This is a good article that learns from the mistakes of Candidate/Pres.Obama.

It's fine to suggest, as it is now fashionable for Democrats, that Obama should not have been so promiscuous on policy.

But he never would have been elected otherwise.

To race to the head of the Democratic class, Obama pitched aside pragmatic progress and compromise. Why have mean old Hillary Clinton telling you no, when Obama was always saying, "Yes, we can?"

Obama's rapid rise was because of some combination of calculated dishonesty and a naivety rooted in a superhuman self-confidence. We can't know which of his promises he knew were empty and which ones he believed he could achieve by his own magic touch.

Whatever Obama's motivations, any politician who seeks to emulate him will now think twice about using the lofty rhetoric of hope and change after seeing the shambles his presidency has become.

It is very hard for mature people to succeed in politics. Just as effective campaigners don't always make good leaders, strong executive skills don't often translate into political success.

It will be a deadly dull six hours of grinding out policy positions. And along the way, those who see themselves sitting in Obama's chair one day will be sorely tempted to demagogue and suggest that there are easy answers.

But if you promise to never change Medicare, you won't be able to control the deficits that will soon sink the nation. If you reject every part of what Democrats offer, you can expect them to do the same to you once they blunder their way out of the majority.

Democrats are about to be turned out for the cardinal sin of overpromising and underdelivering. If Republicans follow the same path back to power, they'll be turned out just as fast.

 

GOP did their show down with Pres.Obama anyway. In fact, it looked quite bad for both sides... in particular, it did not look good for Sen.Paul Ryan as he has not only negative, he did not address Pres.Obama; he looked away and spoke to others, which is disrespectful to the convener of a meeting of that kind, who just happens to be President.

 

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Mods, please fix the quotes in this post. Thanks.


-- Edited by Sanders on Friday 26th of February 2010 11:19:29 AM