Thursday, November 4, 2010

Has Obama Really Learned Anything From All This?

“We always knew bringing about change in Washington wouldn’t be easy, and it might get tougher in the days ahead,” Obama told the liberal [MoveOn] organization's supporters a day after Republicans won the House in a landslide. “The message I took away from the elections is very simple: The American people are still frustrated. They still want change; we just have to work harder to deliver the change the American people want.” . . .
“To those who began the journey with me almost four years ago, think about how far we’ve come,” Obama said. “Think about the ups and downs we went through during the course of the campaign. There were times when folks counted us out and we always came back. The same thing is going to happen over the next two years, and the next six years.”

--As reported by News  Max. Click here to read the entire story at NewsMax.

1 comment:

Josh said...

Obama needs to do what Bill Clinton did in 1994 and what Harry Truman did with a hostile Congress after the 1946 midterms - move some towards the center, but also be ready to call BS and frame situations in his favor when the other side overreaches (as history shows it inevitably will). That's how Clinton and Truman both won two years after their party got crushed in their first midterm election.

If Obama just gives in to what the GOP wants, his base will stay home in 2012 and the Republicans will regain the White House anyway. If he spends the next two years only picking fights, he looks like the obstructionist and will lose in 2012 no matter how well his base turns out. He needs to look like the grown up, but be able and willing to fight smartly.

Unfortunately for the GOP, Mitch McConnell gave Obama an opening on that front when he said that the GOP's goal for the next two years is to defeat Obama in 2012. While no one doubted that was the GOP's ultimate goal anyway, saying so out loud like McConnell did gives Obama an opening to frame the situation in his favor. We'll see if he takes advantage of it.