Just How Good a Politician is President Obama?

I mean, I know some Tea Party folks, and it does not take all that long to size them up. Doing that takes no Machiavelli.
But he did know exactly where John Boehner, Speaker of the House, stood: and that is between a Rock and a Hard Place. He knew Boehner does not really control the House Republicans. He knew that he could offer Boehner the Moon in cuts in Medicare, Social Security... he could literally tear the social saftey net to shreds....

... and all President Obama had to do was to add at the end, "And by the way, we need to close some tax loopholes amounting to less than half the cost of Congressional Health Care coverage for one year." and Boehner could not accept it, because Boehner could not sell it. Mr. Boehner rules the roost of a bunch of wet hens who have traded negotiation for ideology, and President Obama knows it: he knows it now and he knows it all the way to November, 2012.

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