The thing about the stimulus measure was that it would always pass. New president, Democratic Congress, popular measure, and recession. There was never any serious hope of killing it. Republicans opposed it, in part, to show they could. It was sort of like why man climbs mountains. And they succeeded. Obama saw. And that may prove to have been a great mistake:
White House aides say they have concluded that Obama too frequently lost control of the debate and his own image during the stimulus battle. By this reckoning, the story became too much about failed efforts at bipartisanship and Washington deal-making, and not enough about the president's public salesmanship.For Obama's next act, the program is the same as he has been planning for months: New Deal-style plans to rescue struggling homeowners and rewrite regulations on the financial markets, plus a budget proposal that lays the groundwork for sweeping health care reform.But the strategy to promote these items is getting an emergency overhaul. Obama plans to travel more and campaign more in an effort to pressure lawmakers with public support, rather than worrying about whether he can win over Republican votes in Congress. Officials suggested that the new, more partisan tone Obama embraced last week in his speech before House Democrats at their retreat and continued at his news conference Monday was what he should have been doing all along...Emanuel said that they recognized they had overdone their initial outreach to Republicans and had offered "a sharp message for the last week."
The coming priorities, like health care reform and financial regulation, will be built to ensure Democratic unity and to support maximum public pressure and salesmanship. It will be a strategy aimed at puncturing Republican intransigence rather than enticing cooperation. That may not prove to be a strategy the GOP wanted Obama to embrace so early. Better to have him learn it after they killed health reform than before he starts the health reform fight, I'd imagine.
