The Kabuki Dance

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/7/23/101759/935


The Kabuki Dance

by BooMan
Sat Jul 23rd, 2011 at 10:17:59 AM EST

snip//


Some people seem to be in some doubt about whether the president seriously thought a deal was possible. To be sure, the White House is incredibly committed to trying to convince you that they were "this close" to making a deal. But they knew better. The White House was 100% convinced that the Republicans would raise the debt ceiling. They were also about 98% convinced that Boehner couldn't deliver a deal acceptable to House Democrats, House senators, or even to themselves.

I don't know what Boehner may have thought was possible or what he truly wanted. Alcoholics don't think straight and are hard to decipher. But I don't think he wanted to be in the history books as making a deal with the Kenyan, Muslim, socialist president. He certainly wanted to leave the impression with his caucus that he was only humoring the president.

The president, on the other hand, wants to leave the impression that he was "left at the altar" just when the deal was down to some rather petty and insignificant differences.

Let me be straight with you. Both sides are full of shit. Boehner and Cantor made it clear months ago that they wouldn't sign off on an acceptable deal. They didn't dupe the White House. They played a game together of appearing to negotiate.

Meanwhile, Senator McConnell prepared for a solution to the crisis within the Republican caucus. And that's what this is. It's not a true debt crisis. It's a crisis in the Republican caucus. This whole dance has been for their benefit.

[patrice]

1. People should probably consider putting away the assumption that the President is doing this with a

calculator and some legal pads. There are probably a variety of plans B, C, D, etc. and sub-versions thereof, based on mathematical computer modeling, to be tried in negotiations, depending upon what happens next. Nothing like that on the Republican side, or if they have stuff like that it's no use to them, because they have no bargaining options anyway, "NO TAXES" obviates contingency planning.

Don't know what is going to happen next, but there IS one fail-safe. I believe the President HAS thrown his presidency on the table, so if necessary he CAN protect America from the suffering, damage, and destruction that Republicans are so willing to deal on others, even if that ends up making him a one-term president.

[Hippo_Tron]

3. While political scientists would love that, I doubt they are using computer modeling

[sudopod]

2. Kabui is a beautiful art form.

One shouldn't denigrate it by comparing it to this travesty.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. Seriously, the colloquial use of the term "Kabuki theater" in politics...

Makes no more sense than simply using the term "theater". If anything, I wonder if its origins are a little bit racist.