Posted on 01/19/2014 5:43:31 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In a little POTUS Possum, President Obama said that he doesn’t see the second term as just playing defense; he intends to do some good, “even if nobody is paying attention”.
In David Remnick’s juicy piece on POTUS at The New Yorker titled “Going the Distance: On and off the road with Barack Obama”, we get a close look at Barack Obama and his intentions for the coming year. Remnick puts it on the line, explaining that 2014 is the President’s final year of relevancy before 2016 captures all of the attention.
"And, after a miserable year, Obama’s Presidency is on the clock. Hard as it has been to pass legislation since the Republicans took the House, in 2010, the coming year is a marker, the final interval before the fight for succession becomes politically all-consuming."
Remnick then shares Obama’s thoughts on this conventional wisdom. Naturally, as is the President’s way, he doesn’t follow thought; he has his own thoughts.
“The conventional wisdom is that a President’s second term is a matter of minimizing the damage and playing defense rather than playing offense,” Obama said in one of our conversations on the trip and at the White House. “But, as I’ve reminded my team, the day after I was inaugurated for a second term, we’re in charge of the largest organization on earth, and our capacity to do some good, both domestically and around the world, is unsurpassed, even if nobody is paying attention.”
This seems both a dig at the catastrophe of group think that grips Washington much like Hollywood is slave to the remake/franchise redo, the fear-driven “safe bet”, and a bit of possum. Because while Remnick carries on with the conventional wisdom that Democrats probably won’t win the House and might even lose the Senate (and they might), it’s possible that the President is also considering the huge legislative victories that could occur were the Democrats to grab victory in the House. This notion, while perhaps far-fetched, is not impossible. Surprising things have already happened in the 2014 race, a race in which Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is suddenly looking like he might be in serious trouble.
The President has already signaled that Republican obstruction has reinvigorated him to take to the campaign trail for Democrats in a way he hasn’t done as President. The man who used to aspire to cross the aisle in order to get things done now realizes that in order to get things done, he must do the opposite. He must clean out the Republicans and deal with the only people willing to legislate — the Democrats and Independents.
The man who is so great at campaigning doesn’t actually really enjoy campaigning very much. He seems to enjoy talking to the people, but is said in Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Double Down, Game Change 2012 to hate raising money and being told to hang out with the money people. (Note: In 2011, Mark Halperin called President Obama a “dick” on Morning Joe, so his judgment might not be aspirational.) As he is wont to do, Obama seems to have made the mistake of imposing his standards onto others, thinking they ought to just donate to him if they think he’s the best candidate. He is reported to have little patience for massaging the massively delicate egos of the big money guys on Wall Street.
The master at political chess set himself up as the underdog in this statement. If I had to guess based on every single previous time the President has made comments like this, I’d say he is already planning a legislative assault post-hoped for 2014 victory. After all, he is nothing if not prepared (recall, if you will, the pitch perfect, controlled delivery of his April 2011 speech at the Nerd Prom, during which he gutted Donald Trump’s birtherism, after he had just given the top secret order to get Osama). I heard a warning in that statement, couched in what will be read (probably accurately) as resentment of the press’s obsession with narratives.
But Obama isn’t one to wallow Palin style in his resentment of the press. He looks around them to see what can be done, and when he can be bothered to explain things to them on a one-on-one level, he sometimes deigns to give it a shot if the person seems at least willing to think on their own. He refuses, however, to play the Washington cocktail games.
At the very least, this statement reveals a truth about this President — he cares very little for how things look at the moment, because his eye is always on the goal in the long run. But he also seems irked by the stupidity of it all. If he wasn’t exasperated before the press went quite hysterical over a website glitch, he surely was after that embarrassing display of group-”think” and failure to communicate with the average American.
Yes, even if no one is paying attention, Obama will continue on as he did in the stimulus and with ObamaCare, trying to make a difference while he can. Putting results ahead of play by play cable news blows. But ever a political animal, he knows that in order to do what he wants to do, he’s got to install some sanity into the House.
This is going to be a year worth paying close attention.
Barry isn’t fooling anybody. He knows damn well that the GOP could win the House, Senate and the presidency but as long as the DNC can hold on to the Judicial Branch, Americans aren’t ever going to regain control of the country and the government again.
Did we lose the instructions on how to build a gallows?
Underdog?
He’s no Underdog.
If anyone is playing Overcat, it’s Barack with his Obamacare.
master of political chess? palin wallowing?
m thinks miss jones is an fawn-eyed idiot.
Clever in this context is a euphemism for sleazy.
LOL! Obama has NEVER aspired to cross the aisle.
Sure, he lied and said he would but he never did it as a senator and that pattern has continued since Day One in the Oval Office.
In the long run, it looks like the Democrats are building their own, just fine. Because God never went away, and the Democrats are fighting the Cross of His Son something fierce.
The question for us is: do we have the patience to let it operate? With this internet forum now dominating our attention, we are in essence telling time by looking at the second hand of the clock. Every single blessed statement by, say, Sarah Palin is yacked all over the forum within 5 minutes of its utterance. And we castigate LIBERALS for short attention spans!
I don’t know if it’s the big, delicious meal my wife just fed me or my advancing age, but I have no idea the point that you’re trying to make. I’m not wanting to be difficult. Are you saying that FR is a waste of time and instead we should be wearing out shoe leather for our favorite politician or issue? Writing “letters to the editor” with our manual typewriters or quill pens? Assembling with pitchforks and torches at the state capitol? What?
Well why would he resent the press? Obama has the press licking his balls, as well as every other orifice.
Well, I think we can get overinvolved with things that have very short time constants compared with the way “most” political things unfold.
Not that FR is inherently a waste... but if I may be so bold as to suggest it, HOW we use FR might be a waste.
FR would be a wonderful way to leverage, as you put it, shoe leather and pitchforks.
“cleverly”??
More like pathetically
In this woman’s view they’re probably all “too hard on him” since she brought up the one reporter having the temerity to call Glorious Dear Leader a “dick” years ago...
As for the quill and manual typewriter, we have virtual ways of simulating those if we should desire. Fonts complete with letters filled with ribbon detritus.
Still it’s not entirely farcical. A letter written by hand with ballpoint pen will probably count more to a congressman.
You’re the one with the ideas, lead the way. I raised a little over $40,000 for Fred Thompson in 2008, and what good did it do?
If you think an actual member of congress has ever personally read a letter from a constituent since Abraham Lincoln decamped from that institution, I have a bridge I want to show you.
But Obama isn’t one to wallow Palin style in his resentment of the press
Reporterette Sarah Jones is on her knees, before her Messiah, worshipping his magnificence.
You'd think they'd be embarrassed...
Dunno, maybe there could be a Long Term Strategy forum.
Doubtless you intended well for investing in Fred. There is a very large slate of persons who got picked apart here on FR, who we would be overjoyed right now if we found they had become President tomorrow.
Personally I believe theological perspective counts for a lot. That was where Ronald Reagan got his yeehaws as opposed to Jimmy Carter’s bummers, and yeehaws sell.
Feel free to provide the counterproof as opposed to a cheap, content free taunt. Even Obama’s team passes on juicy things to the President.
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