Ryan Streeter
Today’s speech was yet another important phase in what must be Barack Obama’s secret agenda: helping the GOP get its mojo back.
There are three distinct phases to this furtive plot:
First, there was the full frontal assault-and-insult phase. By directly insulting conservative values, he reminded conservatives that they held those values. This long phase started in the campaign and ended just about the time of the November 2010 House blowout. There was the “clinging to guns and Bibles” moment, the “spread the wealth around” moment, an unprincipled stimulus, a miserable health care bill. He could have filed for a Tea Party patent, since he practially invented the movement. His arrogant assaults reminded conservatives that, dammit, we really do care about limited government and spending discipline. This phase has been well-documented.
Second, there was the brief change-the-subject-by-ignoring-reality phase. Like the child who closes her eyes to keep the monsters in her room at bay, Obama ignored America’s fiscal crisis in his State of the Union. And then, as if intentionally trying to rile conservatives, he focused instead not on real Sputnik moments, such as ending America’s dropout problem or radically pursuing energy independence, but on creating lots of really fast trains - just as Census data was coming out showing that dispersive America would make such a project futile. Immediately after the speech, Republicans exploded, fuming that Obama was ignoring America’s biggest crisis.
This, in turn, had the effect of getting Republicans behind Paul Ryan’s plan, which before the State of the Union was anything but a sure deal. Had Obama tried to own at least part of the deficit reduction issue in his State of the Union and 2012 budget, it would have actually made Paul Ryan’s job harder. And it may have split Republicans, forcing them to risk looking like they were siding with Obama if they sided with Ryan. Instead, he unified Republicans on the entitlement and deficit issue, doing America a great service.
Third, Obama’s speech on “deficit reduction” has introduced the me-too phase. Children use the “I can do that too” line when they feel outclassed, and they usually end up doing the activity in question worse than the child they are trying to mimic. By giving the deficit reduction speech, he conceded that Paul Ryan is out in front of him. Me too! Then, he delivered a speech in which he essentially proposed to stave off a debt crisis for a decade before welcoming it back in full force after he's out of office.
This was a terrible strategic judgment on Obama’s part. First, he conceded that the Republicans are winning the deficit issue by giving the speech, and then second, he gave a speech that showed he was unserious about fixing it.
This will have the further effect of energizing Republicans and giving them even more resolve to take on the big entitlement and tax issues. The White House fact sheet on the Obama speech gives Republicans a bat to hit the President over the head with: the numbers show the President’s insincerity. Just as the Republican critiques of the State of the Union got the GOP more serious about entitlement reform, Obama's deficit reduction speech will further GOP resolve.
Claiming to get serious about the deficit, and then showing that you aren’t very serious, is a pretty bad way to try winning a fight. But it’s a good way to keep pumping adrenaline into the Republican body.
Not long ago, the requiem for the conservative cause was being sung by a number of choirs around the country. Obama has ended the requiem and fired the choirs. He seems intent on bringing the cause back.
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