In the item below, I asked, "Will Obama mobilize his millions," referring to the 13 million or so Amricans who had signed up with his presidential campaign. That is, would he call on these people to help him pass the stimulus package? I was able to put this question to the White House on Friday afternoon. Here's how it went, as I first reported at MotherJones.com:
Will Obama Mobilize His Millions? The White House (Sort of) Responds
First, I asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs if President Obama wanted the folks attending the weekend house meetings to pressure members of Congress to support the stimulus bill. (As of this writing, the bill, which had passed the House, was heading toward a vote in the Senate. After that, the two versions will have be reconciled and a final version approved by both chambers.) Gibbs replied with something of a platitudinous reply, noting that the president always encourages citizens to be involved in their government.
I followed up by noting that when Ronald Reagan came to Washington in 1981, determined to pass an economic package of tax cuts and draconian cuts in social programs, he delivered multiple televised addresses and urged his supporters to call their members of Congress and demand passage of this legislation. The phones on Capitol Hill lit up; the legislation was passed--over the objections of the leaders of the Democratic-controlled House. Would President Obama, I asked Gibbs, make a similarly explicit call. "We'll ask those who support him...to move this economy forward," Gibbs said.
In other words, maybe.
Why hasn't the Obama White House already directly engaged its supporters in this fight? After all, Obama has repeatedly said this is the number-one priority of his administration. Perhaps Obama aides initially thought that it would not be necessary to call in its troops. If so, that was a miscalculation on at least two counts. First, it does seem that Obama will have to show some political muscle to get this bill all the way through Congress. Second, whether or not the Obama White House needed its supporters to win this thing, it would have been smart for the White House to have involved its backers in its first--and most important--initiative. That would give these people a sense of ownership. And what could be a better way of keeping those millions (and others) engaged than by scoring a victory in a significant policy and political battle? (Now, it's on to health care, everybody!)
It's not too late for Obama to send for the people who helped get him elected. This coming week, he will be expanding his outreach efforts. He will hold a prime-time news conference on Monday night. And early in the week, he will travel to Elkhart, Indiana, and Fort Myers, Florida, to conduct town hall meetings to whip up support for the recovery package. Activating the 13 million names on his list and those who attend the house meetings on the weekend would easily fit into the White House's new game plan.
Gibbs' non-answer to my question suggests that White House want to keep Obama above the political fray and not make it seem as if he's not resorting to political pressure to win passage of the stimulus legislation. But there's nothing wrong with political pressure. And there's nothing wrong with dancin' with the ones who brought ya. Obama came to the White House with--and because of--millions of supporters. In a town about which Harry Truman once supposedly said (but really didn't), "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," having millions of friends by your side cannot hurt. It might even make life a little easier.
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Comments
The Stimulus: Still Popular After All These Weeks
I've seen it asserted, assumed or alleged in many places that the stimulus package is hemorrhaging public support and might become something of an albatross around the Obama administration's neck. While I don't doubt that the stimulus could become unpopular down the road, the there is little evidence that it is unpopular in the here and now.
All polling of the stimulus to date, in fact, has shown at least a plurality and usually a majority of Americans in support, with margins varying depending on question wording, how the pollster constructs its sample, and so forth.
http://tinyurl.com/bovxcm
****
At what point is the pushing the GOP meme that the bill is unpopular going to dawn on the M$M and others?
Maybe it doesn't sell copy?
Posted by: capt
| February 6, 2009 5:17 PM
" The whole fabric of society will go to wrack if we really lay hands of reform on our rotten institutions. From top to bottom the whole system is a fraud, all of us know it, laborers and capitalists alike, and all of us are consenting parties to it."
-- Henry Adams, American historian, 1838-1918
Posted by: as_if!
| February 7, 2009 12:33 PM
Barky Mobilizes 13 Million 'Domestic Army'
http://tinyurl.com/d6pvds
hey support this "stimulus plan" even if it only stimulates my already rich cronies!
Posted by: as_if!
| February 7, 2009 4:48 PM
"What Luck For Rulers, That Men Do Not Think"
- Hitler
Shame they've allowed their media, universities and now their Executive to be openly taken over by the chosen ones, whilst Americans mouth the elite's packaged clichés as a substitute for freedom of speech.
http://tinyurl.com/ao6w48
Posted by: as_if!
| February 7, 2009 11:21 PM
The War on Terror is a Hoax
The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated.
http://tinyurl.com/b9jqxj
Posted by: as_if!
| February 7, 2009 11:28 PM
as_if! ---
:-)
Posted by: David B. Benson
| February 8, 2009 5:18 PM
The way George Bush and the GOP spent our money will be characterized by an Era of Irresponsibility and Neglect, while Obama wants to spend our money wisely and on rebuillding Americsa, if the GOP lets him. The awful truth is that One Party has destroyed America while the other Party the Democratic Party wants to restore it.
For instance: If you have a home in which you used your money to spend on alcohol, good times and neglected your roof, your bills, and now your roof is in danger of collapsing because you used your money on good times instead of the upkeep of your home and now the Argument is you are unable to borrow money to fix your roof before it caves in because you used your money foolishly in the past is also recklesslness and neglect on the part of the lender, so they let the roof collapse.
In the Bush years 30 billion was spent in Afghanistan -- 50 billion in Iraq and now Congress wants to say we cannot spend necessary money at home which has so long been neglected? States were given no money in the Bush years and now they still want to keep money out of the States on a fraudulent theory.
It is now time to for Congress to put money back in to the United States and to spend money wisely and not fraudulently, irresponsibly and in the dark as in the Bush years. Obama believes in transparancey, hence you can find the Stimulus package on line for all to see.
GOP say this money will be more of the same. It will not be more of the same. This money will be used for Americans, for jobs, to rebuild for improvement and innovations to improve life not on wars and countries which have nothing to do with American people or on big business who do not need the money.
Bush and the Republicans inherited a Surplus from the Democrats and yet the GOP has created the worst economic crisis ever. The GOP should stop hijacking the Stimulus and do the right thing and let money flow back into America again, instead of holding the Democrats hostage from their quest of bringing help to the people and restoring American again.
Posted by: bacaangel
| February 9, 2009 7:40 AM
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