Rahm: Obama Lost Control Of Stimulus Debate

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in an interview with reporters, conceded that President Obama lost control of the stimulus debate by focusing too much on bipartisan outreach. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Mr. Emanuel owned up to one mistake: message. What he called the outside game slipped away from the White House last week, when the president and others stressed bipartisanship rather than job creation as they moved toward passing the measure. White House officials allowed an insatiable desire in Washington for bipartisanship to cloud the economic message a point coming clear in a study being conducted on what went wrong and what went right with the package, he said.

According to Emanuel, the White House "lost" control of the message for four days. He suggested that the president decided to change his tone after the House vote, when not a single Republican voted for the bill.

According to the WSJ Emanuel added that "Washington should have learned something about Mr. Obama as well, with the shift from bipartisan overtures to outright mockery of his opposition."

When the president spoke to House Democrats at a February 5th retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia, he'd moved from courting Republican support to attacking them as obstructionists who clung to ""false theories of the past."

The top aide argued that despite the missteps, the final stimulus bill is "close to about 90%" of what they had wanted.

He also promised that the president will not stop reaching out to the GOP.

"The President's always going to reach out to people in both parties. I mean we have these upcoming summits, one on fiscal reform, and another one on health care. There's gonna be Republican participation, and that will never change."

Comments

[huffyjive]

02:46 PM on 03/05/2009

http://rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com/2009/03/rahm-ballerina.html

[JZ735]

02:39 AM on 02/25/2009

As Glenn Greewald mentions in this article, there are no shortage of Washingtonians who will tell you how much they despise Emanuel...the man represents all that was wrong about the Clinton years...Obama needs to watch his back with this one...he is a troublemaker, and would not hesitate to eff over his boss if it made himself look good...I never have liked him, and although I have no problem with many of the Clintonistas Obama has installed, Emanuel from the get-go has spelled trouble, and I think Obama needs to keep a short leash on this certified sneak and creep:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/23/lizza/index.html

[fulhamffc]

01:02 AM on 02/17/2009

Obama messes up, Rahm's still awesome. We'll be fine.

[Corral]

12:38 AM on 02/17/2009

This is all true, yes. And, perhaps the President could have gotten more of what he wanted if he didn't try so hard to reach out to the Republicans. However, what we found out about the GOP is devastating. Did any of us really want to believe they were actually that ruthless? That when the country was truly brought to it's knees (by their policies the last 8 yrs) that they wouldn't rush in to participate, to help? Their souls were vacuous. They didn't care. If they don't want to care about the President, so be it. But, the Republicans didn't care about their country. They didn't care about us, their constituents. They thought of our country falling further into devastation and suffering as a strategy. As a strategy to make our President look bad. Hoping us Americans would need the GOP. Well, we found out early. We don't need the GOP. Get rid of the rest of them the next election. Then, only elect Republicans in the future who show passion and integrity for their country. Republicans who don't bet on our country to fail.

[Yasmine]

09:04 PM on 02/16/2009

OBAMA should have had a 100% democratic stimulus packagewith NO TAX CUT and then listened to the Republicans and give them something.
OBAMA said it very well at his press conference. he should have given them less to start with.

Rahm should have seen this before, and told Nancy Pelosi.
as is , the Republicans have exploited this situation very well.
BUT HAVE NO FEAR................Obama has won again. because we see through the Republican machinations.

[ssg13565]

09:00 AM on 02/16/2009

As Obama said, “You know, I am an eternal optimist. That doesn’t mean I’m a sap.”

Obama knows that he has to keep campaigning to get the public behind his program. The Republicans kept campaigning while the Obama team tried to act like diplomats. Obama had lost control of the debate, but in a couple of campaign trips to the hinterlands, he got it right back.

Lesson learned for the Republicans, Obama doesn't roll over like Gore and Kerry.

[Glowcy]

07:51 AM on 02/16/2009

.
MSM and the Republicans lost control, not President Obama.

People represented by the Republicans are losers. It's been extremely easy for the party of Bush to send America's borrowed money abroad than for them to vote to use that borrowed money for Americans: this is the real story and the fact that it is not widely reported by MSM shows complicity.

.

[Scar1]

12:55 AM on 02/16/2009

Emanuel at least you tried. Keep on trying and regardless of the flax roll on Cousin-roll on!

[Robson]

11:02 PM on 02/15/2009

Obama had a very well oiled effective machine during the election. That seemed to fall apart when Rahm Emanuel was appointed Chief of Staff. The Richardson, Geithner, Daschle, etc appointments were flops and the tax cheating outraged many Americans. It cost Obama big time political capital.

