Pop Culture – Political Reality all rolled into one.
But first a little cinematic history for context.
The movie Smokey and the Bandit opens with Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) of Texas surprising several young men who are “cleaning” a car which had been abandoned by Justice’s would be daughter-in-law (Sally Field) who left Justice’s son at the altar.
Remember that scene? Okay…good.
Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas assembles the young men in the traditional up against the car stance and proceeds to kick one of them right square in his backside and launches one of the great lines, in my humble opinion, ever.
“That’s an attention getter.”
For a refresher – here’s the scene.
Tuesday’s election here in Virginia was “an attention getter” as the intense reaction to the disastrous roll out of President Obama’s signature policy initiative – the Affordable Care Act – (a.k.a ObamaCare a.k.a New Coke a.k.a Political Anvil a.k.a Obama’s WMD a.k.a Elevator Fart) almost cost Terry McAuliffe the election.
The next day, almost every US Senate Democrat up for re-election in 2014 went to the White House to meet with President Obama.
The day after that, President Obama sits down for an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd and apologizes saying,
“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.”
Finding themselves in.
If I find myself – I went looking. On purpose.
If my health insurance is cancelled it is because someone or something else did that to me. I didn’t do that to me, Mr President. You did. Period. Own it. Period.
Later in the interview the President said, “Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law. And, you know, that’s something I regret. That’s something we’re gonna do everything we can to get fixed … We’re looking at a range options.”
TOWN CRIER – IT’S OKAY EVERYONE! THEY APOLOGIZE FOR NOT READING THE BILL WHICH IMPACTED EVERYONE’S HEALTH CARE AND 1/6 of THE ECONOMY!
That’s not an apology. It’s Washington/CYA – mistakes were made… “WE didn’t do a good enough job” led to “they are finding themselves in” versus manning up and saying “This one is one me” or “I own this one.”
But this President can’t muster up that kind of courage.
This is a classic example of bad leadership.
Look, no one is immune from mistakes but everyone in the country knows who owns this except for the man who actually does own it.
At the very beginning of his term in office, I wished the President success because America’s success is directly tied to his success. I still do. But denial of the depth of this problem will only continue to deepen the country’s malaise.
This thing called the Affordable Care Act could (probably will) spin horribly out of control and the Senate Democrats up in 2014 will face, very soon, the decision of their careers – throw the President under the bus or stand beside him.
Democrats never leave their wing man even when it is so obvious that they should.
In the end, that serves them well.
Republicans, on the other hand, eat each other alive.
In the end, that serves them poorly and they lose. Republican Lt Governor Bill Bolling would have won this election by over ten points. But nooooooo…
Karl Rove issued a warning in the Wall St Journal to the GOP based on the Virginia results – unite or lose. But noooooo….
Democrats don’t have that problem. They just keep winning.
The attention of Democrats having been gotten, they will pull together and try to fix ObamaCare.
Republicans, at least in Virginia, are still trying pin the blame of the election on each other.
And people actually wonder how Chris Christie won re-election in New Jersey with 60% of the vote?
That SHOULD be the attention getter for Republicans as it was for Democrats.
But noooooo……
(Cross-posted at Chris Saxman.com)
