A virtuous leader is one who is clever, cunning, decisive, ruthless and above all, effective.
During the primaries, Obama used his massive fundraising capabilities to pound first Clinton, and then McCain. With Clinton, he expended massive amounts of money in an all out attempt to wrest Pennsylvania from her. He had an outside shot at overcoming her lead, but I think more importantly, he was using his money advantage to bleed her dry and make her win in PA so expensive that it would wound her and inhibit her future path through the primaries. With McCain, Obama pressed hard in a slew of states and used his financial prowess to advertise everywhere from TV to video games, even buying a cable channel and to mobilize a volunteer base estimated to have numbered over 5 million. He was ruthless in the application of his financial advantage, using it like a nail incrusted baseball bat to bludgeon his opponents.
Likewise with the Census power grab. Republicans are crying foul about the administration's move to place the census under direct White House supervision. Its a bit funny to hear GOP folk bleat about the potential that Obama might change the rules, since republicans play to win in just this fashion when it suits them, for example the reapportionment strategy pursued by republicans in Texas. I look at this as another example of Obama's political ruthlessness. The census data is used to apportion legislative districts, allocate millions in government dollars and more.
Manipulation of the census to change the political landscape in a way that could perhaps permanently change the course of the GOP and remove
its ability to be a national party for a generation is a possibility and one I think Obama intends to exploit.... because he can. The GOP base
loves to disparage Obama as an empty suit, calling him Obambi. Keep laughing right on into extinction as a national party. Obama is a strategic thinker. He beat the Clinton machine by having a superior strategic game plan that showed a grasp of the entire primary conflict well beyond Super Tuesday. The census move suggests he is thinking ahead again now to a future with a toothless GOP.
The census data is used to apportion representatives in Congress.
ReplyDeleteWithout an accurate census, I will not be given the level of representation the constitution guarantees me.
Without a proper level of representation, I effectively have no representation.
That will put me in a situation of taxation without representation.
How do you think I will react to that? I think this is a more dangerous situation than Pollyobama realizes.
Don't be so dramatic. Political manipulation of the census, gerrymandering of districts, voter suppression and other such system rigging has been a common part of the American political scene for some time. The only issue is whether your team is the one rigging the system to their advantage.
ReplyDeleteSuch bare knuckle, play to win tactics are why I became a republican, though I remain a reluctant one. I respect Obama's willingness to play the same game.
Don't be so dramatic? At what point do we stop worrying about seeming dramatic and say we've had enough?
ReplyDeleteThis isn't gerrymandering, where demographic games are played but it is still one man, one vote. This is a blatant attempt to make it so that some people are once again counted as 3/5 again. Getting rid of that was a good change, and I'm not willing to let the pendulum swing the other way.
http://www.discovery.org/blogs/discoveryblog/2009/02/gregg_withdrawal_increases_cen.php
Finally, one wonders if the President understands that the Census is a function of government that requires not only integrity in fact but also the appearance of integrity. The reputation of the Census should not be compromised. It is hard enough to get people to cooperate in the conduct of the Census without creating a reputation for politicization.
That is more true than anything else I have seen today. You want to see "bare knuckle?" We're getting real close to "weapons free", and this one is a very clear casus belli.
Hey guys.
ReplyDeleteI think you hit the nail on the head with this one. Obama's strategy is something that both republicans and Democrats will be studying or quite some time to come because it was masterful and unexpected. His message was great (I'm biased) but it wasn't the decisive ingredient in my opinion. His shrewd strategy is what did it.
Yes, drama I say, drama. Obama has not taken overt action relative to the census yet. But for the fact that Gregg signaled he would not be a team player with his recusal vote on the stimulus in the senate, I doubt the administration would have gone so far as to change the reporting status of the census. Its hardly a Dred Scott level issue at this point and Obama has certainly had a shot across the bow from all the ruckus his move generated. If nothing else, he's exposed his hand with the census. There will be plenty of opportunity to oppose him on it if the need should arise. Thats what we republicans are today anyway, right? The opposition.
ReplyDelete[quote]Likewise with the Census power grab. Republicans are crying foul about the administration's move to place the census under direct White House supervision. Its a bit funny to hear GOP folk bleat about the potential that Obama might change the rules, since republicans play to win in just this fashion when it suits them, for example the reapportionment strategy pursued by republicans in Texas. I look at this as another example of Obama's political ruthlessness.[/quote]
ReplyDeleteWhoa, Whoa, Whoa Bro!!!
1) Please recall that when the "Republicans DID IT" they were taken to COURT!!!
2) When the "Republicans did it" their "Strategy" was called:
*Racist
* Voter Suppressive
* Illegal
Please tell me - instead of couching your assessment of Obama's ruthlessness upon what the REPUBLICANS DID......lets get you to talk about the LEGALITY of it all and if you will be CONSISTENT in your love for the LAW over "strategy"?
@ Constructive Feedback - Slow your row. There's no question of legality before us. There is no legal issue raised by the White House assuming a more direct role in the census divisions activities, at least none that I know of.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, the republicans actions in the 2003 redistricting were controversial in the extreme and challenged in court, though
SCOTUS did uphold most of it, and trimmed back the most egregious excesses in that.
You raise the law, but the law is what the courts say it is and the court let most of that redistricting stand. I reference it as an example of how republicans are perfectly willing to use bare knuckle, brute force tactics like that to engineer the infrastructure for victory. Obama may very well be planning a like approach in putting his hands around the census. In the same way that he applied his money advantage during the campaign, it won't surprise me if he is equally ruthless and relentless in using the power of the office to engineer the long term defeat of his political opponents, because I think the guy thinks that way.