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Politico...
Left laments Obama’s
move to center
By Meredith Shiner and Maggie Haberman
January 24, 2011
President Barack Obama plans to play up a bright future with
congressional Republicans by channeling his 2008 campaign message of
post-partisanship in his State of the Union address — but the liberal
wing of his party isn’t quite seeing the light.
As the president touts spending austerity, deficit reduction and
extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, some Democrats worry Obama will
pivot too hard away from the party’s core principles and concede too
much to the new House GOP majority that campaigned on destroying his
agenda.
“I don’t think he should have this tone that if he rolls on his back
the new Congress is going to rub his belly. A lot of these guys coming
to town campaigned against everything this president wants to achieve,”
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said, adding the president needs to take
an “aggressive” approach to make clear “he’s not going to roll over.”
And the view from the liberal base — what White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs once described as “the professional left” — isn’t any
rosier.
“Marginalizing the left didn’t work in 2010. If Democrats decide to
double down on that strategy, they better pray for a Sarah Palin
nomination,” said liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily
Kos.
A shift to the middle marks a key point in Obama’s presidency, just one
year after a State of the Union in which he praised House Democrats
above all else, hailing then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for moving health
care reform, financial regulatory reform, a jobs bill and climate
change legislation. And it reveals how much Obama’s political reality
has changed now that the 2012 campaign is imminent. At last year’s
address, Obama also faced uncertainty — albeit on a smaller scale —
with Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory to take the late Ted
Kennedy’s Senate seat imperiling health care reform. Then, rather than
backing away, Obama doubled down on his progressive agenda.
Some Democrats now wonder what the president will say and whether he
will be willing to marginalize the left of the party to shore up his
position among independents as his reelection operation gears up in
Chicago.
“That’s a very good question,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Monday
when asked whether Obama might alienate more progressive lawmakers by
overreaching to the right.
Sanders warned that progressives should remain cautiously optimistic
“until we hear the speech,” pointing to Obama’s willingness Monday to
support protecting Social Security initiatives as a positive sign.
Other liberals are hoping for a bold vision – but worry that might not
come through if Obama is tacking to the center.
“You can’t act like these are ordinary times that call for ordinary
solutions,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). “We need extraordinary
efforts to get Americans back to work. ... There are some people who
voted to give the Republicans power. So they’re going to see if in this
Congress Republicans can put America back to work, but I think it’s
important for the president to at least set the stage for the
discussion.”
But while Obama touts themes of unity and healing Tuesday night,
liberals may be the most skeptical audience when it comes to the
substance of his 2011 agenda.
“For many people in that chamber who believe he didn’t make a good deal
on taxes, and they’re looking for signs for the future,” Weiner said,
“he’s going to have to be much tougher in the future — we’re looking
for signs that he gets that.”
For the most part, Democratic lawmakers and aides are wary of being too
openly critical of their president on the eve of a major speech and
believe that embracing a bipartisan tone, particularly in the wake of
the Tucson, Ariz., shootings and his powerful address there, is the
right move.
Dick Durbin of Illinois, an Obama confidant and the No. 2 Senate
Democrat, believes there are enough differences between the two parties
that Democrats and Republicans will eventually have ample material over
which to duke it out after Tuesday’s State of the Union niceties have
been wrapped up.
“I think there will be more than ample opportunity for confrontation,
but that’s not what the State of the Union address will be about,”
Durbin told POLITICO. “It’s an effort for the president to engage the
Republicans in a cooperative effort to do some things for this country,
starting with turning the economy around. ... This is the right
starting point.”
A senior House aide, who had seen the White House talking points on
Tuesday’s speech, said the president’s “No. 1” focus on jobs and
innovation is something with which Democrats are “in complete
agreement,” noting Pelosi’s call as far back as 2005 for an innovation
agenda.
There also may be a tactical advantage for Obama to tack to the right —
it might allow Democrats to reprise the “party of no” label for
Republicans.
“The trepidation that some may feel — it’s not going to be answered
until we hear exactly what he has to say,” said a Democratic
congressional aide. “But you can’t really play ball with these guys if
you don’t make that effort to reach out and work in a bipartisan way.
If you make that effort [to Republicans] and then if they come back and
say, ‘No way’ to working with you, you have the upper hand.”
Some liberal lawmakers are also trying to read between the lines in
Obama’s speech, looking for places where his rhetoric might not match
his intent. For example, if the president uses terms like
“investments,” that’s an indication that Obama still believes in more
government stimulus.
But nearly every Democrat believes Obama needs to draw some bright
lines between himself and Republicans. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
emphasized he needs to be “willing to stand and fight on points where
he feels it’s in the best interest of the nation.”
Democrats are also trying to go on offense a bit — they’ve already
attacked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who will deliver their formal
rebuttal to the president Tuesday night. On Monday, Democrats blasted
news releases and held conference calls to discredit Ryan’s spending
“road map,” which calls for changes in Social Security and Medicare.
And while liberals might feel slighted by having their progressive
ideals ignored this time around, they still realize the power of the
moment for Obama and want him to attack the GOP economic policies
spearheaded by Ryan as the Hill prepares to do battle on a debt limit
debate that is already dividing Republicans and threatening a
government shutdown.
“He’s the president of the United States, and he’s got to go in there
and lean into the idea that he still has an agenda he wants to
accomplish,” Weiner said. “He has to make sure he’s leading the debate
and Paul Ryan is responding, not the other way around.
“He has to make it clear that he’s not going to be held hostage over
issues like the debt-limit increase,” Weiner said.
A labor official, who asked not to be identified in order to speak more
candidly about the president’s political situation, noted that “the
midterm elections freed” Obama to work independently and without regard
to his party’s left.
“The left understands that the choice in 2012 will be Obama or somebody
far worse,” the official said. “They will have no choice, no matter
what Obama says in the State of the Union address. No matter how much
we complain, he knows that at the end of the day, we will be supporting
him in 2012 — and that affects what he can do now. The choice for us
will be an administration that disappointed us or a Republican
administration that will be out to destroy us.”
Read story at Politico
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