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2009-07-20 11:55:56
Ben Smith Ben Smith Sun Jul 19, 8:03 am ET
Finally, we re starting to see him sweat.
President Barack Obama made his personal icy cool the trademark of his
campaign, the tenor of his White House and the hallmark of an early run of
successes at home and abroad. But as the glamour wears off and a long,
frustrating summer wears on, he is being forced to improvise stooping to
respond to political foes and adjusting his tactics and demeanor for the trench
warfare of a legislative agenda.
The root of the change is one that faces every president: Economic and
international realities that resist political charm. Iran and North Korea have
shown no interest in the president s outstretched hand. The economy has
delivered a double-whammy, with rising unemployment stirring voters concerns
while sluggish growth deprives the government of tax revenues Obama would like
to spend on new programs.
Health care reform, which once appeared flush with momentum from earlier
congressional victories, is now on a slog through no less than five committees,
which include Democrats who either aren t sold on Obama s expansive vision or
can t figure out how to convince voters to pay for it.
This is when it gets harder, the president told supporters June 30.
And so it has.
In turn, Obama has adjusted, deviating from the playbook on every front.
The cool president has turned hot on the stump, stripping to shirtsleeves to
lambaste doubters in New Jersey Thursday. He departed from his prepared remarks
last week to accept a Republican challenge to take personal ownership of the
economy: That s fine. Give it to me, he said.
Even Obama's scripted speeches are deliberately more forceful, aggressive and
direct in taking on critics, aides say. Friday remarks at the White House had a
trash-talk edge count me out and you ll be sorry.
Obama s political operation has dispensed with its post-inauguration cocktails
for Republicans or more often, ignoring them outright in favor of the old
politics of engage, attack and cajole. Obama s even engaging in a little
Democrat-on-Democrat politics, as his ex-campaign arm is beaming TV ads into
the home states of moderate fence-sitters on health care.
The tightly programmed White House also is champing at the bit, kicking off
what officials say will be a relentless three-week push on health care,
starting with the hastily scheduled Friday address. But its first event might
have backfired a bit. Its main consequence was proving that the magnetism of
Obama s personal appearances has worn off, as it drew little media attention
and a dismissive tweet from the key Senate Republican, Chuck Grassley of Iowa:
Waste of time.
The sum has been a new sense of uncertainty and strain, and a growing murmur
among Democrats in Washington nervous about the White House s tactics, and a
rising tide of concern in the states as local Democratic parties eye midterm
elections that are traditionally a challenge for a new president.
That honeymoon period is over, said Chris Redfern, the chairman of the Ohio
Democratic Party. Now they re having to push back, and push back hard.
White House officials and allies brush off any notion that this new sense of
unease is meaningful. The only true test, they say, will be results. Obama
still might win major health care reform legislation this year that could be
the most important new government program in decades. He has a fighting chance
to pass regulations on greenhouse gases, in the form of a cap and trade
mechanism, through the Senate. And Obama continues to press hard, if with no
clear progress, for a breakthrough in the Middle East.
It s the third quarter, he s down by a point, and he s got his best player on
the bench what really is going to be important is the fall, said James
Carville, the veteran Democratic observer.
If he gets what s perceived to be some kind of a major health care thing, gets
the climate bill through, if the economy recovers, then we ll all say he had a
hell of a summer. Conversely, if the thing falls apart, we ll say that by July
the 19th we could tell the thing was going bad.
White House Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer dismissed the
suggestion that Obama should be expected to succeed effortlessly or that he s
on a path toward failure on any of these varied fronts.
Obama and his team have been down this road dozens of times and been declared
dead many times and always succeeded, he said. No one gets rich betting
against Barack Obama.
The most visible aspect of the White House s new feistiness is an increasing
willingness to engage Republican legislators whose criticisms Obama earlier had
been happier to overlook. Relentless criticism of the stimulus package from a
House Republican leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, drew a furious barrage from
the Democratic National Committee and a visit from no smaller figure than the
Vice President of the United States. Rank and file Republicans who criticize
the stimulus have also suddenly found themselves under a concerted DNC assault
that asks if they d prefer the federal funding left their districts out. And
criticism from Sen Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) drew letters from no fewer than four
Cabinet secretaries to his state s governor, asking if she would prefer they
withheld stimulus money.
That pushback has been urged, and welcomed, by state leaders like Redfern and
Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer.
The DNC has been and we were quickly able to rebut and demonstrate all the
money that is being spent in their respective districts, said Brewer of two
GOP congressmen attacking the stimulus. They ve backed off.
Still, many Democrats say the Republican attacks on spending are taking their
toll.
"The rhetoric is so empty, but it is fairly consistent and I think it s had an
impact on those in middle," said Ohio's Redfern.
But when the White House pushback focused not on Republicans but Democrats on
health-care in the form of Organizing for America ads running in the home
states of moderate senators -- some in the party called foul, including Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
The vote last month in the House on the American Clean Energy Security Act
showed a willingness to get White House hands dirty in a different way.
Wrangling votes for the cap and trade legislation in the House, Obama backed
off a campaign promise to auction off all allowances permits to release a
set amount of greenhouse gases. Instead of selling them to raise money for
other environmental initiatives, the White House allowed congressional
Democratic leaders to trade them for votes, assigning allowances to the
refinery-heavy district of, for instance, Texas Rep. Gene Green in exchange for
his support.
The battle over health care, the centerpiece of the President s summer, has
also hardened into a fairly conventional Washington fight, a new president s
sweeping agenda colliding with congressional caution. Obscure Washington
figures like Congressional Budget Office chief Doug Elmendorf and Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have shown the ability to pose
a real threat to the White House juggernaut. And some of the White House s
close allies have grown jittery about what they say is a strategy to spend the
three weeks leading up to the Senate s August recess the insecure deadline
for health care votes in both houses with a series of events aimed at
building public pressure on Congress.
They re great at campaigns, but legislative battles are different, said a
senior Democrat close to the White House. It s not about persuading 51 percent
of the American people it s about seven senators.
In another mark of Obama's constant adjustments, his latest remarks didn't
mention the August deadline.
White House allies acknowledge the new strains, but say the hard work will pay
off.
A lot of the hard stuff he s doing now will pay dividends, said John Del
Cecato, a former Obama campaign aide.
Meanwhile, admiration of Obama s personal qualities has been tempered, even
among sympathetic observers, with anxiety for where his agenda will stand at
summer s end.
Comedy Central s Jon Stewart noted recently that Obama told a Pakistani
interviewer that he is an accomplished chef of Pakistani cuisines and reads the
great Urdu poets.
Mr. President, Stewart said, while I am impressed with your Renaissance
Man-level of knowledge in a plethora of subjects, may I humbly say: That s
great. Just fix the economy!