Mark Blumenthal’s post the other day noting continued strong support for Obama among self-identified “liberal Democrats” attracted a nuanced dissent from OpenLeft’s Chris Bowers.
Bowers notes that there’s evidence liberal non-Democrats have soured on Obama pretty strongly, and that even among liberal Democrats, levels of support as compared to 2008 voting percentages have dropped more than for any other major voting category.
Blumenthal responds today by arguing that the levels of liberal disaffection from Obama are far too small to constitute a “revolt” by the “base,” and also suggests that approval ratings are a misleading barometer when it comes to liberal voters who would never consider pulling the lever for a Republican.
Aside from reporting the substance of this exchange, I would note that its tone represents something of a model for intraprogressive debates. Both Bowers and Blumenthal are respectful of each other’s opinion, try to stick to empirical data, and acknowlege this is a continuing subject for legitimate debate, not something on which one side or the other can claim any definitive “win.”
One comment on “More On “The Base” and Obama”
unclebilly on
In the 2008 campaign Obama’s oratory bespoke a unique common sense in domestic and foreign matters that powered his singular victory. Most of us expected audacious leadership to generate popular momentum able to brush aside the nay-sayers. Since January the president has yielded to the most vacuous groupthink of establishments – Wall Street, Congress, health interests, and the \”Can Do, Sir\” military. His presidency and congressional majorities rest on the Democrats who elected him to have more sense, honesty, intelligence, and courage than those establishments that created or aided the mess America faces. If Obama tosses away that support, he, and the hopes of the voters, are finished. The “base” will never vote for Republicans; we’ll just stay home on November 2, 2010.
Having watched LBJ sell the progress of the JFK/LBJ years for the pottage of \”not losing Vietnam to the Communists\”, I despair.
This year’s big media narrative has been the confirmation saga of Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget. At New York I wrote about how over-heated the talk surrounding Tanden has become.
Okay, folks, this is getting ridiculous. When a vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the nomination of Neera Tanden was postponed earlier this week, you would have thought it presented an existential threat to the Biden presidency. “Scrutiny over Tanden’s selection has continued to build as the story over her uneven reception on Capitol Hill stretched through the week,” said one Washington Post story. Politico Playbook suggested that if Tanden didn’t recover, the brouhaha “has the potential to be what Biden might call a BFD.” There’sbeen all sorts of unintentionally funny speculation about whether the White House is playing some sort of “three-dimensional chess” in its handling of the confirmation, disguising a nefarious plan B or C.
Perhaps it reflects the law of supply and demand, which requires the inflation of any bit of trouble for Biden into a crisis. After all, his Cabinet nominees have been approved by the Senate with a minimum of 56 votes; the second-lowest level of support was 64 votes. One nominee who was the subject of all sorts of initial shrieking, Tom Vilsack, was confirmed with 92 Senate votes. Meanwhile, Congress is on track to approve the largest package of legislation moved by any president since at least the Reagan budget of 1981, with a lot of the work on it being conducted quietly in both chambers. Maybe if the bill hits some sort of roadblock, or if Republican fury at HHS nominee Xavier Becerra (whose confirmation has predictably become the big fundraising and mobilization vehicle for the GOP’s very loud anti-abortion constituency) reaches a certain decibel level, Tanden can get out of the spotlight for a bit.
But what’s really unfair — and beyond that, surreal — is the extent to which this confirmation is being treated as more important than all the others combined, or indeed, as a make-or-break moment for a presidency that has barely begun. It’s not. If Tanden cannot get confirmed, the Biden administration won’t miss a beat, and I am reasonably sure she will still have a distinguished future in public affairs (though perhaps one without much of a social-media presence). And if she is confirmed, we’ll all forget about the brouhaha and begin focusing on how she does the job, which she is, by all accounts, qualified to perform.
In the 2008 campaign Obama’s oratory bespoke a unique common sense in domestic and foreign matters that powered his singular victory. Most of us expected audacious leadership to generate popular momentum able to brush aside the nay-sayers. Since January the president has yielded to the most vacuous groupthink of establishments – Wall Street, Congress, health interests, and the \”Can Do, Sir\” military. His presidency and congressional majorities rest on the Democrats who elected him to have more sense, honesty, intelligence, and courage than those establishments that created or aided the mess America faces. If Obama tosses away that support, he, and the hopes of the voters, are finished. The “base” will never vote for Republicans; we’ll just stay home on November 2, 2010.
Having watched LBJ sell the progress of the JFK/LBJ years for the pottage of \”not losing Vietnam to the Communists\”, I despair.