On this weekend’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Washington Post columnist George Will raised doubts as to whether President Barack Obama’s gun control proposals will ever become law, even though chief White House adviser David Plouffe vowed legislative reform on the same program.
According to Will, Obama’s persuasive abilities have been overrated for several years.
“Well, are they?” Will said, questioning the likelihood that Obama’s proposals are viable in Congress. “A durable myth of the Obama presidency, to which Mr. Obama subscribes, is that he’s tremendously persuasive. I don’t think his advocacy of Obamacare and the health care bill supports that. It did pass with chicanery and reconciliation and lots of other things, but he did not move the country, which is what he’s trying to do with the NRA. Obama’s approval rating at this point is 52 percent. The NRA’s approval rating is 54 percent.”
Several Democratic lawmakers are likely to vote down any stringent gun control proposal, Will added. (RELATED: South Carolina legislators propose symbolic bill nullifying federal authority to regulate firearms)
“Since gun control came back to the top of the agenda, the NRA has acquired a quarter of a million new members,” Will continued. “So we’re going to find out. You saw by putting up the statements by some of the Democratic senators that there’s a resistance in the Democratic caucus, because they have six seats up [for election] next time … in states where Mr. Obama got less than 42 percent of the votes.”