In the last 24 hours we learned that President Obama, his brilliant
White House staff and Speaker John Boehner have learned nothing from
recent events.
Obama and his staff are always too clever by a half and too cunning by a third. For the president to offer his usual bromides about putting country ahead of partisanship while he is trying a cheap shot to upstage a Republican debate made him look ridiculous, duplicitous and politically dumb. Of course everyone would see through this trite ploy in a heartbeat. Of course the president was destined to surrender, again.
{mosads}Boehner (R-Ohio) did not distinguish himself, either, in his response. He should have privately called Obama. Obama would have backed off anyway. Boehner would have looked like the statesman while Obama would have looked like the hypocritical partisan.
Instead, all three network news shows last night and the entire media mocked them all.
This ridiculous episode has no intrinsic value itself. It does make the important point that with most of the nation believing that everyone in Washington is out of touch with America, the highest-ranking Democrat and highest-ranking Republican in the nation share this in common: neither one has learned anything. Can they ever learn?
This would be funny if the jobs crisis were not an American tragedy, as we will learn again Friday when the roll call of jobless Americans is released by the Department of Labor while the idiot games continue in the capital.