Talks Crumble; Obama Takes Charge

22 November 2011 |permalink | email article

An enduring criticism of Barack Obama is that, unlike Lyndon Johnson who never hesitated to button-hole members of Congress to achieve a victory, the 44th President has taken a different tact as the “super” committee imploded. It’s a stunning strategy. In a brief speech in the White House briefing room late yesterday afternoon the president said after the deficit committee balked that he “will veto any effort” to undo the automatic spending cuts that would be enacted because of the panel’s inaction. There will be no easy off-ramps on this one. We need to keep the pressure on to compromise, not turn off the pressure,” he said without taking questions. Obama said an overwhelming majority of Americans—including Republicans –support a balanced approach to the deficit, which is code for saying that the rich should pay more taxes. But the good news, unlike August, he said is that $1 trillion in cuts remain”locked in.” Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Grover Norquist, Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican hopefuls, to say nothing of the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Mayor Bloomberg are stunned—but Obama wins.

L.A. Politic

Angelenos will elect a new mayor 17 months from now at the same time that they and the nation decide the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. Since 1938 seven mayors have held office and, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa termed out, the race to lead the nation’s second largest city seems certain to draw the largest field of well qualified candidates in history. Three of them, retiring Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilwoman Jan Perry and Controller Wendy Gruel, have already started to campaign. Jim Newton, The Times’ editor at large, wrote that “far from the contented masses this group imagines, far from the inner chambers of City Hall, the electorate seems to me divided, unsettled, worried and mad.” All this suggests to an L.A. native the need for a dramatically fresh vision is long overdue for the Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Quotable

“The big tent fashioned by Ronald Reagan has become bilious with the hot air of religious fervor. No one was more devout than the very-Catholic (William) Buckley, but you didn’t see him convening revivals in the public square. Nor is it likely he would have embraced fundamentalist views that increasingly have forced the party into a corner where science and religion can’t coexist.”—Washington Post conservative columnist Kathleen Parker on the Palinization of the GOP, in which the least informed earns the loudest applause.

“Why should Romney feel confident 6 weeks before Iowa? He’s lining up for a race in which every rival has a sprained ankle or broken leg.”—John Harwood, Chief Washington correspondent for CNBC, and a New York Times columnist.

The Body Politic resumes publication Nov. 27th

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