On Politics

Before and immediately following last November's U.S. general elections, many people on the political Left were questioning President Obama's ability to lead, to move his agenda forward, to persevere over his political rivals. The Republican Party, emboldened by the relative success of Tea Party candidates during the elections, were already talking about dismantling what progress had been made during the first two years of the Obama Administration and "taking back our country."

Following the elections, the remaining members of Congress could scarcely seem to find the will to convene for a final "lame-duck" session, and if it weren't for the need to decide on whether to allow former President Bush's tax cuts to expire or to extend them, and if so, how, Congress may have had very little motivation to act at all. Other than a much-delayed and final showdown on the tax cuts, not much was expected from this lame-duck Congress, despite Senate majority leader Harry Reid's ambitious list of legislation for consideration.

But Obama surprised - and disappointed - many by backing off of the anticipated showdown on the tax cuts. Instead, he agreed at the very start of the final congressional session to the opposition's demand that all of the tax cuts be extended for all Americans in return for certain concessions, including an extension of unemployment benefits for the millions of workers still without jobs.

The Left fumed over what appeared to them as an abandonment of core principals by the President, without fully realizing the brilliant political maneuver that Obama's agreement represented. Not only did he take away one of the opposition's potential talking points for the crucial next two years - that continued economic hardships were due to his increased taxes on the very wealthiest Americans - but the compromise took away the Republican's alibi to oppose and obstruct any other legislative item on Reid's agenda. They were suddenly stripped of their casus bellum and had nothing left to hide behind, and were forced to instead perform their constitutional duties and actually legislate.

And then suddenly and swiftly, Obama and Reid's agenda was passed. The discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was finally repealed. The new START treaty was ratified. And the health-care assistance for the 9/11 first responders was passed, an act that should have been a no-brainer, but had formerly been rejected by petulant Republicans in Congress upset that the very rich had not yet been promised protection from a return to the tax rates of the 1990s. For the past week or so, newspaper headlines, instead of being cringe-inducing, have produced nothing but joy and celebration to the Left. It's a good time to be a Democrat.

So I think some of the pundits on the Left are probably feeling a little foolish right now. Obama had not betrayed their principals and core values, but instead deftly engaged in some real politics and, to use a sports analogy, gave up a few yards in order to move the football way down the field. By his own estimate, 80% of his agenda has been accomplished in his first two years in office, and he has shown us what a skilled politician he can actually be.

I believe history will show him to be the greatest American President since John F. Kennedy.