A Longer View

Some of what Ben Domenech had to say at Real Clear Politics:

The sudden deluge of scandal which dominates the discussion around President Obama’s administration at the moment has handed a golden opportunity to Republicans.  Yet if they aren’t careful, they’ll squander this opening completely by allowing their intense dislike of the president to cloud their judgment, missing the broader political lessons for the sake of personal point scoring.

And

Here’s the hard thing Republicans have to do if they don’t want this crisis to go to waste: they have to ignore their id….  They must willfully set aside Obama’s presence in the fray…and go after the much bigger prize.  Obama isn’t running for office again.  Liberalism is….  Making this about the inherent falsehood of the progressive project will help conservatism win.   …these scandals cut at the core conceit of Obama’s ideology: the healthy and enduring confidence of big government to be good government.

Given Republicans’ demonstrated skills these last several decades, most recently with the fiscal cliff “negotiations,” though, I’m not sanguine that they can set aside their id, much less glimpse the long view.

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