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Left laments Obama’s move to center
By Meredith Shiner and Maggie Haberman
January 24, 2011

President Barack Obama plans to play up a bright future with congressional Republicans by channeling his 2008 campaign message of post-partisanship in his State of the Union address — but the liberal wing of his party isn’t quite seeing the light.

As the president touts spending austerity, deficit reduction and extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, some Democrats worry Obama will pivot too hard away from the party’s core principles and concede too much to the new House GOP majority that campaigned on destroying his agenda.

“I don’t think he should have this tone that if he rolls on his back the new Congress is going to rub his belly. A lot of these guys coming to town campaigned against everything this president wants to achieve,” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said, adding the president needs to take an “aggressive” approach to make clear “he’s not going to roll over.”

And the view from the liberal base — what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs once described as “the professional left” — isn’t any rosier.

“Marginalizing the left didn’t work in 2010. If Democrats decide to double down on that strategy, they better pray for a Sarah Palin nomination,” said liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos.

A shift to the middle marks a key point in Obama’s presidency, just one year after a State of the Union in which he praised House Democrats above all else, hailing then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for moving health care reform, financial regulatory reform, a jobs bill and climate change legislation. And it reveals how much Obama’s political reality has changed now that the 2012 campaign is imminent. At last year’s address, Obama also faced uncertainty — albeit on a smaller scale — with Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory to take the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat imperiling health care reform. Then, rather than backing away, Obama doubled down on his progressive agenda.

Some Democrats now wonder what the president will say and whether he will be willing to marginalize the left of the party to shore up his position among independents as his reelection operation gears up in Chicago.

“That’s a very good question,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Monday when asked whether Obama might alienate more progressive lawmakers by overreaching to the right.

Sanders warned that progressives should remain cautiously optimistic “until we hear the speech,” pointing to Obama’s willingness Monday to support protecting Social Security initiatives as a positive sign.

Other liberals are hoping for a bold vision – but worry that might not come through if Obama is tacking to the center.

“You can’t act like these are ordinary times that call for ordinary solutions,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). “We need extraordinary efforts to get Americans back to work. ... There are some people who voted to give the Republicans power. So they’re going to see if in this Congress Republicans can put America back to work, but I think it’s important for the president to at least set the stage for the discussion.”

But while Obama touts themes of unity and healing Tuesday night, liberals may be the most skeptical audience when it comes to the substance of his 2011 agenda.

“For many people in that chamber who believe he didn’t make a good deal on taxes, and they’re looking for signs for the future,” Weiner said, “he’s going to have to be much tougher in the future — we’re looking for signs that he gets that.”

For the most part, Democratic lawmakers and aides are wary of being too openly critical of their president on the eve of a major speech and believe that embracing a bipartisan tone, particularly in the wake of the Tucson, Ariz., shootings and his powerful address there, is the right move.

Dick Durbin of Illinois, an Obama confidant and the No. 2 Senate Democrat, believes there are enough differences between the two parties that Democrats and Republicans will eventually have ample material over which to duke it out after Tuesday’s State of the Union niceties have been wrapped up.

“I think there will be more than ample opportunity for confrontation, but that’s not what the State of the Union address will be about,” Durbin told POLITICO. “It’s an effort for the president to engage the Republicans in a cooperative effort to do some things for this country, starting with turning the economy around. ... This is the right starting point.”

A senior House aide, who had seen the White House talking points on Tuesday’s speech, said the president’s “No. 1” focus on jobs and innovation is something with which Democrats are “in complete agreement,” noting Pelosi’s call as far back as 2005 for an innovation agenda.

There also may be a tactical advantage for Obama to tack to the right — it might allow Democrats to reprise the “party of no” label for Republicans.

“The trepidation that some may feel — it’s not going to be answered until we hear exactly what he has to say,” said a Democratic congressional aide. “But you can’t really play ball with these guys if you don’t make that effort to reach out and work in a bipartisan way. If you make that effort [to Republicans] and then if they come back and say, ‘No way’ to working with you, you have the upper hand.”

Some liberal lawmakers are also trying to read between the lines in Obama’s speech, looking for places where his rhetoric might not match his intent. For example, if the president uses terms like “investments,” that’s an indication that Obama still believes in more government stimulus.

But nearly every Democrat believes Obama needs to draw some bright lines between himself and Republicans. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) emphasized he needs to be “willing to stand and fight on points where he feels it’s in the best interest of the nation.”

Democrats are also trying to go on offense a bit — they’ve already attacked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who will deliver their formal rebuttal to the president Tuesday night. On Monday, Democrats blasted news releases and held conference calls to discredit Ryan’s spending “road map,” which calls for changes in Social Security and Medicare.

And while liberals might feel slighted by having their progressive ideals ignored this time around, they still realize the power of the moment for Obama and want him to attack the GOP economic policies spearheaded by Ryan as the Hill prepares to do battle on a debt limit debate that is already dividing Republicans and threatening a government shutdown.

“He’s the president of the United States, and he’s got to go in there and lean into the idea that he still has an agenda he wants to accomplish,” Weiner said. “He has to make sure he’s leading the debate and Paul Ryan is responding, not the other way around.

“He has to make it clear that he’s not going to be held hostage over issues like the debt-limit increase,” Weiner said.

A labor official, who asked not to be identified in order to speak more candidly about the president’s political situation, noted that “the midterm elections freed” Obama to work independently and without regard to his party’s left.

“The left understands that the choice in 2012 will be Obama or somebody far worse,” the official said. “They will have no choice, no matter what Obama says in the State of the Union address. No matter how much we complain, he knows that at the end of the day, we will be supporting him in 2012 — and that affects what he can do now. The choice for us will be an administration that disappointed us or a Republican administration that will be out to destroy us.”

Read story at Politico


 
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