Choice is a word frequently heard among top Republicans these days (but no, not in the abortion context.) Mitt Romney has been saying “We offer America a choice.” Paul Ryan has said “We owe the country a choice of two futures, so that the American people can decide what kind of America they want; what kind of people they want us to be.”
Fair enough. And should America choose Romney-Ryan, it’s a fairly good bet that America will get the policies it has chosen. Some chunk of Democratic legislators always seemed to break off to give George W Bush enough votes to enact the tax cuts and the defense and security policies he wanted, at least until 2006. And even in 2008, it was Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats who saved the TARP plan, with all the pain it accepted for the next administration.
My question is, what will the Republicans do if the electorate chooses Obama? Will they continue to be obstructionist and uncompromising? Will they continue to use their control of one-half of one-third of the government to thwart the preferences of a majority of Americans?
I don’t know what the Obama brain trust plans for the crucial post-Labor Day phase of the campaign, but I hope with all my heart that the president stops the small ball strategy he has so successfully been playing against Romney. I hope he does more than defend the Medicare status quo, and in doing so, Mediscare his way to victory. He needs to do more. He needs to run on an actual platform that spells out what he plans to do in the next four years. He needs to run on an economic plan, a jobs-creation plan, an economic growth plan. Obama can win the election without winning any kind of mandate, and attain a second term that promises a lot of milling about it. Frankly, that doesn’t seem to be worth it. He needs the kind of win that throws Eric Cantor onto the defensive.