Obama tried too hard to work with Republicans
WASHINGTON — Amplified by the right-wing message machine, Republicans paint President Obama as an unyielding left-winger, an unreconstructed liberal who refuses to compromise. The president’s critics have turned the truth inside out: One of Obama’s greatest political weaknesses has been his stubborn — and unrequited — love for bipartisanship.
The president has made some of his biggest mistakes trying to woo a GOP opposition that has committed itself to frustrating him at every turn. If he had ignored recalcitrant Republicans, for example, his health care legislation might have become law without months of damaging political drama.
In an interview last week in his West Wing office, David Axelrod, one of Obama’s closest advisers, acknowledged that the administration had been surprised by the unified Republican resistance to the president’s agenda.
“Well, I think we miscalculated,” Axelrod said. “We had the idea that, particularly in a time of national crisis, there would be more of an inclination to work together.
“One of the bracing moments was when the president was on his way over . . to Capitol Hill to talk to the Republican House caucus about the Recovery Act. They issued a press release while he was on his way over to say that they were going to vote en masse against it. And that was a signal . . of things to come.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February 2009 without a single vote from a Republican in the House and the backing of just three in the Senate, even though nearly a third of it came in the form of tax cuts — usually a GOP tool for fixing anything. Most economists have credited the stimulus package with creating jobs and helping to end the recession, but Republicans continue to denounce it as boondoggle that blew a hole in the federal budget.
“I think the Republicans have been diabolically clever about how they’ve portrayed this,” Axelrod conceded. “They stood on the sidelines and made a decision that ‘we’re going to let him wrestle with this mess that we created. And then in two years we can try and hang him with it.’ “
After the stimulus, Obama and his Democratic allies tried to negotiate with GOP leaders on health insurance reform — a decision that gave critics time to mischaracterize the proposal and gin up opposition. Remember death panels? Government-funded abortions? Rationing?
Still, Obama kept going back with proposals meant to lure a few Republican votes for his agenda. That led to his disastrous announcement, just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, to expand off-shore drilling.
While Alexrod denied that the announcement amounted to a “quid pro quo,” Obama clearly believed that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and a couple of other GOP senators would, in exchange, support groundbreaking energy legislation that included a price on carbon emissions.
Obama didn’t get what he bargained for. The months-long environmental disaster dominated news coverage, obscured the president’s work on the economy and gave his critics more fodder to claim his administration is incompetent. And, since the accident forced the White House to tiptoe away from its eager embrace of off-shore drilling, it also provided Graham an excuse to back away from energy legislation.
A naïve expectation of bipartisan cooperation hasn’t been Obama’s only mistake. He waited until the last possible moment to try to inspire his base for the mid-term elections. Unlike Ronald Reagan, whose poll ratings were slightly lower than Obama’s just before the 1982 mid-term elections, Obama didn’t take every possible opportunity to pin the economic mess on his predecessor.
Nor did the president tamp down the huge expectations generated by his historic election. That has proved costly, as was clear during the president’s encounter with the “exhausted” Velma Hart, a supporter who questioned him during a recent town hall-style meeting.
“There’s no doubt that part of what we’ve encountered is the mismatch between very, very high expectations and the magnitude of the problems that we’ve been called upon to solve,” Alexrod said.
But the expected Republican gains in the coming mid-term elections may solve one of Obama’s problems: his misplaced faith in logic, persuasion and cooperation in the national interest. Tea-party-fueled anger has produced a wave of GOP candidates for whom the word “compromise” is akin to treason. There can be no miscalculation about their intentions.
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1,244 comments Add your comment
Chris
October 15th, 2010
10:34 am
What is as sad as the article itself are the people on both sides who hate one another just because of a letter behind a name and because the people behind the letter behind their own name told them to do so.
