I talked to some people on Twitter about President Obama today. Any President that created this horrible deficit commission and hired Lawrence Summers does not deserve to be called a policy wonk. Quick: name your favorite Obama policy speech. I can't think of one.
Progressives wonder why Obama keeps talking about bipartisanship. Obama is strickly thinking about how he will be perceived by moderate voters. Obama can talk about hope and change on the stump. When he needs to explain health care reform he is an utter failure. Bill Clinton had neoliberal leaning, but he had a clear grasp of policy. Obama put so many conservatives on the deficit commission because he was never actually serious about the deficit or liberal policy. Obama was playing politics for the Washington Beltway set.
I thought about what makes Obama tick. The answer is Obama is a politician solely focused on getting re-elected. The way to lower health insurance costs isn't by giving health insurers a monopoly on every American citizen who does not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. That increased business makes it easier for Obama to ask the health insurance industry for campaign contributions.
The White House killed an attempt by Alcee Hastings to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in 2009. If Obama really wanted Congress to give him a bill ending DADT then why kill the legislation? Hastings said White House officials told him it wasn't the right time. That clearly shows Obama putting politics above policy.
Michael, I absolutely agree. And I think this was fairly obvious from day one of Obama's presidency (hence the erratic, ill-defined efforts of OFA). You can even look back to 2008 to see that he never tried to sell the people on Democratic values or priorities. The focus was always on him--it was a cult of personality campaign.
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