Lately, as I've been observing the great debate, I've found myself sharing Peggy Noonan's sentiments in her Wall Street Journal column last week when she said that it's hard to write something new. Things that are happening now have been happening for last several months/couple years...just more so.
That said, I do have a few nuggets of observations that might be worth consideration:
1) There will be "draft Hillary" clubs or organizations popping up all over the country. Yeah, I know she declared about a year ago that she will not run for public office again. She may very well have meant it, and still think it. But, one only needs to Google "Hillary 2012" to find out how many are going to prod her along. And these won't just be those who Hillary loyalists, either. It will also be many of those who are now suffering from buyer's remorse with President Obama. And she's popular, too. According to some polls, the most popular politician in America.
This will be interesting to watch, as this has happened in the past. While Eisenhower didn't come in to challenge a sitting Republican president, he was the reluctant candidate who only got in because of the overwhelming number of "draft Ike" clubs that popped up all over the country, and because he feared that no other Republican would win, and another Republican loss would essentially dissolve the party.
Hillary may be in the similar position. I can already see the speech: "the overwhelming call for me to serve has caused me to consider the ramifications of a 1-term Democrat president bookended by 2, 2-term Republican Presidencies. I cannot let that happen. Therefor, I reluctantly, but wholeheartedly, declare myself a candidate for the...."
But, she won't pull the trigger yet. There has to be overwhelming evidence well into the election season that President Obama is toast...and she'll challenge.
2) As a former Congressional staffer, I shuddered for my former colleagues who were interviewed for this Politico article. We've all been there - "we" being congressional staffers. We all worry our boss will say something stupid, silly, or just plain inaccurate. Damage control and spin are the verbal gymnastics that staff have to engage in when the boss just gets something wrong. Fortunately for me, I can't think of too many times I stood in the back of the room with my palm planted firmly on my forehead, muttering something about "cleaning that one up after the meeting."
And its not that I can't sympathize with the bosses. They read a ton of memos about every conceivable issue, they are constantly in meetings, going from one to the next, with certified smart people doing a fire hose information dump on them in 5 minutes or less on the most complicated issues ever to face that field of study. The mind numbing minutia these Members of Congress are exposed to is...mind numbing.
The good bosses, however, have two things: 1) a self awareness of what they do understand and know of assurity...and what they don't know; and 2) the ability to admit they got it wrong when they got it wrong. One might call the latter "humility".
Michele Bachman has a checkered past with inaccurate statements. And I've got no beef with someone confusing the mountain load of factoids they have read in the past week. But this episode with her relaying quite a stunning accusation about a cancer treatment medicine's side effects that she heard from some lady smacks of what one of her former staffers characterized as "inventing something out of whole cloth" in order to score points. Reading this article about staffers who have told of their experiences...it all rings true. The things they say, and the way they said them...I've seen this stuff happen. I've seen the blank stare in an elected officials eyes when they didn't have a good response at their disposal, and just made something up. And each time, I saw the sinking expression and depressed body language of the staffers who knew they'd have to clean up the mess.
I worry about someone like this on our side of the aisle getting a prominent place in our party. The old saying "he's a blowhard, but he's our blowhard" doesn't extend this far, in my opinion. Which is a shame, because I think she's angling to be Mitt's VP running mate, and she'd be good at it (a good partisan, with great party-base street cred)...except for the aforementioned achilles heel.
3) Lastly, I can't pass this one up. Remember the urgency of President Obama's speech the opening night of NFL a little while ago? "Pass this bill!" Repeated over and over again. Then the road show. "Pass this bill today!" Repeated over and over again. One was left with the impression that the bill was just sitting in the House and Senate chambers waiting to be voted on, but for the lazy Congressmans' inability to get on the subway cars to take them from their Congressional office buildings to the bowels of the Capitol, just a short escalator ride away from some elevators that take them up to the 2nd floor of the Capitol, and just a 10 step waltz to the chamber floor where they can yell "aye", then take the 10 steps back to the elevator, down the escalator, to the subway cars, to the congressional office buildings, where they can curl up on underneath their desks and resume their naps. That's the impression he is leaving everyone.
But again, I can't pass up experiences I have had. I wondered if there was actually a bill. Many times before a President (not just this one) would fist pound and announce a new and vital initiative, but then leave it up to Congress to figure how to write down and make it work. So, I was curious, did the President actually write a bill, and get someone in Congress to sponsor it, introduce it, and make it move through the legislative process.
Answer? Nope. Exhibit A: The "American Jobs Act", as he called it has been introduced, but by a Republican. Huh? "How could that be?", you ask. Well, a certain House Republican named Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas beat him to the punch. After the President's speech before the Joint Session of Congress, Mr. Gohmert probably thought he'd have a little fun with the President and beat the President to the punch, introducing his own "American Jobs Act" (HR 2911). I don't know if the bill is any good, but this is classic Congressional hijinks. And the President's urgent bill? Well, as the LA Times indicated, "it seems the urgent jobs bill hadn't actually been written yet but should be ready in a week or two. When the laughter died, the White House said on second thought the legislation would be ready for a photo op the next Monday. Well, here we are on the next Monday after that next Monday and we've just learned from the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, that actually it seems that body won't really be seriously getting into the legislation for a while yet."
As I said, I couldn't pass this one up.
