Time for Obama to Start Spending Political Capital

Throughout his presidential campaign, but more notably, during his presidency, President Obama has shown himself to have an impressive ability to accumulate political capital. During his tenure in the White House, Obama has done this by reaching out to a range of constituencies, moderating some of his programs, pursuing middle of the road approaches on key foreign policy questions and, not insignificantly, working to ensure that his approval rating remains quite high.

Political capital is not, however, like money, it cannot be saved up interminably while its owner waits for the right moment to spend it. Political capital has a shelf life, and often not a very long one. If it is not used relatively quickly, it dissipates and becomes useless to its owner. This is the moment in which Obama, who has spent the first few months of his presidency diligently accumulating political capital, now finds himself. The next few months will be a key time for Obama. If Obama does not spend this political capital during the next months, it will likely be gone by the New Year anyway.

Much of what President Obama has done in his first six months or so in office has been designed to build political capital, interestingly he has sought to build this capital from both domestic and foreign sources. He has done this by traveling extensively, reintroducing to America to foreign audiences and by a governance style that has very cleverly succeeded in pushing his political opponents to the fringes. This tactic was displayed during the effort to pass the stimulus package as Republican opposition was relegated to a loud and annoying, but largely irrelevant, distraction. Building political capital was, or should have been, a major goal of Obama's recent speech in Cairo as well.

Significantly, Obama has yet to spend any of his political capital by meaningfully taking on any powerful interests. He declined to take Wall Street on regarding the financial crisis, has prepared to, but not yet fully, challenged the power of the AMA or the insurance companies, nor has he really confronted any important Democratic Party groups such as organized labor.

This strategy, however, will not be fruitful for much longer. There are now some very clear issues where Obama should be spending political capital. The most obvious of these is health care. The battle for health care reform will be a major defining issue, not just for the Obama presidency, but for American society over the next decades. It is imperative that Obama push for the best and most comprehensive health care reform possible. This will likely mean not just a bruising legislative battle, but one that will pit powerful interests, not just angry Republican ideologues, against the President.

The legislative struggle will also pull many Democrats between the President and powerful interest groups. Obama must make it clear that there will be an enormous political cost which Democrats who vote against the bill will have to pay. Before any bill is voted upon, however, is perhaps an even more critical time as pressure from insurance groups, business groups and doctors organizations will be brought to bear both on congress, but also on the administration as it works with congress to craft the legislation. This is not the time when the administration must focus on making friends and being liked, but on standing their ground and getting a strong and inclusive health care reform bill.

Obama will have to take a similar approach to any other major domestic legislation as well. This is, of course, the way the presidency has worked for decades. Obama is in an unusual situation because a similar dynamic is at work at the international level. A major part of Obama's first six months in office have involved pursuing a foreign policy that implicitly has sought to rebuild both the image of the US abroad, but also American political capital. It is less clear how Obama can use this capital, but now is the time to use it.

A cynical interpretation of the choice facing Obama is that he can remain popular or he can have legislative and other policy accomplishments, but this interpretation would be wrong. By early 2010, Obama, and his party will, fairly or not, be increasingly judged by what they have accomplished in office, not by how deftly they have handled political challenges. Therefore, the only way he can remain popular and get new political capital is through converting his current political capital into concrete legislative accomplishments. Health care will be the first and very likely most important, test.

Comments

[moxieme]

Remember when Obama was getting bloodied during the campaign and we all we worried that he was taking a knife to a gunfight. Well, I hope he realizes this is a gunfight! I don't romanticize politicians. I don't know anyone who does, including the people I know that voted for Obama. I;m sure he realizes that as well. He can call in political capital or keep taking his show on the road. Wall St. needs watching, the banks need watching, insurance companies need watching, and I'm sure some other entities. Years ago, shortly after my divorce, it was either my two daughtersand myself starve or we get some food stamps. I got $200 worth of food sramps for 6 months, I thought the FBI was watching me. I hadn't done anything wrong either. What is so wrong about oversight for the rich?

[exCalifornian]

Im going to try to email all of these comments to David Axelrod - OBAMA'S BRAIN!

[awaitingmd]

i dont believe i am going to say this but here it is. why is our president, such a softy? he is been hit adult gloves and he is hitting back with baby gloves. when would he stand up and say enough is enough? he is the goddam president. yeah we know that there are procedures but still he is the president with the peoples mandate. he rules the country and not the interest groups or the bribed congress men...aka lobbyist...it is time he does what he said he would do and stop hiding behind rhetoric and promises. for crying out loud we voted democrats in and they are been slapped around like little p***ys. the effing republicans lost and still wield and unprecedented power in this country, what the f is going on? does this country belong to republicans? it is effing AMERICA. the president should get this over with and be sure of a second term otherwise he would go down in history as the demorilser in chief. Please MR PRESIDENT, STEP ON TOES FOR ONCE AND DO THE RIGHT THING.

