At Obama's presser Monday, he once again put on display his boldly divisive strategy to destroy the Republican opposition:
Republicans are "holding a gun to the head of the American people."
Republicans want to "delay checks to the elderly and children with disabilities."
Republicans want to "collect a ransom for not crashing the economy."
Republicans could "blow up the economy."
This is NOT a new strategy: vilifying conservatives to make them the enemy. It should catch no one unawares. Republicans acknowledged during the fiscal cliff standoff that they were getting killed by this strategy. So what was their dynamic response, revealing a new understanding that it will take a bold articulation of the impossible fiscal crisis we are in and how the very essence of our liberty and prosperity is at stake if we don't stand firm and thwart the reckless, cataclysmic spending of a president who seems bent on bankrupting our nation in pursuit of fundamental transformation?
Mitch McConnell: "We are hoping for a new seriousness on the part of the president with regard to the single biggest issue confronting the country and we look forward to working with him to do something about this huge, huge problem."
John Boehner: "The American people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time. The consequences of
failing to increase the debt ceiling are real, but so, too, are the
consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved.”
Seriously. "Huge, huge problem" and "the consequences are real" are not going to capture the hearts and minds of the American people. And these timid, oh-so-restrained, diplomatic words of Republican leaders are not effective in combating the over-the-top, emotional, effective vilifying language of the president. They met Obama bull horn with a whimper. Time for a game change. Real, real fast.
