Letter 2 America for March 12, 2013

Dear America,

Kill the body and the head dies.  That's what boxers say when discussing strategy.  You have to wear the opponent down before you put him away.  Apparently there aren't any boxers in the Republican Party, but President Obama seems to have been a boxer, at least in spirit, at some time in his life, and that's what he has been doing.  He went out to the people of this country and made his case, pummeling the Republicans where it hurts...where the votes are.  And now that they are getting tired, he is going for the head.  He is meeting with the Republicans here, there and everywhere, and making the same proposals he has always made, but he is whispering them in their ears rather than shouting them from the rooftops, and they apparently are sufficiently tired of the fight that they are willing to partake of the susurrant alternative and call it a victory even as they fall to the canvas for the count.  It seems apparent that there will be more revenue in whatever budget deals get made in the foreseeable future, regardless of what McBoehnell says.  What's next: Senator Ashley Judd and Speaker Nancy Pelosi redux?  We can only hope.

It seems that the second term of President Obama will be something entirely different from the first.  He may actually be effective this time.  In the past, we have had presidents who were famous for their political acumen.  Lyndon Johnson was said to be so skillful that when he wanted something from an opposition politician, he would call him to the oval office for a private meeting, and before he would know it, the opposition would become the loyal opposition and the thing would be done without the victim even knowing that he had been had.  Joe Biden, though never a president and never to be one, is another example of that kind of political skill, and President Obama has learned to use him well.  We got tax increases at the beginning of this year from Mitch McConnell because Biden went over to the Senate...his alma mater...and "negotiated" with McConnell until McConnell gave Biden what he wanted, or at least half of it, without getting anything in return.  And now President Obama, having discovered the "Bully Pulpit" during the last election, has been out in the tulles regaling the average American at the plant with the swan song of intractable conservatism, pointing out to all of them that we are still stuck where we are instead of further down the road because the conservatives won't get out of the way.   The average American has been listening, and the conservative Republican Party now has conceded that such is the case.  They can call it campaigning if they want, but there's no election impending, and everyone knows that.  They can bemoan the fact that The President isn't "showing any leadership" on the contentious issues, which in reality is just code for "he isn't giving us what we want," but leading is just what he is doing.  He is leading a mass rebellion against mindless conservative penury and obduracy.  He is championing a kind of non-supply side economics that is not quite Keynesian, but is more so than the Hayek laced policies advocated by the Republican conservative complex (Rcc), and in the end, the American people understand moderation now that President Obama is explaining it to them, and the Republicans know they have met their match.

This weekend, the group of congressmen who enjoyed dinner at the Jefferson Hotel with The President last week were seen praising President Obama for coming back to Washington to meet with them, in essence claiming that he has finally paid them tribute.  But the reality is that he has killed their body, and now he is administering the knock out punch.  All of a sudden, President Obama has compromised and the Republicans have agreed to more revenue in principle.  The President has always said that entitlement and tax reform were on the table along with revenue enhancement, but in the past, the Republicans have balked at a deal because revenue had already been enhanced according to them.  But now, President Obama's willingness to sign entitlement and tax reform into law if there is also an increase in revenue entailed in the package is compromise rather than intransigence.  But, in the words of the Immortal Bard, what's in a name.  Call it compromise...call it an uppercut to the jaw.  I don't care, just so long as it gets done.  And apparently the Republicans finally see that the majority of Americans feel that way too...now that Barrack Obama has pulled back the curtain.

Your friend,

Mike