Obama Versus The Congress

In recent days, it has become quite obvious that our President has decided to "run" against Congress and no longer against George Bush as a means of getting himself reelected in 2012. In speech after speech, he's chided the them for doing nothing to create jobs and get the economy going again. Of course, the logic here is that he has a much higher approval rating than Congress and, consequently, America will side with him instead of them on the issues. Then, in an attempt to further strengthen his image in contrast to the Congress, he keeps introducing plans of his own that he can implement with executive order and without any congressional approval.

But, the problem with this kind of tactic is that the Congress isn't just made up of a bunch of do-nothing Republicans. The Senate is still controlled by Democrats. Also, there are a lot of already-teetering Democrats who could wind up losing in 2012 -- thanks to this President's broad-brush tactic of lambasting Congress. In fact, recent polling already shows that top Democrats are notably less liked than their Republican counterparts (Click here to See Story).

Another problem is that, when it comes to senatorial and congressional races, all politics is truly local. While national polling for Congress, as a whole, shows a lowly approval of around 10%, the individual polling for each member, in their respective states and districts, is something entirely different; and, in most cases, at least 4 to 5 times higher than that horrible 10% rating. My guess is that individual Republicans, in localized battles over election/reelection, will do better in 2012 running against Obama's failed policies then the other way around.

Throughout Obama's presidency, he has literally played wedge politics by trying to stir up American anger towards the wealthy, the banks, the health care insurers and providers, the cops "who acted stupidly", and on and on. It's what he knows how to do well because, at one time, he was a full-fledged, rabble-rousing community organizer. Now, it appears he's even willing to direct American's anger towards those members of Congress who belong to his own political party. I feel that in the end, this tactic will fail to get him reelected. But, even if he does win reelection, he might have done so much damage to his own political party that he finds himself alone at the top with both Houses of Congress being controlled by Republicans. If so, he'll really find himself saddled with a do-nothing Congress because he's a man who is totally devoid of the skills to compromise or find common ground. Another little undesirable trait inherent to being a community organizer.