Call out the Boogeymen!

Call Out the Boogeymen!

A wise person once told me, “Never should on yourself or anyone else!” Now, say that ten times fast. Or say” You should pass this bill right away!”, five times, like President Obama did on Thursday night. The result of this admonition is the same, it gets the person’s back up who you are “should-ing”, and strengthens their resistance to oppose, rather than support, what it is you say they should do. It is simple human nature.

Now, President Obama knew, going in, that he was entering the Lions’ Den. His mistake in the presentation , however, was in holding out hope for the hopelessly opposed, and trying to shame them into doing something that may benefit the American people, but will not benefit their political agenda, both long and short term. After all, the Republicans in Congress already have jobs...their own, and they want to keep their jobs, and will go to whatever extremes are necessary to do so. They simply want to insure that President Obama loses his job in November of 2012, so it is not in their interest to do anything to save him from the loss of that job. So, they will find multiple excuses for not supporting the Jobs bill...and they will twist the truth to say that they have already proposed many jobs bills which the President and the Democrats in congress have rejected (translate that more tax cuts..) This is political bloodsport...pure and simple, and the sooner the President recognizes this inevitable fact, the sooner he may be able to save his own job by fixing the blame squarely on the shoulders of those responsible for the current political imbroglio..the recalcitrant Republicans in the do nothing Republican Congress.

That’s how Harry Truman saved his job in 1948, and the same principle applies in 2012. Call out the Boogeyman for who he, or they, are, and point the finger at them, repeatedly. This is what they have been doing to him ad nauseum on talk radio. Time to reverse polarity and fight fire with fire. If President Obama does not have the fire in his belly to do so, he will suffer indigestion for the next 14 months, all for naught, while in the end, he will fade away as a first and one termer.

The American people, and yes, those critically undecided Independent voters in the middle, already clearly understand one thing. He is not the one who has failed to extend the olive branch. All you have to do is look at the expression on John Boehner’s face during Obama’s speech to see where they are, and have been, at. They wouldn’t even give him the courtesy of setting up the speech for an earlier time, let alone the courtesy of a response. Boehner mumbled something about the American people being more interested in football, than in listening to a Republican response. Clearly, they think this is nothing more than an “Save Obama’s job” bill, and the more he entreats them, the more convinced they become. Time to move on, go past them, and take the case to the American people directly.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch Mc Connell quoted something from Albert Einstein about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. He is right on that point, only the insanity is not in proposing jobs bills that the Republicans think are flawed from the start, the insanity is in believing that you can get a different result from an entrenched oppositional party that has made naysaying their signature response to anything this President may do, and de-legitimizing his status as President at every turn they can the sine qua non of their own success barometer.

Take a chapter out of the book of Harry. It is time to give the Republicans hell, Barry! Not Purgatory, not Limbo, but hell...and and don’t mince words or equivocate. Tell it like it is. To quote the immortal Harry S. Truman,” I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell. ... I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.” Tell them the truth Mr. President, and keep telling it until at last the truth sets you free. The only way to deal with this crowd is to send them packing in 2012. Sad, but that is just the way it is. Use the megaphone of the bully pulpit at every turn, and enlist your friends and Democratic comrades to do the same. That is the only formula for ultimate success.