It won’t take long.
Barack Obama often speaks of his magnanimity with regard for his willingness to compromise:
I think that if you look at my track record over the last four years, I have consistently sought compromise, sometimes to the point where Democrats have been mad at me . . .
If you look at both my polices as well as the approach that I’ve taken in governing, there’s a lot of overlap between what I’m proposing and what Republicans have proposed n the past – I take their ideas all the time. What we haven’t seen is a willingness on the other side to engage in the basic compromises that are required for governance.
There’s only one problem. It’s bullsh*t. The list of Obama compromises is painfully brief.
Name them. Go ahead. I dare you.
Barack Obama began his tenure in office with the declaration
“I won”
during the stimulus negotiations.
Republicans were shut out of the conference negotiations for Obama’s stimulus package in 2009.
There was no Republican input into Obamacare.
Obama set the tone for his entire Presidency. He was in charge and he wasn’t in the mood for any dissent.
Not much has changed since then. He talks big but that’s all it is- talk. Only once has Obama actually compromised on something- extending the Bush tax cuts in 2010.
That’s the end of the list. There is nothing else.
There is a very long list of times that Obama has said “I will not compromise.”
Obama: ‘I Will Not Compromise’ on Debt Ceiling
Obama: ‘I Won’t Compromise’ on Taxes
Obama Calls John Boehner, Says He Still Won’t Negotiate
Obama hits GOP, refuses to broker budget compromise
“Obama I will not compromise” gets 90 million hits on Google.
When Obama demands compromise, he means capitulation. He does not mean compromise. He talks compromise and the press eats it up, but then most of them are democrats to begin with and only know what Obama tells them they know.
When Obama constantly berates and trivializes the opposition it is normal human nature to respond negatively. He always frames the opposition as morally inferior.
Note carefully what is being asserted here. It’s not just that Democratic ideas are morally superior to Republican ones or that Barack Obama is a better president, or a better man, than Mitt Romney or would be, or is. Rather, the claim is that whereas billionaires who support Romney are greedy and selfish, those who back Obama are altruistic–or, to the extent they have a selfish motive, it is a relatively benign one, a simple desire to be in the presence of the Dear Leader.
It’s a leftist cliché that money corrupts politics. These leftists, however, believe that their politics somehow purifies money–that writing a check to Obama for America is an act of moral money-laundering.
Anyone disagreeing with Obama is a racist.
The blind squirrel who writes at the NY Times and is otherwise known as David Brooks said this:
“But if I had to fault President Obama, I would say that sometimes he governs like a visitor from a morally superior civilization.
“He comes in here, and he will not — he’ll talk with [House Speaker John] Boehner, [but] he won’t talk with the other Republicans. He hasn’t built the trust.”
No he hasn’t. And he never will.
Obama outsources leadership as he does not like to dirty his hands with the minutiae of governing. He has failed to build friendships in Congress because it is beneath the aloof Obama.
In his book, The Price of Politics, Bob Woodward portrays the president as a distant character who spends little time forging relationships with members of Congress, and who has equally cool relationships with the business community.
Obama considers himself above deal-making and back-slapping, political necessities he often delegates to Vice President Joe Biden and other lesser sorts.
By Woodward’s account, the supremely self-confident Obama thought he had House Speaker John Boehner pegged as the type of Republican he knew in the Illinois Legislature. “John Boehner is like a Republican state senator,” the president told staff, according to Woodward. “He’s a golf-playing, cigarette-smoking country-club Republican who’s there to make a deal. He’s very familiar to me.”
But several sources involved in the most recent budget negotiations between Obama and Boehner tell me that the president failed to connect with Boehner. The president dominated conversations and had a habit of describing the speaker’s political options at length, which Boehner found both boring and insulting.
Obama rarely invested time in getting to know Boehner. Woodward reported this telling anecdote: After the 2010 elections made Boehner the incoming speaker, Obama couldn’t make a congratulatory call until the White House scrambled to find his telephone number, eventually turning to a fishing pal of somebody who worked for Boehner.
As a community organizer, Barack Obama is a lot like Jesse Jackson. He stomps his feet, makes threats and casts insults and expects to be placated. Obama still is that community organizer. He still hasn’t come to fully understand why people do not understand his perfection and won’t bow to his every whim. He doesn’t compromise. He doesn’t negotiate.
He’s no Ronald Reagan. He’s not even Bill Clinton.
Consequently, he is is a failure. He’s gone from promising the oceans would stop rising and the planet would heal to pleading for a rise in the minimum wage.
Instead of trying to genuinely seek compromise, he’s doubling down on his threat to circumvent Congress.
Amie Parnes, who so dependably pimps Obama at The Hill, unwittingly captures why Obama goes so wrong:
On the heels of a lackluster year, where President Obama couldn’t get much done with Congress, the White House is hoping to use private and public partnerships, along with executive actions, to add to President Obama’s legacy.
Once again, country be damned. It’s all about him.
It’s always been about him. One expects politicians to have big egos but Obama takes narcissism to new heights. When the country needed jobs, Obama gave it a health care takeover suppository and now his signature achievement is in tatters.
People are beginning to figure out that Obama says a lot of things but his words are hollow. He doesn’t mean them. DrJohn’s Law. For too long Obama has been able to make claims of willingness to compromise without having to offer any examples or proof.
Still, the left desperately continues to characterize anyone who disagrees with or holds a different view from them or Obama as racists, traitors, extremists and more, but here’s what I have to say about that:
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
image courtesy of fellowshipoftheminds.com
UPDATE
I have added to the title to reflect more accurately the intention of the article. The substance remains unchanged.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.