Liz Peek:
Bam! That’s the sound of President Obama smacking head first into our nation’s system of checks and balances. It turns out that you actually can’t run the country all by yourself, even if you’re the smartest fellow in the room. That’s proving quite a shock to our legacy-hungry commander in chief, who is responding to various setbacks with increasing indignation and hauteur. But, never, ever, moderation.
Mr. Obama has pursued an ambitious agenda since he entered the White House, increasingly acting alone. Ever since he won passage of Obamacare in 2010 through an odious series of back-room favors, and then got burned looking for a “Grand Bargain” on the budget with House Speaker John Boehner, he has eschewed the normal horse-trading with Congress and chosen to govern instead through executive actions and regulations.
Just as his favored military option is clean-hands drone attacks, he has kept his dealings with Congress sanitary, at arm’s length. That fastidious approach now threatens his second-term program. Not only is Congress balking, but also the Supreme Court could block several of Mr. Obama’s cherished programs. He has only himself to blame.
On the griddle currently is the president’s Trans Pacific Trade pact, which Democrats in Congress oppose. Members of his own party snubbed President Obama’s humiliating last-ditch overtures — a rare visit to Congress and schmoozing Nancy Pelosi at a baseball game. According to The Atlantic, he promised goodies galore – rides on Air force One, Oval Office visits and campaign help for those willing to vote for his bill. He hoped to counter AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka’s reported threats that Big Labor will mount primary challenges against those who back the trade measure.
The offers – and the jawboning — from the increasingly lame duck president flopped. Representative Peter Defazio from Oregon told reporters, “The President tried to both guilt people and impugn their integrity. I was insulted.” Another House Democrat, according to CNN, said Obama “was fine until he turned at the end and became indignant and alienated some folks.” Republicans were not shocked; Obama has impugned their integrity as well as their honesty and patriotism repeatedly over the past seven years.
The TPP is essential to Obama’s foreign policy legacy. Elsewhere, his adventures overseas have been disastrous. The president has created a power vacuum in which Russia and China are increasingly belligerent, and ISIS spreads its influence unchecked. So, the famous pivot to Asia is all that’s left – and that hangs by the thread of the TPP.
Meanwhile, the courts may squash other portions of his vaunted legacy. The Supreme Court will rule shortly on the fate of Obamacare; this time the Roberts Court may pull the plug on the program. In response, President Obama is indignant, and he is once again being dishonest about Obamacare. (See “lie of the year”2013: “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.”)
I sure hope Obama doesn’t get mad, stomp off and rule some other country into failure. That would truly break my heart.