President Obama’s late push for bipartisan support in Congress ignores the role his own party plays in stalling his agenda, analysts said, a paralysis that could hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.
“Democrats are so worried about losing independents, but the bottom line is if they can’t get the base turned out in November, they are going to get creamed,” said Democratic strategist Keir Murray.
Obama threw some red meat to traditional Democratic constituencies last week with calls for a new policy on gays in the military, immigration reform and a bill capping carbon emissions.
But those proposals were received as radioactive by politically vulnerable moderates in the Democratic Party, who don’t want to risk divisive votes in an election year.
The rift has some Democrats questioning Obama’s political leadership, especially in light of three key statewide votes the party lost last year in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs predicted the party will rally in time to preserve Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
“There is a lot at stake,” Gibbs said. “I think people will understand what is at stake in 2010, I think people will understand that quite clearly as we get closer to [Election Day].”
Still, even before Obama’s State of the Union address last week, the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were at odds over the president’s plan to impose a three-year freeze on some categories of federal spending.
Pelosi said the freeze should cover defense spending, and the back and forth between the White House and Capitol Hill underscored — but was far from the only example of — the trouble Obama has with Democrats.
To smooth out the rough spots, the White House summoned former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to consult with the Democratic National Committee for the 2010 midterms.
Whether he can rally the party behind a murky and at times divisive agenda is an open question. When Obama called for his spending freeze before a joint session of Congress, several Democratic committee chairmen declined to clap.
The proposal also has angered liberals and former Obama backers outside of Congress, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who called the spending freeze “completely insane.”
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which parted ways with Obama over a public option for health care reform, the war in Afghanistan and the prison at Guantanamo Bay, also signaled its distress on the spending freeze.
The powerful — and politically vulnerable — Blue Dog Democrats, meanwhile, applauded Obama’s call for a freeze but said he should go further, with pay-as-you-go budgeting, program cuts and more.
Health care is another problem for Obama. He urged Democrats not to abandon the effort toward reform. But polls show the public disagrees — and Democrats are sounding balky about whether they want to proceed.
Much more politically palatable, particularly among Senate Democrats, is a jobs bill. Jobs rank as the top issue with voters, according a recent poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press.
“The president said that jobs is the number one issue before us in 2010, and we couldn’t agree more,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. “In fact, the three top issues on our agenda this year are jobs, jobs and jobs.”
