It's the Bullies

Published: The Huffington Post 2011.05.05

Two weeks ago all we heard about was Birther garbage 'The Donald'-style; will President Obama cave to Paul Ryan on the budget/debt ceiling; can we get anything right as Seth Meyers was writing his jokes poking fun at the president's inability to get bin Laden.

I got sick of watching it. I got sick of seeing the president get pushed around. I was dreading the next year and a half as I was thinking to myself, why help this guy? Hell, the ONLY reasons I re-activated as a Democrat was because Joe Sestak as a Congressman stood up to some big interests in my hometown and I thought President Obama could actually do something. (I am fed up with my county and area parties.)

Sestak is gone -- replaced by GOP functionaries. Month after month of seeing this president absorb body blow after body blow made me punch drunk. It made me angry that he wouldn't hit back.

He was being pummeled by the school yard bullies. I am happy to stick up for someone who's getting hit, but I can't see extending myself for someone who won't at least attempt to stand up for themselves.

I don't know if it was the plan from the start to sucker the GOP so far down the rabbit hole that they cannot come back up with any credibility. Any of the GOP contenders now have a bankable array of spewed stupidity that can be used against them in a series of Willie Horton style attack ads next year. (The Democrats damn-well better be in the gutter fighting with this stuff.)

Was it The Donald's whining accusations that finally got the president to ball his fist, plant his back foot and start swinging?

I dunno -- but it sure looks good.

How politically coordinated was all this? After all, President Obama had a bead on bin Laden last August. Had this raid been conducted in October of last year would it have saved the Democrats in Congress? Even if it failed, President Obama would have gotten major points for at least showing he is in the hunt for bin Laden.

President Obama knew when the White House correspondents' dinner was marked on the calendar. He knew the GOP would start fermenting their presidential brew shortly.

In retrospect, Seth Meyers' prodding about bin Laden followed by the president's toothiest smile ever will certainly be worth buying the book of President Obama's Memoirs. I want to know what President Obama is really thinking at that moment. 

Humor is a sword that does a great deal of political damage. You just don't know who it is going to damage. Poor writing or delivery is public hari-kari. Would you pay to hear the comedy musings of Michael Dukakis or Rick Santorum? This president can hold his own with anyone.

The surgical political castration of Donald Trump performed by Dr. Obama was something to behold. Was Dr. Steven Colbert DFA, taking notes on that one? It will make for a good peer review session.

But all that means nothing and everything in reality. It means nothing because it doesn't create or save one job, or get our guys home a moment sooner from overseas, or pay for another breast exam. But it means everything because now President Obama has finally bought the political ammunition to fight the real battles ahead.

Now that President Obama has exorcised our national boogeyman he can get down to really governing (btw, all the confusion on Osama/Obama can be solved by using the surname of the man who's head we have gotten into).

When you punch back at the bullies, they tend to fade away.

President Obama has finally stood up and taken his ground. Can the Paul Ryan led GOP really offer any resistance? Can President Obama call these bullies out for what they are when they try to attack Medicare to give their buddies more tax breaks?

President Obama had the best arguments against the GOP a couple of weeks ago when he put the Mediacare/Fatcat fight in terms of how many seniors will be giving up $6,000 apiece to give people who don't need it more money. That argument went into the tidal wave of information overload never to come back.

The seismic shift in the political landscape has the GOP down on the ground as they were in February of 2009. The president cannot let these guys back up. 

Since the GOP likes getting into wars so much, President Obama can use the GOP language against them. President Obama can start by telling Congress what he will veto upon arrival. 

He can start with the Ryan Budget by renaming it the GOP War on Seniors Act quickly followed by the equally obscene HR 3 -- also known as the GOP War on Women Act.

And we all know that GOP Wars tend to fight the wrong people.

These bullies need to be put in their place.

Please do it Mr. President.