Politico does a fantastic job this morning pointing out that President Obama's hiring of Bill Daley as his new, permanent, Chief of Staff is the last straw for the Left. I couldn't agree more. In November 2008, we thought we were getting a once in a lifetime, transformational Presidency. A 21st Century FDR if you will. But after 2 years and an electoral thumping, it's pretty clear that we're getting Bill Clinton 2.0.
Politically speaking, the move makes sense. Try as we might to overstate our influence and importance, liberal ideology has been browbeaten by the Redneckification of America for the last 30 years. You can go back to Nixon's Southern Strategy. You can point to Ronald Reagan's brilliant demonizing of the word "Liberal" that worked so well that liberals had to start calling themselves Progressives. Forget about the fact that liberals ended slavery, extended the right to vote to women and guaranteed civil rights. To Joe The Plumber, the "L" word is more evil than the "N" word. Probably because Joe has no problem using the "N" Word. But that's another story. Not that I'd ever confuse him with Comrade Lenin, but it helps Obama shed the fabricated image that he's a Socialist Dictator.
Furthermore, while Obama lacks the Clintonian charm, he's vastly more liked personally. Clinton had a knack for empathy and an uncanny ability to piss on your face and tell you it's raining and all, but more than 50% of the electorate really couldn't stand the man. On both sides of the political spectrum. Obama's personal likeability numbers have steadily been higher than his job approval numbers, which would lead one to believe that the people, for the most part, want to get behind him. Sure, there's the wacko slice of the populace that hates him for his pigmentation and his crazy radical Socialist Muslim Terrorist platform, but you just got to tune those assholes out. Put it like this: They all showed up to vote against him in 2008 and Barack was the recipient of the biggest landslide victory in a generation. Those birthers, racists and evangelicals don't have nearly enough sway in a Presidential year as they do in a mid-term one.
Now, I hold firm to my belief that if he actually pushed forward and fought for a truly liberal agenda: REAL Healthcare Reform, Immediate withdrawal from Bush's two wars, visible and viable Green Collar job programs (an environmental WPA of sorts), a return to Nixon era tax rates on the affluent and so on, that he'd be not only a popular president, but a legendary one. It's abundantly clear that's not happening. Not with Speaker Boner in charge now and a flacid, spineless, barely recognizable majority in the Senate. He had his chance. He punted.
Politico points out that the left would routinely blame Rahm Emanuel for the centrist, moderate agenda at 1600 Pennsylvania. I for one would continue to point the finger at Harry Reid. It's time that we all come to grips with the fact that it's the Commander In Chief calling the shots.
I don't want to act as if the man's did nothing. He's done plenty and has brought legitimate, viable reform to both Main Street and Wall Street. Cash for Clunkers might be the most brilliant post-New Deal government program ever, when you consider how it (a) helped save the auto industry, (b) made cars more affordable during the Great Recession and (c) got hundreds of thousands of inefficient vehicles off the road. But what the White House doesn't get sometimes is that we've waited a very, very long time to have control. Why on earth should we play ball with the chickenhawks, corporatists, and other useless assholes who ran the country into the ground?
The Daley hiring will help Obama's re-election efforts, I have no doubts about that. Much like bringing in David Gergen aided Clinton's. I think that 2012 is going to imitate 1996 in a few ways. For starters, the Republicans are going to nominate a pitiful and undesirable candidate. I can say that with certainty because I've seen their prospective nominees and I have an IQ above 55. Secondly, he will, by hook or by crook, have a series of moderate/compromised/bipartisan "victories" to counterbalance any insane notion that the man who's done more for Wall Street than anyone is somehow a "liberal". Finally, as painfully slow as it's been, there's plenty of reason to believe that the recovery will be real and obvious. Just like Bill Clinton, Obama will be cast as the "Comeback Kid".
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