So President Obama’s “pass it right away” jobs bill can’t even get the Democratic votes it needs to clear the Senate, but that’s no problem. “Winning in Congress was never really part of the plan.” The objective isn’t to actually pass a jobs bill but to obtain an electoral advantage over the GOP. Politico reports:

In a shift for the White House, the relentless focus on the American Jobs Act wasn’t about racking up a legislative win. It was always about laying the foundation for the only real argument Obama has in 2012: I have a plan to create jobs now and Republicans don’t.

Along the way, a president who hates to lose — on the basketball court, in the voting booth or on Capitol Hill — realized it was his surest strategy for winning.

It was obvious from the president’s speech introducing the then-incomplete American Jobs Act that inflicting political damage on Republicans was the primary goal. It would have been nice to think that creating jobs was at least a secondary concern.