I don’t particularly like either party right now, but this article isn’t going to make me like Democrats better. Far from it. You have extremism on both sides, don’t forget it. And the last-ditch manic efforts to hold on to power are just as bad as ignoring facts and trumpeting the alarm to gain power. Nobody is going to win come the first Wednesday in November.
jonny
October 15th, 2010
10:34 am
Thanks for finally saying what most of us always knew. Obama isn’t the genius that all you liberals thought he was. He’s never been what this country needed or wanted. Right place, right time. It’s as simple as that. Now we kick his friends out and then he’s next.
Anna
October 15th, 2010
10:35 am
Cynthia is usually wrong but this is egregious even for her. To claim that Obama hasn’t tried to pin his economic problems on Bush at every possible moment is delusional. People are just fed up with the tactic and it’s no longer working. As for Sen. Graham and the energy legislation, which I oppose, Graham was working with the White House when they went behind his back and issued a press release that threw him under the bus at which time he withdrew his cooperation. Obama and his merry band of Chicago thugs have been high-handed, arrogant and duplicitous at every turn. They play politics with every issue and play dirty. Obama has treated those who don’t agree with him with contempt and derision. Tucker and Obama have alot in common – the truth is of no interest.
Nothing Is Free
October 15th, 2010
10:35 am
JDW
So you are saying that the democrats that were thrown out of office in 1994 was the reason why Clinton had a good fiscal run.
LOL!!
I’m thinking of a word for you right now. Can you guess what it is?
JDW
October 15th, 2010
10:36 am
“In your rant claiming what you believe, you stated about 90% of what she believes.”
I think you need to check her beliefs and particularly her methods a bit more closely.
ConservaTarian
October 15th, 2010
10:36 am
Get real, Cynthia. Obama – under threat of complete failure of his health care take-over – “invited” the Republicans to the so-called HealthCare Summit in February and they cleaned his proverbial clock with facts and figures. They demonstrated for all to see that Emperor Obama wore no clothes. Spin it all you want, but the American people have finally realized that they elected someone totally unprepared and unqualified for the job.
Gator Joe
October 15th, 2010
10:36 am
Cynthia,
The ignorance, intolerance, and the bigotry exhibited by the Tea Party mobs is the outward expression of how most of the Republican Party’s representatives in Congress actually think. Republican obstruction and obstinance in Congress, since President Obama was elected, is just a tamer, and more sublte, expression of this ignorance, intolerance and bigotry. If the Republicans succeed in gaining control of the House, or the Senate, those who are suffering now, will suffer even more. Tragically some of those suffering, will have voted to prolong their suffering.
Nothing Is Free
October 15th, 2010
10:37 am
JDW
I think you need to get your nose out of Salon.com and pick up a book.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:38 am
FIRE THE HOUSE, FIRE THE SENATE, FIRE OBAMA and FIRE CYNTHIA!!!
4 America
October 15th, 2010
10:38 am
Obama, didn’t listen to the American public about health care and ramrod the bill down our throats, when clearly the majority of the people did not want this bill. I get it Ms Tucker, you are black so you all will defend him and stick together no matter how bad this Odummy screws up. However, quit blaming the rebups, or have you forgotten how one of your heroes, Mr. Tom Daschal would not even bring republican bills to the floor for a vote when he was in power? Seems you people forget everything except that you feel you are entitled. The idiot was voted in when he didn’t have any experience if you look back at it. He has appointed Czars to high post, excuse me is that not a Russian term? He is destroying the economy, but lets face it, he is a Muslim and he is trying to bring this country down, and if America doesn’t wake up he will succeed. I know, I know, I am a radical…so was my great, great, great grandfather that took up arms against England in a radical war to gain this countries freedom, so scum like you can write this drivel. Also my father is radical as he was in the second wave at Omaha beach on June 6, 1944, and of course I am radical after spending a year in southeast Asia fighting for LBJ and what?. You people make me sick blaming everyone else, face it the man is a loser and a terrible leader and youkjust can’t handle the truth Ms. Tucker….sometimes it hurts doesn’t it.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:38 am
Gator….great job in vocalizing your ignorance! Thank you.
