The road ahead for President Obama will be rougher than he perceives his victory should bring him. Starting with the slowly escalating anger and frustration over the enactment of Obamacare in January, 2014, the second term will not be the proverbial bed of roses.
Obama has placed the size of government as the main theme under disguised intentions. He has contributed heavily to the polarization of Congress and the American people. He exhausted his political capital on a big government entitlement (Obamacare) that will make the last three years of his presidency basically irrelevant.
The electorate has already spoken about his intentions in his first two years in the 2010 midterm elections. It is hard to imagine the voter’s level of anger after Obamacare is fully installed. One can only imagine the growing degree of annoyance these liberal policies will have on voters as they see their wallets attacked every day with the White House’s version of America.
The president has already achieved quick successes with quick and dirty legislative maneuvers. Obamacare itself passed only through federal promises to states that came as close as one can get to the term bribery.
“I think that the matter in which the health care reform was put in front of the Congress, the way the issue was dealt with by the White House, cost Obama a lot of credibility as a leader,” says retired Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
Obama was able to get through last November on the back of a weak Republican candidate with Obamacare still not out in the open for public scrutiny. That will certainly not be the case in November, 2014. His day of reckoning will come when all Americans can have a clear view of Barack Obama’s vision of America.
Hope and Change has come in the form of a law that a plurality of Americans opposed, at a time when other issues were more urgent, by methods that disgraced its advocates. The evidence can be found in the campaign he ran against Mitt Romney. It was more about mud than his four years as president and his dubious accomplishments.
Obama combined stubbornness with ideological predictness, imposing a very conventional liberalism in the Chicago way. He overestimates his negotiating talents with Congress which was clearly evident in the “grand budget compromise” of 2011. It’s important to remember he campaigned heavily on the health care issue that was one-sixth of the economy with basically no regard for his opposition. That has left a lasting bitter taste in everyone’s mouth within Washington.
He has employed tactics that ensure future partisan bitterness.
Obama has never shown leadership skills or any inclination to create a partisan consensus around the large issues of the day. Examples: The phony fiscal cliff that he himself created, reforming the tax code, making entitlement commitments more sustainable, on and on.
Where are the leadership qualities of a president above and beyond the endless political campaigner? The election is over, he is now a lame duck president and now is the time to bring the two sides together and accomplish something meaningful for the country and his own legacy.
The American people are left with the distinct feeling pigs will fly before Barack Obama changes his tune.
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