Move along, folks. No Palin to see here.
There’s so much material. So many Pal-insults to sling. So easy. So cheap. And although I have been called ‘easy’ and ‘cheap’, I’d rather stab myself in the eye with one of Palin’s RNC-funded Prada heels than devote another word to her.
So instead let’s turn our attention to Obama’s real opposition in 2012: His own party. In four years, the question for Obama will be: Did he deliver his vision (i.e., fulfill campaign promises) for the American people? And that, for better or worse, depends on whether Congress passes his bills. There are some really heavy issues coming up on the Congressional agenda after the Fourth of July recess: health care reform, climate change, Sotomayor’s SCOTUS confirmation hearings, and getting Al Franken up to speed and meshed with the rest of the caucus (good luck with that one, team O!).
But President O has anything but a unified caucus in either chamber. For the climate change vote in the House, he lost the support of more than 40 Democrats (and as a result, Obama and I spent this weekend unfriending all 40 of them on Facebook). That doesn’t bode well for the bill’s journey through the Senate, where Obama needs every Democratic senator to toe the line (a trait we D’s don’t really have written into our genetic code) to prevent a Republican filibuster. Sigh. Kiss Campaign Promise #1 goodbye. Thanks for the overheating planet and Category 5 hurricane seasons, assholes.
Fast forward to Campaign Promise #2—health care coverage for nearly every American. Looks slightly more promising than climate change. However, we have some squirrely Democrats (Maria, I’m looking at you!) whose positions are vague, confusing, or contradictory going into the big Senate Finance and HELP Committees showdowns next week.
Oh, and Senator Chris Dodd says we won’t meet the O-instituted deadline of October 15th for a health care bill signing. This is two weeks after he assured every one we would.
These developments do not show a Democratic Congress with its act together, all moving in the same direction with the same message. A state legislator recently told me: “The score is 2-2 and soon the Democrats will realize that the Republicans left the field after the clock started and they’re just scoring on each other.” I think he was referring to the last legislative session in Olympia and not sex; but I think the analogy applies to the Other Washington as well. If Congressional Democrats fail to help Obama deliver on two of his biggest campaign promises, they’ll just be giving ammunition to Republicans in 2012 and blunting delivery of Hope and Change.
