USA Today: “The beauty of a second term presidency, at least for
the man in the Oval Office, is that political calculations become less
important as he considers policies he wants to pursue. President Obama’s
sweeping gun-safety agenda laid out Wednesday reflects just that
reality as he called on Americans to get behind a dramatic plan that he
believes can help stem gun violence.”
Politico: “For one of the few instances in his presidency,
he now appears willing to burn political capital by pressuring Senate
Democrats to vote for a measure that is likely to die in the House, a
symbolic victory that sets the stage, he hopes, for more meaningful
ones. Along with his tough stances on the debt ceiling, it’s part of a
second-term strategy of calculated confrontation: Republicans won’t
negotiate with him, so he plans to marshal popular opinion to force them
into action.”
