So, go to Plan B.
President Barack Obama has made clear his intention to press forward with the omnibus healthcare package no matter what the American people think. In the face of early political defeats in Virginia, New Jersey, and even Massachusetts, he has remained steadfast in his push regardless of the political costs. Indeed, with each passing day, the list of vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress, United States Senators, and governors grows longer and longer.
Political insiders from both inside and outside the Washington, D.C. Beltway are increasingly asking: ‘what is he thinking.’ It is one thing to sacrifice a few marginal seats in the interest of furthering a broader ideological agenda. It is quite another to risk control of the government itself. But so far, that appears to be the plan - or at least Plan A. In poker, it is called an ‘all in.’ And, that is precisely what the President has decided - ‘all in.’
Supporters argue that this is a reflection of President Obama’s commitment to the fundamental change that he promised. He is willing to sacrifice everything to implement his agenda - regardless of what the American people are telling him. So far, there have been no boundaries to the means by which he achieves the end. Deals have been cut. Promises have been broken. The fabric of an open and transparent government has been torn with backroom deals, secret hearings and meetings, and vote buying of historic proportions. Indeed, no one can seriously question his commitment to his agenda.
Presumably, President Obama believes that once Americans get a taste of the endless entitlements, price controls, and government run programs, they will never turn back. The key is to force the taste so that the inevitable dependency triggers the want and then the need for more and more and more. Once started, there is no turning back. The key is to get it started.
This is Plan A. It is predicated on the fundamental assumption by the President that he is right about his solutions because he is always right. There is one way, and it is his way.
Yet, the American people have an interesting way of reminding politicians that their way may not be ‘the’ way. If the current political trajectories continue in the same direction, the intermittent wake-up calls from the recent elections will translate into a historical political jolt that the country has never seen before. Democrats could actually lose virtually everything before it is all over as they enter the 2012 Presidential election cycle. ‘What say you then you wascally wabbit?’
Plan B. If the Democrats suffer wholesale losses, there is little chance that this President would even consider running for reelection, only to serve with a Republican Congress. The wholesale rejection by the American people in November 2010 would alone be enough to prompt some excuse for stepping aside. The idea of compromising with a Republican Speaker and a Republican Senate Majority Leader would also be just too much. To then have to face the American people in 2012 after devastating defeats in 2010 - now, that would be over the edge.
Of course, this does not even take into account the potential challenges from unhappy liberals who will attribute the midterm losses to an abandonment of the cause.
Moreover, what theme for a presidential reelection campaign could even exist when change had come and gone, and Americans were glad about it.
No, President Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton. The emotional toll, the psychological price, and deviation from his perspective of ‘what is’ would simply be too much. He cannot not change with the political winds like President Clinton after the Republican Revolution in 1994. And so, there is only one other option - yes, Plan B.
A different Democrat will have to step forward to carry the banner of a decimated political party. Enter stage left - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Just when everyone thought the Clintons had drifted off into the sunset, the time might actually come when the former First Lady steps up to the plate.
President James Knox Polk was the first President to decide that one term was enough. President Lyndon B. Johnson was the last President to abandon any effort to succeed himself.
The question is whether President Obama has put himself in line to be the next. So far, his all-or-nothing strategy suggests that he is more than willing to take his best shot, and if that does not work, just hang it up. After all, these are his own words: "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” Of course, he could be neither.
