USING
THE BULLY
PULPIT
For the president and his defenders, there is a ready rejoinder to
complaints about the inside game
he played. In the end, the stimulus was passed and the economy
was saved. Health care reform got
done and tens of millions of people were granted access to health
insurance. Obama, unlike any of
his predecessors, notched that
historic achievement.
“Knowing him, my suspicion is
that he was a very smart, intuitive man who was looking towards
HUFFINGTON 09.09.12
dure. Not just on substance. They
wouldn’t even give him a vote just
to close down filibusters... I’m sure
he was frustrated. He thought he
was going to be bringing Democrats and Republicans together,
not just Democrats together.”
Among Obama’s advisers, Axelrod was perhaps the most aware
of this dynamic. At a caucus meeting in early February 2010, Sen. Al
Franken (D-Minn.) laced into him
and others for not showing enough
spine and leadership.
“The fact is, when you have
a party that expands from Ben
Nelson to Bernie Sanders that is
a lot of territory,” Axelrod conceded in an interview.
THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
ive mistakes, trying to cut a deal
with PhRMA. They gave PhRMA
too much in the process,” AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka told The
Huffington Post in the spring of
2010, shortly after the Affordable
Care Act passed. “They didn’t talk
to us about it. They made that deal
off the record.”
“And then when he started talking about jettisoning the public
option, that’s when we started saying ‘This is ridiculous.’ It’s almost
like they didn’t know how to negotiate,” Trumka added. “[Obama
would] say ‘It’s not important.’
And anybody who’s been around
a negotiating table knows, if they
say it’s not important, consider it
gone. You don’t even concern yourself with it. But if he was going to
give it away he should’ve gotten
something major in return for it.
He got nothing.”
Politically, moreover, the president’s brand had been damaged by
his own party.
“I think part of the sad commentary that is unusual for Obama is
that he had overwhelming Democratic majorities and was still having to play an overly inside game,”
said Andy Stern, the former head
of the Service Employees International Union. “He should not have
been having to play an inside game
with his own team. Even on proce-