Liberals, this time Eugene Robinson, keep wondering why the Obama White House doesn't know how to bargain with their political opponents, or doesn't seem to know what it stands for.
The White House, for the umpteenth time, has approached a negotiation by signaling in advance its willingness, if pushed to the wall, to make major concessions - in this case, a temporary tax-cut extension for the rich. It doesn't take a genius to recognize this as a flawed bargaining strategy. Voters may want more bipartisan cooperation in Washington, but I believe they also want their president to fight for the principles that got him elected.
Democrats in Congress are all over the map. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership, predictably, are ready to have a fight on what they see as favorable political terrain. In the Senate, Democrats have to parse the implications of a GOP threat to halt all business until the tax cut issue is dealt with. And everyone wonders whether the White House intends to stand tough, or has decided to give in, or has already caved - or, perhaps, has a specific preferred outcome in mind. If so, the White House doesn't seem to have made clear what the objective is, much less how to get there.
Power without purpose, in fact, doesn't get you anywhere.
How long will it take for liberals/progressives to realize that Obama doesn't really think like them, that he is actually a 'pragmatic centrist' with very few strong convictions, and that mainly he just wants to be an umpire, standing around doing the refereeing while others actually play the political game. He is not a liberal. (I began to see this as early as February '09.) You have misread the man. Roger Hodge, author of 'The Mendacity of Hope', has it right.
Obama mostly wants to compromise with his Republicans opponents on domestic issues(which mostly means giving in premptorily) and to do what is necessary to get reelected. Along similar lines, his interests mostly lie in the area of foreign policy, where he has a Nixonian perspective (realist), which is of course a vast improvement over the crusading neo-con/global hegemon perspective of the Bush administration.
Obama mostly wants to compromise with his Republicans opponents on domestic issues(which mostly means giving in premptorily) and to do what is necessary to get reelected. Along similar lines, his interests mostly lie in the area of foreign policy, where he has a Nixonian perspective (realist), which is of course a vast improvement over the crusading neo-con/global hegemon perspective of the Bush administration.
It is actually liberating to come to this realization, because then you can have much lower expectations for this President.
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