A Hard-Headed Strategy Of Inclusion
REACHING BEYOND HIS CORE SUPPORTERS IS OBAMA'S BEST HOPE OF ADVANCING HIS POLICY AGENDA.
by Ronald Brownstein
National Journal
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008
The astonishingly truculent response of House Republican Leader John Boehner and other prominent conservatives to Barack Obama's election is offering the president-elect a huge opportunity to consolidate his victory and expand his coalition -- provided he is tough enough to discipline the most-partisan voices in his own base.
Conservatives appear locked in denial about the depth of their defeat. Obama attracted a higher share of the vote than all but one Democratic presidential nominee since World War II and produced Democratic House and Senate majorities larger than Republicans ever enjoyed during their years of control from 1994 to 2006. In his attack on Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff and in a belligerent recent Washington Post op-ed in which he promised to start "vigorously fighting ... [Obama's] far-left agenda," Boehner signaled that he is adopting a shoot first, aim later strategy driven by the Right's demand for scorched-earth resistance.
If congressional Republicans follow Boehner and conservative militants like Rush Limbaugh down such a path, they could allow Obama to build alliances with the most-pragmatic elements of the GOP and the business community at a time when the Republican coalition is already contracting.
To seize that opportunity, Obama would need to overcome the objections of liberal Internet activists who are condemning as capitulation any effort to find accommodation with Republicans or the interests they represent. But outreach from Obama wouldn't be a form of altruism, much less a concession to the post-election conservative insistence that America remains a right-tilting country. Instead, it would be a hard-headed strategy for expanding his own coalition by dividing the GOP's. Systematically reaching out beyond his core supporters is Obama's best hope of advancing his policy agenda and of delivering on his overarching promise to bridge America's partisan and ideological divides.
(More here.)
by Ronald Brownstein
National Journal
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008
The astonishingly truculent response of House Republican Leader John Boehner and other prominent conservatives to Barack Obama's election is offering the president-elect a huge opportunity to consolidate his victory and expand his coalition -- provided he is tough enough to discipline the most-partisan voices in his own base.
Conservatives appear locked in denial about the depth of their defeat. Obama attracted a higher share of the vote than all but one Democratic presidential nominee since World War II and produced Democratic House and Senate majorities larger than Republicans ever enjoyed during their years of control from 1994 to 2006. In his attack on Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff and in a belligerent recent Washington Post op-ed in which he promised to start "vigorously fighting ... [Obama's] far-left agenda," Boehner signaled that he is adopting a shoot first, aim later strategy driven by the Right's demand for scorched-earth resistance.
If congressional Republicans follow Boehner and conservative militants like Rush Limbaugh down such a path, they could allow Obama to build alliances with the most-pragmatic elements of the GOP and the business community at a time when the Republican coalition is already contracting.
To seize that opportunity, Obama would need to overcome the objections of liberal Internet activists who are condemning as capitulation any effort to find accommodation with Republicans or the interests they represent. But outreach from Obama wouldn't be a form of altruism, much less a concession to the post-election conservative insistence that America remains a right-tilting country. Instead, it would be a hard-headed strategy for expanding his own coalition by dividing the GOP's. Systematically reaching out beyond his core supporters is Obama's best hope of advancing his policy agenda and of delivering on his overarching promise to bridge America's partisan and ideological divides.
(More here.)
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