Heroic Stupidity

I wonder if Lawrence O’Donnell is going to be crowing tonight about the masterful Republican rout that President Obama has pulled off, as he has been doing for the past several nights on his show, applauding Obama’s beautifully deceitful performance in pretending for the “grand bargain” while achieving his real purpose of driving the Republicans away from the bargaining table and forcing impasse. I wonder if he still thinks that what we have now continues to look like total Democratic, or democratic, victory.

How does Obama look like a knight in shining armor after saying that he will veto a short term deal and throw the nation into default because it would interfere with his reelection campaign? How does that make him “the adult in the room” that is being claimed for him?

If he gets the “clean” debt limit increase that O’Donnell thinks would be such a heroic achievement, he will still be “the president who killed an opportunity to reduce the deficit.” How does that play out in his favor, either in the election next year or in history?

No, there are no winners here, because as stupid as are claims for Democratic victory, the Republican claims are even worse. They are coming up with methods which have the President vetoing a Congressional negative to raise the debt ceiling, abdicating their own role in governmental responsibility altogether.

The one thing that is known for sure is that there will be a last minute deal, but I’m not so certain. When you back someone into a corner and give him no alternative to surrender, sometimes he just pulls the pin on the grenade and blows everyone up. Right now it sounds to me like both sides are becoming quite capable of doing just that.