Huffington Magazine Issue 12-13 | Page 44

THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION REUTERS/JASON REED that met the direness of the situation remains a fatal error. “The one thing that I learned when I was at the White House was that we thought we had everything we needed to govern: Obama, Pelosi — best Speaker ever — 60 votes in the Senate [Specter would switch parties after the stimulus passed],” said Van Jones, who, since leaving the White House, has become active in outside progressive organizations. “Turns out we had a third of what we needed. You need media on your side — for-real media, like [Republicans] have with Fox. And you need a movement in the streets like they have with the Tea Party. It turns out if you don’t have the me- HUFFINGTON 09.09.12 Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) shakes hands with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) after the Senate Finance Committee passed the Democratic healthcare reform bill with a 14-9 vote. dia or the movement, you’ll get beat to butter on the government level.” Jones told Huffington he was stunned to see conservatives out-organize the White House. “How was it that for two years the right wing in America had a monopoly on both the ground war, street protests, and the idea war? That’s almost unprecedented,” he said. “I mean, how are we going to get out-marched by the right in an economic catastrophe?” BACK-ROOM DEALS The mad dash to pass a stimulus may have forced the White House to not let the perfect be an enemy of the good. But the health care bill it began pursuing soon thereafter made clear the extent to which the president was willing to engage in