Friday, November 5, 2010

Pulling Off Pulling A Clinton

Greg Sargent explores what the concept of "Obama Pulling A Clinton" actually means as far as policy maneuvers.

Dem pollster Stan Greenberg unveiled a post-election poll designed to show that -- despite the public's deep dissatisfaction with Dems on the economy -- there's no mandate for conservative economic ideas. The poll, he said, shows the public is still receptive to an expansive government role in job creation -- provided it's articulated better than Dems did this year -- particularly on infrastructure spending and reviving manufacturing.


For instance: Greenberg tested messages askking 2010 voters whether they could support Congressional action to rebuild infrastructure via a National Infrastructure Bank that would use public and private money. He also asked whether they'd support Congressional action to "launch a five year strategy to revive manufacturing in America, providing companies incentives to make it in America" and "ending tax breaks that reward moving jobs abroad." Both had solid majority support.

Greenberg also tested various GOP and Dem messages on how to deal with the deficit. A majority supported ending the high-end Bush tax cuts, while only a bit more than a third supported huge cuts in domestic programs, raising the retirement age for Social Security, and turning Medicare into a voucher program.

This suggests a new way to "pull a Clinton," the Dem thinkers suggested: Draw bright lines against the GOP on popular programs, and lay out proposals for a clear, expansive role for government in job creation, and dare Republicans to kill them.

Why that's so obvious, the Dems will never go for it.

The problem with drawing a bright line is communicating why you're doing it.  Obama traditionally has been at his best when he's explaining why he's defending core principles, and campaign Obama was brilliant at it.  President Obama on the other hand, not so much.

If Obama comes out and says "Here's what we're not going to compromise on" then people will back him.  Lord knows that exactly what the Republicans are doing right now.  He needs to draw that bright line on Social Security, Medicare, repealing DADT, and job creation...and yes, dare the GOP to kill it.  Dare them to shut down the government.  Dare them to push the plunger.

If on the other hand Obama folds his hand early and goes Centrist Dalek on us, we're in an immense amount of trouble.

1 comment:

bughunter said...

Well, then, the Dems' answer of course is to convince Obama that his 2012 campaign starts... (checks watch)... now.

Personally, I've become a political nihilist. It ain't gonna be fixed until it completely breaks. And God, Glub, and Spaghetti Monster help us all because we're likely to endure a real fascist state, in practice, before people wake up to the fact that it's broken. We're certainly going to endure "austerity."

I've been telling my friends, "see - this is what happens when we make it so inconvenient to vote that only the fanatics jump through all the necessary hoops to do so. If the polls were open for a whole week, things would be very different. And we'd be sharing a spliff right now."

(Yes, we're in CA.)

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