Wishful Thinking

President Obama made proclamations the other day that the prospects for a working government would be better after he is elected to a second term because Republicans would be forced to finally deal with the inevitable and come to the table. This would pave way for some bipartisan deal making, something we haven't seen for several decades.

I think that he needs to step away from the presidential bong.

For all of their real and perceived deficiencies, the Republicans are nothing if not resolute and I forecast the same partisan gridlock and stalemate that we have seen in recent times, no matter the victor in the forthcoming election. You don't get into a game of chicken with Mitch McConnell. They have been obstructing for four years. Can do another four years standing on their heads.

Doesn't the President know we're at war? With ourselves, of course. They will just hang up their shingle and prepare to do nothing for another four years, their hatred for this man and the left so palpable that any kind of compromise or way out of our national disfunction is out of the question. Trenches have been dug, provisions have been laid, everyone is hunkered down in their respective camps. Hope for unity is a pipe dream and the malaise reaches far beyond the presidency.

Is this any way to run a nation?

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I was at a wonderful birthday party the other night and got into a nice discussion with a politically mixed couple from back east who both had extended time on the hill, she in the first Bush administration.

I was decrying the absence of Republican moderates, she Democratic moderates, I guess it all depends on your vantage. But she did say one thing that I have given some thought to and have to challenge. She blamed Obama for the failure to bring bills up for consideration.

Now I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I can recall this president really going out of his way in the beginning to reach across the line with his proposals and water down anything that might cause the grand old party umbrage. Seem to recall it didn't make a lick of difference, in fact in most cases he failed to get a single republican vote for his proposals. Why should he engage in a Lucy/Charlie Brown come kick the football routine when it is so obviously pointless? Just reinforces the image of an emasculated presidency.

Both candidates are pretty even and either potential outcome is a real possibility. But neither choice will make much of a difference with a population so evenly divided and with so little interest in finding middle ground.

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It is sort of funny that Romney is now once again bringing up Romneycare, his Massachusetts health care program that Obama used as a template for Obamacare. He ran from it like he was running away from an old ugly girlfriend during the primary. This week it is an example of how well he resonates with women, supposedly one of his achilles heel's this election. He has flip flopped so much you have to bring a scorecard to keep up. It seemed like a pretty good program, he should endorse it or disavow it, we are electing a president, not a weather vane.

My sister in West Palm thinks that one would have to be crazy to vote for anyone in a party dumb enough to hold their convention in Florida during high hurricane season anyway.