Kuttner: When public opinion is on your side it is a moment to lead, not to prematurely compromise.

[highplainsdem]

Quoting Robert Kuttner's latest article for The American Prospect:

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=where_is_the_party_of_recovery

Where Is the Party of Recovery?
By kowtowing to the deficit hawks, the president is snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Robert Kuttner | March 7, 2011

-snip-

But while Republicans overreach, President Barack Obama sometimes seems determined to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The president can't quite bring himself to draw a line in the sand and declare that Democrats will never allow cuts to Social Security benefits. Nor does Obama's own budget propose sufficient job-creation measures. Rather, both parties have their own version of deficit-reduction fever, crowding out more urgent national needs and marginalizing the scope of necessary debate.

-snip-

President Obama, however, is evidently calculating that the Republicans will so embarrass themselves that by November 2012, he will look to middle America like the judicious moderate. The recent increase in his poll numbers lends support to that view. But looking moderate in a severe economic crisis is not sufficient. Presidents do not win re-election based on national polls but at actual polling places in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois, where unemployment remains sky-high and voters share little of the Beltway reverence for austerity.

-snip-

Though it is unthinkable for Democratic deficit hawks and Republican foes of public outlay, domestic job creation will require substantially more public investment and larger deficits for the next few years. The time to pay down debt is when the economy recovers.

-snip-

When public opinion is basically on your side, it is a moment to lead, not to prematurely compromise. It would be salutary for the president to put forth a bold recovery program and dare Republicans to vote it down. Necessary compromise to keep the government operating can come afterward, and it will. Even better would be for Democrats to make it crystal clear which party defends and strengthens social insurance.

[jtown1123]

1. Yes! Why doesn't Obama get this?

[villager]

2. Does he lack a certain fire in the belly we falsely assumed he had?

or desperately imputed to him, as our country continues its irrevocable dissolution?

[jtown1123]

6. Perhaps. I think he prefers compromise to leading. I think that is the best outcome for him.

Not sure why...

[roguevalley]

14. or the other side's rhetoric matches his own internal belief system

better than most of us what to admit. He compromised early because he essentially agrees with the other side. He's a coward.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. ALL his actions suggest that his mission is to cement the Bush way of doing things

irrevocably into the New Normal for America.

I'm sure he gets what he's doing.

[Booster]

3. If Obama would just listen to what the people want, he could

go down in history as one of the greatest Presidents ever, but, alas.....

[Blue Owl]

4. Big K&R

No more compromising.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tk2kewl]

10. even bush said...

"If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything!"

[leftstreet]

7. K&R

[Myrina]

8. ... as usual ...

Sigh.

[barbtries]

9. i'm at work and didn't read it.

but i rec'd it anyhow because i'm sure it speaks to President Obama's apparent insistence on kissing the republicans' asses all the way to the demise of this country.

i am so disappointed. i think when he declared jeb bush a great champion of education or somesuch bullshit he really lost me. and it sucks! because come 2012 i'll still have to work to make sure he's reelected because the alternative will still be too awful to contemplate.

[CrossChris]

11. Remember when the adjective "compromised" was an insult? Obama's treating it as the ideal.

I understand the need for compromise at times, and I understand that he's trying to be practical. On some of these issues, it's like he can't compromise fast enough. It makes me think that it's because he's compromised by his donors---I hope I'm wrong.

[golddigger]

12. Because he is 'WEAK!"

[highplainsdem]

15. kick