Progress Has to Lose in order for Obama to Win

Adam Serwer:

In order to get anything done, in order to be able to boast any kind of bipartisan political victory, Obama is going to have to allow for some deals that take place along terms very favorable to Republicans, because they're going to have to go back and explain to their base why they capitulated to the Kenyan socialist in the White House.

But ultimately, voters don't really care that much about bipartisanship, they care about results. It's been clear to the voters since the beginning that the president has been trying to reach out to Republicans only to be rebuffed by the GOP's strategy of total obstruction. In fact, a Gallup poll way back in April of 2009 found that two thirds thought Obama was willing to work with Republicans, while only 38 percent thought Republicans were willing to work with him. Americans have been convinced of this all along -- but they voted Republicans into power anyway.

Whether the president gets reelected depends on whether the economy recovers and more Americans have jobs, not on the next Congress melting into a campfire chorus of Kumbaya. If unemployment is where it is now, voters will care about "Republican obstruction" about as much as they did in 2010.

I just don't see anything else coming from this, Obama will have to concede something somewhere or it'll be 1994-5 redux. We can't expect much good to come out of the next two years of deliberation (if you can call it that). Meanwhile the Americans who need the most help will be left out to dry. Great party you got their GOP...

I am Frank Chow and I approved this message