It’s looking like President Obama is going to toss aside any pretense of bipartisanship when he stands before the Congress on Tuesday night for his State of the Union speech.
Let’s call it the next shot in the Battle of the Political Bases.
The president is going to call for wage equality, which will please his liberal base and displease the conservative base.
The liberals comprise the bedrock of the Democratic Party — to which Obama belongs. The conservatives make up the foundation of the Republican Party — to which most House members belong.
I was rather hoping the president would seek more of a middle-road approach to governing. Silly me. I guess he’s grown weary of the continuing battles he keeps waging with intransigent GOP lawmakers who keep insisting he give more, more, and more still.
He’s ceded ground on tax policy. That hasn’t been enough. Spending policies have resulted in dramatic reductions in the budget deficit. That, too, is insufficient. Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay’s terrorist holding camp. It remains open, which should please the other guys — but apparently it hasn’t.
So now he’s going to the mat on wage inequality. The plan apparently is for him to reveal it all in his State of the Union address.
Do not look for a hint of bipartisan agreement on that one, folks.
The bipartisan political warfare will go on.