Charles Krauthammer adds his voice here to those on the right who point out that Obama’s presidential honeymoon is, perhaps, the shortest in history. Caving in to his Democratic “friends” in the House was his first mistake. The old saw “With friends like these…..” is quite appropriate.
Obama should have learned about building bi-partisan support from Reagan and his passage of the 1981 Kemp-Roth tax cut bill.
And yet more damaging to Obama’s image than all the hypocrisies in the
appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He
inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of
the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama’s name, was not
just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.
The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of
old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time
the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports The Wall Street Journal,
pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a
new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax
savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were
fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting
“planted” for “ready to market” would mean a windfall garnered from a
new “bonus depreciation” incentive.
After Obama’s miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear
that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The
nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The
hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great
ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all
presidents tell — and that this president told better than anyone.
I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.
