02/12 Obama's Stimulus "Victory"

Well…the “Stimulus Plan” is one step closer to passing. It made it through the Senate yesterday. But, that wasn’t really a surprise to anyone. After all,

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, complained that despite Mr. Obama’s call for bipartisan cooperation, Republicans had largely been shut out. “We didn’t have a chance to negotiate,” Mr. Grassley said.

It is very difficult to get much disagreement when, having the majority and needing little help from opponents (3 Republicnas), you can shut off input and debate.

In the same article, I found something else that was quite frightening.

The White House is considering a prime-time bill signing ceremony, and on Wednesday asked the television networks if they would air the event.

Obama is running government on public opinion like no one has before him. As we all know, polls and opinions are fickle. They change on a whim. More than one government has been established on setting, controlling, or living by public opinion. And, they have all failed, leaving their nations in worse state than they were before. The design of the Constitution was such that public opinion would be separated, as much as possible, from the legislative process to allow careful deliberation and appropriate action. I still very much want to remind people of my comments yesterday. Government, by design, is supposed to move slowly—not taking immediate action on every whim of the people. We see all the ramifications of rapid changes and actions taken by the Bush administration. Do we really believe the same speed of action by the Obama administration will produce better results? I think we are going to get much more than we bargained for from this President who runs on Charisma and persona rather than decision making skill.