Jen
October 15th, 2010
10:39 am
I think liberal/progressive idiots are all on some kind of drug. He tried to work with the GOP?? Are you joking? He had a SUPER MAJORITY, and made every effort to exploit it. Remember the “you lost” comment??? It’s not Bush’s fault and it’s not the GOPs fault – he couldn’t carry his party, and the GOP could stop NOTHING.
JDW
October 15th, 2010
10:39 am
“So you are saying that the democrats that were thrown out of office in 1994 was the reason why Clinton had a good fiscal run.”
Nope I am saying that Clinton put in place the only reasonable model for managing the budget in my lifetime and it worked…right up until Duhbya dismantled it.
If you know anything about running a business you know that the model is critical and that is what Clinton got right.
dw
October 15th, 2010
10:40 am
as a black man, I blame the President’s crappy job on the white part of his heritage
Mungo Park
October 15th, 2010
10:40 am
This incredibly silly woman thinks that half the US elected Obama to be a benevolent dictator, and the other half is very, very naughty because it won’t go along with the gag. To her (and to Obama), bipartisanship is when the opposition smiles, tips it hat, and caves in.
Obama has no credentials for anything in particular, and definitely not for a dictatorship in a representative democracy.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:41 am
JDW….I guess riding the internet bubble during his presidency had NOTHING to do with the success of the economy during those 8 years?
JDW
October 15th, 2010
10:41 am
“I think you need to get your nose out of Salon.com and pick up a book.”
As I have gotten older I have slacked off to about 100 a year…I will pick up the pace. Thanks for the advice.
James
October 15th, 2010
10:42 am
What is quite a shame is seeing once again Bernake wants to throw $s at the unemployment problem. His/their measurement of inflation is ex food and energy meaning the lower income and unemployed can buy all the plastic sh%t they want- they just want to be able to afford gas and food as we are heading back to $4 a gallon gas.
I can’t wait until we can fade DC.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:42 am
DW…..The white part is the part that works. The black part is what is a provoking him to increase food stamps, welfare and SS. Hahaahahaha
Nothing Is Free
October 15th, 2010
10:42 am
JDW
- -I support strong defense and coherent foreign policy- –
Sounds like Palin
- -I support individual freedom, – -
Sounds like Palin
- -I support reducing abortion- –
Sounds like Palin
- -I have enough sense to understand the theory of evolution- –
Sarah has the sense, but she wants everyone to have the freedom to decide for themselves, so your dictatorial attitude toward religion is a difference between you and palin.
- -I support qualified candidates- –
But you voted for a community organizer over a veteran senator and war hero and a governor of a state.
I know that you are dedicated, but to what?
HDB
October 15th, 2010
10:42 am
JDW/NiF….Lest many forget….it was the Republicans that shut down the government during the Clinton years in an attempt to force Clinton into supporting their legislation. Clinton had the smarts to call them on it….
Divided government works best when a Democratic Administration is in control!!
Paul Thomas October 15th, 2010
9:35 am
Let’s see — Truman ordered the desegregation of the Armed Forces; LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964…and JFK/RFK had MLK released from the Birminghan Jail….while those racist Dixiecrats along wioth Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan left the Democratic Party, migrated to the GOP, brought a racist paradigm with them….and continued what they started!! Admittedly, both sides have dirt on their hands…but in MODERN history, it’s been evident that the GOP carries forth the historical Democrat paradigm!! Did you know the GOP prior to 1964 WAS LIBERAL???
If you want to assign blame….here’s what Thomas Sowell said:
According to Sowell, in his 2005 Black Rednecks and White Liberals, what many see as pathologies of contemporary black culture actually derive from a dysfunctional historical white-southern “cracker” culture.
“What the [white] rednecks or crackers brought with them across the ocean was a whole constellation of attitudes, values, and behavior patterns that might have made sense in the world in which they had lived for centuries, but which would prove to be counterproductive in the world to which they were going — and counterproductive to the blacks who would live in their midst for centuries before emerging into freedom and migrating to the great urban centers of the United States, taking with them similar values.
