Reality and Re-election Sharpen Obama’s Zigzags
By JOHN HARWOOD
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama thrilled liberals on Tuesday when, blending Theodore Roosevelt with Occupy Wall Street, he renewed his commitment to temper untrammeled, “you’re on your own” capitalism.
The very next day, he alarmed some of the same liberals when his administration overruled the Food and Drug Administration to block over-the-counter sale of emergency contraceptives to young teenagers.
It is not the first time Mr. Obama has sent such divergent signals in the tumultuous third year of his presidency. Last month, he sided with environmental activists in delaying a decision on whether to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil down to the Gulf of Mexico from Canada.
That was after the president, in September, angered the same constituency by deferring new Environmental Protection Agency smog regulations until 2013. In talks on a deficit-reduction “grand bargain” over the summer, he entertained raising the retirement age and curbing Social Security benefits — then shelved that, and blasted Republicans for refusing to accept higher taxes on affluent Americans.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama thrilled liberals on Tuesday when, blending Theodore Roosevelt with Occupy Wall Street, he renewed his commitment to temper untrammeled, “you’re on your own” capitalism.
The very next day, he alarmed some of the same liberals when his administration overruled the Food and Drug Administration to block over-the-counter sale of emergency contraceptives to young teenagers.
It is not the first time Mr. Obama has sent such divergent signals in the tumultuous third year of his presidency. Last month, he sided with environmental activists in delaying a decision on whether to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil down to the Gulf of Mexico from Canada.
That was after the president, in September, angered the same constituency by deferring new Environmental Protection Agency smog regulations until 2013. In talks on a deficit-reduction “grand bargain” over the summer, he entertained raising the retirement age and curbing Social Security benefits — then shelved that, and blasted Republicans for refusing to accept higher taxes on affluent Americans.
(More here.)
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