President Obama is certainly one of the smartest politicians to inhabit the Whitehouse. After-all presidents have been trying to get a healthcare bill for decades. Each time, they were never able to get all affected parties triangulated to achieve success. President Obama did. This feet is likely even more difficult than civil rights given that the greenback is much more important in politics than racism. So yes, the President may just be the shrewdest political tactician.
Slate Pitch: Obama Is the Shrewdest Political Tactician Since LBJ
—By David Corn | Tue Sep. 24, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
The conventional view in Washington these days is that President Barack Obama is not having such a great second term and might already be suffering a bit of lame duckery. After all, he failed to overcome NRA and GOP opposition to modest gun safety legislation after the horrific Newtown massacre, and his immigration reform push has crashed into that brick wall known as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. But here’s a Slate pitch: Obama is the most wily tactician in the nation’s capital since Lyndon Johnson.
Consider what Obama has recently done to two of his most bothersome foes: Vladimir Putin and John Boehner. Faced with the thorny question of how to respond to the Bashar al-Assad’s presumed use of chemical weapons in Syria, Obama sent conflicting messages at first. He dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to deliver a hawkish message that seemed to suggest a retaliatory but limited strike against the regime was imminent, but then Obama surprisingly announced he would seek authorization from Congress for such an attack, fully realizing that such a move would take weeks to pull off—that is, if he could rally sufficient votes.
Slate Pitch: Obama Is the Shrewdest Political Tactician Since LBJ | Mother Jones