It seems the only one who came out clean on this one is Obama -- by resolving the crisis now via bipartisan wrangling, he saves himself from being tarred and feathered over taking "unilateral action" by raising the ceiling with his own executive powers. By merely signing the bill as it is, Obama is also momentarily inoculated from accusations of him being a "tax-and-spend Liberal." And with the last round of debt ceiling raises possibly occurring after November 2012, this issue no longer becomes something the GOP can hang around his neck during his re-election campaign. For someone who's sometimes seen as "spineless," this guy can be one crafty son-of-a-bitch.
Meanwhile, the charade has gone on long enough for people to finally take notice and be pissed at Congress. Congress job approval ratings have gone in the toilet. The GOP is paying for being led around and subsequently mauled by the political equivalent of pitbulls. The Tea Party's done the GOP no favors in its single-bloody minded drive to vanquish the congressional landscape of Obama, his fellow Democrats and any Republican who is deemed to be not enough of a "true believer" by Tea Party standards. Didn't Mitch McConnell himself confirm the true aspirations of the Tea Party?
"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
The fact that Obama's still willing to engage in bipartisan governance with these people tells me that he's either horribly naive or extraordinarily patient and resolute.
And now since all of this nonsense is out of the way, perhaps we can get a jobs bill on the table. You know, to give some of the 20,000,000 current unemployed some jobs and kick-start the economy. Isn't that what we should be focused on now?
