◼ Don't blame the catastrophic health care rollout for all of the president's woes. The Sandy Hook shooting played a big role, too. - Alex Seitz-Wald/National Journal
...The Connecticut massacre set in motion a cascade of events that led the White House to burn through its only real window to accomplish its goals. The month before the shooting, Obama had won a convincing reelection and a modest popular mandate. One major liberal wish-list entry, immigration reform, seemed not only within reach but almost inevitable....immigration would have to wait. The clock was ticking on both gun control and immigration, but Democrats moved ahead with gun control first, recognizing that as the memory of the tragedy at Sandy Hook faded, so too would the impetus for new laws....
In the process, the administration fatally, and irrevocably, antagonized the populist libertarian Right, the same people whom mainstream Republicans and Democrats needed to stay on the sidelines for immigration reform to succeed. By engaging in such an emotional, polarizing issue so early on, Obama poisoned the (admittedly shallow) well of goodwill and the willingness to compromise by Republicans before his term even began in earnest....
Even in hindsight, it's almost impossible to imagine the president choosing a different path; the clamor of the victorious Left for gun-law reform was just too strong. But the ripple effect has disrupted Obama's entire year. In April came the Boston Marathon bombing, which occurred just two days before gun control officially died in the Senate. In May came a trio of mini-scandals: new revelations about Benghazi; the alleged IRS targeting of tea-party groups; and then the Justice Department's snooping on reporters. A month later, Edward Snowden's first leaks started emerging and have yet to stop. Many of these developments deepened partisan resentments.
The summer brought little progress, as Congress left town for most of August. By the time it returned, another issue Obama wanted desperately to avoid—Syria—was threatening his agenda. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz and company set the federal government on the path to a shutdown. Looming ahead was the Health Care.gov fiasco.
