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Monday, April 15, 2013

Lead, Follow, or ... | CNS News

Lead, Follow, or ... | CNS News

In the '60s a battle cry of anti-war (and anti-Lyndon Johnson) college students was "Lead, follow or get out of the way;" a concept that morphed into lyrics for Bob Dylan's anthem, "The Times They are a'Changin.'"

Come Congressmen, Senators
Please heed the call.
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall …


President Obama has tried his version of leading -- which has been mostly attempting to bully Congressional Republicans into submission. It hasn't worked.

For about five minutes after his reelection we were told he was going to spend the next two years helping Democrats regain the U.S. House (after his insistence on a still-indecipherable piece of legislation known as the Affordable Care Act led to its loss in 2010).

It quickly became clear that the technical aspects of redistricting together withs a cracking, if not fracturing Democrat base, wrapped around a stubbornly slow economic recovery were not likely to lead to the desired result; but rather might be seen as Obama's Folly.

His job approval numbers became worrisome as the glow of the November result faded, and the reality of Congressional approval in the mid-teens meant it couldn't get much lower and the general public didn't much care.

Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi trip off the tongues of those of us within the Beltway and regular viewers of cable news programming, but for most people the federal government is represented by one person: Barack Obama.

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