Obama Trying To Have It Both Ways
One of President Obama's political weaknesses in his first
term has been that he's all-too-willing to avoid making tough decisions,
hesitant to expend political capital for potential long-term gain. Throughout his first term in office, he's had a cautious governing style, and has avoided taking on some of his party's core constituencies.
He delegated the crafting of his health care bill to Congressional leaders, he declined to embrace the deficit-reduction recommendations of his own Bowles-Simpson commission, and most recently, he punted on a long-planned construction of a pipeline to avoid a confrontation with environmentalists. During the debt ceiling debate, he wanted to be seen as the grown-up in the room - that's politically advantageous - but hardly specified any of the tough budget cuts or entitlement reforms he would have liked - a much tougher political proposition.
On political messaging, too, White House strategists seem all-too-eager to have their cake and eat it too. The strategy for the summer was to portray Obama as the bipartisan conciliator because that's what they thought independent voters wanted. When that failed, Obama's now become the populist protector of the working class. It's enough to make your head spin.
Publicly Obama campaign strategists insist they'll be able to win over blue-collar working-class voters and white-collar suburbanites - and won't have to make difficult decisions over which states are more important to contest. It's part of the philosophy that you can have your cake and eat it too - even in the face of contrary evidence.
So when I was reading this story from Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas in the Los Angeles Times, I had another sense of déjà vu. In it, Obama advisers claim the president has gained support over the last month because he avoided engaging with Congress over the super committee budget deliberations. They argued that as he's kept his distance from an unpopular Congress, he's seen his approval inch upwards ever-so-slightly.
But in the same breath, they're arguing that to avoid a perception
of "weak leadership," he needs to actively involve himself in preserving a tax
break for American workers. So over the
next month, he's going to be pushing for the renewal of the payroll tax cut and
extension of unemployment benefits. Heck, he may even ask for a primetime television address on this fresh legislative fight -- if the TV networks allow it.
Granted, getting involved in what was likely to be a tough, potentially fruitless effort with the super committee is a lot more politically risky than supporting tax cut extensions, and trying to get the upper hand on a broadly popular issue against Republicans. But it also continues to reinforce that the president is focused on taking the politically-safe route, and not take any risks that could lead to policy breakthroughs.
Team Obama has been eager to characterize Mitt Romney - for good reason -- as a fly-by-the-wind politician who's flipped on core issues. But when it comes to political bravery, Obama isn't going to win any profiles in courage, either.
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