Obama's post-partisanship: "I won" - Granite Grok

Obama’s post-partisanship: “I won”

Here is Rule 13 of Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals:

"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

Sure thing, President Unite-us-all.  I remember the last time this was tried – the Dems all but bit President Bush’s hand as he came into Washington touting his actual more even-handed ways from being Texas Governor (all true, as said by all).  However, I think President Obama is now biting first (and he has no history of reaching across the aisle in a spirit of bipartisanship; zip, nada, never!).

Elections matter, and regardless of what lessons are taught to our youngsters (not keeping score during athletic games, everyone getting trophies, no more valedictorians, et al), winners are better than losers.  Life is all about competition and competition decides two categories of people: winners and everyone else.  The winners are remembered; the "first loser" is not. 

And in politics, the winners get to make the decisions and change the life of their citizenry.  This time around, Obama won.

Sure, he talked about a new atmosphere, a new way of doing things, and there has been much talk about him being both post-racial

Umm, Rev. Lowry’s prayer/speechifying during the Inauguration: "…we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."  Gee, thanks for the slam, Pastor!

…and working in a new spirit of bipartisanship:

…Displaying a bipartisan spirit that has been completely absent the past eight years,…

Yet, at his own "bipartisan" meeting with invited Republicans, he made it clear to the Republicans that HE was in charge and that HIS philosophies were going to hold the day.  Like I was surprised?

Well, to a point, I was.  Nothing new about this in NH when the Dems basically took over the state.  Issue after issue (e.g., civil unions enactment for the gays, repeal of the parental notification law for the abortionists), the top Dems (e.g., Senate President Sylvia Larson, House Speaker Terie Norelli; Gov. John Lynch NEVER takes a controversial stance) have often said the word "bipartisanship" and then steamrolling the Republicans.

Always remember: bipartisanship generally means "and you have to agree with us because we won".

And using the nation’s leading Conservative as a foil to bully the Republican Congressmen and Senators may yet blowback onto Obama

"You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

I’m thinking that Obama believes this may have been a stroke to kneecap his Congressional opposition, for they all have to hang tough in order to protect the filibuster.  Problem is, he has now put them in the gulch between them and the millions of activists that follow Rush (myself included).  We call, we email, and we talk; we are the ones that vote our officials in and not Obama.

So, who are they going to listen to?

Speaking of listening to, I DO know it will be a LOT of fun to listen to Rush tomorrow (words of Reid’s letter to Rush’s syndicator are dancing again in my head).  And Rush has already has started his defensive by talking with Bryon York of NRO (go read it!!).  And remember, what Obama is doing is not just for the good of the country; like all politicians, their main goal (at that level) is to get re-elected again, as Rush reminds us all:

Secondly, here is a combo quote from the meeting:

"If we don’t get this done we (the Democrats) could lose seats and I could lose re-election. But we can’t let people like Rush Limbaugh stall this. That’s how things don’t get done in this town."

Obama JUST gets into office, and he’s already thinking about re-election.

Post-racial?  Probably.  Post-partisanship?  Not a freakin’ chance….it’s all about him, baby…

That’s why he’s trying to "freeze" Rush.  Note to Obama: er, Rush has already beaten you to the fourth item – you just goofed, big time.

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