Gun control dead: whose fault? Obama and Reid, not just GOP

Sure, sure, sure, it's easy to fault the Senate GOP for the key element in planned new gun control legislation being as dead as a doorknob by failing cloture.

But that's more than too easy by half.

The real villians are, as should surprise no truly smart-minded person, Barack Obama with his wingman on this one, Harry Reid.

Obama? As I noted about his big post-Newtown speech, could have been addressing half this issue over four years. You don't need an ATF director (even if he didn't try to get one appointed for four years) to step up arrests and prosecutions on gun buys that are already illegal (even if the Republicans are blocking your judicial appointments).

Beyond that, with a massive White House social media operation, a massive White House website with its petition-generating software and more, Obama's vaunted Organizing for America (itself a neoliberal sellout) and its alleged skill in microtargeting during the 2012 election, and you can't bust gun nuts in the chops on Facebook, Twitter, etc.? You can't get OFA to help with astroturfing letters to the editor to more conservative papers? And, you can't get Dear Leader to better target his in-person presence outside of the Rose Garden?

Pathetic. Did the Newtown survivors not have enough money for OFA?

Beyond that, if Joe Biden supposedly deals with the GOP so well, why wasn't he being used more on this issue?

Harry Reid? As I've said repeatedly, in a crude pun, Harry Reid has no Harry Balls. His sellout on filibuster reform, which I blogged about here, is typical. All that "cots and pillows" talk? That's for mainstream Democrats lured to sleep.

But yet, while rightfully focusing their anger on Republicans in general and the Senate GOP in particular, mainstream Democrats will likely stop there.

And, in so doing, given Batman and Robin another pass.

And, I've said this one before, too.

Enabling such behavior is like a spouse/lover/family member "enabling" the behavior of an alcoholic or addict. Period.

And, for a man who won two presidential elections, he can't play 3-dimensional political chess, let alone the 11-dimensional kind. Or else, if four years of reports of "diffidence" are correct, doesn't want to.

Fine. Resign. Let JoePa Biden be the Prez. He might be better.