Politico got to put up a front page post entitled just this-that "Liberals fear grand betrayal if Obama wins."
You've got to be kidding me. Is this really what most liberals are thinking right now?
"Labor unions and liberal interest groups are going all-out for President
Barack Obama’s reelection — but they’re just as ready to turn that firepower back on him if he betrays them with a grand bargain."
"These
groups fear a victorious Obama would ink a deal with Republicans during
the fiscal cliff negotiations that slashes entitlement benefits. And
that could hurt the very coalition of voters — minorities, women and
low- and middle-income families — that would claim credit for his second
term. Even as they turn out the vote in public to keep Obama in office,
in private they’re plotting a strategy aimed at pressuring him to
protect those who reelected him."
"The dual-track campaign, led by the AFL-CIO, MoveOn and a network of
progressive advocacy organizations, highlights the political vice grip
that awaits Obama if he wins Tuesday."
"He wants a large-scale deficit deal. But it would inevitably mean
making concessions to Republicans that infuriate the Democratic base
that spent the past two years and tens of millions of dollars trying to
return him to the White House. Progressives worry about which Obama will
show up after Election Day: the pragmatist who offered benefit cuts to
House Speaker
John Boehner (R-Ohio) in the 2011 debt ceiling talks or the partisan chastened by a failed deal to slice into prized Democratic programs."
I wish liberals would worry less. At least, according to this story, they are going full out for him. I mean to me that's the question: what do you fear if Romney wins? The end of Medicare, the end of Medicaid, deep cuts to the safety net.
As for what Obama might do, I feel some trust at this point. Everyone was killing him during the debt ceiling chicken debacle in 2011. Yet the one guy who got it right was Laurence O'Donnell-who argued that Obama actually roiled the GOP during negotiations. A year later, you have to say: who has more leverage on the coming negotiations on the "fiscal cliff" and the debt ceiling?
And just recently Chuck Schumer came out against Simpson-Bowles, criticizing it's basic framework of raising revenue somehow by cutting corporate and top income rates for the rich.
Harry Reid seconded this criticism and very importantly, the Obama White House thirded it.
I don't know for sure what he'll do but I know what Mitt Romney will do and that's all I care about right now.
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