Obama a lame duck in less than a year

Tomorrow, January 21, is Obama’s first anniversary as president. Last night Massachusetts elected a Republican senator to replace Democrat Ted Kennedy after he left office in August for health reasons. This gives Republicans the necessary 41 votes to kill any legislation in the Senate. In one quick and decisive move the GOP has rendered Obama a lame duck less than one year after he took office.

Who would have thought that Teddy Kennedy would be succeeded in the U.S. Senate by a Republican? The GOP now has the necessary 41 votes to block anything that the Democratic Senate majority wants to do, from passing legislation to confirming judges. The White House has been very slow to fill judicial and U.S. attorney slots and have squandered that opportunity. The Democrats have achieved NOTHING, and now they can’t do anything without Republican votes. George W. Bush became a lame duck with two years to go when the Republicans lost control of Congress in the 2006 midterms. Obama may have become a lame duck for the remainder of his term. Source: Unhappy anniversary | BurkaBlog.

The health care bill that was before the senate seems all but doomed to fail in light of this election. Time will tell, but I don’t expect any helpful legislation coming from Washington any time soon.

Obama coming to the heart of conservatisim – Aggieland

Hundreds expected to demonstrate Friday at A&M during presidential forum.

By Nathan Adkisson | statesman.com

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A&M official: “We expect our students will treat the president with respect.”

Officials say about 20 organizations have reserved space to demonstrate on campus, including several Tea Party groups, the College Democrats and the College Republicans. While Texas A&M has not prohibited any groups from protesting, university officials said they expect demonstrators to honor the Aggies’ well-known code of conduct.

It’s not students we fear. It’s the hundreds of non-Aggies being bussed in from all over Texas – Tea Party groups – that probably did not vote for Obama and probably will try to stir up trouble.

I think Friday will be a good day for everyone to stay home.

President Obama speaks at Texas A&M

UPDATE:
It wasn’t that bad. North of campus and we didn’t hear or see anything unsual – we were in the office when he arrived and at home when he left. But, Obama, Bush 41, and Gates all came to town in support of a Points of Light/Volunteer forum.