As I understand it, the governing strategy of the Obama administration has been simple:
1. Rule from the sensible, bipartisan, technocratic, consensus center and pursue good policies.
2. Staff your administration with smart centrists--people who are, like me, between weak-tea social democrats and Dewey-Eisenhower-Rockefeller Republicans.
3. Try hard to build bipartisan legislative coalitions from the center out.
4. But in the end go for bills rather than issues--pass something, rather than drawing a line and urging the people to give you the members of congress you need to pass a good bill.
5. Wait for the press corps to recognize that the Republicans are absolutely totally bats--- insane and tell this to the voters.
But this strategy does not seem to be working for three reasons:
1. The Republicans are all insane--not just the Republican right, not just the Republican center, but the left wing of the Republican Party as well.
2. The press is not cooperating--they continue their "opinions of shape of earth differ" reporting.
3. "Consensus" policies on the economy were not "technocratic"--they have left us with a still overmighty and uncurbed financial sector, with 9.7% unemployment, and with an electorate rightly dissatisfied with the management of the economy.
President Obama needs to chart a different course for the country's sake. But what?
I agree that this is a fair description of Obama’s strategy. And it was fairly apparent from the time his first nominees were named that this was the direction his administration was headed. But I think the strategy was and remains seriously misguided, and has done much more harm to his standing with the American people than good.
First of all, you should always focus on the people that brought you to where you are. The Republicans recognize this. When Bush took office in 2001 the first thing he did was focus on his tax cuts – provide red meat to the people who supported you through the election. But Obama did not do this. Instead, his opening offer on his major pieces of legislation – the stimulus and health care reform - were watered-down versions of what his constituency wanted. Then he allowed them to be watered down even further to get some token Republican support. Contrast that with the way Bush ran his presidency, and you can see why he had his legislative successes and Obama has not. Now would he have faced some criticism from Republicans had he done this – sure, but he faces criticism anyway. We are now 15 months into his presidency and a sizeable percentage of the people who voted for him (myself included) are thoroughly demoralized, while the people that voted against him continue to oppose him vociferously.
Second, going for bills rather than issues is cynicism at its worst, and the American people know this. It puts cosmetics above substance. And it assumes that the American people are too dumb to know the difference. Well, except for a relative handful of tea partiers, they aren’t. And that is doubly true for his core supporters.
Finally, relying on the press corps to point out the craziness of the Republicans is useless. Our press corps is now entirely controlled by a corporate elite that is completely out of touch with the American people. This, too, Obama should have learned from the results of November, 2008. Of course, the American people recognize this as well, with both TV News viewership and newspaper circulation figures declining precipitously in recent years. The media does not speak to them anymore.
The worst part, of course, is the second prong of the strategy Brad outlines above. Because as long as Obama continues to surround himself with Raum and his ilk, he is never going to be able to change course. These people actually believe they are succeeding as his popularity continues to decline. Heaven knows what failure would look like to them.
