US News

This pact may spell 1 & done for prez

WASHINGTON — President Obama made the first decision of his 2012 re-election bid yesterday, but may have done himself irreparable political harm.

His decision to swallow the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year was a giant leap toward the middle.

After the years of bashing former President Bush’s economic policies — and specifically the tax cuts for the upper income brackets — yesterday’s decision could not have been easy for Obama.

Admirably, he said as much in his comments to the press last night.

Obama’s clear displeasure with the compromise was a rare display of honesty in a town bereft of honesty. Normally, no matter how badly somebody loses around here, they always declare victory before the cameras.

His decision also was a wise acknowledgement that he and fellow Democrats had to cede political ground after last month’s “shellacking” in the polls.

The message from the election was that Americans oppose his economic policies and he had to do more than promise to meet with and listen to Republicans. He actually had to adopt part of their vision, and that is what happened last night.

For Republicans at the table, last night’s agreement was a no-brainer.

Sure, they had to give in on a couple of odious provisions that run counter to conservative principles, but the final sausage looks a whole lot more Republican than Democratic.

Perversely, the bad parts of the bill — in Republicans’ view — might help them down the road.

The reduction in payroll taxes will give everyone a little spare change in their pockets and remind them why they love tax cuts so much. Anti-tax fervor always helps Republicans.

And extending unemployment benefits will do little to help — and could possibly hurt — efforts to bring down stubbornly high unemployment rates.

If unemployment is still grazing 10 percent in two years, you can guarantee Obama and Democrats will get another shellacking in the polls.

Perhaps most importantly, last night’s deal is at least a tacit admission by Democrats that the centerpiece of Bush’s economic policies that were embraced by Republicans in Congress were not nearly as destructive as they have always claimed.

At first glance, last night’s compromise decision puts Obama on firmer ground for his re-election bid two years from now because it moves him toward the middle.

But in truth, he may have sealed his fate as a one-term president.

In recent days as the White House and Democrats signaled that the compromise to extend the Bush tax cuts was in the offing, the liberal coalition that carried Obama into the White House began falling apart.

The left is apoplectic that their savior would turn around on them and adopt Bush’s most “draconian” tax policies that “only favor the rich.”

If they were frustrated before, now they are palpably angry and publicly voicing their disillusionment with Obama.

Without those voters rocking with enthusiasm, Obama could not have won in 2008.

Now, ask yourself this question: How many people do you know who voted for Obama in 2008 but now express regret about the vote or reservations about his leadership?

Probably plenty.

Now ask yourself this: How many people do you know who voted against Obama in 2008 but have since been won over?

Probably not a single one.

All that math adds up to a very lonely number: One, as in One Term.