Stephen H Baum Leadership

Republicans: Betting Against the Home Team

If this were sports, the Republicans would be investigated by Congress in very public and very nasty hearings. But it is just politics and the Congress is held to a lower standard than the rest of us.

OK, the Obama plan still has holes and blank spots. God is in the detail on a lot of it. But could the Republicans have contributed to a better design? Could they have shown the American public that they are patriotic and put our recovery above their re-election chances? Evidently not.

I used to be a moderate Republican, a Rockefeller Republican before the Conservatives made my species all but extinct. And while I don’t agree with more than a few of Obama’s solutions, I voted for him and would help him succeed any way I can.

But the Republican stance (you are wrong, we don’t like it, we wont offer solutions and we will just bet that you fail) is nothing less than a national scandal. I heard one of their kind say at our local YMCA: “I hope Obama fails.” Such selfish and ignorant attitude by someone not among the wealthy with their at home and private gym is mind-boggling.

And that would be bad enough, but the “best news team on television” doesn’t have the guts to expose it for what it is with the right questions. We are missing both a “loyal” opposition and an independent media.

That’s my view. What’s yours?

Stephen H. Baum of www.stephenhbaumleadership.com