Norm Ornstein Continues To Say

What no one in the media/political establishment wants to hear:

The Myth of Presidential Leadership 

...

But the issue goes beyond that, to a willful ignorance of history. No one schmoozed more or better with legislators in both parties than Clinton. How many Republican votes did it get him on his signature initial priority, an economic plan? Zero in both houses. And it took eight months to get enough Democrats to limp over the finish line. How did things work out on his health care plan? How about his impeachment in the House? No one knew Congress, or the buttons to push with every key lawmaker, better than LBJ. It worked like a charm in his famous 89th, Great Society Congress, largely because he had overwhelming majorities of his own party in both houses. But after the awful midterms in 1966, when those swollen majorities receded, LBJ’s mastery of Congress didn’t mean squat.

...

All this is not to say that leadership is meaningless and the situation hopeless. Obama has failed to use the bully pulpit as effectively as he could, not to change votes but to help define the agenda, while his adversaries have often—on health care, the economy, stimulus, and other issues—defined it instead. Shaping the agenda can give your allies traction and legitimize your policy choices and put your opponents on defense. And any of us could quibble with some of the strategic choices and timing emanating from the White House. But it is past time to abandon selective history and wishful thinking, and realize the inherent limits of presidential power, and the very different tribal politics that Obama faces compared with his predecessors.

To keep their scam going, Centrists require Liberals to be exactly as bad and wrong, exactly as often and on exactly the same issues as Conservatives.

To keep their scam going, Conservatives require Liberals to be much more destructive and wrong than they are on issues that are either the same or equivalent.

You see the problem?

Without Imaginary Evil Hippies to punch, both this guy 

and these clowns

would be equally unemployed and unemployable.

And they will never, ever let that happen.