I agree that the outcome of this staffing faux pas was not reigning in Pelosi and Reid. This bill could have been more focused on jobs and needed benefits as opposed to giving Repubs obvious ammunition. The fact that no Congressperson had any time to read the entire bill was not a good example of "Change". It was more of the same ole.

Rahm Emanuel is political maneuverer who is going to cause many more problems for Obama and the USA.

BTW what about the new Attorney General who says he is not interested in prosecuting the corrupt bxstards who were involved in creating this financial crisis? Just we we need to ensure that investors have confidence in Wall Street, we have the DOJ say that they aren't interested in accountability.

[JohnTalbutt]

09:25 PM on 02/16/2009

If he loses any more political capital the GOP want carry a state in the next election.

I missed where the DOJ said they weren't interested in accountability but I do agree that people need to be held to account, - war criminals above all others

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

08:38 PM on 02/15/2009

I'm with Rahm on this one.

Bush 43's administration never focused on being "bipartisan", and I don't think the Obama administration needs to keep trying to extend an olive branch to a party that clearly isn't interested in taking it.

Rahm may, however, want to spend a wee bit more time vetting folks! I like Mr. Emanuel, really, but the process was as graceful as Rosie O'Donnell trying to pole vault.

[SOLERSO68]

06:24 PM on 02/15/2009

What about Nelson & Baye and the blue dog circus, rahm??? last time i checked it was rahms job to hold the democrats together...

[Forest]

06:20 PM on 02/15/2009

I think Rahm's spin on Obama's bipartisan outreach and how it provided valuable information about oppositional Repubs trivializes Obama's strategical goals.

[lynettema]

01:22 PM on 02/15/2009

Obama may have lost control of the stimulus debate with Congressional GOPers, the media and the D.C. establishment. BUT the voter saw with their own eyes the outreach that Obama did. They saw they tax cuts and credits were added, the Washington mall project and contraception were eliminated because of Republican input. Other issues were addressed by the 3 Republicans in the Senate. This was not lost on the voter. So what Obama may have lost with the insiders, he more than gained with the voter - 80% of people approved of Obama through this 3 week journey.

[mollymac]

11:48 AM on 02/15/2009

Just watch when all the repugs stand in line with their hands out waiting for $$$$$ for their states, programs, etc.etc. What a bunch of syncophants! Don't do the right thing, just whine, do nothing and be on the take. Hmmmm, doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that they are joined at the hip and are just walking around in circles.

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

08:34 PM on 02/15/2009

Right on, Molly!

[ticonderoga]

11:22 AM on 02/15/2009

Rahm needs to look in the mirror...The distractions from all the non-vetting of the secretarial appointments were avoidable and made it difficult for Obama to stay on message. Man Up Rahm! and do your F-U-C-K-I-N-G homework!

[Quaderi]

05:13 PM on 02/15/2009

I'm sorry but Rahm's not the one in charge of picking the appointees nor was he the main man in their review.

Obama messed up. I hate to say it, but he did.
Richardson was not a man to trust. There's really nothing more to it. It was a bad decision.

Daschle was perfect for the job and right now there's still no clear replacement.
Daschle, however didn't "realize" (aka reveal) his tax mistake until after the announcement so the administration had no easy way to back out of it. On top of that he was just too damn qualified for the position, no one else compared. Of course his lobbyist ties looked too much like old politics to keep the administration's image quite as clean, but qualifications-wise, he was ideal. Obama was very, very reluctant to let him go regardless.

Killifer's drop was unnecessary. Her tax problems weren't very bad and her drop of the position only took place because of all the tax problems surrounding Geihner, Daschle, and Solis's husband which were destroying the administration's image.

[Quaderi]

05:16 PM on 02/15/2009

...

Geithner was kept due to his huge popularity with the markets, and most (even conservatives) supported him at first, tax problems aside... I'm growing skeptical about his plans, but Obama seemed to think he, like Daschle, was indispensable

Judd Gregg's drop couldn't have been predicted. He wanted the job and then suddenly changed his mind when the stimulus package split on partisan lines and he started getting crap from the GOP and his NH constituents. The census controversy about supervising his dealings with it didn't make him too happy either. His drop really wasn't in Obama's control to be fair. (good riddance anyway)

Summary is that Obama picked Richardson, which was a bad decision, Geithner & Daschle were viewed as indispensable to him and Daschle revealed his problems too late anyway. Killifer's drop was a result of the others' problems not hers. Gregg's couldn't be predicted.