Barack Obama may not be a great president, but he is a wizard at the blame game. He has fought ‘fiscal brinkmanship’ battles throughout his presidency, and he tends to come out on top. America’s federal government is today closing down, and most pundits refuse to say it’s in any way the president’s fault. Instead, they accuse his opponents of wrecking the political system.
If you read most newspapers, or watch the BBC, you would think that wicked Republicans — ‘in hock’ to their extremist tea party division — are shutting down the federal government out of little more than a fit of pique. The Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Patty Murray all said the Grand Old Party had a ‘gun to our head’.
But look closer and the picture is not so black and white. Republicans oppose Obamacare for ideological reasons, yes, but also because health is just about the one domestic issue on which they have the support of most Americans.
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