Should Obama Declare War On The Republicans?

This article makes the case for answering that question with a "yes."  It makes the case very logically and eloquently, pointing out that Obama has, in fact, already started to do so.  And the author is not the only one who's noticed.

Personally, I think that Obama has been making war on the Republicans all along.  He's just been doing it with enough finesse that the rest of us have been too slow to notice.  But, if you think back to the struggle over passing health care reform, it's pretty easy to see what I'm talking about.

When the Democrats lost the Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy to Scott Brown, it was universally accepted as a message that Obama should scale back his efforts to something more "bipartisan" (translation:  innocuous).  It would have been easy enough for Obama to do that, if all he cared about was getting along with everyone.  And it would have handed Republicans a political victory at the expense of not only the American people, but Obama himself.  It would have exposed him as someone who cut and run at the first sign of electoral smoke.  And, in fact, a president who cared only about re-election would have done exactly that.

But, of course, that's not what Obama did.  With the help in the House of Nancy Pelosi, who put her position as Speaker on the line, Obama put the full weight of his Presidency behind passing a bill that brought the country closer than it has ever been before to universal health insurance.  It cost Pelosi and the Democrats control of Congress, and it was thought at the time to put Obama on a glide path to a one-term presidency.  As it turns out, Obama looked that risk right in the eye--and didn't care.  He didn't care, because the accomplishment was worth the risk. He put principles ahead of power, and country over career.  (And the same could and should be said of Pelosi as well.  Note to John Boehner:  there's more to the job than bourbon, chain-smoking and suntans.)

If that's not making war, I don't know what is. 

Then again, maybe the evidence that Obama has been making war all along is the degree to which he has completely unhinged his opponents.  When someone like the semi-reasonable-sounding David Brooks is forced to make the argument that Obama has turned the Republicans into lunatics, you realize that his side really, truly, absolutely run out of things to say.  (I suppose Sean Hannity talking about secession might, arguably, fall into the same category, but I doubt it.  We are talking her, after all, about a man who wrote about about fighting liberals called "Deliver Us From Evil.")

Ah, but there's the debt, you say?  The debt is to the GOP what the strawberries were to Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny":  that's where they'll really catch him red handed.  Or maybe not.  After the debt-ceiling debacle, in which Obama took the Michael Corleone approach of giving them nothing--and won--nothing should be surprising to anyone.

Above all, this should be unsurprising to any veteran observer of politics:  the best way to win a war is to not look like you're fighting one.  Obama, clearly, understands that.  Maybe it's everyone else's turn to "get it."