Again With the Chilly Breezes in Hell

Wednesday 18 August 2010 - Filed under Dumbassery + Government + Legislation + POTUS

Though it shouldn’t be taken as an overt sign that they are abandoning their pro-Obama point of view, the Times has, once again, exposed one of the many kinks in Obama’s armor:

A more national, outward-looking strategy for creating a “postpartisan” dynamic might have included White House partnerships with Republican governors or even with conservative foundations or industry groups. Because the president effectively boxed himself in to a Capitol Hill-only strategy, though, he handed the Republican minorities in Congress the power to sabotage his goal.

“Once you became a legislative president, which is arguably what you needed to do, you couldn’t deliver on the nonpartisanship promise,” Mr. Podesta said. “And it’s something people wanted.”

[. . .]

Think of it this way: if your singular goal is to pass bills, and Democratic lawmakers are in a frenzy this week over A.I.G.’s bonuses or Goldman Sachs’s investments, then you might feel forced to castigate big business, too.

Much of Mr. Obama’s anti-corporate rhetoric was probably calibrated more to lawmakers than to business leaders, but what the executives heard were declarations of war against American industry.

Perhaps the most damaging consequence of the legislative box is that it left Mr. Obama, who still regards himself as an outsider and a reformer, looking like a Congressional insider — which is about the last thing voters, and independent voters in particular, wanted him to be.

Short version: Obama has been more worried about enacting his agenda via legislation which necessarily aligned him with his Democratic majority in Congress, negating the idea of “post partisanship” he championed during the campaign.

2010-08-18  »  madlibertarianguy