The President Plays Hard Ball

This week didn't too well for the team in The West Wing.

The President’s Economic Stimulus Bill has run into problems in the US Senate both from Republican members and some Conservative Democrats. There have been much more open negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats about funding needed programs and removing some that do not have direct relativity to job creation or economic stimulus.

While the President’s efforts to achieve consensus with Senate Republicans have been helpful in reducing the level of rhetoric some, the amount of opposition during debate on the Senate Floor still indicates there is not enough votes yet to move the Bill as is.

This is an excellent example of the more you keep trying to adjust it to gain maximum support, sometimes the more gets added or adjusted that does the opposite!
As floor debate continues, President Obama’s growing frustration is such that he made a direct pitch today, through an opinion-editorial he authored, in The Washington Post.

This is an unusual step for a President to take, as the President will normally use other surrogates to press the case in opinion-editorial pages, editorial boards and major talk shows to get the White House message out.

The President is pushing hard and this task gets harder by the day. While he would like to get as much support as possible, this may be a case of setting a drop-dead date and building enough support from Democrats in the package where he can proceed without GOP votes.

Like the vote in the House, the President’s efforts to build support are better for long-term projects and relationships, but sometimes in politics you also have to be willing to show the opposition you are willing to move ahead and you are not being held hostage by some who want to bog you down and not seriously negotiate toward a consensus solution.

Although, you better make sure you have done your political math and have the breathing room to press ahead. There is some work to be done against some conservative Democrats to get everyone back in line, if this is the tact President Obama’s team takes to move ahead.

From the President’s comments in The Washington Post, time is running out and he wants the Bill sent to him immediately. We’ll see how the next few days progress and we now know what the national political TV shows on Sunday are going to be all about!