Can Obama Tame the Democrats?

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1898166,00.html

Can Obama Tame the Democrats?
By Michael Scherer Thursday, May. 14, 2009


Barack Obama has filled his White House with all sorts of academic prodigies and propeller-heads, a crew more comfortable with the mortarboard than the flag pin. They are, as a group, masters of the art of the optimal, of creating great solutions on paper if not always in reality. And so every now and then, sobering discussions occur behind closed doors, like the one in mid-April when a collection of Cabinet secretaries, former academics and political advisers gathered to discuss the Administration's blueprint for a global-warming bill. The experts called for a significant increase in the cost of carbon as a way to reduce Americans' energy consumption — just as Obama had promised in the campaign.

Then the White House political minds at the table jumped in: Democrats in Congress were not going to just go along without some concessions. "If you figure you need the Democratic votes to pass, you have to give the coal-state people something they can take home," said a participant at the meeting, recounting the course of the conversation. Buying votes with concessions "would not be something that you would draw up in a case study at the Kennedy School of Harvard." (See pictures of Obama behind the scenes.)

So it has gone in the first four months of the new Administration. Despite Obama's early legislative victories — including passage of the largest stimulus bill in history — the new President has learned how limited his power can be, even when the Democrats control Congress. While much of the political chatter continues to focus on the waning Republican opposition, Obama's real challenge comes from within his own party. With increasing frequency, Democrats have been scratching away at the promises Obama made during his campaign, watering down reforms, removing possible revenue sources and protecting key constituencies. "I am under no illusions that suddenly I'm going to have a rubber-stamp Senate," Obama said during his most recent prime-time press conference. "I've got Democrats who don't agree with me on everything, and that's how it should be." What he did not say aloud, but many whisper in Congress, is that those Democrats could determine — or undermine — his legislative legacy.

The Case for Arm-Twisting

In the meantime, small defections have become routine. Farm-state Democrats have blocked Obama's plans to cut agricultural subsidies, while others have scoffed at his proposed $17 billion in spending cuts, which target pet projects. Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have shot down Obama's plans to increase taxes on some charitable donations to fund health-care expansion. Though under scrutiny for his close ties to lobbyists at the center of a corruption investigation, Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha, a Defense appropriator, pushed to add $9.3 billion to a war-funding supplemental bill, with line items like nearly $2.3 billion for C-17 cargo planes that the Pentagon calls unnecessary.

At the end of April, a dozen Senate Democrats helped hand Obama his first major legislative defeat by voting down one of the President's big campaign pledges, a plan to allow bankruptcy courts to restructure the mortgages of strapped homeowners. So infuriated was Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, one of Obama's close allies, that he accused his colleagues of bending to the will of bank lobbyists. "They frankly own the place," he told a Chicago radio station. The White House, by contrast, made no public comment on the defeat.

Eight years of blind cheer leading almost ruined us ,this is just what our Democracy needs.

"Democrats" who constantly side with Repukes and corporations against the people is another.

They're not out for helping the People which is suppose to be a Democratic Principle.

the traitors that enjoyed a Clinton America and abetted Shrub ,were and are Misanthropes at best.

How about compromise instead of dissent?

How about ,Dem's Honing Dem's?

feel Senator Durbin's frustration..

"So infuriated was Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, one of Obama's close allies, that he accused his colleagues of bending to the will of bank lobbyists. "They frankly own the place," he told a Chicago radio station. The White House, by contrast, made no public comment on the defeat."

No, really.

At this point a reasonable person would have to be entertaining serious doubts. In that respect, it may well end up that Bush was in fact- a more successful President. He rarely ever failed to get what he wanted.

see that. And go ahead, keep comparing Obama to Bush. And proclaim loudly that idiot son was a success. I'm hearing you-not believing even you are saying that-but I'm hearing you.

So terrorizing people and then demanding a vow of silence is the way to go? :eyes:

his negotion skills in the primary.