Smart People Live and Learn

And very often the learning comes from mistakes made.    Our President is a wise man; last time the debt ceiling "negotiations" were happening, he made the mistake of putting the "bottom line" on the negotiating table first.  The Republicans jerked him around in a big way; then it turned out Speaker Boener couldn't get his House caucus to keep the bargain he finally struck with the President.  It was a mess resulting in our credit rating being lowered by at least one of the rating agencies.

 

Well, it's a new day, my friends.

 

The Treasury Secretary went to the Hill yesterday to deliver the Administration's opening proposal.  It was received with a laugh from  Republican Senate Minority Leader McConnell and was ripped apart by Joe Scarborough at MSNBC and others this morning.  I didn't torture myself by checking to see what the Fox crowd had to say.

 

 (Thanks, Pat Dinizio, for this photo posted by The Pragmatic Progressive/FB!)

 

 I was delighted the President's first move allows room for negotiation this time.   Hopefully he has learned another lesson:  Congressional Republicans can't be trusted in this or any other negotiation, period.   Our President just needs to push his agenda hard, taking it to the American people as he is doing now.  The Tea Partiers are still part of the equation, and the majority of the Republican Caucus still is behaving like angry yard dogs whose bone has been stolen by a much smarter dog.  

Yep, America's "# 1 smart dog" is wise enough to know Albert Einstein was right:  He defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  Looks like the Prez's expectations are now in alignment with the political realities of the day.   Forward, Mr. President!  We're with you.