In the years to come, the story of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will come to be seen as the story of four senators: Obama, Reid, Lieberman, and McCain.
Obama, the one-term wunderkind who ascended to the presidency with astonishing speed and alacrity — and who then did the hardest thing: slowed himself down, shifted the spotlight back to the legislature, recognized that he was no longer the representative of one party but of a whole nation, and began to play what Andrew Sullivan has been calling "the long game." In two years, in the face of a uniformly cynical and hostile opposition, he has managed time and again to win political battles, any one of which can be called major: universal health care, banking regulation, fair pay for women, draw-down in Iraq and ramp-up in Afghanistan, the rescue of Detroit, the prevention of global economic collapse, the end of discrimination against immigrants with AIDS, same-sex benefits for government workers, two massive middle-class tax cuts, and, yes, the repeal of DADT. If, as suddenly seems distinctly possible, the new START treaty is passed this week, his place will be cemented as the shrewdest ex-senator in the White House since LBJ. And his record will be far more kindly viewed by history.
For his part, Harry Reid has quietly become one of the great Majority Leaders in the nation's history: Obama's victories are his, too, and in fact most of the heavy lifting is Reid's alone....
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/dadt-senators-4435494?src=rss
political consulting firms political advertisements political quiz laser politic politic political blogs
No comments:
Post a Comment