is obama saving his "fight" for the campaign?

[unblock]

whether it was his plan all along or just his latest read of the tea leaves or just dumb luck, maybe president obama is now positioned to campaign in fighting mode with a compelling narrative -- that he tried to reason with republicans but time and time again republicans have proven themselves to be unconstructive governing partners and that nothing remains for him to do but to fight them.

if so, i think this is a far more compelling narrative than it would be had obama been fighting republicans at every turn.

if obama regains his charisma from the 2008 campaign, he can position himself very well as someone not inclined to fight as a first choice, but who nevertheless will fight if that is what republicans insist on. i think he's got the chops to pull this off.


republicans, of course will act as if he's always hyper-partisan and that "he started it", but i think obama now has years of examples of republican uncooperativeness, culminating in the debt-limit fiasco. i think he can make this a winning image for himself.

[Fresh_Start]

1. If you reelect me, I promise I will fight for you this time

doesn't feel very compelling to me

[William769]

2. I don't believe the unemployed hope so.

Waiting to the campaign can mean the end of them.

[Armstead]

3. Naw. He is who he is.

For better or worse, he'll try to "reason" with Republicans right up to election day.

The real question is whether voters decide they'd rather have a reasonable mild and somewhat ineffectual leader or a Bible-thumping, right-wing, corporate GOP neanderthal in charge again.

Or, if Romney gets the nomination, a mild and ineffective right-wing GOP Corporate Game Show Host.

[Enrique]

4. the dreaded "keeping his powder dry" n/t

[bigdarryl]

5. Based where he is on the key system Obama can sit the election out and still win

[unblock]

6. i agree, i'm a big fan of lichtman's keys, and i think obama's a shoo-in.

the real question for me is congress, and the stronger the presidential victory, the longer the coattails, so don't just want obama to win, i want him to win BIG.

[boxman15]

7. Obama could keep the bipartisan theme going (like in 2008) and still win in 2012.

I have very little doubt about that. He's in very good shape relatively speaking, and the GOP has gone insane.

But, if he wants to get huge public support and wants to fire his base up, he needs to come out swinging. And I think he will. This jobs speech will hopefully be huge and draw a huge line in the sand, one which Obama can run on. (I tried to get a jobs program through, but they're too interested in politics). Then, he can point to unpopular provisions in the debt ceiling and government shutdown deals and blame the GOP, call them irresponsible, poor governing partners.

It'll be a very different campaign from the 2008 campaign, but it could end up being just as successful, if not more successful, in 2012. People are angry at everyone, and if Obama can convince enough independents he's angry too, it can serve him and his party very well in 2012. And that's good for the country, most importantly.

[Name removed]

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[Life Long Dem]

9. When they turn down the jobs package...

Obama will bring this to the campaign trail. The campaign will be about jobs.

[backscatter712]

10. We're in the "Do unpopular shit" part of the election cycle.

About a year and a half before the election is the time when politicians do the really unpopular shit that pisses constituents off. They don't want to do it too close to the election, so they do it about a year and a half to two years before, in order to accumulate favors from rich fuckbuddies, so when election comes closer, and they have to pay attention to the peasants, they've already got campaign cash, and enough wiggle-room to do a few things to make them look good.