Axe: GOP Backed Off, 'Created Breathing Space' Post-Brown

National Review Online ^ | March 24, 2010 | Daniel Foster

[dr_who]

David Axelrod tells the Huffington Post that health-care reform passed because Republicans downgraded to DEFCON 2 after Scott Brown's surprise victory in the Massachusetts Senate race:

"Some of the steam went out of the opposition after that," Axelrod said. "I think that people felt like they had made a statement. Perhaps they felt like they had killed health care reform... They thought the fight was over. And that [the president] couldn't now succeed. I do believe that. And it is almost as if they had made the statement that they thought they had stopped the thing. And so it created a breathing space for us to regroup."

And for those of us wondering whether the administration took any lessons from the Brown victory? They did: Scott Brown won because people didn't like the Cornhusker Kickback:

"[Massachusetts] raised issues that we had to confront," Axelrod explained. "What had we done to contribute to some of that unrest? And obviously there was tremendous unhappiness about the Nebraska deal and this gave us a chance to address some of those flaws."

[dr_who]

From a PBS interview with Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap

Q: Was your Têt offensive in 1968 a failure?

Giap: As far as we're concerned, there's no such thing as a purely military strategy. So it would be wrong to speak of Têt in purely military terms. The offensive was three things at the same time: military, political, and diplomatic. The goal of the war was de-escalation. We were looking to de-escalate the war. Thus, it would have been impossible to separate our political strategy from our military strategy. The truth is that we saw things in their entirety and knew that in the end, we had to de-escalate the war. At that point, the goal of the offensive was to try to de-escalate the war.

[dr_who]

We have enemies at home.

[HiTech RedNeck]

well that’s obvious lol

[Frantzie]

GOP - snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Get rid of the RINOs now like McCain and Bennett who is toats in UT. Ditto Charlie Crist.

[dr_who]

Moral: strategic retreats is just another name for cowardice when the battlefield you’re fighting on is your home turf.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The more Obama most people see, the more they will want conservatives rather than moderates on their side.

[dr_who]

Is it that simple?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Maybe the GOP should look at this one and re-strategize. Maybe busying out the Rats is the best thing to do. The more their mind is on the GOP, the less it can be upon unifying themselves.

[tanuki]

It’s sounds like they’re trying to justify theft. But as long as they keep spinning that we all really L-O-V-E Obama-well, eventually things will spin our way.

[dr_who]

And it is almost as if they had made the statement that they thought they had stopped the thing. And so it created a breathing space for us to regroup.

If the roaches scatter, you can squash them. If they remain hidden, they'll flourish.

[nickcarraway]

Let’s face it: The leadership of the GOP wanted this bill as bad as the Democrats. They only fought it for political reasons.

[Defiant]

Don't blame Republicans just because Axelrod wants you to. No one backed off that I can recall. What happened was that Obama, instead of getting the message told his party to jump off a cliff anyway, and they did, after a lot of prodding and a lot of bribing. Republicans stayed strong in opposition.

What Obama did is unprecedented, as there has never been a committed marxist in power in the US before. He doesn't care if they lose the next election, he doesn't care much about elections, he cares about power, and now that he has it, he will push it to the limits, and fight to keep it. If that takes illegally keeping power, adding illegals to the voting rolls, sending mobs to the streets, whatever, he will do it.

[dr_who]

"And actually, with Massachusetts, I think people wanted to see this debate go on for a while and they wanted to see our suppositions tested and retested. But what Massachusetts did at the end of the day was that it persuaded people on our side of the fight not to make the perfect the enemy of the good. And it really rallied our base behind the president's proposal."

When the left is divided, it will kill itself.

[Frantzie]

I agree with your first part but Collins or Snowe let it out of committee which was the beginning of the end. The GOP has to fight now and slow or stop everything until we get to Nov. They have to fight.

[dr_who]

What bothers me is that some people here were kind of relaxed with the prospect of Democrats passing the bill because it supposedly would mean big gains / end of Democrat majority in November. We don’t know that.

[timestax]

Don't blame Republicans just because Axelrod wants you to. No one backed off that I can recall. What happened was that Obama, instead of getting the message told his party to jump off a cliff anyway, and they did, after a lot of prodding and a lot of bribing. Republicans stayed strong in opposition.

I agree. People, don't believe that evil, lying,communist Axlgrease! He prolly never told the truth in his life.

[timestax]

Don't blame Republicans just because Axelrod wants you to. No one backed off that I can recall. What happened was that Obama, instead of getting the message told his party to jump off a cliff anyway, and they did, after a lot of prodding and a lot of bribing. Republicans stayed strong in opposition.

I agree. People, don't believe that evil, lying,communist Axlgrease! He prolly never told the truth in his life.

[timestax]

ooops! Didn’t mean to do that.

[excopconservative]

Let’s face it: The leadership of the GOP wanted this bill as bad as the Democrats. They only fought it for political reasons.
- - - - - -
Not quite but they did want to be involved in a process that would have reduced costs, stopped medical malpractice fraud, and improved coverage. They just weren’t allowed to participate because the socialists had other ideas. The only one of the 2012 hopefuls I recall consistently speaking out wanting to kill the bill and its death panels was a certain former governor from Alaska.

[vbmoneyspender]

This is Axelroad just twisting the knife in.

And is more evidence that when it comes to the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany