In a press conference held a week before his inauguration for a second term, an assertive President Barack Obama balked at the prospect of negotiating with the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives concerning the nation’s debt ceiling while also stating that he is exploring going around the legislative branch to achieve aspects of his gun control agenda.

The only thing missing was a declaration that “l’Etat c’est moi!”

After lampooning his Republican challenger for suffering from “Romnesia”, it seems that President Obama has “Dem-mentia”, conveniently forgetting that the electorate that returned him into office also returned a Republican majority in the house.

If America truly bought into what Obama was peddling, the voters would have given him full license to push through his agenda by giving the Democrats a majority in the house.
They didn’t, deliberately choosing to assign the president a chaperone for at least the first half of his last dance. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the parent-to-student ratio doesn’t increase after 2014.

But back to the present. Perhaps “assertive” is too gentle of a word to describe the president’s tone at the close-out presser of his first term, when “belligerent” seems to fit better.

President Obama is playing a head game with Republicans- elected officials, big media commentators and activist-bloggers, trying to get them all riled via his political bluster.

The president wants the Right to foam at the mouth and explode with outrage over his casual rhetoric disrespecting the established cheques and balances that ostensibly limit a branch of government from becoming all powerful and threatening to undermine our constitutional rights via executive fiat.

The president delivered a schoolyard taunt in the East Room of the White House and chose his words carefully, especially his odious “holding a gun to the head of America” comment.

The question is, will conservatives allow him succeed in marginalizing the opposition by engaging in a public hyperventilation contest.

Rather than shower him with unkind sobriquets such as dictator or Hugo del Norte, conservatives need to call him what he is: a shifty politician.

Hit the president with his own words and rhetoric, especially when his positions as Senator Obama don’t square with those of President Obama.

Though President Obama has railed against Republican reluctance to do so, then-US Senator Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling. In a statement that could have been given by any Republican congressman, SENATOR Obama said in March 2006, that “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

The facts and arguments are on the side of conservatives, so there’s no need to shout like maniac when we should be calmly confident in our righteousness and legal position.
Conservatives must not be goaded into being reckless by the president’s political brazenness. If anything, the consequences of the manifestation of his vision should make us determined yet sober opponents.

If the president does indeed engage in “extra-constitutional” rule by assuming powers through executive order that are not his to utilize, conservatives need to take him to court and then calmly explain to the public why his actions are wrong and illegal. Eventually they will catch on.

President Obama knows he doesn’t have the votes to pass legislation through Congress that would substantially erode our Second Amendment rights.

The biggest legacy of the Brady Bill was Newt Gingrich being handed the speaker’s gavel, an unpleasant memory not lost on politically wily Democrats, which is precisely why President Obama is looking to steer his gun control package around Congress.

Why contaminate allies he will need to survive the midterms on a losing vote?

At the end of the day, Obama’s tough talk on guns will result in stalled bills and a flurry of obnoxious executive orders that will at best be wiped out by the courts and at worst will have minimal impact on gun ownership rights. And if Americans are dissatisfied with the latter, then maybe they will finally be cognizant of the consequences of voting Democrat.

President Obama’s next two years are going to be full of political theatre and Oval Office demagoguery to bait Republicans into being perceived as unreasonable in the public eye and divided within their own camp. We need to resist the urge to play those supporting roles.

As frustrated as Republicans are about the failure to change government, Democrats feel even more stifled. The GOP house is an obstruction to fulfilling their aspirations of remaking the country into the image of western Europe. They have the White House and the US Senate, but can accomplish very little so long as the little orange man from Ohio stands at the House rostrum.

A public temper-tantrum by 4 year old might win an ice cream cone, but it won’t help protect our liberties or save our national finances. We need to learn a better way to say no.
If conservatives can stay cool and focused on the big picture, we will be able to stay free.