Is Obama calling in the political Cavalry? It sounds that way. There has always been an incredible disconnect with the vigor, energy, combativeness and seeming determination of a candidate Barack Obama. But once in office he seems to operate in a lower-key style and it can’t be all attributed to him believing in the often-constructive practice of compromise. And now it seems like it’s all political hands on deck:
A struggling President Obama is calling for help from members of his first-term A-Team, who have left the White House for other jobs.
With his poll numbers falling and his second-term floundering so far, Obama has sought help from the former aides who helped catapult him to the presidency.
When the president held a recent strategy meeting on the Syria conflict, for example, he invited former political adviser David Plouffe, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, former chief speechwriter Jon Favreau and former National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor to attend.
Ex-advisers like Plouffe, Gibbs and David Axelrod routinely participate in calls with current White House staffers, and Obama has invited the first-term all-stars to strategy sessions on other issues too, former aides said.
And he needs to: Obama now has two huge issues involving confrontation with Republican conservatives whose number one political agenda goal seems to be to break Obama. Forget about all the spin on Obamacare; there is a larger issue at play here. And if Obama’s current political style is “Chicago politics,” as some GOPers insist, then patty-cake must be what is meant by “Chicago politics.”
One former aide described Obama’s trusted inner circle from the first term as “the originals,” and speculated that if they were still at the White House they could have helped prevent some of Obama’s second-term blunders, such as the decision Monday to give a fiery speech criticizing Republicans just hours after 12 people were gunned down a few miles away at the Navy Yard.
“I don’t think he would have made that kind of mistake in the first term,” one former administration official said on Tuesday. “Sometimes it feels like there’s a void over there. There are some new, extraordinary folks over there, but it definitely leaves something to be desired.”
The problem for the Democrats is the “something to be desired” could be more Republicans returned and elected to Congress.
Unless the Republicans blow the chance by shutting the government down or forcing a default on the debt and trying to blame it on Obama.
Which seems increasingly in the cards.
Obama has a “bully pulpit,” but too often these days it resembles a Whoopie Cushion.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.