Charm Offensive

I don’t know about you, but I am offended by President Obama’s “charm offensive.”  Yes, one can attract more bees with honey than one can with vinegar.  But the President has splashed around so much acetic acid during his last four years, that switching to Karo syrup just at the time when his media acolytes are beginning to waver seems rather disingenuous … see: Huffington Post Story

Offering candy to children to get them to toe the line often works.  But the Republicans in Congress are, hopefully, a little more sophisticated than turnip-truck ejectees.  I think that the current best Republican strategy is to wait for Obama’s budget proposal sometime in April (hopefully) and then pull out all the stops in educating the American public as to the debilitating ramifications of same.  Certainly, if the President’s 10-year fiscal outline is anything like Senator Patty Murray’s recent Democrat thigh-slapper (see: Pattycake), this should be an easy sell. Then, they might even get some minimal cooperation from main-stream media outlets.

If the Republicans need to throw the President and Democrats a bone in order to get any serious entitlement reform, then getting rid of the "carried interest" tax loophole would be my best candidate for a compromise.