How do you spell enthusiasm in the age of Obama? RELIEF.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
WASHINGTON – This is what happens when Candidate Obama is unleashed.
From Art, who covers the movement progressive beat over at my place and runs a Democratic group in Texas.
color me relieved frankly by his debt details…
Relief isn’t exactly a rousing call to action, but perhaps it’s a new beginning.
For David Brooks, it’s decidedly not.
I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap.
So, Obama gets the base to react even if what he’s proposing is exactly what the “professional Left” has been advising for ages. Ideas Pres. Obama has shunned, his team has derided, while he offered back door proposals that sell Democratic Party principles out completely, as the elite media applauded bipartisanship on the Right’s terms. Yes, I’m reiterating these points yet again, but they’re the whole ballgame, even if Team Obama won’t admit they were wrong all along.
Pres. Obama and his reelection team have figured out he can’t get reelected with only his loyal fan base, because it’s dwindled significantly since ’08, so he’s got no choice but to do what every single politician seeking reelection must do and that’s rev up his base and those fickle Independents, a very large swath who vote on persona more than anything else. Without them, which includes a lot of die hard progressives who make a difference on the ground, Obama would be a one-term president. Because you can bet Republicans are planning to do everything they can to make that happen.
From Ezra Klein yesterday:
The administration was initially pleased to see press reports detailing their willingness to compromise and surveys showing the American people thought the GOP far more intransigent. In their theory of politics, that meant they were winning. But they soon learned that voters aren’t interested in compromises that don’t lead to results. Obama looked like a nice guy, and that kept him personally popular. But he looked like an ineffectual leader, and that led his job approval to dip below 40 percent in some polls. [...] The White House could have been hammering that message since the day the House Republican Conference passed Ryan’s budget. They didn’t. The truth is, they didn’t want to. The president doesn’t think of himself as that kind of Democrat. He believes that there are sensible cuts that can be made to both Medicare and Social Security. [...] But the second-best outcome isn’t necessarily looking like the most reasonable guy in the room. It’s looking like the strongest leader in the room. – Ezra Klein
Democrats and progressives from all quarters are “relieved.” That’s the word I’m hearing and reading.
If you’ve been listening to Republicans they are not. Candidate Obama resurfacing this far out from 2012 is their very worst nightmare.
However for many, it’s almost like the last 2 years never happened, proving why regular voters usually end up coming home to their political party of choice. Candidates always sound better when railing about large injustices and the differences between them and that awful man/woman from the other side. It’s when they have to govern they end up looking so spineless, because most won’t stand on a line to fight and die on principle, doing the job they were elected to do instead of worrying about their reviews.
A while back I wrote that Pres. Obama had until November to turn things around.
His jobs pitch in the well of the House last week didn’t do it. Yesterday, Pres. Obama began to make a much stronger case, the best reelection pitch he’s made. He’s quit trying to out Republican the Republicans, pivoting and hitting the target on the differences between the parties. It took him long enough.
Pres. Obama has been chased from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Candidate Obama is now running the show.
The question is after Pres. Obama’s dismal leadership the last two years whether people beyond his base will choose to believe again.
Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.
11 Responses to “How do you spell enthusiasm in the age of Obama? RELIEF.”
What will be candidate Obama’s substitute for “Hope” and “Change”?
Best answer gets a front seat at his inauguration speech (on TV, of course).
Candidate Obama and how he is reelected.
1. People should not research his administrations propsals for cutting spending in Medicare and how that will be done. For seniors, his proposals leave alot to be desired such as reduced physician payments, increased deductibles and less payments for drugs. If the republicans made these same proposals, they would be shown pushing grammy over the clift.
2. People should not follow what is happening in Afghanistan since they will find that the Taliban is becoming stronger and when we leave on orders from the White House due to political gains, they will return to rule that country again. Once again, the Americans win the fight (OBL), but lose the war with thousands of American lives lost for nothing, the same as with Vietnam.
3 People should not research Obamas class warfare or they will find most millionaires pay 29% or more taxes. The Buffett rule is an exception and when he begins paying more than 17%, most likely everyone getting anything from capital gains (house sales included) will pay more than the 15% they now pay in Cap Gain Taxes.
4. Last, when people see the candidate the right wing of the republican party provides as a candidate, the right center part of this country will look again and determine Obama is the lessor of two evils. They will vote Democrat, Libertarian or not at all for the Presidential election.Long gone are Reagan democrats and the right offering anyone like Reagan who would compromise (SS age going to 67 as worked out with Tip O’Neal) No way will the republicans ever provide a candidate that is willing to work with all parties again to get something done as compromise to a Republican today is as bad to them as a four letter word to many christians.
And the result will be another 4 years of fighting, nothing substantial getting done and the country going farther into the “outhouse” hole for the future generations to fix that our generation does not have the guts to fix ourselves.
Not sure deficit reduction is going to trump unemployment statistics for candidate Obama, but I understand why he is shifting the conversation over to that.
It’s a good beginning Taylor. It should be increasingly obvious that Obama leadership skills unmatched by anyone the R’s have come up with, but he needs to expand on the points covered in his last speech. If that was a window into an Obama who has learned what “bipartisanship” really means to the GOP, then perhaps this is an opportunity to move forward in a more realistic, progressive (in all senses of the word), and courageous manner.
JS, I don’t see superior leadership/management skills in handling the Reps, Congress, internationally, economically or else they are hidden from us. I see very good oratorical skills and masterly use of platitudes and deflection of blame talents.
You are correct that the Rep field doesn’t inspire in those areas, but remember Obama was a pig in a poke but he got elected.
And, if the election were held today, Romney might win. Obama needs to pull an employment rabbit out of a top hat (now made in China)if he is to win in 2012.
You make good points duck. If however (a big if yes) he starts to match his words with actions, then there is still hope for this particular president (and by extension the country). If it only ends up being more pretty words, then he will (at the very least) lose the progressives he need in order to win a second term. As for Romney, well… he may be the most moderate of the republican wannabees, but so far I don’t see how he would be an improvement over Obama. He would still have to deal with dems who were smarting over losing their prez and he would have to deal with the TP and like-minded R’s – which could be even worse.
It’s a good thing for Democrats that Candidate Obama’s making an appearance-because the man can’t Govern, but he is fantastic at running for office.
Nobody can deal with these Greedy Republicans. The republican party does not see anything but their vision of a Corporate Republic replacing our representative democracy.
Sorry to say, I have to agree with your last comment Allen. I wish it weren’t so. I remember when the GOP was actually a party of the people, but that seems like a long time ago.
I wish somebody reputable would do a survey/poll asking if some of the one liners bandied about agree with their viewpoint. To Dems: Do you think the government can solve all problems from cradle to grave?
Reps: Do you want a corporate republic?
Dems and Reps: Do you think the other party is always wrong or inept or evil?
Add your own.
You can ask duck.
You’re reputable aren’t you?