Right Turn

I'm getting whiplash trying to follow the Democrats' talking points. First, it was a disaster when President Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts. Obama was a wimp. Then it was a horrid error to allow the omnibus spending bill to die (and with it all that funding for Obamacare). The White House, liberals complained, also blew it on the Dream Act. Yet now, presto: Obama has mounted a phenomenal comeback!

Not exactly.

The sources of the left's delight - repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and ratification of the New START treaty - are irrelevant to the vast majority of Americans. Voters care, as the Democrats should have but refused to learn during the referendum of 2010 (the midterms results were, one wit cracked, "a restraining order" on liberal statism), about the economy, jobs and the growth of government. These are far and away the most important issues in every credible survey, and they will be the focus of the Republicans' 2011 agenda.

If the highlight of Obama's term, according to outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was the "historic" Obamacare legislation, then the highlight could soon be extinguished. Obama's central domestic achievement is facing judicial scrutiny; a Republican onslaught to repeal, or at least defund, it; and a public that has never "learned" to love the bill.

Only inside the Beltway could the passage of an arms-control treaty and repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" consume so many for so long and result in such exaggerated punditry. Would Republicans have traded wins on "don't ask" and START for their wins on the Dream Act, the tax deal and the omnibus spending bill? Not in a million years.

Liberal media mavens seem to be confusing legislative achievement with political success. If passing stuff was the secret to a political comeback, then after Obamacare and the stimulus plan Democrats would have had the greatest year ever.

Now, Obama may yet stage a comeback. But to do that, he'll have to do what the left loathes: cut domestic programs, rework entitlement programs, stand up to foreign adversaries such as Iran, cut back on growth-restricting regulations and keep tax rates low.

But as long as the left wants to succumb to conservatives on the issues that voters care about most - taxes and spending - I suppose conservatives should keep mum.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com