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Jewish World Review
August 29, 2011
29 Menachem-Av, 5771
Wanted: More bite from Obama the Great Nibbler
By
Dana Milbank
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Labor boss Richard Trumka is not one to nibble around the edges.
He declined a plate of bacon and eggs when sitting down to breakfast with a group of reporters this week because, the AFL-CIO president explained, he was concerned he might spit out a mouthful if he didn’t like a question. The stains on his Brooks Brothers necktie suggested this was more than a theoretical possibility. So perhaps it should not be a surprise that Trumka has lost patience with the Great Nibbler in our civic life, President Obama. The president, he complained, has been doing “little nibbly things around the edge that aren’t going to make a difference and aren’t going to solve the problem” with the economy. Obama, he protested, decided to “work with the Tea Party to offer cuts to middle-class programs like Social Security.” And, Trumka accused, Obama has limited his proposals to “those little things that he thinks others will immediately accept.” Without bolder action on the economy, Trumka told the gathering, organized by the Christian Science Monitor, “I think he doesn’t become a leader anymore, and he’s being a follower.” This is harsh criticism of a Democratic president from a natural ally — and it’s backed up by labor’s plans to create its own “super PAC” rather than give money to the Democrats. The criticism is justified, as the former miner outlined it, because Obama is on his way to a failed presidency if he doesn’t change course with the rollout of his new jobs program next month. “I said to him, ‘Do not look at what is possible — look at what is necessary,” Trumka said, recounting a recent White House meeting when he urged the president to offer more than modest programs that Republicans support. “If you only propose what you think they’ll accept, they control the agenda,” Trumka said. “I urged him to propose what was necessary to solve the problem . . . and if he doesn’t and he falls into the nibbling around the edge, I think history will judge him and I think working people will judge him.” As a practical matter, the sort of actions labor favors — $4 trillion in infrastructure spending, a WPA-type jobs program and the like — aren’t going to happen. As a matter of economics, they may not be efficient or desirable ways to fix the economy.
But Trumka still makes a good point, for reasons beyond economics or practicality — because this isn’t primarily about enacting new policy. It’s about building confidence in Obama’s leadership as the economy flails. If Obama is to dispel the growing — and debilitating — impression that he is a weak leader, he needs to show people he’s willing to fight for something other than his tee time. “We’re going in the wrong direction,” Trumka said. “There has to be some hope that we’re going to turn it around. That means there have to be some bold solutions and some risk taking.” According to a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, the proportion of Americans who regard Obama as a strong leader has dropped to 49 percent from 58 percent three months ago, and the percentage who believe Obama can get things done has dropped to 44 from 55. A majority of independents now regard Obama as unable to get things done, and a majority of Democrats think he should be tougher against the Republicans. The president, however, remains unconcerned. Would he call Congress back from recess to address the jobs crisis? He would not. Neither would he cancel his vacation on a $50,000-per-week Martha’s Vineyard compound. When the earthquake struck the East Coast, he was on the golf course. On the day Trumka complained about the need for action, Obama spent nearly five hours on the beach with his family, then went to dinner with friends. Now Obama is promising a new jobs plan — after he returns from the beach. The AFL-CIO chief, for one, is worried it will be the same old mix of tax breaks, infrastructure banks and patent reforms. “That’s not going to get the job done,” he said. This is why the labor boss has, in his private sessions with Obama and in his meeting with reporters, urged Obama to demand more than he expects. “You need leadership with a sharp cutting edge to say, ‘This is what I stand for, this is what they stand for,’ ” Trumka said. “Give them the narrative about why it will work,” rather than “more of the same of, ‘we’re muddling along.’ ”
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Previously:
• 08/10/11 How Rep. Austin Scott betrayed his Tea Party roots
• 08/09/11 The most powerful man on Earth?
• 08/08/11 The FAA shutdown and the new rules of Washington
• 08/04/11 Lt. Col. Allen West fires a round at the Tea Party
• 08/03/11 Government on autopilot
• 08/02/11 Dems mourn debt deal like death
• 07/27/11 Life imitates sport
• 07/26/11 Obama and Boehner take on Washington
• 07/21/11 Why Americans are angry at Congress
• 07/20/11 The new party of Reagan
• 07/18/11 Rob Portman, the boring Midwesterner who could bring sanity to the debt debate
• 07/13/11 John Boehner's bind
• 07/04/11 Stephen Colbert, Karl Rove and the mockery of campaign finance
• 07/01/11 President Puts Up His Dukes, As He Ought To
• 06/28/11 Rod Blagojevich verdict: All shook up
• 06/27/11 Progressives voice their anger at Obama
• 06/24/11 ‘Mission accomplished,’ Obama style
• 06/22/11 Jon Huntsman's first step toward oblivion
• 06/21/11 Scott Walker finds making bumper stickers is easier than creating jobs
• 06/20/11 A day of awkwardness with Mitt Romney
• 06/06/11 Hubris and humility: Sarah Palin and Robert Gates on tour
• 06/02/11 The Weiner roast
• 06/01/11 Congress clocks in to clock out
• 05/30/11 Hermanator II: No More Mr. Gadfly
• 05/24/11 How Obama has empowered Netanyahu
• 05/24/11 Pawlenty bends his truth-telling
• 05/20/11 Default deniers say it's all a hoax
• 05/18/11: Gingrich gives voice to moderation
• 05/17/11: Donald Trump and the House of Horrors
• 05/16/11: The medical mystery of Mitt Romney
• 05/12/11: The body impolitic: Schock photos should tempt lawmakers to cover up
• 05/10/11: Muskets in hand, tea party blasts House Republicans
• 05/09/11: The GOP debate: America -- and the party -- needs the grown-ups
• 05/05/11: Mitch Daniels, an alternative to scary
• 05/03/11: Obama's victory lap
• 05/02/11: How the journalist prom got out of control
• 04/28/11: Obama's birther day: Why did he lower himself by appearing in the briefing room?
• 04/27/11: Obama, lost in thought
• 04/24/11: Andrew Breitbart and the rifts on the right
• 04/22/11: Ten Commandments for 2012
• 04/21/11: Obama likes Facebook. Facebook likes Obama.
• 04/18/11: Without Nancy Pelosi, Obama is adrift
• 04/15/11: If progressives ran the world
• 04/14/11: Faith in political apostasy
• 04/13/11: One man's revolution is another's political expediency
• 04/11/11: Shutdown theatrics
• 04/06/11: Paul Ryan's irresponsible budget
• 04/05/11: Robots in Congress? Yes, we replicant!
• 04/04/11: Robert Gibbs, Facebook and the White House corporate placement service
• 04/01/11: Haley Barbour, the fat cats' candidate
• 03/31/11: Republican freshmen in House shut down compromise, and possibly the government
• 03/30/11: Coburn and Durbin, the dynamic duo of the debt crisis
• 03/28/11: The Obama doctrine: A gray area the size of Libya
• 03/24/11: Dems as Weiners
• 03/23/11: Obama's quick trip from tyrant to weakling
• 03/17/11: Who's afraid of Elizabeth Warren?
• 03/15/11: The underwear flap over Bradley Manning
• 03/10/11: In Senate's debt debate, talk isn't cheap
• 03/09/11: With Obama's new Gitmo policy, Administration officials had some 'splainin to do
• 03/02/11: Issa press aide scandal is like bad reality TV
• 02/25/11: Jay Carney: Mouthpiece for an inscrutable White House
• 02/14/11: The Donald trumps the pols at CPAC
• 02/09/11: Arianna Huffington's ideological transformation
© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group
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