Doesn't Seem That GOP Win Has Exactly Stopped the President So Far

     Quite the opposite in fact.

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/12/since-election-loss-we-have-new.html

      Big surprise-Rush Limbaugh is declaring See I Told You So. This is what he does best.

      http://www.amazon.com/See-I-Told-You-So/dp/067187120X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418928348&sr=1-1&keywords=rush+limbaugh+i+told+you+so

       Basically, he claims to have warned conservatives of what was going to happen-the latest liberal treachery-and then gloats for allegedly having foretold it where so many others failed to. Now he claims he had been warning about the evil Obama had planned-you know to 'destroy America'-but others failed to listen. 

       "Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is calling President Barack Obama’s move to normalize U.S.-Cuban relations “chump change” compared to what else the president has in store for his last two years."

       “I have warned all of you people,” Limbaugh said on his radio show on Wednesday. “I have warned you that these two years of the Obama administration are gonna actually be what he would have done if he’d had total control and did not have to worry about the Constitution for the first two years.”

       “This is just the beginning. This is just a teaser, appetizer, for what is on tap the next two years,” Limbaugh said.

        "He added, “Everything Obama thinks this country’s guilty of and needs to apologize for, he’s gonna take care of.”

        Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/rush-limbaugh-cuba-policy-113668.html#ixzz3MHDkxWM4

     The question for Rush is if he's so smart why has he been talking about how the big win Congressional wins for the GOP were with the expressed purpose of 'Stopping Obama.' 

     I mean that hasn't been happening at all. I mean I know the new, even more reactionary Congress isn't in yet. Still it's hard to know how they are going to be able to stop him then either. Although the GOP tries to pretend otherwise, there's nothing unconstitutional about executive orders and none of them had any problem with them when Bush used them-even to institute torture. 

     As we already have the government funded till next September, and there's no way to defund Obama's immigration move-as the USCIS is funded through fees-there's not much they can do to 'stop Barrack Obama'-as Rush says they were elected to do. If you're so prescient Mr. Limbaugh why did you say that the GOP Congress will stop Obama when clearly they can't stop him despite all the talk of red flags in front of bulls?

    The President really begun this post-election period the right way. Not as the Republicans and the Very Serious Media-a la David Brooks and Bob Woodward-expected: namely on bended knee to atone for his 'shellacking'-what was great is he refused to even call it a shellacking-but rather unbowed. 

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-washington-post-wants-from-obama.html

    It was inspired that he didn't give them what they wanted-to approach on bended knee, maybe the GOP and lamestream press then planning to get in line for him to kiss each of their pompous asses. That was the first shot, that let them know they hadn't beaten him even if they won an election-that structurally speaking is what they should have had anyway. 

    It turns out that the President and his Administration had planned this well in advance. They foretold that the election wouldn't be good but they were prepared. 

    "The midterms are done, and Obama feels that he doesn't have to worry about being the driving factor in any other Democrat’s election. He has spent a year nudging Americans to judge him less on legislative accomplishments and more on his executive actions. And now he has a fully Republican Congress that he can alternate butting up against and making deals with — but really not thinking much about it at all."

     “We were trapped in this debate of: ‘Is Obama helping or hurting?,’ ‘Was it a mistake to say his policies were on the ballot, or was it the right thing to do?’” a senior Obama aide said this week as the final details of American Alan Gross’ release from a Cuban prison — which enabled the deal with the island country — were being worked out. “We are more the masters of our own destiny than we were before.”

       "Republicans believe Obama is either delusional or in denial about the brutal election results for Democrats. But the White House started preparing for the post-election sprint well before November.

As they headed into the final weeks before the midterms that they always knew would be rough, the mood in the West Wing was dark. But, the Obama aide said, Obama and his staff were already plotting “how we were going to win the period between the midterms and the end of the year.”

      Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/obama-libre-113663.html#ixzz3MHINUdOJ

     What is is that the GOP thinks is delusional? The President doesn't have to be worried about any more elections and it's liberated him. What exactly is the threat they imagine they can exact on him? 

     Maybe they from Rush on down were the delusional ones. 

     Yesterday was a proud day for our country-and Cuba. I think that Hillary Clinton gets it exactly right:

      "I support Obama’s decision to change course on Cuba policy, while keeping the focus on our principal objective — supporting the aspirations of the Cuban people for freedom….our decades-long policy of isolation has only strengthened the Castro regime’s grip on power…the best way to bring change to Cuba is to expose its people to the values, information, and material comforts of the outside world.  The goal of increased U.S. engagement in the days and years ahead should be to encourage real and lasting reforms for the Cuban people."

    

       http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/12/18/morning-plum-obama-unbound-puts-his-stamp-on-2016/

        Great point. If you don't like the Communist system in Cuba exposing it to the light of the outside-liberal-world is the better remedy. I know some feel that this means that Castro won. I mean to the extent that he looks like the winner this is due to the mistaken embargo which didn't succeed in bringing the Castro down-and provided an easy excuse for the regime's own failures-it was not the bad system of Communism but the U.S, sanctions that led to the disappointing results of the system. 

       In addition, as the embargo clearly didn't succeed in hurting Castro politically it really became a source of embarrassment to us-basically leaving us with egg on our faces. 

       Still, in the bigger picture and context, Castro has hardly won-the world of today has clearly not gone in the direction he expected 50 years ago. The Communist world he was a part of then has disintegrated. He does have Venezuela but that country now has big problems of its own with the crater in oil prices. It might be the case that with that development Raul Castro is even a little more eager to normalize relations. 

       With Cuba becoming part of the larger world more Cubans are going to want more democracy and economic opportunity. This is a much better way. We can't impose our system on the Cuban people. However, this is much more likely to lead to the outcome we would prefer. 

       Overall, though it turns out Rush was wrong. This election hasn't stopped the President. There is life after losing Congress. Who knew?