http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/late-stage-obama-suddenly-wants-to-get-along/article/2558154Late-stage Obama suddenly wants to get along
By Washington Examiner | January 5, 2015 | 5:00 am
President Obama was slow to recognize the result of the 2014 election.
In November, immediately after Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate and secured their largest majority in Congress since the 1920s, Obama responded at first by claiming that he had a mandate from non-voters.
He then proceeded to roll out some of his most ambitious autocratic governing actions yet on the issues of immigration and Cuban relations — this from a presidency already known for unilateral executive decisions on such important topics as war, health care, education, and union bargaining. He did so, heedless of warnings that he was creating terrible precedents for future presidents to exploit and that he was poisoning his relations with the new Congress.
But now Obama appears to be having a sudden and belated change of heart. Perhaps motivated by concerns over his legacy, Obama's White House is now planting olive branches in the press in hopes of making peace with the Congress he has done so much to disrespect.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Obama plans a new “pivot to lawmakers.” It is an unfortunate phrase, given the ten distinct occasions on which Obama has previously vowed to “pivot to jobs” and done nothing meaningful. Though this twist in White House messaging theoretically suggests the post-2014 reality has finally dawned on Obama's inner circle, the president's record doesn't provide much reason to believe he is being sincere.
Unfortunately, no modern president has been as bad as Obama at working with the political opposition. Obama's preferred method of negotiating with congressional Republicans so far has been blunt-force trauma. For the first two years of his presidency, he excluded GOP lawmakers from all important policy-making. His electoral mandate permitted this, but it was short-sighted in terms of making alliances for when his party inevitably lost its iron grip.
For the four years following the Republican takeover of the House in 2010, Obama tried to govern alone and failed to rally popular support against the “obstructionists” lined up against him. So it's a bit rich to hear that now, only after having taken major executive actions that imposed controversial policy changes without the Congress, he is suddenly making noises that he wants to cooperate.
Sadly, Obama's notion of cooperation seems rather thin. The Journal reports that Obama hopes to “leave maximum room for negotiating” by remaining completely intransigent on that small set of issues that actually mattered to voters when they punished his party in November — energy and the environment, Obamacare, and immigration. He will seek common ground on issues that voters know and care much less about, such as corporate tax reform and foreign trade agreements.
Obama is and remains the president, but he must now get used to a world in which others set the agenda and he merely obstructs it to one degree or another. Republicans should not let his provocations become too great an obstacle to working together when it makes sense. But they should not shy away from pushing an alternative policy vision, even if it means taking Obama up on his threat to exercise his veto power. In fact, Republicans will have failed if there is much ink left in his veto pen by December 2016.
