Reply #6: he may not perceive it to be in his interest

[DemocratAholic]

Obama started out the last election in a campaign against Hillary Clinton. He tapped into all the disappointment from the "left" side of the party, and the disappointment they felt toward Democrats capitulating to Bush. Hence the "Bush-Cheney light" comments. Then 2008 general election was pretty much a referendum on Bush, and a reaction to a tanking economy. Obama deserves credit for running a good campaign under those circumstances, he positioned himself well as the "anti-Bush" candidate. But any Democrat could and should have won that election.

I'm assuming Obama figured that strategy wasn't going to work for his re-election. Probably correctly so, considering the very short memory American voters have. It was amazing how quickly people forgot who actually created the huge deficits, and the economic meltdown, and started to blame Obama.

This was a very strange dilemma he was in. Moving from that 2008 campaign, into the presidency, and into re-election mode. He immediately started trying to position himself as being "above the fray." Inviting an anti-gay pastor to speak at his inauguration. Allowing Republicans and conservative Democrats to write the health care reform legislation...and the list goes on. I guess he was trying to portray himself as a centrist, hoping independents would see him as Clintonesque.

Meanwhile, he has disappointed a great number of progressive Democrats. Even in the situation he is now facing, with this crazy tea party and their crazy birther and Muslim accusations, the inspired left is not rushing to his defense.

I think perhaps the reason that Obama is not rushing into supporting "workers' rights" and the attacks on collective bargaining, he doesn't really perceive these folks as being his "supporters." Who does he see as being his supporters? I think someone like Rahm Emanuel, who has extreme loyalty to the man...and doesn't really have any political ideology.

Perhaps there has been a bit of paranoia on the part of Obama? Maybe he so feared a primary campaign from the left, that he sought to ignore and marginalize any vision coming from the left? This strategy may work to get him re-elected. It does not bode well for the party as a whole though, as there is no vision coming from the top of the ticket.

I would add that any Democrat has reason to be suspect of union support. Many unions will switch allegiances in a heart beat, particularly public sector unions who rely on politicians to determine their wages. I have seen a number of occasions where supposedly Democratic leaning unions have supported Republican candidates.

Presidential elections in the USA ultimately come down to "independents." They are not particularly well-informed, and often have positions that are right and left. Without the kind of anti-Bush sentiment that existed in the last election, Obama is going to find a way to appeal to those people. People are not going to vote for him based on the wonderful economic situation.

It is a very difficult political dilemma trying to formulate a strategy under these circumstances. One thing that is clear to me is that Obama is only thinking about his own re-election, not a vision for the party as a whole. You might argue that what is good for Obama personally may not be good for the party as a whole.