There are two indisputable facts about politics.
The first is that every modern president in the fourth year of his presidency resorts to the cheap political stunts, broken promises and truth-fudging it takes to win reelection in what has been and will be a 50-50 nation. The reason is simple: Politics is not clean-living; itâs survival.
The second is that Barack Obama, for all his talk of moving beyond conventional political tricks, is doing just that, which wouldnât be so glaring had it not been for his incessant call for a newer, cleaner and more transparent paradigm for American politics.
So much for the high road: Victory is more important than purity.
Itâs debatable whether Obama is more crudely political than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan. But whatâs transpired over the past several weeks isnât debatable: Heâs made a series of calculated, overtly political gestures that are far more transactional than transformational.
Hereâs just a sample:.......
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72644.html#ixzz1lv0pKto8