O44: The Fierce Urgency Is Now

02 September 2011 |permalink | email article

What’s apparent, in terms of the President Obama’s latest accommodation to the “party of no,” is the absence of command presence in the White House. Let’s be blunt: chief strategist David Axelrod, campaign manager David Plouffe, and chief of staff Bill Daley seem to be asleep at the switch.

Given the long confirmed Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library, near Los Angeles, next Wednesday night, sponsored by NBC News and Politico, it should have sent a signal to O44’s inner circle that his address to Congress, opposite the debate, was a tactical error – and a possible blunder as he launches a fall offensive to sell his robust jobs program to the country.

Not a surprise a week after the president’s speech House Speaker John Boehner, who objected to the timing of Obama’s address, iwill address the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. on jobs and growth. If it parallels his remarks to the Economic Club of New York in May, it could be a preview of intense legislative friction well into 2012.

The Republican agenda remains unchanged. Boehner said his party would agree to increase the federal debt limit only in exchange for trillions in spending cuts – at the time, his most specific outline of G.O.P. to date. For almost three months Republicans did not budge, finally reaching an agreement only hours before a deadline to avoid the credit crisis.

The G.O.P. loves to assail the “discredited stimulus” and other simulative measures including those of the Fed that worked, but before the private sector opted to work on its own. That happened in 1937 when Republicans convinced F.D.R. to scale back on some New Deal job programs – extending the Great Depression into World War II. Obama must make sure that this tragic error is never repeated.

Quotable

“The problem this raises for Obama is real and immediate. He faces a perception problem, not just with Congress but with a growing share of the American people who think he is so eager to compromise on key issues of national importance that he allows himself to be pushed around. Wednesday’s confusion will not help solve this problem.” – Michael Scherer, Time

“Last night we descended into farce. Having failed to agree in the big issues, Washington descended to squabbling over a very, very small one: whether a mostly meaningless speech would happen on a Wednesday or Thursday…nevertheless, in the parlance of Washington, Boehner “won.” – Ezra Klein, Washington Post.

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