Yes, another year down. In political terms, it was sort of a win for our side, kind of a crab victory, because most of the advances came from walking sideways at best.
It wasn’t that good a year for the president, for both good and bad reasons, but despite many articles dubbing him “Loser of the Year” I think Obama is in better shape than most people think. My reasons are as follows:
1) “IRSgate,” which many conservatives still consider to be important, inflames the right-wing base, but almost no one else. As is the case with 99% of Darryl Issa’s “scandals,” this is 99% smoke generated by Issa’s hyper-stoked boilers and 1% fire.
2) Benghazi is another scandal that only heats and heartens the true believers. What the right wing really wants to believe is that Obama let Americans die because he’s a pussy, but that’s not an issue they can take to the American people. The real scandal was Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya in the first place, but Republicans don’t want to talk about that.
3) “Snowdengate” is a real scandal, and hurts Obama, but helps the rest of us. The administration clearly would love to kick Snowden’s ass, but it also clearly realizes that it doesn’t have the public behind it. A little bit of air slid out of the administration’s War on the First Amendment balloon, which amendment I have sorely abused with that terrible metaphor.
4) The Republicans seriously damaged themselves with the government shutdown, as they later demonstrated by surrendering on sequestration, the one actual rather than symbolic Tea Party victory. Those of us who hoped that the Tea Party would be mad enough to actually accept reductions in defense spending were sorely disappointed. Instead, it’s business as usual for the military-industrial complex. Money talks and nobody walks, except us soreheads who think defense spending could be cut in half.
5) Syria, regarded by many pundits/assholes as proof of Obama’s lack of leadership, was, to my mind, a huge win for the president, demonstrating to Republicans that the American people are explicitly against military involvement in the Middle East. Without Syria, there surely would have been no agreement with Iran. The fact that the president can get away with this, and that he can, it seems, beat back the AIPAC nation in the Senate, is remarkable.
6) The withering of the possibility of a “Grand Bargain,” never that likely to begin with, is a big disappointment to Wall Street, and Obama, who desperately wanted to make the big shots happy. But if you’re not a billionaire, it’s good news. The constituency for the Grand Bargain did not include either the left or the Tea Party, both of whom are devoted to Social Security and Medicare, because they need it, either politically or economically, or both.
7) The total flop of the Obamacare rollout, of course, is Obama’s Christmas present to the Republican Party. They will be talking of nothing else for the next six months, and why should they?
2014: An improving economy, less bloodshed in the Middle East, and stabilizing Obamacare. Possibly, not a bad year for the president.
