Tag: lame duck

Democrats now facing a lame-duck session crunch time ENTIRELY OF THEIR OWN MAKING.

Lotta good bits in this:

[Aside from confirming nominees, Harry] Reid also wants to move a package of expiring tax provisions, the annual Defense Department authorization bill and an extension of a tax moratorium on Internet purchases in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

That will be a challenge not only because of the tight schedule, but because of expected clashes between Democrats over what should be prioritized before Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) takes over the Senate’s agenda in January.

For example, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who is about to lose his chairmanship, is pushing for consideration of a bill reforming the National Security Agency despite opposition from other Democrats.

Continue reading Democrats now facing a lame-duck session crunch time ENTIRELY OF THEIR OWN MAKING.

Why Barack Obama is a lame duck and it isn’t even 2015 yet.

Spoiler warning: It’s his own blessed fault.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) I’m mildly fascinated about why David Gergen apparently doesn’t get what is ridiculously obvious to probably everyone reading this:

…it has now become equally puzzling why [Barack Obama] has not become more sure-footed in foreign affairs. He is one of the brightest men ever to occupy the office, and yet his learning curve has been among the flattest.

It is has been my experience that young people who constantly get told that they are the brightest people in the room grow up into middle-aged people who unconsciously assume that they are the brightest people in the room, and thus have no particular reason to improve themselves.  Fortunately, the universe usually deals with this by placing individuals in tough situations where they quickly learn the limits of their abilities, typically with the enthusiastic application of negative reinforcement.  The trouble there, alas, is that some deeply, deeply unlucky individuals go through life continually being coddled and kept from the worst consequences of their mistakes; invariably, they eventually end up in a situation where they cannot be further protected, and the resulting meltdown is ten times worse than regular events of idiocy or incompetence. Continue reading Why Barack Obama is a lame duck and it isn’t even 2015 yet.

“Five things Obama must do to avoid lame-duck status.”

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Amazingly, none of them involve “Invent time travel.”  Which is a shame, because of the five they picked, “Minimize the liabilities” and “Keep the base energized” have a certain “bell the cat” vibe to them; “Take a page out of the Clinton playbook” is going to be a little bit difficult without any sort of, you know, triangulation scheduled*; and “Hold the line against the GOP” and “Go undercover” flat-out contradict each other.  For that matter, assuming that the President just goes and hides on a golf course for the next three years; how is that functionally different from being a lame-duck, anyway?

Continue reading “Five things Obama must do to avoid lame-duck status.”

The Bloom is off the Unicorn: party donors starting to look ahead past @barackobama.

I imagine these last two paragraphs probably burns the administration.  It burns them like hygiene*:

Still, party fundraisers said that it has been hard to get major contributors jazzed about writing checks to the DNC. They are more intrigued with 2016 and whether Hillary Rodham Clinton will make another White House run.

“I get dozens of inquiries from donors who say, ‘I want to get in early with Hillary,’ ” said a prominent party fundraiser. “A lot of the donors are starting to look past this administration to the next one.”

Continue reading The Bloom is off the Unicorn: party donors starting to look ahead past @barackobama.