—MICHAEL STEELE
the cost. It was the type of victory
that had escaped the White House
for months, if not years.
“I think [the debt ceiling debate] was a watershed event, because it was clear that ... these
matters weren’t going to be easily
resolved within the four walls of
the cabinet room, or the conference room on Capitol Hill,” Axelrod said. “There’s no doubt that
the lesson of that was that more,
rather than less, public engagement was absolutely essential.”
Suddenly, the image of a president making progress began to
emerge. And it was furthered along
when he announced his support for
same-sex marriage and a new administration policy that would end
the deportation of undocumented
immigrants who had advanced de-
HUFFINGTON 09.09.12
“THEY GOT TO
WASHINGTON
AND THEY
BECAME OF THE
PLACE, AND
ASSUMED THAT
BY VIRTUE OF
HAVING AN
EMAIL COME THAT
HAS ‘WH’ ON IT,
THAT EVERYONE
WILL GO, ‘OH, OK.’ ’’
THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
turned his focus from debt reduction to job creation. He put
together a package of proposals —
targeted tax cuts, infrastructure
investments, money for teacher retention and first responder hiring,
to name a few — and barnstormed
the country to build up support.
The administration launched a
“We Can’t Wait” campaign highlighting the executive actions the
president was taking to stimulate
the economy on his own.
“I need your help,” Obama told
an audience in Denver in October
last year. “Some of these folks in
Washington still aren’t getting
the message. I need your voices
heard. I especially need you young
people, I need you guys involved.
I need you active. I need you communicating to Congress. I need
you to get the word out. … Tell
them, ‘Do your job.’”
While the efforts did little to
dissolve GOP opposition — only
a minor chunk of the president’s
jobs bill ended up being passed
— the outside game achieved its
desired results. Congressional Republicans were left defensive and
battered as the president assailed
them to pass a year-long extension of his payroll tax cut. Boehner
eventually folded his cards, agreeing to extend the rates without
requiring spending cuts to offset