daniels predictably concentrated on the deficit with the usual doomsday scenario of national bankruptcy. He also spent time talking about jobs, implying that Republicans were going to create jobs, but as they have shown no interest in doing such a thing, it was, I thought, quite a stretch. It was mostly the usual Republican nonsense about too many regulations, too much government, too many taxes, and blah, blah, blah. Some people seem to think he was chosen to give the rebuttal as a kind of tryout for the Presidency. You may recall that he once talked of running but then did not do so. I believe there is a plan on the part of the remaining adults in the Republican Party to somehow install him as the Republican candidate at the last minute. It is obvious that Romney is fading badly and the only alternative to him is Newt Gingrich whom they despise (along with most everyone else in the United States). Santorum and Paul are not considered viable, the former because he is too radical mostly on a single issue, the latter because he is regarded as a “nut case.” Daniels did a credible job with his rebuttal but it was simply the usual Republican line, lower taxes, fewer regulations, smaller government. Republicans don’t seem to get the idea that we’ve tried that and it didn’t work, won’t work, and they should try to come up with a more sensible plan (I don’t think they can as they have now memorized this plan and play it over and over like a broken record).

I can’t really decide what I think Republicans are trying to do. It makes sense to me that they would not be at all happy with either Romney or Gingrich. This means the more responsible Republicans (if there still are any) might well want to put their foot down at the last minute and insist on another candidate, such as Daniels, Christie, or even Jeb Bush. But it is also the case they may believe they cannot beat Obama this year. That may well be the reason they do not already have a better candidate. In this case they might well just allow either Romney or Gingrich to sacrifice themselves for no purpose and wait until 2016. But that risks the possibility of disgracing the party at least in the near future. Of course the past few months of their circus has already done that so perhaps it doesn’t matter.

I cannot fathom why Republicans decided to have so many “debates.” As far as I can see all this has done is emphasize their appalling ignorance and their absurd proposals for running the country over and over again. Now they have degenerated into a personal battle between Romney and Gingrich that can only have the effect of damaging either one or them as a national candidate. You have to give them credit for having lots of money, too bad there is no correlation between money and brains.

I came from a disadvantaged home. They were Republicans.

Paul Tsongas