send to a friend | print | comment

Obama and Republicans both need to take a deep breath

Since his administration took a tumble in Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago, people have been full of advice for President Obama, much of it less than helpful. In Sunday’s New York Times, Frank Rich urged him to “turn up the heat” on congressional Republicans, make clear that George W. Bush is to blame for the current budget mess and move more aggressively to advance his “progressive” agenda.  Rich cited Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision as a model for what Obama should do to the Congress—Democrats included.

I think this advice is almost exactly wrong. What Obama needs to do is to move back toward the middle and regain the public’s trust, focusing on issues—economic recovery and to a lesser extent national security—that people are most concerned about and distancing himself from the congressional Democrats as much as he possibly can. A campaign of Bush-bashing will simply convince the country that Obama is a lightweight—as many already suspect—and accelerate his decline.

The Democratic Congress may well be going down anyway, but there is no reason for Obama to go down with it.

The Republicans have to be careful, too. With 41 Senate seats and a new raft of political momentum, they are now effectively in a power-sharing dynamic, rather than in unbridled opposition. If they fail to adjust to this change—if Obama is perceived as reaching out to the them and the GOP slapping him back—their momentum could recede very quickly.

Here again, the best advice is the one no one wants to hear—take a long, deep breath and start thinking about the national interest rather than the party interest.

February 1, 2010 at 9:15 am

--Michael Livingston

Tags: Barack Obama, Republican Party

comments

comments [4] | post a comment