…..“Nope, nope, nope,” one senior administration official said when asked if Obama would bend on the latest round of debt ceiling negotiations. “He’s not budging. Not this time.”
“We took John Boehner at his word that there was serious interest in negotiating a grand bargain and he wasn’t able to do any of that,” the senior official explained. “So let’s just say we learned from our mistakes…..
…..Republicans have blasted Obama for refusing to negotiate, and Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said Obama risks “painting himself into a corner and overplaying his hand by not really sitting down with Speaker Boehner and hammering out a deal.
“When Democrats lead the White House and Senate, Obama will damage the image of his party if he simply refuses to run the country,” Bonjean said. He predicted that the “pressure will mount on Obama to negotiate with Republicans if the government is closed and until the debt ceiling is lifted.”
This is particularly true, Bonjean suggested, now that the GOP message seems to be “changing away from Obamacare to a broader discussion over deficit reduction on the debt ceiling.”
Also, while Obama doesn’t have to worry about an election, he must contend with his legacy, especially with few tangible deliverables in his second term.
No comments:
Post a Comment