The Fire This Time: The GOP’s Line of Attack on Obama

Watching the process of the stimulus package that’s being proposed by President Obama and the Republican Party’s reaction to it, it would seem that Mr. Obama didn’t win last year’s election.

The president wants to play nice for the benefit of the country. He campaigned on going beyond partisan politics, which made him an attractive figure to the general electorate. The stimulus package has yet to be passed and no doubt there will be elements of it stripped in order to ensure bipartisan approval.

However, with the collection of Tom Daschle’s scalp on the GOP’s trophy wall, one can delineated the GOP’s general line of opposition to Obama, and it will certainly be obstructionism by another name (as in wrecking the stimulus package to prevent healthcare reform). Granted, the Daschle debacle was of the Obama administration own making, and Mr. Obama manned up to it, something that the previous occupant of the White House would never do. Remember, Republicans don’t make mistakes, which is why they’re in control of the White House and the two chambers of Congress today.

However, in the search for bipartisan comity by nominating Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) as Commerce Secretary, Mr. Gregg, as reported by TPM, said that he would "recuse himself from congressional votes while his nomination is considered -- a setback for the Dems' attempts to pass Obama's stimulus with the help of at least one Republican."

So, Mr. Obama's gets a GOP member of his administration but not a GOP vote on his major stimulus package?
The GOP’s game plan, however, is simply based on a plan that they are tactically suited for: engage in death by a thousand cuts by issuing forth a stream of propaganda and misinformation about Obama’s agenda. If one watches TV you’ll probably see more GOP representatives, senators, policy wonks, and conservatives pundits who are against the stimulus package than those who are for it. Most people have probably heard of the bad things about the bill, which according to some people only amounts to less than 2 percent of the entire spending package.

What this means is that the GOP noise machine still dominates the nation’s political narrative, and the MSM has a tendency to follow its leads and pulls it punches when it comes to engaging conservatives more so than liberals or progressives.

Also, as noted by Glenn Greenwald, a second line of attack, a “discredition” process, if you will, is the neo-conservative argument that Obama is engaging in defense “cuts” despite an actual eight percent increase in proposed spending for DOD’s 2010 budget. Couple that scary scenario with Dick Cheney ominously warning about future terrorist attacks if Obama changes any of the Bush administration’s tactics in handling the so-called war on terrorism.

In short, the Republican Party’s road back to the White House is predicated on wishing for the country’s economy to decline even further and hoping for another terror attack on Obama’s watch. Also, the GOP’s selection of Michael Steele makes is possible for it to appear not out of synch with the nation’s triumph of electing its first black president by having the Republican Party's first black chairman dumping on him.

Despite the country wanting a change in tone and practice, the Republican Party hasn’t changed. If the president is willing to admit that he was wrong about Mr. Daschle, will he also admit that he was wrong about the illusion of bipartisanship?
So, the question is this: Did the president really win the election?