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Obama’s New Kind of Politics: All Politics, All the Time

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For all Obama’s noble-sounding campaign rhetoric about how he’s a post-partisan kind of leader offering a new kind of politics, he has emerged as perhaps the most partisan of presidents, offering the same old kind of politics, practiced for decades in the City of Chicago based on an art first perfected in Tammany Hall.

He didn’t bring people into the White House versed in the art of political compromise and civil discourse, but instead individuals who cut their teeth in the rough and tumble of partisan politics.  In July, Michael Barone observed that most “of Obama’s top White House staffers are politics operatives, not policy wonks.”  Just this week, linking a column which build on Barone’s point, Michelle Malkin called Obama’s policy “the Perpetual Campaign.”

In that column, Dan Gerstein offered

This was meant to be an innocuous bit of inside baseball touting Gaspard’s labor roots and progressive bona fides. But it wound up revealing the Obama White House’s biggest weakness: The president’s top advisers are not just overly political, they are almost totally political. Indeed, this West Wing is stacked with “hacks”–campaign professionals who are acculturated to think, act and win in the hothouse environments of elections, not to govern a bitterly divided country in extremely difficult times.

. . . . .

Now, new presidents always bring trusted campaign advisers into their administrations. But they usually mix them with a range of serious governing professionals, who come with a very different ethos, to balance out the politicos and bring diverse perspectives into the presidential inner circle. This White House is disproportionately different. But Obama’s West Wing is devoid of governing wise men (think Leon Panetta forBill Clinton, James Baker for the first George Bush and Clark Clifford for multiple Democrats). It is stocked almost exclusively with political pros and a handful of Friends of Barack whose main and often dominant frame of reference is partisan or personal.

After spelling out the partisan pedigree of various Obama staffers, Gerstein points out what’s missing.

What’s missing from this group, besides diversity of experience and interests, is a senior adviser or two with an independent point of view who could carry Obama’s post-partisan portfolio. Someone who would wake up every day thinking about how to form broad-based coalitions, to deepen the confidence and trust of independents and non-rabid Republicans in government, and push Obama to honor his promise to change politics-as-usual in Washington. Or at minimum, someone not ingrained or trained to think that the Republicans are the enemy.

If Obama really wants to carry that “post-partisan portfolio,” he needs replace some of the partisan hotheads in the White House with Democrats who have a record of working with (or at least cordial relations with) Republicans and conservatives.

But, there doesn’t seem much evidence of such a staffing overhaul.  In the wake of House passage of the bill to overhaul our nation’s health care system, the President’s accented the partisan nature of that victory by turning the vote into a fundraising tool:

Scarcely more than an hour after the House narrowly passed the Democrats’ health care legislation Saturday night, President Obama sent out a fundraising email asking supporters for money to push a national health care bill through the Senate.

At the Obama White House, it’s all politics all the time.

Comments

  1. We are lambs to the slaughter when it comes to a thugocracy. We keep looking at the Constitution, precedent, and the general code of conduct for the Presidency. Those common guides have served us in the past. But they are of little consequence in a thugocracy.

    All this President’s men and women are dedicated to their gang and see their job as extending their turf and lording power over all the newly captured territory. Those who bleat and carp are easily subdued. No Republican in Congress has been one tenth as bold as Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. Remarkably, the one who comes the closest is Michelle Bachmann, causing many to dream of a Bachmann/Palin ticket. (The amazon women come to power and force the squishy men to grow a pair.)

    The tea party crowd is willing to defy the thugocracy. But whether they can overcome the ACORN power of multiple voting and getting the dead to rise on election day is questionable. Most people are lost in believing that where there is a will there is a way. The thugocracy makes it happen. Ask Al Franken.

    Obama’s shadow government has turned the cabinet into a room full of eunuchs with nothing to do but lick boots and stand out of the way. Ask Hillary when she gets back from negotiating the Sardine Treaty with the Deputy Director of External Want Lists in the Republic of Wherezitatistan.

  2. Hillary is probably the only one who has the balls to stand up to Obama. And I bet that won’t last long–I sense the “Hillary in 2012” posters are being made as we speak.

