Obama has failed (the system is OK)

From Pres Washington to Pres BO, every occupant of the Oval Office has had to deal with Senate rules.

In other words, Pres BO is not the first president to deal with the Senate's "super majority or filibuster".

Nevertheless, Pres BO, and his supporters, are into massive 'whining mode"!

First, it was blaming Bush.

Now, it's blaming the system.

However, no one is blaming Pres BO!

Here is the report card for year one: BO can't lead or govern.

Why is everyone surprised?

This is a man who came into the presidency without executive or successful legislative experience.

Christina Lamb has this note from the UK:

"More than than a year into the Obama administration, with health care yet to be reformed, Wall Street banks continuing to pay huge bonuses and Guantanamo Bay prison still open, that mood of hope has turned to disillusion.

Obama’s policy of engagement has yielded no progress in the Middle East or Iran; the war in Afghanistan continues to exact a big toll in lives and dollars; while the heaviest snow in Washington for 90 years seems to have stymied any hope of climate change legislation."

So what do you do when your guy has failed and can't get his own party to support him?

You blame the system rather than Pres BO!

However, the system has not failed.

Partisanship and politics have been a way of life in Washington DC for years.

It did not stop previous presidents from getting things done!

Why was Pres Bush able to work with Dems and Pres BO can't?

Why was Pres Reagan able to put together bipartisan coalitions and Pres BO can't?

Why was Pres Clinton able to cut deals with Republicans and pass NAFTA and welfare reform?

The answer is that past presidents tried to work with the legislature.

Unfortunately, Pres BO has not, no matter how many times he denounces the "ways of Washington"!

Fix the system? Not really!

Charles Krauthammer has another gem today:

"He failed because the utter implausibility of its central promise -- expanded coverage at lower cost -- led voters to conclude that it would lead ultimately to more government, more taxes and more debt.

More broadly, the Democrats failed because, thinking the economic emergency would give them the political mandate and legislative window, they tried to impose a left-wing agenda on a center-right country.

The people said no, expressing themselves first in spontaneous demonstrations, then in public opinion polls, then in elections -- Virginia, New Jersey and, most emphatically, Massachusetts.

That's not a structural defect.

That's a textbook demonstration of popular will expressing itself -- despite the special interests -- through the existing structures.

In other words, the system worked." (CK)

The system did not fail.

Again, Pres BO failed!

Despite having super majorities in the House and Senate, he was not able to get Dems to follow him.

Pres BO was never able to explain how "BOCare" would be better than your private or employer-based coverage.

Pres BO was never able to persuade Midwest Dems that "cap and trade" would improve their manufacturing constituents.

So let's drop all of this garbage about a "broken system"!

P.S. The Economist from the UK has a great point:

"American politics seems unusually bogged down at present. Blame Barack Obama more than the system!"