Obama vs. the Democrats

[babylonsister]

Obama vs. the Democrats
by John Avlon


Fighting with the GOP is nothing compared to battles that await the president in his own party—over Iraq, health care, and entitlement reform. John Avlon on the coming Democratic wars.

Southern Democrat Lyndon Johnson passed civil-rights legislation. Nixon went to China. Bill Clinton enacted welfare reform. Often it’s a president’s struggle with his own party that results in real progress. And now it’s President Obama’s relationship with liberal special interests and the House Democrats like Nancy Pelosi that will shape the narrative of his administration, for better and for worse.

Obama has a unique problem: He campaigned against the play-to-the-base politics of the Bush era. But Washington runs according to strict rules that reward hyper-partisanship. Bridging that difference with a Democratic majority in Congress is tricky business, but it is essential to prevent an electoral backlash in 2010.

The Obama administration hit its first serious stumbling block with House Democrats when it became apparent they had larded up the stimulus bill with billions of dollars of wish-list pork unrelated to job creation. Independent voters in particular swung against the bill—their cynicism primed by TARP’s unaccountable black box and lack of evident impact—creating political cover for Republican opposition. The 9,000 earmarks included in the subsequent $410 billion spending bill muddied the waters of his reform talk, while the combined Keynesian splurge compromised Obama’s call for fiscal responsibility.

It's not a coincidence that some of Obama’s greatest successes to date have come in the face of opposition from the far left. His centrist Cabinet picks—Robert Gates, Jim Jones, Hillary Clinton—drew confused reactions from committed partisans while reassuring the moderate majority.

Obama’s responsible third-way approach to ending the combat phase of the Iraq War managed to depolarize one of the most divisive political issues of this decade. The plan drew reflexive criticisms from Pelosi, Reid & Co., but with 35,000 to 50,000 residual troops remaining in country, even the architects of the surge believed the levels could stabilize the gains made.

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-12/obama-vs-the-democrats/full/

[BeFree]

1. It is a problem

At the root of it is the idea that all Democrats are somehow above being greedy ripoff artists. Certainly the Dems are not quite as numerous as the pubbie crooks, but we have our share.

The problem lies in that locals are staying out of the action. If the people ever decided to pay rapt attention to what their congressperson was doing with the money, the appropriations would be more congruent with their needs.

But given the sad state of how elections are conducted it should be no surprise that we get the best government that can be bought.

[FreakinDJ]

2. $billions of dollars of wish-list pork unrelated to job creation.

Going to cost the Dems dearly in 2010

[Mass]

4. Sure, particularly if we continue to accept the framing of the GOP

2 % of pork project in the Omnibus Bill, many of them creating jobs, in fact.

[Mass]

3. Sigh. I hope this guy is a GOPer, because, if he is a Democrat, we are in a big problem.

No big splurge in the Stimulus Package. A necessary effort to get the economy on the track by creating projects that get people to work.

There were 2% of earmarks in the Omnibus Bill. 2%, in large part added by the GOP, not the far left which is not represented in the Senate, Sanders excepted.

As for Iraq, Obama did what the Right did not want to see and the center was too chicken to accept: he put in place a timetable to withdraw from Iraq.

So, no need to create an artificial dissension between the left (whatever that is) and Obama. They are mostly on the same page, even if honest people can disagree once in a while in the way to implement a goal.

[babylonsister]

5. Remember Maddow on 'The Conservdems'?

And Evan Bayh is not helping.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-conservadems

Rachel Maddow: The Conservadems
By Heather Friday Mar 13, 2009 6:00pm

Video at link~

Rachel Maddow takes the "conservative" Democrats in the Senate to task for sitting on their hands while Bush was in office, and choosing now to make themselves look as idiotic as the House Republicans - what with their new coalition and a sudden concern for fiscal responsibility in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Way to go, geniuses. So nice to see you channeling John Boehner's rhetoric on spending!

Rachel should have just called them what they are: DINO's. Of course, if she did, the list would not be limited to these few. We've got two corporate parties: One that likes unions and actually cares a little bit about governing, and the other that's just lost its damned mind entirely and worships at the throne of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin.


http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090314/NEWS01/903140340/1002

Bayh voting against party on multiple issues

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Evan Bayh has drawn attention in Washington for recent votes against his party on high-profile spending issues.
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He was one of three Senate Democrats to vote last week against the $410 billion budget bill funding the government through September.

In January, he was one of eight Democrats who opposed the release of $350 billion in unspent financial bailout funds.

Many of the 22 other votes in which Bayh opposed his party this year were on spending issues. But he also sided with Republicans on various policy issues related to taxes, gun control, immigration, abortion and other conservative causes.

more...

[Demeter]

6. What Relationship?

We work our asses off for him, he ignores us? Is that what you call a relationship? It sounds more like grounds for divorce.

[yurbud]

7. continuation of the right claiming Obama was running as a socialist during the campaign &

now claiming he ran as a center-rightist now that he's in office.

I don't think there's been a Democratic president since Johnson's first term who did anything to satify the left wing of the party.