Barack Obama said shortly after the Republican sweep in November's mid-term elections that he now felt liberated to be "the president he always wanted to be."
Huh?
How could that make sense when the other party now controlled both houses of Congress and Obama could never get any of his proposal passed? Wait! Think! He's giving you a hint here? We've been watching Obama for more than a decade now since he first emerged on the scene with his oratorical debut at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. What is Obama good at (well, sort of good at)? Talking. What is he terrible at? Governing.
Indeed, you could extend this to liberals in general. They like to say things like, "If only all Americans would (insert fanciful liberal desire for whatever it is that all Americans really should do), then everything would be wonderful for everyone!" Going around saying such things is risk-free for liberals, because all Americans are never going to do what liberals want, so they can lament forever what a shame it is that everything isn't peachy keen and blame those obstinate Americans who do not behave in compliance with the liberal dream.
Give a liberal the power to actually mandate said behavior, however, and now they have to live with the real-life consequences of what they're always saying they want. That's trouble, because that's when it becomes clear to everyone that their utopian scenarios invariably come with serious problems, and trying to force them on the nation will always make things worse rather than better.
Exhibit A: ObamaCare. It had been a liberal dream since the days of FDR to pass a government takeover of health care, but it had always been a political impossibility. Until 2010, when they actually found themselves with the votes to do it, and they had no way of explaining to their political base why they couldn't. So they did. The result has been a complete political disaster for the Democratic Party, which has been devastated not only in Congress but in state legislatures across the country. People hate ObamaCare because it is wreaking havoc with their health care, and Democrats - who refuse to repeal or substantially fix it because they can't admit they made a mistake - are stuck enduring the disdain of the nation for having signed off on such a horrendous law.
So what kind of president does Obama want to be? Simple. He wants to be an all-talk-no-action president. He wants to be the kind of guy who travels the nation and constantly rails against other people, finding fault with them and scapegoating them for the problems of others - but never actually putting a policy in place that addresses the things he's talking about. In other words, he wants to campaign but not govern. And that's where the Republican takeover of Congress becomes the perfect development for Obama.
Two weeks ago, Obama proposed free community college for everyone. Last week, he proposed to mandate expansion of family leave time. This week - highlighted in his State of the Union address tomorrow night - Obama will propose a massive tax increase on the so-called wealthy. Not one of these proposals is designed to actually pass. If Obama wanted that to happen, he would have proposed them when the Democrats controlled Congress and they actually could pass. No. That's not his game. His game is put these ideas out there so his friends in the media can slobber all over them and put the Republicans on the defensive for not being willing to "help the middle class."
Then Obama will have a new thing to talk about - those horrible Republicans who won't act on his proposals to help the middle class.
This is nothing but trolling, and that's what we're going to get from Obama for the next two years. He has no governing skill, but he's a pretty talented troll. He's very good at getting on his moral high horse and telling one group of people that all their problems are the fault of some other group of people, and that these problems would be solved if only that other group of people would do what liberals say all Americans should do.
But in order for Obama to be able to play this game, he has to have the safety of a Congress that will never actually call his bluff and pass his proposals - and make him live with the consequences of the policies he touts. And of course, the Republican Congress is not going to pass his proposals because they are insane.
So yeah, he'll spend the next two years being the president he's always wanted to be. All talk. No action. Basically a big troll who never stops trolling because he pays no price for doing it. Dude must be having the time of his life.
