If You Want to Be a President Who Moves America Forward, You Have to Just Say "No" to the GOP

I was going to write about the injustice that only 3,500 inheritances a year would be subject to the White House's proposed estate tax.

Then I was going to write about how the Obama plan would actually increase taxes on the poor.

Then I was going to opine on how public employees will pay more under the White House/GOP agreement.

Then I rewatched President Obama's December 7 news conference and stopped reading about all the adverse impact of the "deal," and I just got angry.

Obama ran on a narrative of changing the ways things work in DC and throwing out the lobbyists and entrenched interests. This was his overarching appeal, not what he said on specific issues, although those, too, had some impact. But he won a mandate on shaking up DC, getting rid of the "old ways," offering transparency in government, holding political wrong doers accountable and promising, above all, audacity in achieving these goals.

And a whopping mandate it was that he scored. In addition to his own overwhelming victory, Democrats seized sizable majorities in both houses.

Yet, Obama, from his first days, squandered all the goodwill and enthusiasm built up in the American public by arguing that he had to cater to the GOP. He appointed key advisers who were part of the very Washington establishment that he promised to show the door. His economic team was recycled from a pro-Wall Street revolving door of insiders. He quickly went from bold promises of altering DC to pleading that people expected too much of him given the power of the entrenched elite, particularly - and ironically - a weakened GOP.

It's as if a law enforcement officer ran for sheriff on a platform of getting rid of all the gangs in town and never giving into them. But when confronted in an alley by a bunch of thugs, the new sheriff gives them his wallet, the keys to police headquarters, the car that he hasn't paid off yet and his ATM card. He also promises that they will have an open door to his office. In return, they laugh contemptuously at him and toss him a half-drunk bottle of cheap wine. The next day, at a press conference, the sheriff blames the local crime prevention commission for expecting too much of him.

Obama had a mandate for change, and now he wants the public to protect him from critics because he immediately accepted the DC insider "reality" upon assuming office.

The Republicans may be the party of "No," but if you want to be a Democratic president, you have to have the skills to say "No" to the party of "No" - and get the public behind you through fulfilling your campaign narrative.

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