Barone on POTUS and GOP
The Czar grouses a lot when people refer to the Obama presidency as exemplary of the Chicago political machine. Repeatedly, the Czar has proven that Obama never quite made it into the machine, and therefore attempts to emulate it, but he is not strictly part of it.
The Czar would argue, further, that Obama seeks to employ tactics but bungles them; if he were really a Chicago politician, he would be a whole lot more brazenly corrupt but nevertheless would get the job done. The Czar acknowledges that Obama has learned a lot about Chicago-style politics, though.
The ever-entertaining Michael Barone makes a comment that hits that nail on the head:
That’s his political world, Chicago… Republicans, they’re not part of the conversation. There’s no need to engage their ideas because they just really don’t count for anything. And, the attitude of Chicago democrats to the private sector has always been that look, there’s lots of big businesses in Chicago and they will always have to – you can put any amount of burden on them and they will always pay up. And, they won’t leave and we can milk them for as much as we want. That’s what a private sector is for.
Precisely. Obama is uninterested in Republican points of view because the GOP is, in his entire political existence, a swarm of useless gnats. He never needed to deal with them or even consider them as a factor; why start now?
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.