The political analysis from major pundits over the past week and year has been cheap, stupid and contradictory. Just utter rubbish. And nothing better illustrates this than The Washington Post’s attempt to review 2013’s Washington winners and losers.
According to the Post, President Barack Obama had the worst year of any person in Washington because he squandered “the chance to build a legacy” and has been unable to pass key aspects of the world-changing agenda he has in mind.
But on the second page of this judgment, the Post awards the runners up for worst year in D.C. to Washington Republicans — the outnumbered and determined party that stopped the most powerful man in the world’s progressive agenda dead in its tracks. (RELATED: How Cruz, Lee and Paul shut down Obama’s agenda)
Clearly, there are some mental gymnastics going on here.
Last January, when the president began his second term with a mandate, he planned to get a few things accomplished by year’s end. In case anyone missed it, he didn’t.
The White House and the Senate filled 2013 with a push for new guns restrictions, comprehensive amnesty, American intervention in Syria, and legally sanctioned federal action on climate change. But on all fronts, they lost.
And while the states have accomplished more than House Republicans to slow the disaster that is Obamacare, Washington Republicans — the folks the Post calls the second-worst Washington losers of 2013 — own every other victory this year. (RELATED: Obama’s retreat from Obamacare)
It seems the Post operates under the assumption that in a two team competition, there’s the team that loses and then there’s the second worst.
Now that isn’t to say that Republicans haven’t lost some games this series. They saw a small but short dip in approval ratings following the government shutdown. And their performance in gubernatorial races was mixed, with a landslide in New Jersey and a loss in Virginia. But the most-hyped thrashing came from a liberal media that later dubbed them losers for – wait for it – getting thrashed by liberal media. (RELATED: One month after the shutdown ended, Lee and Cruz are sitting pretty)
“When historians write the story of Barack Obama’s presidency, 2013 will be his lost year,” the Post opines. “It opened with great promise and closed with equally great disappointment.”
The Post then goes on to list his failings, among them gun control and scandals, ticking them off while on the side chastising Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for not presenting the Mr. Obama with “one Republican with whom he could negotiate.” (RELATED: A House Divided: The Wacko Birds and their war on DC)
It’s as if the president’s political defeats — and the investigative exposure of his other failures — occurred in a void.
Fast forward to the next section — “Very Bad Year” in Washington — and it’s more of the same.
Just a few paragraphs after slapping Republicans for not cooperating, the Post dings them again for capitulating (read: passing) on a budget deal; then back to whacking them for stopping Democrats’ immigration plan; then back to hitting them for trying to stop Obamacare — a national disaster they’d hit the president for just moments before. (VIDEO: Krauthammer slams media’s Obamacare silence)
(And please keep in mind that all of this was done in an environment where the president will disregard the law by mandate; in an environment where the Senate majority leader will demolish centuries of tradition to confirm circuit court judges and a head for the Federal Housing Finance Agency.)
We suppose they’ve come halfway: Yes, the Democrats can do wrong, but don’t expect the Post to admit that Republicans did right. That would be too much for them. They’d feel rushed.
And we’re not holding our breath for the Post’s 2014 list, anyway.
They might not be around.
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