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Edited on Sun Oct-05-08 04:56 PM by butlerd
The past 2 years under Bush when he and the GOP obstructed and/or vetoed nearly everything positive or helpful the Democrats proposed? The 6 years under Clinton when he had to pretend to support and/or compromise on a lot of the Republican's "regressive" anti-New Deal agenda? What good came out of either "split government" time periods?
If I'm right and the American people want things to actually GET DONE in Washington then IMHO this argument should be resoundingly defeated in November. If most Americans support what the Democrats are proposing (which it looks like they are) then it makes no sense to put McCain, who will almost certainly kill or veto nearly everything a solidly Democratic Congress might send him, in the White House. Likewise, Obama wouldn't be able to enact most (all?) of his proposed agenda if the GOP controls one or both branches of Congress (which isn't going to happen at the moment anyway) so then what would be the point of putting him into the WH?
My hypothesis is that the public wants (needs) action on a lot of things and will want Congress and the WH to actually DO something over the next 4-8 years and, as such, cannot allow a state of gridlock to continue. I don't believe most people honestly believe that whoever is elected can do anything substantive (which is what is needed at this point) without having sufficient Congressional support to get anything substantive accomplished.
The only people who MIGHT buy into this "argument" are people who actually WANT a state of "gridlock" to continue or who are actually stupid enough to believe that McCain/Palin will actually work with a Democratic Congress to get anything positive accomplished. Not.going.to.happen.
My prediction is that Obama will win in November and will have a Democratic majority in Congress (hopefully just enough to put down any threatened filibusters because you know the GOP will keep right on attempting to obstruct our agenda and then blame us for it so that they can win back power and go right on obstructing like they did with Clinton). Once in power, they all need to focus like a laser beam on getting things accomplished and passed that, unfortunately, died or got vetoed in the previous Congress and more or less ignore the Republicans unless they want to genuinely play a constructive role in cleaning up the mess they left behind.
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