Angering All Sides
On last week's show, I discussed how President Obama has managed to anger both sides of the aisle with the health care reform process. Pro-Life voters were lashing out at the Senate version, while Pro-Choice groups were upset at efforts to reach out to Congressman Stupak. I wondered aloud how a politician manages to get both sides of the aisle shooting at him. Typically, the easiest answer is the right one, so I supposed that he is just a bad politician, which he is. A story, however, that I heard today makes the issue much clearer.
In its first year, the Obama administration was on track to deport some 400,000 immigrants -- far more than during George W. Bush's last year in office. On the anniversary of Obama's inauguration, Hoy, the Spanish-language newspaper in Chicago, ran a full-page picture of the president on its cover under the headline "Promesa Por Cumplir" ("Unkept Promise"). The sense of betrayal among Latinos -- especially immigrants -- is palpable, just as it was after Obama's 2006 vote on the border fence.
As president, Obama has followed the cerebral strategy that increased enforcement will win support for immigration reform. But if there is no serious progress on the issue, many disillusioned Latinos will stay home in November. Others will decide that because Democrats can't deliver on immigration reform, they might as well vote Republican on the values issues. Depressed Latino turnout in Illinois may well cost the Democrats the Senate seat that Obama once held.
There are so many issues where President Obama has promised one thing and done another that he has literally become his own worst enemy. Understand that when you promise something, it is a logical expectation that people will expect you to at some point deliver on that promise. Hence, in the case of immigration, neither side is happy with the President. Those who support the promised reform expect it and will continue to demand it. Those who oppose it aren't happy that it hasn't happened either, because they are waiting for the other shoe to drop.
If this were one single issue, perhaps he could get away with it. The problem is that there are far more broken promises than kept ones. Obama was credited with a kept promise on shutting down GITMO when one of his first moves was to issue an executive order to do just that. A year later, however, and the facility not only remains open, but the Administration is openly back to square one, considering holding enemy combatant trials there.
President Obama promised that he would "use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws." He has not done so, and in fact, his administration has angered the gay community by pushing to dismiss a challenge to the defense of marriage act.
Are you following the logic here? As liberal commentators complain that President Obama is being painted as a radical by the right, and defend him by saying that the hard left is labeling him a centrist, they fail to fully understand the problem. Yes, he is being fired upon by both sides. Is that fair? Absolutely. Because both sides are still waiting on him to keep his promises. It is hypocritical to use the left's anger at his broken promises to attack the angst on the right that he might actually keep some of them.
The President has wasted a year pushing for health care reform. Will this be another broken promise? That remains to be seen. The general political consensus seems to be that he wins if it passes because he has spent so much time on it that he will never be able to win the support of its opponents. If it fails, he will then lose the support of those who have pushed for this reform.
Time will tell if that logic is correct or not. What time will never tell is where he might be today if he had focused on what people want, rather than what they don't want. At this point, Obama's political capital is completely spent, and he finds himself sitting in the halls of Congress with a cup, begging for a vote. The one thing that is for sure, there is nothing left to spend on his other unpopular pet projects, like civilian trials for terrorists and further stimulus projects. The fact that he is unlikely to be able to keep the few promises left unbroken is not just reason to criticize those who fear he may do so.
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