About a week ago, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs got off a good line about the progress of the stimulus package: "The sausage race is the beginning of the next inning. So just stay tuned." This was about halfway through the bill's legislative process. Not only did he declare an opening to Baseball Metaphor Season, he also rather ingeniously alluded to Otto von Bismarck's well-known warning that the public should not look too closely at how laws and sausages are made.
That was last week. This week, we are approaching the bottom of the ninth for the stimulus. The game's a foregone conclusion at this point, all the season ticket holders have left, and the beer's been cut off for anyone still in the stands.
OK, maybe it's too early for baseball metaphors. I mean, that was fun to write and all... but even I have no idea what it means.
Ahem.
Forgive me for being silly, but I am just so astonished at the silliness coming from inside the Beltway these days. The Republicans seem to think it's a brilliant idea to bet their party's future on the collapse of the American economy, and are actually patting themselves on the back for having done so. The few voices of sanity left in the party who backed Obama are being vilified by the party's base. And they show no sign of realizing their colossal mistake any time soon.
Meanwhile, among the chattering classes, there was much gnashing of teeth over the "failure" of Obama's bipartisan outreach effort. The people who live in the DC bubble see news as a daily jousting event, and score everything accordingly. Obama, however, is smarter than that. He realized that the appearance of bipartisan outreach is actually much more important in the public eye than how many Republican votes he gets. And he's winning the battle of appearances mightily. Because it simply does not matter whether he convinces any Republicans to vote with him in the House, what truly does matter to the public is the fact that he gets points for even making the attempt. Is it crass to put into such nakedly political terms? Possibly. But on a purely political level, Obama is winning this game handily. And the media hasn't seemed to realize it yet.
Obama knows that this is a long haul. One baseball game does not a season make. [Whoops, there's another baseball metaphor.] Nobody really expected very many Republicans to suddenly get swept up in the bipartisanship on the first big legislation to come down the pike. Over time, as the midterm elections near, some of them may decide that the way to job security is to occasionally support the president, but my guess is that's going to take a while. Obama's approval went up when he extended his hand to Republicans. While congressional Republicans' public approval is the worst in Washington.
You wouldn't know any of this listening to the media. Obama's approval ratings are in the mid-60s, higher than Bush's or Clinton's at this point in their terms. And his debut at the bully pulpit also went over well. His prime time press conference and his two forays beyond the Beltway (both to heavily Republican towns, with unscreened audiences, it should be noted) were both winners, too.
Obama also did a good job of staying above the fray of details. He let Nancy Pelosi (for the most part) take the heat for what was actually in the bill, and kept his focus on the big picture. But while Republicans screamed themselves blue in the face over 2% of the bill, and while the Senate pared it back, nobody seems to notice that 80-90% of the core bill survived intact. That's pretty good sausage-making, if truth be told. Most of the media missed the point, though -- Republicans were trash-talking about Pelosi, rather than Obama. That's a public relations victory right there, but I guess it was too obvious for the talking heads to notice.
Obama's first big legislative test had some minor problems. Because of his appointees' problems, he was thrown off his stride in the middle of the process. He waited too long to get out and start selling his plan. His message could have been tighter and more focused. And he has learned that instead of offering Republicans a generous amount of what they want in a first offer that was also pretty much a final offer (the initial 40% was tax cuts, which surprised some Republicans who expected much less), he should be seen as "allowing them to talk him down" in order to share the political credit, even with House Republicans.
But Obama has shown he's a quick learner. So these rookie mistakes will likely go smoother the next time around. But don't listen to the media when they tell you this isn't a "victory" for Obama, but rather some sort of "defeat" of one kind or another. Because while they treat politics like a daily sporting match, most of America only measures the results. Most Americans don't pay all that much attention to the process, because they know that the results are what count, and not which particularly entertaining floor speech won the news cycle during the debate.
And, keep in mind, this is only the first step down a long path. These battles are going to be fought over and over again. There is the bank bailout coming, and what to do about the mortgage crisis. Then Congress really needs to pass last year's budget (which they will do in an "omnibus appropriations measure") -- and if you thought Republican nitpicking during the stimulus was over the top, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Then there's the matter of passing this year's budget, which Congress is theoretically supposed to do before October 1. Maybe this'll be the year they actually make that date (don't hold your breath, though).
