Did you pick up on this in Pres. Obama’s interview with The New Yorker magazine? He gave away John Boehner’s negotiating strategy, and he validates what I have been saying about the Speaker. Here is the quote:
“Another way of putting it, I guess, is that the issue has been the inability of my message to penetrate the Republican base so that they feel persuaded that I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh . . . . And as long as there’s that gap between perceptions of me within the average Republican primary voter and the reality, it’s hard for folks like John Boehner to move too far in my direction.”
So, what Obama is saying is that John Boehner would do more Leftist, Big Government things, except he is restrained by the rank-and-file Republicans.
I said it a little over a year ago, commenting on the way Boehner and McConnell were negotiating over the “fiscal cliff.” Read my post on my analysis of the fiscal cliff negotiations. Look at my point number 3. I said that the objective of Boehner and McConnell was to craft the most Liberal solution that they could get away with with other Republicans. They take a stance that tries to make them look tough, then they strike a deal that pushes their caucus in a Big Government direction and try to sell it to their caucus.
That is exactly what Obama is giving away in this comment. What restrains Boehner, he says, is not his core principles – it is the Republican base. If they would simply let him, he would be more Leftist.
Oh, how I wish that Republicans in the House would get rid of this Speaker.
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