The Perpetual Campaign

Several articles -

In the US News and World Report, February 2008 edition, almost a year ago, Obama explained what his qualifications for office were.  

1) Bringing people together - the funny thing is, he did galvanize opposition to him, but he never brought anyone together, not even within the Democratic party.  The left in that party never accepted the center, and the Retardicans never accepted him.  The independents were willing to listen, and have since heard enough and have abandoned him.

2) a track record of opposing special interests - laughable.  The exemptions for the unions if his health plan went through (unions are a special interest); his exemptions for pharmaceutical companies from taxation he would levy (they are a special interest) on the rest of the industry; his exemption for nearly all special interest groups - most have been around to see him, secret meetings with Biden when Biden isn't making some of the dumbest remarks ever, off the record conversations with Obama.  Special interests are whoever you say they are.  When it was Bush, Obama railed against those interests (typically ones who supported Republicans) and invited other special interests (those aligned with the Democrats) to pay homage.  Today they do, regularly, in donations.

3) 20 years of fighting for the working class - and raising taxes on nearly every industry, business, service in the country - that would not hurt the working class?  Eliminating deductions, replacing the marriage penalty ... that doesn't hurt the working class.

4)  All of the above is evidence he is straight with the people?  Not likely.

That however isn't really the point of this post.  It is an interesting sidebar.

The more interesting part of the interview Obama gave was in the 3rd paragraph.  The Bush White House was too busy running a perpetual campaign to govern.  Must have received a lot of applause from some of the 48% of the electorate who today do not support Obama.  Probably more support and cheers from the 47% who still do suppoort him.

There is a slight problem with his statement and the many promises ...



Obama Explains His Campaign Strategy


And that includes his thoughts on Ronald Reagan and Obamicans

By Kenneth T. Walsh
Posted February 15, 2008

[Excerpts]


"When I decided to run," he says, "my calculation was that it was a long shot but that there was a possibility that the skills I had to offer—bringing people together, a track record of pushing against the special interests, a 20-year history of working at a grass-roots level to help working families, pretty well-developed evidence of being straight with people—that that might be what the country needs right now," he says. "And you know for us to have achieved what we've achieved so far is less, I think, a testament to me than it is to the American people and their eagerness for a fundamental shift in how we do business."


He says the key moment came after he lost the New Hampshire primary to Clinton. It could have been a crushing blow, but Obama says that "it showed me that even in the face of hardship, our base of support held rock steady, and they got even more enthusiastic and more energized after that."

After seven years of what Obama called the failed policies of George W. Bush's administration, "this is a moment where you don't have an incumbent president, you don't have an incumbent vice president, where it is possible for somebody like myself, who has a different tone and approach to politics, to emerge," he says. "What I think people are persuaded about is that it's not enough just to change political parties in the White House, that there's something deeper that ails us, that our politics has gotten out of touch, that it is too sharply partisan, and it's too tactical, and it's (Bush White House) obsessed with the perpetual campaign as opposed to governance."

 
The problem is  (from the January 24, 2010, New York Times) ...
 

Obama Moves to Centralize Control Over Party Strategy

By JEFF ZELENY and PETER BAKER

WASHINGTON — President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.

Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.

In addition to Mr. Plouffe, who will primarily work from the Democratic National Committee in consultation with the White House, several top operatives from the Obama campaign will be dispatched across the country to advise major races as part of the president’s attempt to take greater control over the midterm elections, aides said.


He has been in office for one year, and he is bringing in campaign people.  Now of course his supporters will say the campaign people are dealing with Congressional and Senate elections one year away, and then, in theory they will go away ... for one year before they return to aide in his re-election bid.  More than two years of campaigning out of four.  That seems almost very much like perpetual to me.

Now supporters will say Obama called Plouffe in, but Plouffe isn't going to work IN the White House.  True, but PLOUFFE will not report to "David Axelrod, or Jim Messina, the deputy White House chief of staff, or to Jen O'Malley Dillon, the DNC executive director or to Gov. Tim Kaine, the DNC chairman, or to Patrick Gaspard, the political director. He reports to the President. Informally. But this informal channel is Plouffe's and Plouffe's alone," so says The Atlantic's Mark Ambinder.


Obama is in perpetual campaign mode, busying himself with accomplishing very little while sending the Dow into the tank, yet again.  He has pissed off the banking industry, health care industry, many Democrats, virtually every Republican, most independents, most of the Muslim world, most of our allies, the leftists in his party, the centrists in his party ... he is the definition of someone unable to govern, either because he is unable to, or because he cannot - and this at a time when there is concern that the latest statement from bin Laden is the green light for a new wave of attacks on the US and or on Western countries (remember, the UK changed their terror level to critical / imminent).  The US has not changed anything nor has anyone said anything about changing it.  I am sure Obama wishes the color system would simply go away - he is plagued with comments from within the White House and other agencies about raising the color code.  He spends more time on that issue, than he does on most any other issue - yet, we will, or could be, attacked soon, and the White House is asleep. 

A word of advice Mr. Obama - if we are attacked, and you didn't mention it either publicly or through the color code ... you won't need Plouffe or anyone for any campaign - the Democratic party will be ousted, with serious talk about removing you.






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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