Reply #8: *snorts* You think THIS is the political equivalent of three dimensional chess?

[Axrendale]

If so, then you demonstrate some considerable naivety about the dark facts of politics my friend.

While Obama in this instance is certainly engaging in politicking of a high standard, he is nowhere even close to plumbing the murky depths of political complexity in which the machinations of the great progressive leaders of the past operated. When one compares such basic political sleight-of-hand to the mind-numbingly sophisticated strategies that were employed by presidents like FDR, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, or for that matter Obama himself on other occaisons, in order to achieve their ends, this sort of thing by comparison looks about as subtle as an arm-wrestling match rather than a game of chess.

Obama has long since proved that as a politician he is capable of operating at a high level indeed of the machiavellian art - higher than any POTUS since Nixon (though thankfully with few of Nixon's flaws) - and that is good, for without such "chess playing", the liberal dream never becomes anything more than a fantasy.

History, if nothing else, stands as proof of that.