So much has been happening in the last week or so that today's post is a set of observations on various matters, rather than the usual focus on one subject.
The Hu Visit
Once more being the world's number one economy has paid off. Before Chinese President Hu Jintao left Washington, he left behind a very large package of $45 billion in contracts for buying U.S. products. With lots of cash in their pockets, a visit by a high ranking Chinese official carries with it the expectation that the visitor will leave behind some cash/contracts, either to buy things or invest in a country's debt. So if you've got the world's largest economy and are visited by the highest Chinese official, you expect the largest dropping. We were not to be disappointed. A lot of jobs will be created in the U.S. with the $45 billion and, meanwhile, China also continues to fund our debt. So, as said twice in previous blogs, it's nice to have money.
Health Care Repeal
At the same time the Chinese president was living up to expectations, so were the House Republicans. The newly controlled GOP House, in a grand political gesture, voted unanimously to repeal President Obama's health care reform law. Setting aside the fact that repeal would never make it through the Senate, Speaker Boehner and his brethren pushed ahead with what House Republicans said was the promise they had made to America during last year's election campaigns.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare writes, " the time is out of joint", meaning something is not right and must be corrected. So it may be with the GOP grandstanding about repeal of health care reform being what the people want. It is true that during the campaign while the GOP and the Tea Party were demonizing "Obamacare" as forcing "socialized medicine" down the throats of America and creating the myth of "death panels", public opinion was nervous and against proposed reforms, but the most recent polls show Americans are now evenly split upon repeal. And the likely trend is that as the benefits of the reforms come to be increasingly welcomed, the public tilt will be against repeal. So the GOP may be overplaying the repeal issue to their future disadvantage. So the time for the grand political gesture may be "out of joint" with political reality.
Obama Poll Ratings
Adding to the time "out of joint" on the issue of health care reform, are the latest results of various polls showing President Obama's job rating has gone back above 50 percent. The current ratings boost, always subject to reversal, is generally attributed to three things: 1) a general feeling that the economy is improving as more jobs are created and as individual 401 savings recover; 2) the more transitory effect flowing from the high ratings given to his memorial speech following the Tucson shootings; and 3) his unexpected success in winning several major victories in the post-election special session of Congress, restoring Obama's leadership image. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell must be having many sleepless nights if he contemplates how it was Obama's ability to attract enough bipartisan support that produced the wins.
Joe Lieberman
The best news this week beyond the 5-year extension of the loan of two Chinese pandas to the Washington zoo was the announcement by Independent Senator Joe Lieberman that he would not seek re-election in 2012. In his best years as a Democrat, he could be viewed positively as a Henry "Scoop" Jackson type Democrat, liberal on domestic policy but a right wing hawk on foreign policy. But since his return to the Senate in 2007 as an Independent, he has simply become a pain in the posterior to the Senate Democrats whose caucus he joined. The pain level reached its peak in 2007 when he endorsed Republican Senator John McCain in his presidential campaign against Obama and again while playing hard to get during Democratic efforts to hammer out a health care package in the Senate.
But to end that on a light note, or laughter: McCain said Lieberman would be a good choice to replace Secretary of Defense Gates when he leaves his job later this year.
The State Dinner for Hu
It's no wonder Congress is held in such low esteem. Three of the four congressional leaders chose not to go to the White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu. The absentees were two Republicans, Boehner and McConnell, and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Forgetting their national leadership roles, they chose to serve their political/personal agendas and snub the dinner. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who has spoken out often against Chinese trade, currency, and human rights policies, set these views aside to carry out her national leadership role.
To close, there are a few other odds and ends such as the new Alabama governor saying non-Christians are not welcome as his brothers, and the death of Sargent Shriver who exemplified the time when the nation believed in its government and its ability to solve problems -- but space says maybe some other time, at least for Shriver.
An interesting week. I still think that the health care repeal will be decided in the courts. All that has been said about it is that there would be no way it could pass the senate but I guess the motion has to be made as it was one of the items on the "to do" list. The news jobs is a great news. It must have been a little awkward that some of the national leaders did not attend the dinner but it was good that Pelosi went even despite her political viewpoints. And so concludes another week in politics.
ReplyDeleteJeff
ReplyDeleteDon't dispair. Another week of politics is coming up, to be highlighted by the State of the Union speech. What we really have to look forward to is Michelle Bachman saying she'll have her own response to the speech, beyond the official party reply. Now all we need is Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin will have to be a little careful. She lost some points on the popularity scale after the Tucson tragedy. The only thing I wondered about that was whether her popularity went down before or after she made a statement in her defense. Was it the accustations that brought down her numbers or her defense to the accusations with the blood libel statements.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Palin knows how to be careful. She's just visceral about everything and she's always the victim of something or other, usually of the media. She is likely to retain a core of followers but others are simply getting tired of her--or so I think (or hope).
ReplyDeleteI think Palin is going to fizzle out and be out of contention for a serious run next year. I think she will have "peaked" too soon. Also, I don't think the Tea Party will have a lot of success pushing their agenda through such as health care repeal. That will also hurt Tea Party advocates such as Palin.
ReplyDeleteShiela
ReplyDeleteI agree that Palin may have run out of steam but she has to remain in the game as a possible candidate in order to keep her speaking invitations and speaking fees high. She's an opportunist so timing is everything. Once she drops out or it is obvious that she is not a real contender, the money making opportunities decline. Meanwhile, she has a hardcore of followers who keep her politically viable.
It seems pretty clear that the TP is already out of touch with reality. This will become clear when the issues of raising the debt limit and actual budgeting cutting take place. The party leadership in Congress is already opening up space between what the TP wants and what reality says is doable.