Obama’s Stubborn Win: The Shutdown’s Cheerless End
“Hopefully, next time it won’t be in the eleventh hour,” President Obama said. It was well before the eleventh when the President spoke; he came out at around 8:30 P.M., after the Senate had passed the bill. It was telling that he didn’t wait for the House to actually vote. Why subject oneself to the theatrics, or pretend that they had much to say? He was polite, thanking (though not naming) the leaders of both parties, and said that he’d sign their bill “immediately” when it gets to his desk, where memos about the database problems with the Obamacare Web site may also be waiting. He didn’t use phrases like “hostage-takers.” But he wasn’t pinning any roses, either. He had the air of someone who’d had too many evenings ruined because he had to drive home a drunk colleague he didn’t even like. He was done with this crisis, this Congress, this day. He said he would talk to everybody in the morning.