For all the questions circulating in Democratic quarters as US President Barack Obama tries to weather the worst storm of his administration, perhaps none is as succinct as this: Are the missteps at the White House rooted in message or substance?
The Republican victory in Massachusetts last week touched off a domino effect of political setbacks for Democrats — most notably the fate of the healthcare agenda — that has prompted deep introspection in the Oval Office and across the administration.
Aides said Obama would, during his State of the Union address last night, accept responsibility, though not necessarily blame, for failing to deliver swiftly on some of the changes he promised a year ago. However, he would not accede to criticism that his priorities were out of step with the nation’s, aides said.
As Obama navigates a crossroads of his presidency, a moment when he signals what lessons he has drawn from his first year in office, the public posture of the White House is that any shortcomings are the result of failing to explain effectively what they were doing — and why. He would acknowledge making mistakes in pursuit of his agenda, but would not toss the agenda overboard in search of a more popular one.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who is close to Obama and many of his advisers, said the notion of the president accepting responsibility would probably be well received by the American people. But with growing strains of populism coming from Washington, he warned against making too drastic of a course correction.
“The American people want to see that you’re going to make a change, but for the president it’s important that he not shift radically because of one election,” Richardson said in an interview. “He needs to stay the course and not all of the sudden become something that he isn’t. The country was very inspired by Barack Obama — all kinds of voters. He needs to reconnect on that basis.”
On the eve of his speech to a joint session of Congress and a primetime television audience, Obama and a small circle of advisers huddled for extended periods on Tuesday, seeking to fine-tune the speech that would serve as a roadmap for the president and his party in a midterm election year.
Still undecided, advisers said, was how much of the address would be devoted to healthcare as the prospects of finding a lifeline for the legislation seemed to be diminishing. A discussion was under way among the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress whether Obama would call for a scaled-down version of the legislation that has been the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, on Tuesday pointed to public opinion polls that showed a strong majority of Americans support many of the specific proposals inside the overall healthcare plan, but opposed the plan because of the messy legislative process surrounding the bill.
“Obviously the legislation became a caricature of its component parts,” Gibbs said. “To the degree that’s a communications failing, I think, people here at the White House and others would certainly take responsibility for that.”
The State of the Union address, which will be Obama’s third appearance before a joint session of Congress, offers an opportunity for the president to restate the goals of his administration as he tries to turn the election-year conversation to the economy. The speech would be punctuated with a handful of new ideas — calling for a spending freeze on a portion of the domestic budget — but aides said it would largely be an opportunity for Obama to return to the proposals that swept him into office.
“Democrats are really looking for that spark again,” said David Young, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. “We feel like we may be off track and we’re looking for the president to come out with bold initiatives and to lead.”
It remained an open question, though, how Obama’s initiatives would be received, even among those in his own party, and whether his speech would provide the spark that Democrats like Young and others were yearning for. His suggestion to place a freeze on some spending — at odds with his views from the presidential campaign — was already being met with skepticism on Tuesday.
The White House has offered a preview of several initiatives, including a series of measures intended to provide financial relief to the middle class.
But advisers to the president said the speech would not contain a laundry list of new programs, suggesting that the message and not the substance would be receiving the largest makeover in an effort to ease the political unrest that has set in across the Democratic Party.
US Vice President Joe Biden, in a speech on Tuesday to top party contributors in Washington, dismissed the political worrying among Democrats. He said the loss of the party’s 60-vote supermajority in the Senate could actually have an upside and raise the burden for Republicans “to be accountable as well.”
“The reports of our demise are premature. It’s time that everybody takes a deep breath,” Biden said.
“When we had 60 votes, there was the expectation left, right and center that we could do everything we wanted to do, which was never realistic. Never,” he said.
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