For all the complaining the left has done about those shadowy outside political groups subverting the democratic process, we recently learned that no one has the means to undercut freedom of expression quite like an enthusiastic government agency.
Appropriately, nearly everyone in Washington is professing and/or pretending to be outraged that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups. Yet if we're to believe recent polls, an uninformed President Barack Obama (similarly outraged as he watches events unfold on the news) hasn't shouldered much of the blame for scandalmania just yet -- and perhaps he may never be damaged.
And so what? Though the president's fate seems to be the paramount concern of the leftist punditry (a group that now argues that any "real" scandal is only one in which the president had personal knowledge of misconduct in real time -- meaning, one supposes, that Abu Ghraib should be retroactively reclassified as a non-scandal for George W. Bush), it matters not. Even with an adoring public, the chances of Obama's pushing through any substantive legislation before 2014 -- or even 2016 -- were slim at best. Those poll-ignoring obstructionists in the House will see to it.
The president won't be running for re-election, but progressivism will. And the most vital element of Obama's agenda, no matter where any of these investigations lead, has already taken a big hit -- and that's the electorate's trust in government.
Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/23/obama_may_survive_but_scandals_a_blow_to_left_118520.html#ixzz2UKAnPQcN
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment