September 2009 Archives
09/20/09 11:38 AM
A TiVo Challenge: Watching ObamaVision on a Sunday Morning
For public policy mavens, a weekend which began with the passing of Irving Kristol, the influential conservative essayist, climaxed with President Obama being on most every talk show Sunday morning. And, throughout, there was Glenn Beck sticking out his tongue at us from the cover of the new Time magazine.
Kristol and Obama didn't have a lot in common ideologically but were united by a reflexive penchant for the systematic and analytical. Coming from different ends of the political spectrum, they each embodied an empiricist thrust; by and large looking at policies and wondering, "Does this really work?" In an age in which the provocative (Beck) can trump the smart and correct, one can imagine Kristol, who once called a conservative "a liberal mugged by reality," and Obama actually getting along for hours in some quiet den, shooting the intellectual breeze.
On Sunday, the aim of Cool Hand Obama aim was more tactical, namely in trying to cut through frustrations (and worrisome polling) with the health care debate in a less formal, less aggressive manner than in his address to the joint session of Congress. If one hadn't known what was up, it was clear in perhaps the most revealing of his ABC-NBC-CBS sessions, one with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, that this was surely one of those periods in which, "I've said I'm just not breaking through."
If one had any doubt that school's back in session, one had only to listen to Prof. Obama Wednesday night.
Addressing us on health care, he reminded at least one longtime Obama watcher back in Chicago of the intellectual and philosophical reality beneath the caricature of either fire-breathing liberal or compromiser too willing to appease political enemies.
At heart he's a traditional liberal who's deeply pragmatic in search of progressive values. Whatever works. It's the same with a key consigliere sitting a few feet away and apparently fully enjoying a stick of gum, David Axelrod. Perhaps Obama is more inclined toward the empirical. But, for both, it's a willingness to put reflexive ideology aside and ask, "What's the best way to do this?" Read More
Perhaps it was the setting, a rather serene and playful backyard birthday party for a former federal prosecutor, but a Sunday barbecue across the street in my Chicago hood brought few hints of what the New York Times on Monday labeled Barack Obama's "struggling" presidency.
In fact, this distinctly non-focus group gathering lacked any mention of Obama, or the "public option" in health care, or the improbable, confusion-shrouded "Gang of Six" in the Senate. It was all the more notable since there was one U.S. Senate candidate (Democrat) and one congressional candidate (Republican) in the mix, enjoying the beer, sausages and our kids playing whiffle ball or cavorting on a small trampoline.
There was no mention of the Sunday talk shows, which featured administration aides talking health care and underscoring what would seem obvious to even a C-minus student in government; namely that there's a lot more to the legislation than pleasing Nancy Pelosi and others on the Democratic left.
In fact, this distinctly non-focus group gathering lacked any mention of Obama, or the "public option" in health care, or the improbable, confusion-shrouded "Gang of Six" in the Senate. It was all the more notable since there was one U.S. Senate candidate (Democrat) and one congressional candidate (Republican) in the mix, enjoying the beer, sausages and our kids playing whiffle ball or cavorting on a small trampoline.
There was no mention of the Sunday talk shows, which featured administration aides talking health care and underscoring what would seem obvious to even a C-minus student in government; namely that there's a lot more to the legislation than pleasing Nancy Pelosi and others on the Democratic left.
