WOLF: GOP’s unfounded Obama fear: President’s credibility on economy lies in tatters

Good article on why the Obama halo disappeared 2 years ago and nobody should be afraid to call his bluff.

Life is full of mysteries. Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Why are there no B size batteries? Who would pay good money to see a Michael Moore movie? More mysterious still, why should Republicans be scared to call Barack Obama’s bluff?

Republicans hold the winning cards in the debt debate, but too often in their recent past, they have surrendered quicker than a French battalion. Wait, that’s not quite fair to the French. Too often, Republicans have surrendered more spectacularly than Steven Slater - you remember, the JetBlue flight attendant who set a new standard in quitting when he escaped down the plane’s emergency chute onto the tarmac, leaving behind a plane full of befuddled passengers.

Am I understating the amount of calcium in the GOP’s spine? Consider the continuing-resolution debacle from earlier this year. Republicans campaigned in the 2010 elections on $100 billion in spending cuts and had just delivered President Obama the largest midterm “shellacking” in 72 years. Resounding Republican victories spread like wildfire from statehouses to dogcatchers. The $100 billion spending-cut mandate was compromised almost immediately down to $60 billion before the final $38 billion, which, after the accounting gimmicks were discovered, amounted to a minuscule $350 million, and still the Republicans patted themselves on the back and declared victory. If anything, I may be overstating the GOP’s backbone. At least Steven Slater had the guts to tell everybody off before he caved.

 The time has long passed to defer to Obama:

The president has nothing to offer but fear itself. His predictions du jour of economic Armageddon sound eerily similar to his dubious 2009 claims that led to his failed stimulus package. So desperate is the president that he has issued a thinly veiled threat to cut off Social Security benefits for grandma if he doesn’t get his way. Let him try. It’s time to call his bluff.

What in the world are the Republicans scared of? If they can’t muster the courage for this fight, when will they ever? Of course, the Obama cheerleader media will go into hyperdrive GOP attack mode. That’s a given. Brace for it. But it hasn’t helped them so far. In fact, the public opinion trends are moving in the Republicans’ favor.