    I didn’t like Obama before, I don’t like him now. The problem is that the people who did like Obama will never admit they’re wrong–as seen on SNL. “It’s only been 10 months!” Jesus only preached for a year.

  3. “Many to dream of a Bachmann/Palin ticket”
    Wow. Is this how far out you guys have become?
    I really, really, REALLY hope that is the ticket.
    Have you heard Bachmann speak? Have you read the story of this freak hiding in bushes to watch gay rally?

    Wow….that election would be super fun and I think the repubs would not win a seat, the house would be 100% dem and the Senate majority would be sealed for another 6 years.
    —
    Ash why would Hillary “stand up to” Obama?
    What would she be doing differently than him? The fact is Obama is still popular, the majority of the country approves of him. Dems were elected promising health care reform and here it comes. Dems were elected promising to focus more on Afghanistan and here it comes. Dem were elected promising to get out of Iraq and here it comes.

    Obama started the presidency in the Middle of the worst recession since the great depression. Now thanks to the stimulus we have had positive growth. Job gains will follow.
    Its likely when the economy stabilizes, he will roll back the disastrous Bush Tax cuts, the deficit will improve and life will be good again, like it was under Clinton.

    He will be reelected along with many Dems who rode his coat tails in 2008. The only way he won’t be is if Jobs don’t come back.

  6. Barf line of the day, just seen on Yahoo: Pres. Obama pressed into role as nation’s healer (AP)

    (Note: AP may well change it, by the time you click on it)

    Aside from the vomit-inducing ass-kissing involved that denies the reality of Obama’s divisive radicalism… Obama is a bit slow to the game, shouldn’t one think? President Bush has been consoling the families of the bereaved – with no publicity, at Bush’s request – for days now.

  8. What Hillary would do differently–hmm, let’s see–

    Well, the world wouldn’t think our President was a coward

    Iran would be backing down on nukes

    Afghanistan would be getting its act together

    Whether we like it or not, she would have strong-armed health care through the Congress within about a week

    We’d probably have some jobs bill that doesn’t rape the deficit (remember, we didn’t have a deficit under the other Clinton–we had a surplus)

    Gays would openly in the military and DOMA would have been overturned (she never agreed with hubby on that one)

    China would be stepping up to the plate on human rights

    The White House would be standing up against the death penalty for gays in Uganda

    Little girls everywhere would realize that the handsome, inexperienced, charming guy doesn’t always get hired over the experienced, competent, intelligent woman

  9. Speaking of boycotting Fox News…this happened coincidentally shortly after Imus joined FBN. Everyone remembers how MSNBC -CBS and WFAN and their advertisers were threatened with a boycott. Hmmm they couldn’t make a boycott of Glenn Beck work so they threatened a whole Cable News Channel with boycott.

    The first day Imus broadcast he raised FBN’s morning slot rating by 1500%

    ChannelXRFR is back blogging on Imus Times HERE.

    http://imustimes.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/its-official-imus-is-awesome-on-fox-business-news/

  10. #9
    Really?
    You think if HRC was president China would be bowing down before us. Iran would be getting rid of nukes and she would have solved the deficit?

    Wow
    I love HRC and wish her all the best when she runs in 2016 but…geez…your post is absurd.

  11. Just an update on the polling…
    Obama a whopping 40% strongly disapprove.
    Republicans have a 6 point lead in the generic ballot, largest of the year.
    The recent Democrat thumpings in NJ and VA were not an oddity apparently. No matter what kind of Obamacare finally passes, Democrats of some stripe will be hiding and running from their record.
    Karl Rove had a list of conservative Dems who voted for
    either cap n trade, Pelosicare, porkulus, or bailouts. Apparently their staffs are already packing up! hehe
    And I love how the Obamaphiles in here don’t mind if Democrats lose their seats as long as the chosen one survives 2012.
    I hope Hillary runs against Obama in a primary, running on strengthing us against rogue nations and terrorism.

  12. You think if HRC was (sic) president China would be bowing down before us. Iran would be getting rid of nukes and she would have solved the deficit?

    Nice job of summing up The Won’s diddlefest.