{"id":186804,"date":"2013-10-03T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/10\/03\/an-old-witch-tells-the-president-what-to-do\/"},"modified":"2013-10-03T18:12:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T23:12:00","slug":"an-old-witch-tells-the-president-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/10\/03\/an-old-witch-tells-the-president-what-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"An Old Witch Tells the President What to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read Hecate<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026 I pulled A\u2019s in a lot of law school classes, but the class in which I did my absolute best was Negotiations 101.<\/span>

<\/span> Of course, unlike our President, I didn\u2019t go to Harvard Law School and I was only assistant editor, not editor, of Law Review. I\u2019ve never taught ConLaw and I\u2019ve never held elective office. But I have had cause to wonder, more than once, if Mr. Obama may not have been busy doing something else on the day they taught Negotiating 101 at HLS.<\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> So, I\u2019m an old woman who didn\u2019t go to HLS and wouldn\u2019t presume to imagine that I could lead the United States. But I\u2019ll still, as someone who\u2019s actually been in the field, practiced law, and successfully negotiated good outcomes for my clients, presume to give Mr. Obama some advice.<\/span>

<\/span> If I were sitting today where you sit, Mr. Obama, almost at the confluence of the Anacostia River, the Washington Chanel, and the Potomac River, here\u2019s what I\u2019d do:<\/span>

<\/span> I\u2019d announce that, now that the government\u2019s been closed for two days, I\u2019m unwilling to sign anything but a clean bill to fund the government, except that now I also want the Rapeublicans to approve all of my judicial nominees who have been languishing in Congress lo these many years.<\/span>

<\/span> Tomorrow morning, I\u2019d eat breakfast, put on my nice suit, walk out into the Rose Garden (it\u2019s gorgeous in DC this week) and announce that now that I\u2019ve slept on it, I won\u2019t sign anything except a clean bill with approval of all of my judicial nominees and statehood for DC. I\u2019d wave to the reporters, go play golf (include a woman this time, Mr. President), review their homework with my daughters, and get a massage.<\/span>

<\/span> On Friday, after I had lunch at the Palm with my wife (have the crabmeat cocktail and the steak salad, rare), I\u2019d walk up to Dupont Circle and say that I\u2019d been discussing it with Ms. Obama and, now, I\u2019m unwilling to sign anything except a clean bill with approval of all of my judicial appointees, statehood for DC, and a new bill of Elizabeth Warren\u2019s choosing.<\/span>

<\/span> I\u2019d take the weekend off, go to Camp David, let the girls and the dogs run around and enjoy Indian Summer in Maryland, have dinner with some crazy, wild-eyed liberals, and make sure the press knew who they were and what we ate (include arugula and craft beer on the menu).<\/span>

<\/span> On Monday, I\u2019d wait.<\/span>

<\/span> On Tuesday, I\u2019d give a speech and announce that, having thought about it over the weekend, in the calm of Camp David, I also need a new program of really strong controls on financial markets.<\/span>

<\/span> You get the picture.<\/span>

<\/span> Right now, the only people upping the ante are the Rapeublicans. In order to \u201cmeet in the middle\u201d and appear \u201creasonable\u201d Mr. Obama has to move towards their position. That\u2019s no way to negotiate.<\/span>

<\/span> Rapeublicans who are watching the polls go even further down on the notion of shutting down the government (they\u2019ve already crossed that Rubicon \u2014 another river reference \u2014 so what the heck), need some additional motivation to move towards Mr. Obama. And they need to see that continuing to hold out will cost them even more.<\/span>

<\/span> Maybe, in the end, Mr. Obama shows what a reasonable guy he is by compromising on a new bill of Elizabeth Warren\u2019s choosing and half of his judicial appointees. That\u2019s how negotiations work.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The outcome of any negotiation is an artifact of power, and I do not think that Obama gets that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read Hecate: \u2026\u2026\u2026 I pulled A\u2019s in a lot of law school classes, but the class in which I did my absolute best was Negotiations 101. Of course, unlike our President, I didn\u2019t go to Harvard Law School and I was only assistant editor, not editor, of Law Review. I\u2019ve never taught ConLaw and I\u2019ve …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1002,1003,978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-writing","category-philosophy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}