President Obama made an angry statement today after the Manchin Toomey amendment to the gun legislation was defeated in the senate. It was both sophmoric and irritating at the same time.
Obama blamed the defeat of the expansion of background checks in gun purchases on the NRA and the Republicans. The result was "shameful" according to Obama. But if it was so important to achieve the result, why was Obama missing in action when it came to garnering votes for the legislation? There were five Democrats who voted against the bill. Obama certainly could have brought great pressure upon them to vote yes. When the issue was Obamacare, the president put the full weight of his office behind the effort to pass the bill and kept the votes of every Democrat senator. For this gun legislation which was supposedly so important, Obama limited his involvement to campaigning around the country on the issue rather than pushing for votes with the senators themselves. Indeed, Obama probably could have gotten another one or two Republican votes with a concerted effort.
The truth is that I believe that Obama wanted the measure to fail. Now it can be used as a campaign issue in 2014. Obama actually believes that there are people who will vote for the Democrats in 2014 because of the failure to pass the gun legislation. He is just wrong.
Obama blamed the defeat of the expansion of background checks in gun purchases on the NRA and the Republicans. The result was "shameful" according to Obama. But if it was so important to achieve the result, why was Obama missing in action when it came to garnering votes for the legislation? There were five Democrats who voted against the bill. Obama certainly could have brought great pressure upon them to vote yes. When the issue was Obamacare, the president put the full weight of his office behind the effort to pass the bill and kept the votes of every Democrat senator. For this gun legislation which was supposedly so important, Obama limited his involvement to campaigning around the country on the issue rather than pushing for votes with the senators themselves. Indeed, Obama probably could have gotten another one or two Republican votes with a concerted effort.
The truth is that I believe that Obama wanted the measure to fail. Now it can be used as a campaign issue in 2014. Obama actually believes that there are people who will vote for the Democrats in 2014 because of the failure to pass the gun legislation. He is just wrong.
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