By: Jim Vandehei
February 9, 2012
“There are two indisputable facts about politics.
“The first is that every modern president in the fourth year of his presidency resorts to the cheap political stunts, broken promises and truth-fudging it takes to win reelection in what has been and will be a 50-50 nation. The reason is simple: Politics is not clean-living; it’s survival.
“The second is that Barack Obama, for all his talk of moving beyond conventional political tricks, is doing just that, which wouldn’t be so glaring had it not been for his incessant call for a newer, cleaner and more transparent paradigm for American politics.
“So much for the high road: Victory is more important than purity…
“He’s made a series of calculated, overtly political gestures that are far more transactional than transformational.
“Here’s just a sample:
“Sucking up to Wall Street — again
“The president better hope those Occupy Wall Street voters don’t read Bloomberg News. Hans Nichols, who covers Obama for Bloomberg, has a richly reported piece that Obama’s most important advisers are privately pleading with the same Wall Street titans they vilify to help fund their reelection campaign.
“Jim Messina, one of the president’s top political advisers, met privately with financial services industry executives — big banks, money managers — and promised them Obama will not demonize Wall Street as his reelection efforts unfold. Not demonize Wall Street? Hasn’t that been a consistent theme of the Obama presidency?...
“A super flip-flop…
“Super PACs are the newest way for rich people to influence elections. Obama was vehemently opposed to them, calling them a ‘threat to our democracy.’ That vehemence was heartfelt and consistent — until Monday night, when it wasn’t.
“To understand how big a flip-flop this actually represents, rewind the tape to 2007, when Obama discussed his opposition to outside groups taking and spending unlimited funds in campaigns. ‘You can’t say yesterday you don’t believe in them and today, you are having three-quarters of a million dollars being spent for you. You can’t just talk the talk. The easiest thing in the world is to talk about change during election time. Everybody talks about change during election time. You have got to look at how they will act when it’s not convenient, when it’s hard. And the one thing I’m proud of is my track record is strong on this and I’ve walked the walk.’
“He’s not only not walking the walk — he has green-lighted White House officials to walk right into super PAC fundraisers and hit donors up for as much money as they can cough up…
“‘Part of his political identity is someone who’s not of Washington,’ said a Democratic strategist who supports Obama. ‘So the consequences for his brand, if actions look political or craven, are exponentially worse than they would be for most politicians.’
“The State of the Union is … very political…
“Obama’s January speech to the country was more like a slam dunk contest than a blueprint for sober governance, with no-miss poll-tested proposals that won’t translate into points on the board unless Democrats win super-majorities in both houses, and even then maybe not…
“The White House and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have proposed a series of fixes for the crisis, the black hole of the U.S. economy, that have thus far proven to be ineffectual or ill-conceived…
“A senior aide to a Senate Republican dismissed criticism, leveled publicly by other GOP-ers, that Obama’s something-for-everybody speech late last month was a boring, laundry list-y dud.
“Jamming the pipeline
“Never has Obama more angered an essential part of his political coalition than when he decided last year to punt on stricter ozone regulations…
“When it came time last month to pick between environmentalists and supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move oil and jobs through a key part of the country, Obama had no choice but to go green.
“He wanted to punt until after the election, but Republicans forced a decision. Presidents face these political jams all the time. Like it or not, they often choose the path of least political resistance. So Obama did…
“The president had the chance to bring significant oil into the United States from Canada, rather than Middle Eastern petro-dictators or Venezuela, and create some U.S. jobs…
“The contraception conundrum
“The administration’s decision to require Catholic hospitals and universities to provide workers free contraceptive coverage seems on its surface to buck the trend of this story — a principled protection of reproductive rights that risks sparking a culture war with white independents, the critical swing-voter bloc…
“And that, at the very least, makes the administration appear to be playing politics with a sensitive personal and religious issue…”
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