From BAD, to WORSE...Much WORSE!

The Obama administration may have actually found a way to make a very bad situation even worse, by, ironically enough, seeking a compromise.

News reports today announce that the religious exception WILL BE acknowledged and respected, and that women will still be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurers if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds. (SEE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-to-announce-adjustment-to-birth-control-rule/2012/02/10/gIQArbFy3Q_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNP_p)

This an absolute NO WIN!

First, it shows that the initial over-reach was deliberate. If they had a plan B why challenge the 1^st Amendment’s PRIMARY protection, that of “religious freedom?”

This won’t end the controversy and will provide ammunition for opponents to use with moderates over a President most moderates have concerns over such over-reaches with.

Religious Conservatives will not be placated and this will only serve to energize that group behind ABO (“anyone BUT Obama”) AND he’s once again managed to pull the rug from beneath his liberal “supporters.”

For the past week, liberals in the administration and in the media have been engaged in the most acrobatic of gyrations seeking to defend this assault on the 1^st Amendment, now only to have him pull a bait and switch on them...once AGAIN!

Now it’s not like liberals are going anywhere. They have nowhere else to turn. They have no other options available.

But how many times are they going to simply grin politely after being left to hang out to dry after defending something that this President again backs away from?

What SHOULD this administration have done?

In my view the ONLY thing you CAN do in such a no win situation is to let the courts overturn that decision.

That way, while the controversy continues to build and spread (this compromise will do nothing to change that), at least he sticks to his guns, fights for principle (even opponents respect that) and at the least DOESN’T alienate and humiliate his own base.

While NOTHING President Obama would’ve made things better with religious people, Libertarians and Moderates, at the very least, he shouldn’t have once again skewered his own long suffering liberal base.