Obama Is Seen as Frustrating His Own Party

[joeybee12]

WASHINGTON — The meeting in the Oval Office in late June was called to give President Obama and the four top members of Congress a chance to discuss the unraveling situation in Iraq.

But Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, wanted to press another point.

With Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sitting a few feet away, Mr. Reid complained that Senate Republicans were spitefully blocking the confirmation of dozens of Mr. Obama’s nominees to serve as ambassadors. He expected that the president would back him up and urge Mr. McConnell to relent.

Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/us/aloof-obama-is-frustrating-his-own-party.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMedia&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "They're finally about to realize I'm a man they can do business with"

"Don't blow it now, Harry"

[CJCRANE]

2. Weak article based on hearsay looking to create a narrative.

Pleading with Mitch McConnell wouldn't make much difference anyway.

[stevenleser]

3. The concept is what I was alluding to in the discussion of Sanders v. Clinton for 2016

I don't know if the NYT account is accurate, but if it is, it illustrates a serious issue.

As I wrote here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5401229

Being President is as much about assembling a governing coalition in the people and in congress to move your agenda forward as it is having the right policy positions. That is actually true of mayors and governors as well. If folks are not lining up already behind someone thinking of running for President in the things they are doing and have been doing, that's a bad sign. Kucinich got very little passed in congress. That was a bad sign. Does Bernie seem to have a ton of people lining up behind him in the senate?

It doesnt seem so. Again, that is a very bad sign in terms of someone's abilities to assemble and maintain a governing coalition.

A President has to constantly be working on both coalitions, a coalition of the people, and a coalition in congress. It helps if you like to do it. Regarding it as 'eating your spinach' is indicative of someone who really doesn't like to do something that is intrinsic to being successful at the job.

What we don't know from the article (assuming it is true at all in the first place) is whether the President tried to do this at one point and gave up, which considering how Republicans have behaved is completely understandable.

[CJCRANE]

4. We know that he tried to find a middle path in his first term.

That was, and still is, Obama's main philosophy: consensus politics, trying to get a win for everyone (i.e. "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good&quot .

He also talked about it in his latest interview in the NYT, a philospophy which he summed up this time as "no victor, no vanquished".

Of course that doesn't always work if the other team are playing scorched earth politics.

However, building a coalition (for 2016) is all very well but not if that coalition is pushing the momentum in the wrong direction.

[joeybee12]

5. I tend to think he didn't try, just not a handshaker, for

lack of a better term.

[xchrom]

6. du rec.

[Rex]

7. Obstructing the running of day to day issues is the only job the GOP seems to have.

It must get tiring dealing with grown children that cannot and will not work with the POTUS on any initiative.

[woo me with science]

8. The parties are purchased. Most of what we see is theater for public consumption.

The two parties are owned by the same wealthy elite, and they exist now more more as tools to keep us divided and to give the illusion of democracy, than to offer different visions and directions for the country. No matter which is voted in, the major economic, war, and police state policies and direction remain the same.

Enormous resources are poured into marketing to us in order to sustain the illusion that any of this is about representing us anymore.

The Democratic Party's Deceitful Game
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2238032

Princeton study: U.S. no longer an actual democracy
http://progresoweekly.us/princeton-study-u-s-longer-actual-democracy/
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025405658

Chomsky: The U.S. Behaves Nothing Like a Democracy, You'll Never Hear About It in Our 'Free Press'
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025386227

[kath]

10. Ya got that right -all an illusion. Thanks for this post.

You are a real asset to DU.

[Romulox]

9. Harry Reid isn't much of a leader. I can see why the President snubbed him. nt