Outside the Beltway

An Excellent Political Point Regarding New Start

Steven L. Taylor · Friday, December 24, 2010 · 2 comments

Adam Serwer writing at WaPo:

If New START is ratified, the only reason it’ll be considered an Obama victory is because Republicans decided to oppose it without any real reason for doing so. If the Senate had simply ratified the treaty without any fuss, Obama might have gotten a few days of positive press, but it wouldn’t have been treated as a major political success. Because Senate Republicans turned ratification into a huge partisan brawl, a Democratic president renewing an agreement with Russia designed by Republican presidents now looks like a massive victory for the administration.

This strikes me as utterly on target.

h/t: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_12/027216.phpSteve Benen.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, Adam Serwer, Russia, Washington Post

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

An Interested Party says:

Friday, 24 December 2010 at 13:16

Mitch McConnell is showing himself to be a brillant political strategist…also, I couldn’t help but notice that this line…

“Because Senate Republicans turned ratification into a huge partisan brawl, a Democratic president renewing an agreement with Russia designed by Republican presidents now looks like a massive victory for the administration.”

…echoes HCR…
tom p says:

Friday, 24 December 2010 at 16:03

HA!