[watchful123]

Obama needs to use his bully pulpit to encourage the American people to hold the feet of their congress person to the fire when it comes to issues that are dear to their hearts. He especially needs to emphasize this with the 2010 elections right around the corner. Members of congress need to put up or shut up and go home.

All he has to do is go to the American people and say, look...I want to reform this or that...but I need your representatives collectively to bring legislation to me to sign. Call and write your representatives.

Also, Obama is in the spotlight a lot, but he needs to explain more why he makes certain decisions....and stop assuming that Americans understand because of the big mess he inherited. Obama needs to explain more what he does..and why.

[exCalifornian]

http://www.yahoo.com/r/m6

Insurance companies are simply extortionists -straight up.

I believe it was Lincoln who said "You can fool some of the people some of the time...etc"

To me, this is Obama's last stand. If he doesn' t take this opportunity to exhibit some courage take on Big Insurance, Big Pharma and Big Medical Profiteers and insist on single payer (as three-quarters of the American people want!) , damn the torpedos, I'm through with the Democratic party.

Ive been suspicious of Obama since he voted for the FISA bill last summer. I voted for him to do the right thing not just " get along and go along" with a bunch of free-market fundamentalists who refuse to acknowledge that their philosophy created this Great Recession . The whole "consensus" thing infuriates me.Why should Dems compromise with a gang of crooksand liars whom the American people have overwhelmingly disowned?

Because Job 0ne for most members of Congress is pleasing their corporate sponsors so they can hold on to their job. To hell with the will of the people.

Obama was elected to make "change we can believe in". He has a mandate to take on the special interests who have a strangle-hold on our country. Where's all that much promised "transparency"? It still looks pretty damn opaque to me.

He's caved to Wall Street and continues to offer up watered down, half-assed ultimately ineffective solutions.

[paixa3]

I understand your lament. As an independent, I will conclude by saying that Obama has totally FAILED by caving to FISA, Economics, Justice and believe me, he has already caved in Healthcare.

So, in summary, the key issues that he was elected to solve have already been placed in the perverbian "dust bin".

[paixa3]

In short, you ""lost"" in 6 quick months.

[exoevolution]

In 2008 Candidate Obama taught us & the world about the audacity of "hope", with the inspiring chants of YES WE CAN & CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN uttered passionately to the huge crowds of We the People, longing for CHANGE.

Now in 2009 it is time for President Obama to demonstrate the power of "audacity" & push back against the forces that have for decades ruled America for the benefit of the Corporations & the privileged few. I will never forget in his acceptance speech in Denver when with one forcefully spoken word he said it all, he said - "ENOUGH!"

In 2009 I am asking President Obama - When?

For me & millions of Americans nothing cries out louder for the word ENOUGH, than the INHUMANE, FOR PROFIT America Health Care System. Every American has been touched negatively by this Greed Based Corporate Profit Care System.

President Obama "when" will our "broken", our "heartless" Health Care System be "transformed" from PROFIT Care to PEOPLE Care with the word ENOUGH????

[JustWondrin]

I agree. I'm so sick of him backtracking on everything he campaigned on. Where'd single-payer, and his support for gays, and cleaning up the environment, and the credit card bill that just went through was one of the most worthless pieces of legislation I have ever seen ( I just had a card interest raised to 32%!!). He's bending over backwards to appease Republicans who do nothing but stab him in the back and make public statements about how his policies are so bad.
Where are those wuss Dems, too? Caving in as usual, trying to appease Republicans who did NOT vote them in. We've been used and abused too long, and I'm sick of it. WE'RE the ones who voted him by an overwhelming majority, just as we voted these Dems in, and they aren't worried about OUR agenda at all.

[exoevolution]

Yeah in 2008 Candidate Obama kept saying to the "people" YES WE CAN, now in 2009 President Obama & the Democratic "majority" can only say YES "YOU" CAN to Wall Street, the Corporations & the War Machine, while "We The People" can only hear "No" You Can't!

For me, Humane, Not for Profit Health Care for the PEOPLE is a deal breaker & without that, what has CHANGED???

Where is the CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN??

[jmpurser]

To be fair, he didn't campaign on single payer though he did promise to listen to all and then cut the single payer advocates out of the loop.

