Election? What election?
That seemed to be President Oba ma’s reaction yesterday to the stun ning rout his party suffered Tuesday — when voters sent Democrats packing by the truckload, handing the House to the GOP. And nearly the Senate as well.
Memo to POTUS: Pretending nothing happened won’t erase Tuesday’s results.
But it does make us wonder: Just what will it take to get this president to hear the anger of the American people?
“Some election nights are more fun than others,” Obama conceded. “Some are exhilarating; some are humbling.” Eventually, he grudgingly termed Tuesday’s results a “shellacking.”
But a repudiation of his policy choices?
A need to shift course or compromise?
Don’t be silly.
Obama’s view: “People are frustrated . . . with the pace of the economic recovery,” he said. And that’s pretty much it.
As for the year-plus that he and the Dems spent ramming through an unworkable, grossly expensive health-care plan? It was “the right thing to do.”
The trillion-dollar stimulus package that boosted the economy not one lick?
Just a “temporary” measure.
And by the way, said the prez, let’s not “spend the next two years re-fighting the political battles of the last two.”
No — wouldn’t want to do that.
And how about the sleazy, wholly undemocratic manner in which he and fellow Dems conduct daily business — particularly on legislative issues?
Well, OK, he said, it’s true that “when you are navigating through a House and a Senate in this kind of pretty partisan environment that it’s [an] ugly mess.”
But then, Dems had no choice.
Right.
Obama can plug his ears if he likes, refuse to acknowledge voters’ wholesale rejection of his agenda and brush compromise to the side. But such arrogance will lead only to more conflict — and more bad news for the nation.
And two years hence, it may be deja vu all over again for Democrats.