President Obama Hanging His Hat on the Economy

I realize that the title of this column seems ridiculous. Anyone hitching their cart to our economic mess in order to convince voters they're a sound leader, might need their head examined. Our economy is bad and given the condition of Europe's economic woes, which are likely to impact all corners of the globe in coming months, paired with a lack of fundamental ingredients for our own recovery, there's not much reason to expect it will get noticeably better in the near term.

On the one hand, things are bad enough that it's encouraging to see fixing the mass unemployment that is driving our fiscal turmoil properly prioritized. But given the excessively partisan climate in Washington, the complexity of economic issues, and the unlikelihood that it will improve by the next election, is the president missing the boat by ignoring other issues that are important to his supporters? 

Many on the left complain that he has failed to deliver on core issues, while being overly conciliatory to the right, who seem to view him with intense disdain on all fronts. Absent an economic miracle, it's very hard at this point to imagine his re-election next year. For the better part of a month, people have been openly wondering whether Hillary Clinton would try a Ted Kennedy-like run at her former rival in the Democratic primary and earlier this week, a group led by Ralph Nader began recruiting a potential slate of candidates to do just that.

It's very unlikely at this point that the president would face an actual challenge in the primary, if only because there is so little time to construct the kind of organization that would be required – even for someone with Clinton's clout. But it's nonetheless interesting that it's being discussed seriously. The talk seems to be coming from two directions, one pragmatic, the other idealistic.

With the overall state of the union so dismal and the president's approval rating so low (around 38 percent), some Dems wonder whether he has been too weakened to beat a strong Republican opponent. Recent polls show him losing Independent support, which is crucial to any success next November. Democrats control half of Congress and the White House, yet Obama has still found himself unable to push through difficult legislation the way W did when he held the same hand. He's been steadily accused of caving to the opposition, and after eight years of a Republican president, the party faithful expected a stronger arm.

His supporters make a good case that the Republican House is not going to work with him regardless of the issue, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear from the onset of this cycle that electing a Republican president would be his party's top priority. I've said it before; if the president cured cancer, they'd fault him for the overpopulation it caused. From health care to the debt ceiling debacle, to the jobs bill and spending cuts, President Obama has come to the table with most of what Republicans have asked for. That hasn't stopped them from accusing him of being a "Marxist" who "doesn't have a clue how to fix the economy" and of pushing a health care bill that is "bankrupting this country."

But if bipartisanship is doomed to fail, shouldn't he be fighting the good fight even more vigorously? For the more ideologically-driven liberals and progressives in the party, President Obama has simply failed to address a single issue of major concern beyond health care, where most felt that he again gave far too much up at the table. Last month, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that organized labor will be less involved in the Democratic Party. ”The day after Election Day, we were no stronger than we were the day before,“ said Trumka and hinted that a new super PAC aimed at effecting direct issues would be a bigger part of the plan than support of Democratic candidates.

When organized labor starts to turn its back on the Democratic Party, it should surely be seen as a sign of concern, but in truth, Trumka has a very valid point. Having a Democratic majority in the White House and Senate did not make the far right's war on labor representation any more difficult to wage over the last year. They simply focused on a state level, while Washington Democrats stood by and watched.

Environmentalists have been enraged by Obama's quick reversal on offshore drilling, as well as his quiet acquiescence on the Canadian tar sands pipeline. The EPA estimates that processing oil from the tar sands creates 80 percent more carbon emissions than other conventional sources. Plus there's the destruction of Alberta’s boreal forests, water pollution, the toxic storage ponds, etc. Nonetheless, the State Department gave the pipeline a positive review (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager is now a lobbyist for the project's developers).

Protestors, along with the nation's leading environmental scientists, begged the president to look at the evidence and consider alternatives. More than a thousand Americans were arrested while protesting in front of the White House, including NASA climatologist James Hansen. ”If Obama chooses the dirty needle, it will confirm that the president was just green-washing all along,“ Hansen said after his arrest.  Days later, the president pulled back on promises for tougher EPA regulations on pollution. At this point, Obama would definitely be outgreened by former Republican President Richard Nixon in a walk.

Then there's the matter of banking reform – or the complete and utter lack of it. This one should have been no surprise. President Obama was heavily supported by Wall Street and from his transition team to his early appointments, he signaled a cozy relationship would be the status quo. The White House failed to use the 2008 meltdown as an opportunity to reign in casino-like practices that paved the way for the fall and didn't even re-tooth Glass-Steagal, the major post-1929 crash regulations that had been partially repealed prior to the bubble.

So while progressives and liberals certainly won't find quarter in supporting one of the GOP opponents (who are all equal or to the right of the president on those issues), there is something to be said for rallying the base. President Obama won in 2008 mostly because he beat Senator McCain by 7 points among independents, while inspiring the largest youth-voter turnout of all time. He did this largely by promising to change Washington. That may have been too big a promise for any one individual; however, his supporters surely would like it much better, could it be said that he noticeably tried.

The president has said on numerous occasions that he'd rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre one for two. If he fails to get re-elected in 2012, Republicans will undoubtedly continue to see him as the worst thing that's ever happened to America. Meanwhile, what will his legacy be among liberals, that he got through a watered-down version of health care reform likely to be repealed before most of the components take effect? That certainly beats his record on foreign policy, the environment, banking reform and other issues his party holds dear.

I still remember the day Obama won the 2008 election. Part of me was utterly shocked by the fact that the United States had just elected a half-black man with a Kenyan father and a strange name. Truthfully, I didn't think we had it in us. I was no fan of the Bush presidency and though I didn't support Obama, I hoped that part alone signaled some departure from the plutocracy that we'd been mired in for far too long, and the whole thing was admittedly surreal. It was a late night at the office and I stopped by the bar for a beer on my way home. Young people were toasting hope and change and the whole place smelled like victory.

The Who were blaring from the jukebox and it struck me like a chest punch when I heard that famous line... Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I didn't need to wait for the chorus. Somehow it was already hanging in the air, drenched with irony. After the guitar solo, the greatest scream in the history of rock 'n roll sounded like a wail of frustration. Once again, we'd collectively been had. Exxon or BP, Chase or Citibank, Koch or Pepsi – the same guys would be calling the shots, and in no time at all, the other guys would be asking for their next turn to change Washington.

Dennis Maley is a featured columnist and editor for The Bradenton Times. An archive of his columns is available here. He can be reached at dennis.maley@thebradentontimes.com.