In election's shadow, rally draws laughs, activism

When Obama said he could work with Republicans in spite of the bad blood between the two parties over the previous 2 administrations, did that not also include the Blue Dogs? The only conceivable meaning then for "work with" is that Obama intended always to cave, to drive Democratic legislation to the right, make it conservative, make it legislation that Republicans could have written themselves. Because Republicans made it perfectly clear that they wouldn't be the ones doing the compromising.



The rightwing attacks on Obama, their refusal to work in "a bipartisan manner", should have pushed Obama to play hardball and move populist legislation through Congress quickly and decisively. To undo the Bush-Cheney abuses, especially with the tentative hold on a filibuster-proof majority Democrats were given in the 2008 election.



Instead, Obama let Republicans dictate the pace and shape a debate that was already done and voted on and won by Democrats in 2008. Obama & Democrats gave Republicans even advantage & allowed their obstruction by not only letting Republicans merely threaten to filibuster, but not changing the supermajority threshhold number required for cloture if it was, indeed, a problem.



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