"When Obama secured the Democratic nomination in June 2008, he told an admiring crowd that someday “we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth.”This part is fascinating. The writer, Peter Baker, presents us with this reminder from 2008. Then shares with us Obama's reaction to being presented the same, but framed as cognitively dissonant with reality (high-flying rhetoric in contrast to low-flying governance). Obama, somewhat on the defensive, reframes it with a reference to Mario Cuomo's oft-used quote "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." Baker only alludes to Obama's use of the quote (doesn't actually cite it), but that doesn't matter, because the focus of the sentiment here is in what Obama does with it, which is to say that the two are complementary; they match up. Baker highlights and shares Obama's viewpoint with us in saying that there is no cognitive dissonance between the "high-flying rhetoric" (poetry) of his campaign and the "low-flying governance" (prose) of his, well, governance. This statement that "the prose and poetry match up" furthermore takes the sentiment of the original quote itself and situates it relevant to the here and now. It's a nod of respect to Cuomo and his message then, reappropriated and updated, carried forward.
I read that line to Obama and asked how his high-flying rhetoric sounded in these days of low-flying governance. “It sounds ambitious,” he agreed. “But you know what? We’ve made progress on each of those fronts.” He quoted Mario Cuomo’s line about campaigning in poetry and governing in prose. “But the prose and the poetry match up,” he said."
“You CAMPAIGN in poetry, you govern in prose.” This political adage is most often attributed to former New York governor Mario Cuomo. Beginning in the early 1980s, Cuomo used ti often, in speeches, conversation, and writing. The saying has also been credited to Richard Nixon, though far less often than to Cuomo. (A journalist who attributed the line to Nixon later noted that in the 1000 campaign “George Bush campaigned in nursery rhymes.") In an episode of NBC’s West Wing, President Jed Bartlet’s chief of staff used the poetry-prose line without attribution. Wherever it originated, this saying owes an unacknowledged debt to an observation credited to British writer Beverley Nichols (1898-1983): “Marriage is a book in which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose.”
Verdict: Credit Mario Cuomo, with a nod to Beverley Nichols for source material.
He heads into the final stretch of the midterm campaign season facing likely repudiation, with voters preparing to give him a Congress that, even if Democrats maintain control, will almost certainly be less friendly to the president than the one he has spent the last two years mud wrestling.He spent the last two years doing what, now? Did someone make up the Blue Dogs and their complete freedom from any White House pressure to get with the program? Is this writer cultivating his continued access, is that why the article is such a mass of pandering?
The biggest problem on the administration's part is an utter failure to mobilize people, specifically young people. From the absolute beginning, the White House should have started a PR blitz about how to get real health reform. We should have attacked early and with vigor, but we didn't -- and I don't mean to put down people who were doing what they could, but we really lacked the overall numbers. We should have learned from Jimmy Carter's presidency.Why would young people be interested in supporting the democrats when they can't even get a job (or know people who can't). The problem is that Obama hasn't governed well. The stimulus was way to small. At the time it seemed like Obama was more interested in bipartisan comity then governing properly. That's a choice he made at the time and the result has been a disaster. (And the stimulus was obviously a budget vote, he could have passed a larger one via reconciliation)
Some of his supporters should learn to stop taking things so personally.The best way to do that is to stop being a supporter. Which seems to be what a lot of people are doing.
At the time it seemed like Obama was more interested in bipartisan comity then governing properly.
"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America." From the speech that put Obama on the map. Maybe he meant it.What the hell does that have to do with The Republicans? There may not be a liberal America and a conservative America, but there is certainly a conservative party that has to be delt with. There is a big difference between "America" and "Washington D.C."
I suspect it's tackling one issue at a time, the ones he can make gains on, before coming back to other issues.Before the BP disaster, he was making progress: By announcing an expansion of offshore drilling all along the eastern seaboard. A lot of Obama defenders use the "he can't solve every problem at once" thing but the fact is Obama was making progress on offshore drilling - in the wrong direction. And once again the issue was about trying to bring republican senators on board for climate change regulation.
Making massive changes all at once, without a mechanism for putting those changes in place, without broad support, and against an opposition that won't budge one iota is short-term thinking.Again, when it comes to offshore drilling, three massive changes have already taken place Opening the east coast to drilling, putting in a moratorium, and not renewing the moratorium. All of those things Obama and the administration could, and did do without dealing with congress.
You also do not know what pressure, if any, was being made against the WH that without [X] amount of offshore oil, we would be looking at [Y] in terms of future commodoities in the very real term. I forget the exact quote, but it's something to the affect of you can't always discern the nature of a duck by looking at it swim from above water.Please, the amount of oil coming from offshore is tiny, and the price of oil has already collapsed due to the economy. And besides, high prices for oil is exactly what we want to fight global warming. No one said it would be free. (and it will take years before new drilling even has an effect on price)
So does PolitiFace: The ObameterSeriously? First of all he's kept 122 of 506 promises, that's 24%. And he's been president for nearly two years. And if the republicans come into power, the window will be pretty much closed.
506 Promises Made
Promise Kept 122
Compromise 41
Promise Broken 22
Stalled 82
In the Works 236
Not yet rated 3
Seems like a pretty good record to me.
While one of the promises broken was:
Change standards for determining broadband access
Will direct the Federal Communications Commission to "provide an accurate map of broadband availability using a true definition of broadband instead of the current 200 kbs standard and an assessment of obstacles to fuller broadband penetration.
Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officialsAnd
"No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."
Negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN
To achieve health care reform, "I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."
Create a public option health plan for a new National Health Insurance Exchange.--
"The exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency."
I love how you ignore the "In the Works" stat, which is 236, while trotting out the "He's been president for two years and has only kept 122 of 506 promises" and then finish it all up with "Oh, but you can't really rate Presidents that way", cheerfully ignoring that you brought up the stast to mock that he was only at 24% of promises kept, before sliding back to "Stats like this don't really matter!"Right. You can't measure presidents that way, but even if you did, he looks bad. I don't know why that's so hard for you to comprehend. The "in the works" section might as well be labeled the "pipe dream" section, especially given the potential for a republican sweep in November.
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That's a pretty good line.
posted by enn at 8:33 PM on October 13, 2010 [2 favorites]