The most galling case for the Democratic "base" was Obama's capitulation to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, who had been Bush's favorite Democrat on the Iraq War and who had switched to Independent after losing a Democratic primary in 2006. He then backed Sen. John McCain for President and questioned Obama's patriotism, before accepting a spot in the Democratic caucus this year and keeping a committee chairmanship.
For his vote on health care, Lieberman demanded that a "public option" even one with a trigger be dropped. Senate Democrats then replaced it with one of Lieberman's own ideas, letting uninsured Americans 55 to 64 buy into Medicare. But Lieberman then repudiated his own plan, saying he would filibuster unless it was removed, too.
So, White House chief of staff Emanuel told the Senate leadership to surrender to Lieberman's demands no matter how inconsistent they might be. The Obama administration also has been pandering to other "centrists," like Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who wants strict language against women obtaining abortions through a subsidized insurance system.
Yet, while fawning over these "centrists," Obama's team has been following the Clinton playbook toward the "base," reserving the only flashes of anger for progressives who complain that the giveaways have gone too far.
Clinton immortalized this classic triangulation maneuver when he ostracized an African-American hip-hop artist named Sister Souljah who was perceived as his ally.
This week, in a similar Sister Souljah moment, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean "irrational" after Dean finally threw up his hands in disgust at the Senate's overly compromised health bill. Instead, Dean urged Democrats to circumvent the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster by using "reconciliation" to pass as many real reforms as possible.
As progressives hailed Dean's rebellion, the Obama administration rolled out its big guns to pound away at its own disaffected supporters -- and demand that they get in line behind the health bill even if it has been gutted of nearly all the reforms that progressives favored.
Less-Traveled Path
While the end game for the health bill is still playing out, the result does not look promising for Obama.
After making health reform his top domestic priority and finding no bipartisanship Obama holds out as his best hope that he will sign a bastardized piece of legislation that will force tens of millions of Americans to sign up for private insurance that they may not want or can't afford.
Even if there is such a signing ceremony, Obama has managed to demoralize and alienate his "base." He's compounded that problem with the perception that he has catered to the big banks on their bailouts and pandered to neoconservatives by escalating the war in Afghanistan and inserting Bush-like arguments in his Nobel Peace Prize speech.
After all the compromising and concessions, Obama and the Democrats are now looking at disaster in the congressional races for 2010. The millions of voters who were inspired by Obama's call for change in 2008 are disillusioned if not embittered. Many are likely to stay home next fall.
By contrast, the Republicans are brimming with confidence. They're sure they can blame all the nation's problems on Obama and ride the wave of right-wing enthusiasm to a victory reminiscent of 1994 when the Democrats were routed from the House and Senate, leaving Clinton to struggle on trying to stay "relevant" and avoid impeachment.
In retrospect, the more challenging path at last year's crossroads might have been the politically preferable one after all. While it would have upset the Washington/New York apple cart, Obama could have pinned the blame for America's ills on the Republicans and tied them to the lobbyists and bankers.
Even in the face of economic troubles, he might have kept the excitement alive among his supporters and put public pressure on Congress to enact meaningful reforms. If the Republicans still obstructed, he could have turned his rhetorical skills against them and pressed for bigger Democratic majorities in 2010.
But Obama is not the only one to blame for not taking the path less traveled a year ago. Most well-to-do progressives continue to keep their wallets closed when it comes to building the kind of small-d democratic media-political infrastructure that is needed inside the Washington Beltway.
By failing to do the hard work of building institutions, the progressive community has largely sidelined itself, sitting in the stands and booing the players on the field. In other words, much needs to be done and not just by Obama to set the United States on a different course.
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