2009 Poll Prospects And Alignments

[Guest]

There are too many conflicting reports on the issue. I somehow don't buy the line that SG and MMS together tried to bait the left. There was too much at stake to bait them unnecessarily. If MMS had already told left when they met him that they can withdraw support if necessary, why did he go public with it in the interview? After that meeting b/w MMS and left prior to MMS' interview, the left appeared to be in a concillatory mode. The MMS interview was a direct challenge that left decided to use for its own benefit.

MMS has had lousy advisers and media managers. The planting of stories during the negotiations with US, the unwanted allegations, keeping everyone in the dark about the progress, wrong briefings at wrong times to the media etc, all of them point to someone again advising MMS to shoot off his mouth at the wrong time again.

I still think that MMS might be replaced, and govt will survive and the nuclear deal too might survive if MMS is the price that congress has to pay. Shenoy has it right when he said that left would extract a political price. The left leaders had already made it clear that congress would pay a huge price if it went ahead with the deal. In hindsight, from MMS perspective, would slowdown of reforms made a better quid pro qo for nuclear deal?