In other words, we've got a long way to go, and pet projects that got cut this time around will live to see another day -- or at least another battle. So we should all (as Obama has been doing remarkably well) keep our eyes on the big picture here.
There were actually quite a few impressive Democrats last week. Senator Dick Durbin did a good job generating media-friendly soundbites in support of Obama's stimulus. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid deserve at least a mention, for moving so blindingly fast on such a complicated bill. And President Obama himself won his first struggle with Congress. All of these were impressive, but one stood out from the pack.
Because Senator Patrick Leahy is determined not to sweep the full history of the Bush years under a rug. He is leading the call to form a Truth Commission to see what the Bush people did in our name. His proposal stops short of calling for a Special Prosecutor, which would be seen (rightly or wrongly) as a political witch-hunt by too many. But he is strongly pushing for some sort of blue-ribbon panel to get to the bottom of the worst illegal excesses by the Bush administration.
The time is now for such action. Even if nobody ever goes to jail because of it. We need to know what was done in our name. We're entitled to that much.
And Patrick Leahy, for refusing to give in to all the "we have to look forward not backward" nonsense, wins this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week. Congratulations, Senator Leahy -- there are many out here who support your effort.
[Support Senator Patrick Leahy's "Bush Truth Commission" by signing his online petition. Yesterday, he asked for signatures on the Huffington Post in an effort to get over 10,000 by next week. Today, it's already over 20,000 (and counting).]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was annoying in a minor way this week, when he called a press conference to announce a stimulus deal had been worked out between the House and the Senate. This kind of stole the thunder from Nancy Pelosi, who was not present, and then later it emerged that a deal wasn't quite done yet. But it was only a minor annoyance, not truly disappointing, so Harry dodged another MDDOTW award.
Because this week, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was apparently most disappointing. Now, I'm no economist, but the reviews of Geithner's bank rescue plan were just about unanimous, from the right, from the left, and even from Wall Street. The near-universal view was that his plan was too timid, and way too vague.
So, while admittedly I am not competent to judge his plan on its macroeconomics, I have to say that Geithner sure disappointed a lot of people this week. Whether this will ultimately turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing we will all have to wait and see.
So, due to loud screams from the peanut gallery, Tim Geithner gets his second Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award.
[You can try to contact Secretary Geithner at the Treasury contact page to let him know what you think of his actions, but mind your language... these are the guys that run the I.R.S., remember.]
Volume 65 (2/13/09)
Finally we come to the Talking Points, where I offer Democrats who plan on being interviewed over the weekend some advice on how to frame the issues. Hey, it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
Declare victory
The first bit of idiocy that needs knocking down here is the media spin that this is somehow not a legislative victory for Barack Obama. Since this is patently nonsense, this isn't really all that hard to do. Just be sure to strongly reject any notion that this wasn't a win for Obama.
"President Obama has scored a major victory in his first few weeks in office. He is moving faster than any recent president has in passing legislation to fix the problems he inherited when he took the job. He reached out to Republicans, but when they rebuffed him he declared the time for talk was over and the time for action had arrived. Congressional Democrats rose to this challenge, and we not only got the bill through both houses, we also ironed out the details between the two versions in record time. We met the deadline he set of Presidents' Day, and we are proud to put this bill on his desk in what is surely only to be the first of President Obama's legislative victories."
It takes two to tango
Specifically reject the notion that Obama somehow "failed" in his bipartisan efforts. Once again, this one is very easy to refute. When asked any sort of leading question about the "failure" of Obama's bipartisan outreach, or about how it "cost him political capital," respond forcefully.
"Excuse me? Did you just say Obama failed to achieve bipartisanship in Washington overnight? President Obama bent over backwards trying to accomodate Republicans, and in fact I think he met more with the House Republicans than he did the House Democrats. But bipartisanship is a two-way street. It takes two to tango, and the Republicans decided to sit this dance out. There's not much more the president could have done, while still remaining faithful to his core principles. The president has said he is going to continue his bipartisan efforts, not just because they are the right thing to do, but also because the American people overwhelmingly support his efforts to do so. Take a look at just about any poll -- the president didn't lose political capital in this fight, he gained political capital. Republicans would do well to take this into account in the future."
