Cooperation is Fantasy Island Stuff

Gloria Borger of CNN makes a good point when she writes that Republicans don't really want to work with the Obama administration.

But I frequently wonder if Obama's Democrats want to work with him, either.

They dutifully trot out the excuse of racism — like the fabled boy who cried "wolf!" — whenever anyone objects to anything, And, like sheep, the voters and the broadcast media nod their heads and wring their hands.

But when it comes right down to it, what excuse can Democrats offer for not enacting anything Barack Obama wants? Republican racism can't be the culprit. Democrats have a filibuster–proof majority in the Senate. And they hold nearly 59% of the seats in the House.

Yet Mike Soraghan reports in The Hill that House Democrats are still 10 votes short of the 218 they need to pass their version of health insurance reform.

How can this be? How can Democrats be 10 votes shy of a bare majority when they hold nearly three–fifths of the seats in the House?

When you have four dozen members of your own party in the House who haven't committed to your proposal — and you only need 10 of them to ensure its passage — what does that say about the president's leadership?

He doesn't need to bring any cantankerous Republicans on board. There are enough Democrats in both chambers of Congress to enact anything the administration wants. Republicans have little or no relevance.

Obama has spent a lot of time and a lot of energy this year trying to appease the members of the opposition party with little to show for it. When 2011 gets here, he is likely to need their assistance, but right now he doesn't need them to get anything accomplished.

I've heard it said that what Obama needs to do is use Lyndon Johnson's powers of persuasion to promote his agenda. Johnson had his problems with Congress, too, but he managed to push through a domestic legislative agenda that was groundbreaking 45 years ago.

I was intrigued earlier this week when I read Ed Rollins' commentary for CNN.com in which he asserted that a spoof of Obama on Saturday Night Live could damage Obama's presidency.

I don't agree with that. SNL has done parodies on every president — and many popular politicians who never became president — for the last 34 years, including Rollins' former boss, Ronald Reagan. SNL's parodies may have played a role in the demise of the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, but Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush demonstrated that it was possible to rise above the laughter.

Given his background, Rollins probably has a rooting interest in seeing Obama's presidency fail so his words have to be taken with a grain of salt.

But he strikes a responsive chord in me when he writes, "The president has made a lot of promises regarding health care reform ... Promises made as president do count, far more than those as a candidate. And the president will be measured against them. He will be judged ... by his fellow citizens at the voting booth. And it will be no laughing matter if they feel he misled them."

Certainly it will be no laughing matter to those who believed they might finally see genuine health care reform under this president.

And rising joblessness will be no laughing matter to those who are unemployed. Rollins observes that the spoof did not mention one promise Obama made as president — "that his $787 billion stimulus package would create 3.5 million new jobs.

"If 'SNL' had asked the question, the answer would be: Not Done! The job hasn't even been started. The United States is losing more jobs by the minute. Before we turn this economy around, job loss could reach 9 million in the past two years and unemployment could reach 10.5 percent."

Rollins acknowledged the thing that Democrats never fail to point out: "This didn't happen all on his watch." But, he went on to observe, "if we don't get Americans back to work, the other promises President Obama made will pale in importance."

Other presidents who were elected during tough times — notably, Reagan and Clinton — tried to blame their predecessors when their parties faced tough midterm elections, and it didn't work. I have seen nothing that suggests it will work for Obama in 2010.

So, even if he's backing a different horse in this race, Rollins offered constructive advice when he urged Obama, "Focus on jobs, Mr. President."

That's good advice. I wish I had been saying that.

Wait a minute. I have been saying that. Is anyone listening?