Presidentin'

(Yes, I have returned.)

Thought to ponder: why should a president be scrambling to preserve/redo his party's political strategy after he's gotten into the White House and not in a Presidential election year? Wouldn't it make more sense to propose legislation? Pass executive orders? Do other presidential…things?

I find it off-putting that Obama has brought his 2008 Presidential campaign strategist (David Plouffe) back to his side to essentially help plan the 2010 mid-terms, as though that action is befitting a president's time. He can't be concerned with running his party's races for them. And there can't be legislative/agenda issues at stake, because if his proposed policies can't pass muster with Dem supermajorities, no amount of stopgap campaigning or spin over the next ten months will magically bring left-of-center dream bills to his desk.

Back in the day (before Nov. 4, 2008) it was popular to bash any hint of politicizing of the White House. Everything Bush did was partisan and to advance the Republican right-wing agenda, right? Evil Karl Rove and Dick Cheney plotting to force unwed pregnant teen lesbians to have babies, marry men and register with the NRA. What's the big difference now? Are we so wrapped up in a cult of personality* that we can't see the spin?

Obama's first year as president, arguably, has not been stellar. Moreso than that, the third year of complete Democratic Congressional control (and the first of supermajorities) was nothing short of disaster. The situation can be summed up in two words: sore winners. Now that power had been firmly deposited in one party's greasy hands, and with margins that haven't been seen in quite some years, it was assumed Obama would get his wish list passed one item after the other. Bills would be rammed through GOP whining for the time was NOW! for the Democratic Liberal Ascendancy!

Not the case. Some Dems, it turns out, favor the middle of the spectrum. And those Republicans who have liberal leanings aren't about to exercise them to support legislation that their wounded party is rallying against (what's the point of being an opposition party if you don't stand firm against the other side…am I right, Democrats circa 2002-2006?). The votes were there…but they weren't. Moderates wouldn't go along with the nah-nah-nah proposed leftist agenda that completely left them and right-of-centers out of the loop. Bargains were tried, compromises, backroom chicanery (and all this amidst the "Transparent Administration"). Failure!

Now, after Mass., NJ and VA gave the Republicans amazing headwinds with strong recent victories where Obama won with double-digits only a year prior, the White House has decided to circle the wagons to redefine the partisan message for the year. Not the American message, nor the strategy for the whole country. But the Democratic Party's agenda. Because that's good presidentin'. That heals the wounds, brings John Edwards' "two Americas" together, or somesuch.

How am I to have faith that President Obama will keep my, a Republican's, best interests at heart when he is shutting out my party from the conversation? And what if I were a Conservative, Libertarian, Constitutional or etc. Party member from the middle/middle-right? Why is the White House trying to energize only one segment of the electorate this year? And it's a segment that, according to most recent polls, is diminishing with each month. (Less consider themselves Dems now than did a year ago, and more consider themselves Conservative than Liberal.)

I know, it's the mid-terms, and it's been done before. During his tenure with GWBush, you know that Karl Rove was involved in many national campaigns. But to me, this looks worse. It looks like a President stepping up his party's game for the sole reason of winning elections and not to enact meaningful legislation. Hiring a consultant to rattle sabers and rah-rah-rah your whimpering candidates is a job for the DNC, not the President of the United States.

This past year has been tough for Obama, and he's had many backed-in-the-corner moments. I don't blame him for the ills of the world any more than I blamed Bush. But what's he's doing now, the overt politicizing…it's disappointing to see. It's Italian politics, and you don't get much lower than that in the Western world.

-Erik

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*(Well, that cult of personality has been disappearing rapidly over the last seven months. Obama's had a 15+ overall approval swing down, below 50%, the worst first year showing for a President since these things have been tracked. Kudos for breaking another barrier!)