Old habits die hard
Likewise, the media apparently needs reminding that Washington does not change overnight. Luckily, Obama himself has provided the talking point on this one.
"Obama tried to change the culture of Washington with a bipartisan effort, and he will continue to do so. But even the president admits that, quote, old habits die hard, unquote. The culture of Washington does not change overnight, just as an aircraft carrier can't stop on a dime. The American public sees Obama reaching out his hand across the aisle and trying to get Republicans on board with his legislation. They support the president in his efforts to do so. But the congressional Republicans, with the exception of three Senators, ignored his good-faith efforts. As poll after poll shows Americans approving of Obama's efforts and disapproving of obstructionist Republicans, perhaps a few more of them will consider working with him next time around."
Republicans voted against jobs
This is kind of a rear-guard effort, since the stimulus package was never quite adequately defined as "jobs jobs jobs," as it really should have been. However, it's still worth the effort, as even Republicans are politicians. And a politician's first job (ask any of them!) is to get re-elected.
"The House Republicans and almost every Republican Senator voted against the biggest jobs bill in American history. What they called 'extravagant spending' we call paychecks for hard-working Americans. The only alternative Republicans proposed is more of the same thing that got us into this mess -- tax cuts for Wall Street tycoons, and nothing for middle-class Americans. That approach has failed. We had to pass this bill to save four million American jobs. Republicans tried to stop us. We won. Republicans may notice when they go back home to their districts for the holiday that their constituents may have something to say about that. Because if Republicans can't figure out some way to work with the president to get America working again, they may find themselves out of a job soon enough, when the voters have their say."
The American people are smarter than that
This is a generic talking point. It can be used for all sorts of nonsense from inside-the-Beltway media types. Whenever an interviewer starts obsessing over something the American people don't even know about (much less care about) -- like who got to ask questions at Obama's press conference and who did not (for instance) -- this talking point is an all-purpose rejoinder to keep handy in the rhetorical toolbox.
"This is such hair-splitting, that I have to jump in and say the American people are smarter than that. You are trying to spin some esoteric detail, when the American people are out there hurting. We are losing 20,000 jobs a day in this country. Fast action was needed. Maybe the administration made some minor process errors along the way, but you know what? It was their first attempt. I bet they get a lot better next time. And I bet that the American people will remember Obama's stimulus bill years from now when this trivia is long forgotten. Obama was right when he said that Washington engages in too much day-to-day navel-gazing when the American people are worried about real effects this legislation has on their lives, and not some imagined issue like this one."
President Obama isn't afraid to talk to the people
This needs to be pointed out a lot more forcefully than anyone's done so far.
"Barack Obama could have chosen to have some photo-op phony "town hall" meeting where he packed the house with his loyal supporters. He did not do so. He went to two districts which voted for John McCain, because that's where people were hurting. He did not pre-screen his audience. He did not hand out tickets to party supporters. He let the public in on a first-come first-served basis. He did not roam the parking lot looking for bumper stickers that didn't agree with him. He did not turn people away for what was written on their T-shirts. This is such an enormous breath of fresh air after the past eight years that it needs pointing out. President Obama is serious when he says he'll listen to anyone, and not just those who agree with him. And I salute him for doing so. Because that is change you can believe in."
Happy snarky valentine...
This isn't really a talking point, but I didn't know where else to put it, so I'm sticking it at the end here. The Republican National Committee put up some truly pathetic attempts at humor on their site, in the form of e-valentines with snarky little punchlines. The whole thing looks like the product of some freshman Young Republican devotee who wouldn't know humor if it bit him in the tax cuts.
Ever since the only funny person on the right came over from the dark side to wholeheartedly supporting the left, Republicans just haven't managed to find any major league humor talent. And we have Al Franken to thank for that, since he was instrumental in wooing our very own Arianna Huffington over to our team.
So pity this poor excuse for Republican humor. And let me know which one you thought was the worst, below in your comments. My vote goes to "Guantanamo is romantic this time of year," but there are others equally as bad, so you decide!
Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground