People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Obama setting scene for re-election by moving to the center

Posted on Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 09:25 PM

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Say what you like about Barack Obama, but never underestimate him.

Just when the pundits were writing him off after the mid term debacle, he comes back with a fourth and long touchdown and passes major legislation.

Getting the Bush tax cuts bill through the House and Senate, passing 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' repeal and pushing hard on other legislative priorities rewrites the book on Obama.

Instead of disengaged liberal we may need to call him Mr. in the Middle.

His ability to pass legislation has never been doubted -- he passed the greatest reform of health care since Medicare.

However, post election, he was widely written off as unable to work with Republicans because he was too far to the left.

He has quickly scuppered that Washington truth.

Opinion polls in the next few weeks will show his popularity returning in my opinion.

Americans desperately want politicians to work together and to pass legislation that helps them in these troubled times.

Obama has now proven he can work with Republicans to make that happen.

It is far more difficult in this era of prying cameras and 24 hour news coverage to pass legislation.

In the old days, the smoke filled rooms and old boy network sufficed.

Now you have to worry every moment about leaks or finding the Tea Party, The New York Times or Fox News on your tail.

Obama may well be the leader who turns all that to his advantage.

He has shown an extraordinary sense of coolness and detachment and rarely if ever appears to be hot and bothered by the latest controversy.

It allows him to make his move to the center with far less rancor than might have been the case if he had been using the bully pulpit to hammer Republicans.

2012 re-election anyone?

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seamusmoore | Dec 20, 2010, 08:18 AM EST

"Moving to the center"? What choice did he have after the election? Obama's hopes on re-election rest solely on the economy; remember the '92 Clinton mantra of James Carville: "it's the economy, STUPID! His support of the Bush tax cuts extension exposes the phony class warfare rhetoric of the Democrats. If Obama had let tax rates rise, particularly the cap gains rate, he would have sunk his re-election hopes. As for claims as to what these "cuts" will cost in lost tax revenue, US tax receipts rose from 1.78 trillion in 2003 to 2.56 trillion in 2007 (taxpolicycenter.org). Obama's biggest hurdle to re-election will come from his increasingly disillusioned left (after all, he was their messiah of "hope" and "change")who feel abandoned: gitmo still open, Afganistan escalated, tax cuts extended, no public option in Obamacare)among others. Obama will have to track far left in the 2012 Democratic primary, then he won't look so centrist. DADT repeal is a move to the center

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