According to Politico,
Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly 'empowered' repugican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top.“‘Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose’ — Barack and Bobby McGee,” says former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. “President Obama is free to take the risks and use executive authority that will either make him a much more popular president with rising approval rates or get him impeached by a repugican Congress that won’t be able to control itself. We can contemplate the possibility of each result while smoking a Cuban cigar.”
The repugicans didn’t really think that President Obama
was going to let slide their years of obstruction did they? The odds
are that the president’s first act of punishment could be a veto of the bill to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
During his press conference the president said, “On most
issues, in order for their initiatives to become law, I’m going to have
sign off. And that means they have to take into account the issues that I
care about, just as I’m going to have to take into account the issues
that they care about.” In other words if repugicans think that they can
unilaterally jam their agenda down the president’s throat, they are
going to be in for a big surprise.
Unless McConnell and Boehner can pass legislation
that contains some of what the president wants, the American people can
expect a lot of vetoes. House and Senate Democrats have already pledged
to hold firm and give Obama the backing he needs to make sure that his
vetoes are upheld, which means that the repugican controlled Congress
won’t be getting much done without the help of Democrats.
The shoe will soon be on the other foot, and repugicans are about to pay a heavy price for their years long campaign
of obstructing Obama at any cost.
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