The first Obama-era Congress has ended its session.
It was a dizzying, maddening, agonizing, exhilarating, arduous, bruising and, for scores of Democrats, ultimately career-ending journey from the stimulus to Start — and the party paid a devastating price for its accomplishments, losing control of the House and six Senate seats.
It is a period that will no doubt be pored over by historians for years.
But it is already clear that much of the next two years will be spent fighting over what was done in the past two. ...NYT
What's not to like? Health care reform? Nuclear treaty? Ending discrimination in the military? Economic stimulus saving the country from a severe and prolonged economic depression?
“They have been enormously successful in one sense in passing their legislative agenda,” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said of Democrats. “The problem is the country just doesn’t like it very much.”
That sounds like wishful thinking, Senator. The one thing you've got going for you is Fox spew. That's not a very honorable position to be in. Honorable or dependable.
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And besides, I don't think it was the Democrats who made Congress, and specifically the 111th, unpopular. The polls bear this out.
The Washington Post's take seems self-contradictory.
A Congress that was dominated by Democrats passed more landmark legislation than any since the era of Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society."
Congress approved an $814 billion economic stimulus, a massive health-care overhaul, and new regulations on Wall Street trading and consumer credit cards. The list grew longer during this month's frenetic lame-duck session: tax cuts, a nuclear arms treaty and a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
But the 111th Congress will also be remembered for endless filibuster threats, volcanic town hall meetings, and the rise of the tea party. All were symbols of a dissatisfaction that peaked on Nov. 2, with a Republican rout in the midterm elections.
And the polls seem to lean Democratic. The latest (12/15) Washington Post/ABC poll asked: "Overall, who do you trust to do a better job coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years, Obama or the Republicans in Congress?"
Despite the huge losses suffered by President Obama's party in November, Americans say they trust him more than Congressional Republicans to deal with the nation's problems, according to a Washington-PostABC News poll released yesterday. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they trusted Obama more than Republicans to steer the country, versus 48% who said they trusted Republicans more. ...TPM
Let's go back to that media spew. Obama remains, according to the numbers, a popular president, while the media tend to portray him as unpopular or embattled or "tanking." One commenter at Talking Points Memo has this to say:
Funny, GW Bush was at around 30% for years, and the press continued to call him "the popular president."
Obama, holding steady at 46%, is widely described as tanking and "flailing."
Overall, Obama didn't engage in the chest-thumping that many congressional Republican critics predicted he would. Instead, he struck a bipartisan pose, repeating his line that he and Democrats suffered a "shellacking" in last month's elections.
"I think what's happened over the last several weeks is it's not a victory for me, it's a victory for the American people," Obama said. "And I hope the lesson that I hope everybody takes from this is that it's possible for Democrats and Republicans to have principled disagreements, to have some lengthy arguments, but to ultimately find common ground to move the country forward." ...McClatchy
That's in stark contrast to the behaviors of Republicans.
