Perhaps He Should Have Thought a Little More

Any time a President gets involved in the inner workings of Congress, or really any executive gets into the legislative matters, there is a chance of backlash. Here in Georgia, good old King Roy got bounced out of the Governor’s Mansion for his manner in working with the General Assembly. Now that President Obama is getting into the issue of health care, the backlash is already starting.

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a key Republican needed to push through almost any health care package with bipartisan effort, is a little ticked at the President. Grassley is a user of new media, in particular Twitter. Two tweets from Grassley make his displeasure obvious.

“Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND”

and

“Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.”

Please bear in mind that Twitter only permits 140 characters, hence the somewhat bizarre writing.

The tweets are an early indicator of GOP resistance to a sitting President trying to ram anything down their throat. Put simply, they don’t like it one bit. Who would? And now the President has to smooth ruffled feathers if he wants Grassley’s support on any health care plan.

Now, it can be argued that the President doesn’t need Grassley’s support, that with the majority in both chambers of Congress, the President can get anything he wants done. This is technically true. Unfortunately for the President, that will lay out a public relations disaster that could be extremely costly come mid term elections.

One criticism of President Bush, and a fair one, was how he pretty much rammed legislation through Congress. I say it’s fair because that’s how it felt to Democrats everywhere. Whether it was true or not is completely irrelevant. Perception is reality in politics, and the perception was shared by enough of the electorate that Republicans lost Congress. Now, President Obama must tip toe through the tulips of delicate political egos to get anything he wants accomplished actually done.

Presidential ego is likely to kick in at some point and try and ram through legislation on some matter soon enough, just to test his political muscle. How long he has to wait to get through his health care plan will the be decider on whether he breaks and tries to ram through this legislation or not.

Of course, that’s probably what Republicans are hoping for. King Barack has a nice ring after all.