PRESIDENT OBAMA: If there’s one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values. And that I do think is a mistake of mine. I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here –
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That people would get it.
OBAMA: That people will get it. And I think that, you know, what they’ve ended up seeing is this feeling of remoteness and detachment where, you know, there’s these technocrats up here, these folks who are making decisions. Maybe some of them are good, maybe some of them aren’t. But do they really get us and what we’re going through? And I think that I can do a better job of that and partly because I do believe that we’re in a stronger position now than we were in a year ago.
I would say that is a resounding no. It’s not like he has given over 150 speeches this year. (that he did) He has taken every opportunity to try to explain to the American people what he is doing. The problem is not that the people do not get it; the problem is that they do get what he is doing and it is not in line with what we believe. In his call to Coakley, he told her that “we can’t win them all”. That is correct, but I do not think reality has hit him as to why they lost this race.
I was reading through some headlines today and one says he wants to nationalize student loans (which are subsidized already…but he wants to take them over completely). Another said he wants more government regulations on financial institutions…on evil wall street (if he thinks they are so evil then why won’t he just let them fail for making stupid decisions?) Yet another says he is still going to try to push through his health care reform. He also plans to campaign for Harry Reid next month. He had already promised to campaign for Chris Dodd, but he is now retiring instead. The kind of retiring that people do right before they are fired that is. Speaking of the Senate…they are now trying to raise the debt limit almost another $2 trillion dollars.
I even found a statement still blaming Bush for all of our troubles.
“President George W. Bush and House Republicans drove our economy into a ditch and tried to run away from the accident. President Obama and congressional Democrats have been focused [on] repairing the damage to our economy.” - Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)
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I wonder when the statute of limitations ends for that excuse.
In the end, Obama is not going to change his agenda. He believes what he is doing is right. Despite the recent election, he still believes in a bigger than life government that will solve all of society’s ills. It will be interesting to see how Obama’s strategy changes to try to convince the American public that the government knows best. Because as his top advisor David Axelrod said, “We’ll have to think through this next year from the standpoint of tactics but in substance the mission can’t change.” Interesting.
