Krauthammer: WI Protests, Obama 'Man of the Past'

Charles Krauthammer gives his views on the union protests in Madison and Obama's decision to get involved.

He believes the labor protests to be an "epic moment" and Obama to be defining himself as a "man of the past."

Video, from Breitbart:



Transcript

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think the president weighing in has really, has made this a real epic moment. What we're getting is sort of an earthquake in the country, where at the national and at the state level there's a sense in the country that we're headed over a cliff fiscally in continuing the old ways.

We look at what's happening in Greece and France and Ireland. We look at the mounting debt. We look at the threat to our economy. The national level - the Democrat reaction is status quo. The president's budget is completely status quo, offering nothing. And it's the Republicans who are now going to offer changes, even in entitlements, which is almost revolutionary. It's ironic because, of course, Obama ran as the man for hope and change against the status quo.

Now what we're seeing at the state level is exactly the same thing - governors trying to make a difference, trying to change the way business had been conducted, because all of them are headed into bankruptcy. And what I think this illustrates is how liberalism in the country has become classic reactionary liberalism.

In the days of FDR and until the mid-70s, it was, as Patrick Moynihan once said, it was the party of ideas - new ideas, New Deal, Great Society. And now, all it wants to do is to hang on to all the gains it has even as the world has changed - globalization, demographic changes. And Republicans are the ones who are in favor of change.

And with Obama hanging on to the budget as it is and his union allies in the states, I think he's really defining himself as a man of the past. And in the end, he could have a tactical success here politically, but in the end, it's a losing hand.

BRET BAIER: Instead of 'win the future,' you say 'man of the past'?

KRAUTHAMMER: It's not even a look at the future. It's hanging on to everything held on in the past, including these union advantages. And in the end, it will sink the country at the state and the national level.

I think Krauthammer nails it when he says that Obama and the Democrats and their union allies represent the status quo.

Obama and the Democrat-Union alliance offer a losing strategy and certain fiscal disaster.

Republicans are the true agents of change.

Scott Walker is a reformer. He and his allies offer real hope and change to win the future.