[bosse]

I am also somewhat unhappy, taht our President appers timid at times/ But I hope and am pretty sure he will accomplish much in his first term. Please give him a bit of space. Taking care of our disatrous health care situation( often called the best( not) in the world by some) is important, sooner the better. Also taking charge of immigration and sepatating it from national security, a fear mongering theory of " conservatives, republicans and Lou Dobbs types!.. is urgent. It can be done with some effort by the true democrats and a few honest republicans and enormous support from the public taht elected, him. The war and the imaginary threats from abroad will be taken care of by our mighty armed forced directed by able administartors and Generals. Give it a break please. No nation in good sense will attack us, let us not attack weak undemocratic foreign nations or try to impose our" colonial" dictates on them. Get out of the middle east including Isreal, Do our country first Mr PRESIDENT! KT BOSE

[Lefty Larueaux]

I kept telling my young nephews that this guy Obama was not the agent of change they thought he was.
Our national problems don't get fixed by Mr. Nice Guys. They get fixed by a wiley SOB. After FDR, The other great leap forward in social legislation came from LBJ. If Barak is not versed enough in the workings of Congress, then let him send Joe Biden in to tell those laggards in the Democratic Party to stay out of the way of a progressive agenda or pay the price. We elected this administration to give us change, not some warmed over middle of the road compromise. The middle of the road; where you find yellow stripes and dead armadillo.

[exoevolution]

To use a Wizard of Oz analogy - I see the Republican Party as the Tin Man & Scarecrow, in need of a heart & a brain, while the Lion is the Democratic Party, badly in need of "courage"!

Courage is about "audacity" & standing up & pushing back the vested Corporate interests, in favor of the far less powerful, We The People.

That's why I voted for Obama, I believed him when he said, "YES WE CAN"! I believed that the "WE" was "him & us"!

The Health Care battle will clearly show America if the "WE" was "him & us" OR "him & the Corporations"!

The battle line has been drawn, the PEOPLE or the CORPORATIONS!

[Athena123]

I strongly agree. I echo Bill Maher's comments that he has the power, and the steely backbone. He also has the political capital, and a great deal of support. He needs to AGGRESSIVELY push through health care reform (HIS agenda, not some watered down version), and climate change. It won't do us much good to have jobs and health care if we have no earth left. It is CRITICAL to reduce emissions by 40% in 10 years. No matter what it takes, or who is p*sses off. Obama, please, we need a strong leader on this. We know you can do it.

[dagdavid]

You said it, Lincoln. Political capital is NOT like fine wine. Obama needs to live up to his mandate, especially on health insurance. The AMA represents about 25% of all physicians in this country, the majority of whom - 59% - support single payer. Tell the AMA to eff off, tell the republican and blue dog dems the same and push through public health care with a reconciliation vote!

[bighat]

We will soon find out if Obama is only admired or if he is effective

[Coltrane1234]

If Obama can pass a great health care bill, that's it, he has the second term, that's when the real change can happen. It's really up to all of us, be heard! If you want it, shout it from the rooftops, Democrats in congress are very consistently pus sies. Don't let them be.

[jerryg1111]

Health Care Reform with a single payer government sponsored Health Care option similar to Medicare is the only real way to reform health care. The legislation is already on the table in Congress sponsored by Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers. All it needs is for Barack and all of the Democrats to pass it.
Just as George W. Bush created the crisis on Wall street by pandering to the Wall Street Millionaires Bush also turned over Health Care to the Drug companies, hospitals and Insurance companies
Why are individual workers in a finacial bind?

Why are employers unable to compete with foreign manufacturers?
Why is the American Auto industry Bankrupt?

The answer is the same in all cases.

HEALTH CARE COSTS HAVE SPUN OUT OF CONTROL AND THREATEN TO BANKRUPT ALL OF US.

76 Percent of Americans want real Health Care Reform.

Can it be done? Of course it can. Anyone who has watched Michael Moore's entertaining but disturbing movie "Sicko" will find out that when it comes to health care we in the United States are the ones who are left behind. We pay more for poorer health care than most of the developed and even some undeveloped countries in the world. It is time for Barack Obama to say YES WE CAN to Real Health Care Reform.


www.letterstoalostnation.blogspot.com

[wide-eyed1]

Prof. Mitchell is wrong. (As was Bush before him.)

You don't "spend" capital ... political or otherwise. You invest it!! Yes, you spend it and it is gone. But, if you do your homework and make good investments, they will show a return in the future.

IMO that is some of what Obama is trying to do. He will probably find that it is unwise to invest in "bipartisanship" because the Repubs aren't buying.

I have to keep reminding myself that he has been in office just under 6 months. Seems to me that his most loyal and strongest supporters are expressing disillusionment because of unrealistic expectations of him as a wizard who could make magic and all our problems would go away. Don't I wish.

He is going to make mistakes. With a bit of luck and a lot of intelligence he will correct them ... and probably make new ones. Just keep reminding yourselves, as I do, we could have had John McCain in the White House and Sarah Palin as president of the Senate.

[pollyannish]

Good way to think about it

[MrBadger]

Finally, someone is stating the obvious! President Obama HAS been very astute at gathering capitol. But for this observer at least, time has about run out to see how he is going to spend it - it is time to find out who Obama really is.

[jmpurser]

I'm afraid we know what kind of a man he is by what he was willing to trade for that "capital".