I kept at it, maturing both as a consultant and as a man. And years later, I understood that instead of fighting for 100% of what I wanted, it was often more effective to work things out with others and shoot for, let's say, 70% of what I wanted. This applied even when I had more "power" than the managers of a problem department.
As the newly elected president, Barack Obama had two major opportunities to demonstrate leadership. The first was the passage of his stimulus package, and the second was ObamaCare. In both cases, he more or less shut out the Republicans. Armed with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, he got 100% of what he wanted, and Republicans got nothing. Historically, most recessions last only a year or two, so perhaps Democrat leadership assumed they could spend/waste the taxpayer's money any way they wished, and by 2012, with the country back on track economically, they could credit "their" stimulus package with getting us out of the recession. ObamaCare, with all its extra costs and bureaucracy, isn't set to be fully implemented until after the 2012 election, and support was expected to increase after the bill's passage.
If the president had passed a truly bipartisan stimulus package, the bill might have been less wasteful, and even if it was ineffective, Republicans would have had to share some of the blame. There were enough "moderate" Republicans willing to pass some sort of major health care bill, which might have led to passage of an even more comprehensive health care bill in President Obama's second term. Bipartisanship would have lessened the effectiveness of both the stimulus and ObamaCare as campaign issues for the Republicans.
Although the president said otherwise, it appears that he wanted partisan bills. Sure, the president was the leader of the Democratic Party. But back in 2008, Americans had voted for a leader of not just the Democratic Party. They had voted for a president of the United States -- a president of all the people. They were hoping for someone who would at least try to bring us together as one nation through these tough times. Instead, they got a man who tried to hog political credit on two major issues; who hogs credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden; who acts like he's ashamed to be a patriotic American; who still blames President Bush four years later; who, through his silence, allows his minions to call his critics "racist"; who shows his disgust for "the rich," who, as a group, do pay their fair share; and who segments Americans into good and evil and worthy and unworthy.
President Obama arrogantly thought he was going to receive 100% credit -- instead, he now finds that he's getting 100% of the blame for the ineffective stimulus and for the unpopular ObamaCare plan, deservedly diminishing his chances for re-election.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/09/our_immature_president.html#ixzz262xumnqP
