POLITICO: …In part, [President Barack] Obama’s got the larger political dynamics to thank. At this point in the run-up to 2008, everyone knew who the candidates were going to be, and most of the candidates had already started picking out office space for their headquarters.. This time around, even the politician most expected to run — Hillary Clinton — has pushed off a final announcement until the spring. The action’s so slim that Jeb Bush’s Facebook post that he was “actively exploring” a presidential run was enough to come off like a cannonball.
And as much as White House aides gloat about the recent run of good news that’s fed the sense of a turnaround — “It gets better,” was the year-end message Obama stressed as he closed up the press conference and got ready to head to Hawaii for two weeks — they admit that they’ve gotten lucky in the timing. The climate deal with China, the booming Obamacare enrollment numbers, the teetering of the Russian economy — were all the result of long planning but ripened in close succession more on their own timetable than due to any great plan to jam-pack the last few weeks of the year.
Then there’s the president’s reopening of relations with Cuba. Beyond revamping one of the longest-standing pieces of American foreign policy, Obama on Wednesday pulled off a total surprise, with the news not leaking until the plane carrying freed American Alan Gross was already in U.S. airspace. Sure Obama’s planning on opening an embassy in Havana, but the move allowed him to project more than that: He’s got stuff up his sleeve most people aren’t even thinking about, and there’s no predicting what he might do next — on his own… (more)
“Be afraid…..be very afraid!!!”