No one actually (so far as I know) actually said Obamacare ruined the Super Bowl, but it’s about as credible a claim as Marc Thiessen made in his WaPo column today:
Barack Obama has all but conceded his lame-duck status. His State of the Union address was bereft of big ideas. And his declaration that he will use his “pen and a phone” to issue a raft of executive orders is an admission of political impotence — a presidency reduced to small-ball initiatives like creating “myRA” savings accounts and raising the minimum wage for federal contractors.
The one exception — his one last shot at a major legislative achievement — was comprehensive immigration reform. But that isn’t happening either.
And the reason can be summed up in one word: Obamacare.
Really? REALLY?
Right now Republicans have the power to enact comprehensive immigration reform tomorrow, today, right now. All they have to do is to allow a vote on the Senate-passed bill in the House; most of them don’t even have to vote for it themselves. They are terrified to do so, and not because of some feeling by “Americans” that they don’t trust Obama to implement a new law or don’t want anything “big,” the arguments Thiessen advances. No, it’s the opposition of their very own party “base,” before which they cower in fear. Blaming Obamacare or Obama for that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read.
