Did Republicans Hand Obama Some Rope?
When Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl pulled out of the debt ceiling negotiations they made a big deal out of stating that the negotiations between congressional level players was going nowhere and that Presidential involvement was now necessary, thus inviting Obama into the fray. I didn't quite understand this negotiating tactic. Standard negotiating strategy would dictate that you don't actively call for you opponents big gun to get involved, you walk away and make the opponent's top dog bear the responsibility to initiate leadership and/or provide the fresh start to negotiations.
Alas, I forgot my Sun Tzu and I now see it. While the Republicans have a modestly winning hand (say, pair of tens or maybe Ace/10 suited), more importantly, the Democrats have a decidedly bad hand (say, 10/3 unsuited). The Republican strategy is to stick Obama with that bad hand. Who cares if you run circles around Harry Reid at this point, right? Make Dear Leader play the hand. However, that is the strategy for the end-game, but that is not nearly all. The early and mid-game, or secondary, strategy is to give Obama a chance to be Obama on a big issue.
Obviously the effectiveness of this strategy - primary and secondary - will play out in the coming weeks, the early returns are encouraging, notably that secondary focus. Today Obama gave a press conference to kick off his involvement in the debt ceiling talks, and the Republicans calculated right, Obama played true to expectations. He was the demagogic slickster that they had assumed he'd be, trotting out polarizing, class war chestnuts such as "kids' safety vs. corporate jets." As this guy said, it was all false choices and audacious whoppers of cognitive dissonance.
As we get into the early stages of the 2012 campaign, I am shocked to see the Republicans doing something smart, they are giving Obama every chance they can to show Americans that 'Hope and Change' was a con job and that the Obama experiment was just that, an experiment. The obvious message as the campaign wears on..."the experiment didn't work out, let's clean it up and get back to what we know works."
Alas, I forgot my Sun Tzu and I now see it. While the Republicans have a modestly winning hand (say, pair of tens or maybe Ace/10 suited), more importantly, the Democrats have a decidedly bad hand (say, 10/3 unsuited). The Republican strategy is to stick Obama with that bad hand. Who cares if you run circles around Harry Reid at this point, right? Make Dear Leader play the hand. However, that is the strategy for the end-game, but that is not nearly all. The early and mid-game, or secondary, strategy is to give Obama a chance to be Obama on a big issue.
Obviously the effectiveness of this strategy - primary and secondary - will play out in the coming weeks, the early returns are encouraging, notably that secondary focus. Today Obama gave a press conference to kick off his involvement in the debt ceiling talks, and the Republicans calculated right, Obama played true to expectations. He was the demagogic slickster that they had assumed he'd be, trotting out polarizing, class war chestnuts such as "kids' safety vs. corporate jets." As this guy said, it was all false choices and audacious whoppers of cognitive dissonance.
As we get into the early stages of the 2012 campaign, I am shocked to see the Republicans doing something smart, they are giving Obama every chance they can to show Americans that 'Hope and Change' was a con job and that the Obama experiment was just that, an experiment. The obvious message as the campaign wears on..."the experiment didn't work out, let's clean it up and get back to what we know works."
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:57 PM
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