The cultural values and social patterns prevalent among Southern whites included an aversion to work, proneness to violence, neglect of education, sexual promiscuity, improvidence, drunkenness, lack of entrepreneurship, reckless searches for excitement, a lively music and dance, and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery. This oratorical style carried over into the political oratory of the region in both the Jim Crow era and the civil rights era, and has continued on into our own times among black politicians, preachers, and activists. Touchy pride, vanity, and boastful self-dramatization were also part of this redneck culture among people from regions of Britain where the civilization was the least developed.”
BTW – Affirmative Action also generated Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Walter WIlliams, Colin Powell…..
JR
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
Never before have I seen a Cynthia Tucker column containing this much BS on one page. And that is saying something.
gia jones
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
You’ve got to put down the KoolAid. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Giving Republicans an opportunity to agree with your legislation before you cram it through Congress without
amendments does NOT meet the minimum definition of bipartisanship.
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
NIF
The NERVE of you claiming to hit a NERVE with me is just so
NERVE-A-LISCIOUS.
I know it hurts you to face your fears, but you must.
You live in fear. I live in courage.
It’s what my pop taught me and what I continue to teach.
Own it.
Oops...another hater
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
“The ignorance, intolerance, and the bigotry exhibited by the Tea Party mobs is the outward expression of how most of the Republican Party’s representatives in Congress actually think. Republican obstruction”
Another HATER slips in thru the back door but that ok. Mr HATER have a seat and dine off the scarp from ObamaShanks table.
Republican Obstruction? How is that possible with the Dem Majority in both houses and a Dem Pres. Please explain.
lovelyliz
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
QUESTION OF THE DAY: When have the Republicans ever submitted a balanced federal budget?
The GOP isn’t about cutting spending, they merely shift it from programs that help people (SS, Medicare, Pell Grants, etc) to prgrams that help THEIR people (military industrial complex, big corporations, bridges to no where, etc)
Plato
October 15th, 2010
10:43 am
Reggie Bush gave back his Heisman trophy. You should give back your Pulitzer.
Good Grief
October 15th, 2010
10:44 am
gliderdrive at 10:22 – careful what you say here. Remember, liberals good, conservative bad.
Interesting note, I’ve found an article presenting information about the Bush Tax Cuts and the reason they are expiring. Turns out tax cuts passed under reconciliation automatically expire after ten years. They had to be passed under reconciliation because there was liberal opposition to them. Bush then proposed, in each budget, that the cuts be made permanent. They obviously were not, even though Democrats have now had four years to make them permanent.
Of course, this information comes from the Heritage Foundation, which means Granny will call it piffle, and other will automatically discard it. If it came from Media Matters or MoveOn, these people would praise it as gospel.
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
AND I GET ANOTHER STANDING OVATION FROM THE NAMEJACKER!!
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:32 am
If you really want to make it up to me then FedEx me a case of Spam and a case of Manwich. Spamwich…mmmmm!!!
Link Report this comment
Next time, try rose petals at my feet…..
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
Lovelyliz…..what are you talking about we are about to see a deficit of $1trillion for the second straight year. What is Obama doing to balance the budget?
Chris
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
Wait, so now Ronald Reagan was a racist? Why didn’t anyone tell me?
Redneck
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
Cynthia, put down the Koolaid and move slowly away from the table! Now listen carefully, Obama is not a god and his words are not from the scripture. He, and you, are suffering from delusions. They will be taken care of on Nov 2!!!
Nothing Is Free
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
granny
You claim to have courage but support the party of dependents.
Sorry but that’s just too funny.
If you were really courageous, you wouldn’t ant the government to own you.
Booger Presley
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
JDW
October 15th, 2010
10:39 am
Nice try but it was the Internet Bubble that sustained him. I made tons of cash in the stock market but equate it not to Clinton. He was just in the right place at the right time.
Fishfeet
October 15th, 2010
10:45 am
Someone must have sneaked into your home, stuck a straw in your, and sucked out 2/3’s of your brain. This article has no grasp of reality.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:47 am
Presley great point.
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:47 am
I do have courage. I dine on SpamWich. You tell me that doesnt take courage.
