By Dave Andrusko
Pro-abortion President Barack Obama
Kudos to WMAL’s Chris Plante who spoke eloquently about the double standard on display when it was announced the Democratic National Committees is building a ‘war room’ (staffed by “former aides to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign”) to fight every proposal from pro-life President-elect Donald Trump.
The double standard is not that the opposition opposes, or that we’ve heard not a peep about Democrats working with the incoming administration.
The double standard is, as Plante noted, that the same media outlets who are gleefully cheering on preparations for the war room never ceased to mercilessly harass Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for saying in 2010, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
They never bothered to add context–that in the same interview with the National Journal, McConnell also said that if President Obama is “willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.”
Compare that with what Obama told Republican leaders in January 2009 after he won his first presidential election. Top House and Senate Republicans differed with the new President over the size of a stimulus package.
Obama’s response? “I won.”
Compare that, by the way, with what pro-abortion Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said to CNN’s Dana Bash this week:
“The only way we’re going to work with [Trump] is if he moves completely in our direction and abandons his Republican colleagues.”
As we briefly noted at the end of the day on Wednesday, pro-life Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with House Republicans to discuss repealing and replacing ObamaCare. “Meanwhile, President Obama made a rare Capitol Hill appearance, meeting behind closed doors with Democrats from both chambers,” according to the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin, Amy Goldstein, and Kelsey Snell . “He urged members of his party not to help the GOP devise a new health-care law.”
Again, politics ain’t beanbag but…
One other thought. I cannot find the story online; I read it at home this morning in the print edition of the Washington Post. A Democrat was quoted as saying, to the effect, it would have been nice if Obama had shown up more often.
But, it probably could not have been any different, given (how shall I phrase it?) Mr. Obama’s healthy ego and complete disregard for how his policies, particularly ObamaCare, cost scores of Democrats their seats.
Syndicated columnist George Will observed today that Obama
assured congressional Democrats that they could safely vote for Obamacare because “you’ve got me.” He would demonstrate his magic when campaigning for it and for them. Seven years after he said this, it remains unpopular, and they are fewer than they were. There are 11 fewer senators and 62 fewer representatives from the Democratic Party than on Jan. 20, 2009.
And that doesn’t even take into account the ripple effect down the ladder in the state legislatures. Writing in the Hill, Reid Wilson wrote last November
In total, Republicans control nearly 1,000 more legislative seats than they did when Obama took office. The Republican share of state legislative seats has grown from just under 44 percent in 2009 to 56 percent after Tuesday’s election.
After the latest losses, Democrats will hold just 42 percent of legislative seats in the nation.
Beginning next year, Republicans will control 67 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers, after winning new majorities in the Kentucky House, the Iowa Senate and the Minnesota Senate. Democrats picked up control of both the state Assembly and Senate in Nevada, and the New Mexico state House.
Since Obama took office, Republicans have captured control of 27 state legislative chambers Democrats held after the 2008 elections. The GOP now controls the most legislative seats it has held since the founding of the party. …
When the new year dawns, Republicans will control both chambers of the state legislature and governorships in 24 states. Democrats will hold total control in only five states — Hawaii, California, Oregon, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
And Democrats have 10 fewer governorships in 2016 than they did in 2008.
In the face of all this, it will be intriguing to see the “war room’s” strategy.