I'm not quite sure what I think about this. I've never been interested in having Obama go ballistic, or postal, or whatever fanboy adjective you care to put in there. I've been interested in seeing him do the right thing, but I see no reason to expect him to do that, now or ever. I don't care whether he's "had enough," whether he's going to finally roll up his sleeves and get down and dirty and show the Republicans what he's really made of. (Cotton stuffing, as I've said before.) While the shutdown is primarily the work and the desire of House Republicans, Obama has his own share of responsibility to bear for collaborating with and appeasing them so many times. I don't believe he'll change now. But it's not about proving his manhood, his leadership, his final willingness to confront the Rethuglicans. It's about governing justly. If he turns around and does something intelligent -- for the first time -- then I'll give him credit for it. But his fans (like the person who posted this link to Facebook tonight) want to see him Draw a Line in the Sand: it's High Noon in Washington DC, and it's time for the Coward of the County to turn and gun the bullies down. Since
his opponents see things exactly the same way from the other side, I don't foresee any good outcome to the shutdown, even when it inevitably ends. Daniel Larison
wrote today, "Unfortunately, many post-2008 Republicans have placed more value on
striking the right poses than on knowing what they’re doing in office or
on learning what they don’t know, and their supporters have more often
than not rewarded them for this." It seems to me that many of Obama's fans see things pretty much the same way. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it.
