Obama and Taxes: Bush Third Term

Obama's failure to raise taxes on the rich, as he promised, is being described by some Leftists as a victory.

The guy had two years to spread the wealth around. He had the House of Representatives and the Senate. Nothing stood in his way.

But yesterday, Obama signed an extension of the Bush tax policy.

The New York Times tries to paint a different picture. The spin is at once funny and pathetic. It's Chaplinesque.

With the stroke of a pen, President Obama on Friday enacted the largest tax cut in nearly a decade and, in the process, took a big step toward reinventing himself as a champion of compromise in a politically fractured capital.

Maintaining President Bush's tax policy isn't a tax cut.

In terms of reinventing himself, Obama isn't a "champion of compromise." He's been given a time-out. He's in the naughty chair. That's not compromise. He has boundaries now and he has to behave.

When he first struck the deal two weeks ago, a sour Mr. Obama announced it by himself, lamented his own agreement and testily denounced his Republican partners as “hostage takers” and his liberal critics as “sanctimonious.” By the time he signed it into law on Friday, little more than six weeks after an electoral debacle for him and his party, he stood with the Senate Republican leader and celebrated the package as a hallmark of cooperation.

“The final product proves when we can put aside the partisanship and the political games, when we can put aside what’s good for some of us in favor of what’s good for all of us, we can get a lot done,” Mr. Obama said buoyantly at a bill-signing ceremony in the White House complex. “I’m also hopeful that we might refresh the American people’s faith in the capability of their leaders to govern in challenging times.”

One leader in particular. Mr. Obama’s embrace of compromise comes as he tries to find his footing after midterm elections that cost the Democratic Party control of the House and pared its majority in the Senate. As the weeks have passed, the president who has emerged appears increasingly more confident than chastened, eager to revive his campaign image as a postpartisan leader who can work across party lines even at the cost of alienating his own supporters.

Such an identity is hardly new to Mr. Obama, but it has largely eluded him in his first two years in office. As a candidate, he managed to come across as diametrically opposite to different supporters, the leader of a new progressive movement to some and a reasoned pragmatist who could bridge the divide in Washington to others. If the first identity dominated his opening two years, the second may come to the fore in his next two.

“These two aspects of his persona have existed side by side from the very beginning,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist who in 2008 worked for Mr. Obama’s opponent for the presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton. However imperfect, the tax deal “spoke to a deep feeling in the country about the need to work across party lines to get things done,” he said.

This is not a victory for Obama, and it's not a positive turning point for him as president.

Obama hasn't become a "reasoned pragmatist," bridging "the divide in Washington."

Obama as leader of a "new progressive movement" crashed and burned. He and the Democrats abused their power. They didn't listen to the American people. They just plowed ahead and lied and tried to force their will on the country.

It didn't work.

Obama is a loser, not a political genius.

Thank you, Democrats, for recognizing that the Bush tax policy is what's best for the economy. Thank you for rejecting Obama's class warfare gibberish when it comes to taxes.

Thank you, Obama, for signing the legislation and giving us a third-term of President Bush's tax policy.