Obama Learns From Others

Barack Obama learns from history. He obviously looked at the last two Democratic Administrations and was determined not to follow their mistakes. Carter and Clinton can both be described as failed administrations for different reasons. Carter refused to play nice with his own party. Clinton made several tactical errors in 1993 and 1994 which negated much of his legislative program and led to the Republican Revolution. Obama is determined to avoid such errors.

Carter came to Washington as the white knight aboard his high horse. He treated Congressional Democrats with contempt as they were the establishment. Carter was anti-establishment and would not play the game. He ended up angering his own party and Ted Kennedy challenged him in 1980 for the presidential nomination. Barack Obama plays nice with his party has a good relationship with congress. If they balk at his program, Rahm Emmanuel is there to mail dead fish to dissenters. Things may be moving too slow for Obama, but that is Washington and he understands that.

Unlike Carter, Clinton had good relations with the Democratic Congress. However, he decided to tackle social issues like gays in the military upon taking office. He ended up off message and reaffirming the belief that he was another out of touch liberal. Unlike Clinton, Obama has avoided social issues much to the chagrin of gay marriage advocates.

Clinton struggled to stay on message in the early days, but eventually put forth his legislative program. However, people did not like that program and revolted. The best example is Hillarycare. Clinton gave his opponents time to read the bill and it frightened people. Opposition formed and it was defeated. Obama is determined to avoid a Hillarycare rerun. The Democrats have changed their strategy and now ram through potentially controversial legislation before anyone can read it. Obama won't even post bills online as he promised.

Obama has learned from history. That means his legislative program has a good chance of passing. Success may end up Obama's Achilles heel. Ridiculous deficits and policies formulated in the 19th century will be Obama's undoing.