I noticed James Fallows tweeted it as I was living it, so I wasn't alone: Fox News was an untethered hoot last night, real must-watch TV for the politically masochistic. Yes it's always untethered but not always a hoot. Yesterday evening, though, was reminiscent of Election Night--now that was a small-screen keeper--as Obama had all manner of abuse poured on him just as the network's partisans were gloomily raising the white flag on the House floor.
Nonetheless one regular guest was, well, a trifle more symmetrical about things. Charles Krauthammer blurted, "Thanks God that's over." Some ultraconservative strategies are so incontestably stupid, even a Fox News analyst can't miss it. Being incurably paranoid, though, Krauthammer continued: "I think Obamaβs long game has always been, if heβs going to pass his agenda in the second term ... he has to fracture the Republicans in the House and by rubbing it in or by antagonizing conservatives, heβs going to help in doing that.β
What interests me about Krauthammer's critique is that it conforms precisely with that of Obama's base's critique: President Obama the subtle but ruthless Machiavellian, plying his wily, long-game ways and scrambling and screwing with GOP minds. It's a nifty theory, but I don't buy it--unless we call the president's overtures, which to date have been conspicuously sincere, "antagonizing" and examples of "rubbing it in."
Republican fractures have doubtless been a byproduct of Obama's overtures, in that Boehner, too, is eager for the elusive "Grand Bargain" as well as GOP-salvaging immigration reform--and much of his caucus is not. But a natural byproduct isn't intent, no matter how stealthy the paranoid Krauthammer believes it to be.
Obama genuinely believes in his proposals, hence he keeps offering them. Simple as that. After all, what else is he to do? And is that Machiavellian?--for a president to propose policies? If so, we've stretched the meaning of the word to nothingness.