JDW
October 15th, 2010
10:48 am
“I guess riding the internet bubble during his presidency had NOTHING to do with the success of the economy during those 8 years?”
It drove the headlines not the results…
But the real stunner is this: The biggest winners from the faster productivity growth of the 1990s were workers, not investors. In the end, workers reaped most of the gains from the added output generated by the New Economy productivity speedup. This revelation helps explain why consumer spending stayed so strong in the recession–and why businesses may struggle in the months ahead.
The key is that wage growth accelerated dramatically for most American workers in the 1990s business cycle. Real wage gains for private-sector workers averaged 1.3% a year, from the beginning of the expansion in March, 1991, to the apparent end of the recession in December, 2001.
Perspective for you
businessweek.com /magazine/content/02_13/b3776001.htm
Booger Presley
October 15th, 2010
10:48 am
And thanks to you also GW!
Billybob
October 15th, 2010
10:50 am
Gator Joe,
You play the race card almost as well as Tucker does. That liberal template is just about played out…congrats!
Booger Presley
October 15th, 2010
10:51 am
JDW. Thats because of the constant creation of non-”Brick and Mortar” stores. The internet brought about all these new business for the New Economy and that was fine. The problem was that after 5 to 6 quarters of not showing a profit the banks pulled the plug and up in smoke most of these companies went.
Remember that online grocery store that would deliver your groceries? Yepp and there were many others.
George W
October 15th, 2010
10:51 am
JDW….why do you insist on being so hellbent on the fact that Clinton was the cause of the economy being great during those times. Please tell me one thing he did to improve the economy or the budget at that time. The only thing that I give him credit for is not spending the money when he got the surplus.
Keep It Real!
October 15th, 2010
10:51 am
Home Land Security…. Yes that is a real winner… I guess we could not expand the FBI.
From 2000 to 2008 ….10 millions illegal came across the border…Well at least they assisted in building this big house I live…
2by4
October 15th, 2010
10:51 am
Cynthia I don’t know why you bother and try and explain things to some of the folks in Georgia. They are stuck in their ways and thinking. The Tea party is a Militia. mthey seem to be wary of educated people. A perfect example of this is the guy that was in charge of FEMA under Bush he had no experience in disater recovery or emergency planning only horses and when a disater happened he couldn’t handle it. that is what you get. In georgia this is the order of the day. if someone who only had a GED or high school diploma can try to run for Governor of this state that shows you the mentality. If a fire was burning in their house and Obama came to the front door and said you have to leave now they would rather burn. The facts are out there for eight years the ecomony was being decimated, but it is all Obama’s fault. There is no point trying to explain because the real problem they have with Obama is who he is and what he is.
He has all the crendentials to be anything CEO president or what ever but they would prefer a buffon as along as he is their hue. That is the bottom line and you can all say what you want because I used to attack CT but she is a down the middle person.
You can all hide behind different reason for not liking Obama but the real reason is written on the wall. I cannot wait till Georgia becomes a state where nobody wants to visit or live because your heading in that path. Remember before the olymipic Games nobody knew where the hell this state was.
John Galt
October 15th, 2010
10:51 am
I was laughing until I started shuddering- there are millions of people just as ignorant and blind as this amateur- and they have a vote just like me.
charlie
October 15th, 2010
10:52 am
“tried too hard”. Honey that dog won’t hunt.
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:52 am
NIF
I’m not the one ranting about people taking babies…..
And you dear heart, what with David Vitter,
support the party of depends!
Enjoy your serfdom to your corporate masters……
Equality 7-2521
October 15th, 2010
10:53 am
Obama also tried really hard to end the birth certificate controversy.
He tried hard to follow the Constitution.
He tried hard to quit smoking.
he found it hard to deny his Marxist roots.
guy
October 15th, 2010
10:53 am
Why even comment on this column of CT’s? These type of liberal and leftist people are so angry and ignorant until they only make fools out of themselves.
Ignorance is bliss and it shows!
granny godzilla
October 15th, 2010
10:53 am
oh the flattery…..it makes be blush!