The Obama Method: First he did it to Boehner, now Ahmadinejad

[Adelante]

Money quote: "Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy."

The thing that people haven't figured out about President Obama's conduct of foreign policy is that it's the same as his conduct of domestic policy. Obama believes in the power of negotiation and public dialogue to split his adversaries--Republicans at home, Islamists abroad--and strengthen his own position. Obama's speech in Cairo to the Muslim world was simply the foreign analogue of his dealings with the GOP.

-snip

This rhetoric removes the locus of debate from the realm of tribal conflict-- red state versus blue state, Islam versus America--and puts it onto specific questions--Is the American health care system fair? Is terrorism justified?-- where Obama believes he can win support from soft adherents of the opposing camp.

Naturally, Obama's pacific expressions tend to alarm the more hawkish elements of his own camp, who interpret his idealistic rhetoric as naivete or weakness. ..

Democratic partisans think the enemy is vicious and must be met with uncompromising force. That's exactly how conservative foreign policy hawks feel about the world. Unsurprisingly, the right-wing foreign policy critique of Obama today sounds eerily like the partisan Democratic critique of Obama during the primary.

-snip

Likewise, by defusing the complaint among Islamists that the United States disrespects their religion, Obama can more easily force the Iranian leadership to negotiate on the terms of its stated goals. This is actually "a hard-nosed tactic of community organizers," as American Prospect editor Mark Schmitt wrote in 2007. "One way to deal with that kind of bad-faith opposition is to draw the person in," Schmitt explained, "treat them as if they were operating in good faith, and draw them into a conversation about how they actually would solve the problem."

This apparent paradox is one reason Obama's political identity has eluded easy definition. On the one hand, you have a disciple of the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky turned ruthless Chicago politician. On the other hand, there is the conciliatory post-partisan idealist. The mistake here is in thinking of these two notions as opposing poles. In reality it's all the same thing. Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy.

http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=bce35bd2-5d49-42...

[Arkana]

1. Obama believes in hugging his enemies to death.

That's why the GOP's approval numbers continue to sag.

[HopeOverFear]

14. lol that's an excellent way to put that.

[Buzz Clik]

2. True, but it needs full context.

"This apparent paradox is one reason Obama's political identity has eluded easy definition. On the one hand, you have a disciple of the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky turned ruthless Chicago politician. On the other hand, there is the conciliatory post-partisan idealist. The mistake here is in thinking of these two notions as opposing poles. In reality it's all the same thing. Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy."

[Spazito]

23. His strategy has proven to be right, time and time again....

It has been fascinating to watch unfold each time.

[Jennicut]

3. It seems to be working, which is the best part about it

[opihimoimoi]

4. The man plays BB and chess....he can strategize he can plan...he can think, adjust and overcome...he

is our President.

Not God, but the best we got in a long time...

[Adelante]

5. Amen nt

[damonm]

6. It's called "political JiuJitsu"

[Kaleko]

13. Verbal Aikido

is the term most often used these days.

Fred Kofman explains how it's done in a 3-part video. He's one of the foremost teachers of interpersonal communication skills. I'd be surprised if Obama hasn't used Kofman's playbook beginning fairly early on in his career.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1540849-verbal-aikido-part-1

http://vodpod.com/watch/1540850-verbal-aikido-part-2

http://vodpod.com/watch/1540851-verbal-aikido-part-3

[LynzM]

27. Nice!

Bookmarking this to watch these later!

[Laelth]

7. Insightful. Thanks for the link. n/t

-Laelth

[Cha]

8. I think a lot of us who

listened to Obama during the primaries and general have gotten this..

"Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy."

The corporatemedia continues to be willfully ignorant and the rwingers like mccain, et al..just want to throw hypocrical shit and hope something sticks..that's the only hope they have.

[Adelante]

9. Yes, we certainly did

I was glad to see a journalist catch on to what we saw back then

[SpartanDem]

10. We definitely see this play out on DU.

How many times has Obama been called timid weak etc? The criticisms does in many ways resemble the complaints by foreign policy hawks on the right. The recent speech at the AMA is a perfect example of this, many of the more hawkish elements on DU were not please at him speaking there some even calling it treasonous. In many ways paralleling the rights complaints about the Cairo speech. But after the speech the AMA couldn't get enough support to issue a statement outright opposing the public option and had to issue a weaker statement. This doesn't doesn't mean they support one, but they're not united in opposition which is a major help in getting reformed passed.

This is the Obama Method at work:

Divided AMA Compromises on Health Reform Resolution

The former AMA delegate who predicted the physician group's membership would "drop like a stone" because of statements suggesting they oppose a public plan, now says he is somewhat relieved that the group's Wednesday resolution will "at least keep them at the table" of health reform debate.

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/234753/topic/...

[vaberella]

15. It's shocking isn't? It's over and over I hear he needs to strong arm--lacking leadership--weak.

It's this weird play at hand on DU that I find ridiculous and it's surprising that so many on DU don't realize how much their spouting out RW talking points. One poster to hold Obama's feet to the fire actually posted an Right Wing article that blasts Obama and calls him a liar. Basically the article was anti-public option or even single payer. Yet, the poster didn't see that beyond their blindness to mark our President as either uncaring, a failure, weak and all the great other derogatory terms. It's not even his policies which are not even debated---at this point it's targeting the man.

[damonm]

11. I've been saying something like this for awhile...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/damonm/12

[wyldwolf]

12. "Obama believes in... split(ting) his adversaries... strengthen his own position"

Definition

[vaberella]

16. Great article. K*R and bookmarked. n/t

[wiggs]

17. I believe this as well. He is very good at consensus building and framing

issues that allow resolution. These are some of Obama's effective TOOLS for moving public debate and leaders' options. However, the article doesn't illuminate for us what Obama intends to do with his tools...maybe too early to say, yet, for many policy areas. So he will likely get republicans and blue dog dems to the table to discuss health care...what his goals are for the outcome is unclear, right? Same for Iran, for Israel, gay issues, etc. He is driving toward resolution, thankfully, we just don't know what it will end up looking like. And, as the article says, some of the rhetoric used to get people to the table is seen as necessary for dialog but may or may or drive resolution.

Still early.

[Myrina]

18. I gotta admit, watching todays Presser ...

I was at the way he handled the questioners and some of their ludicrous questions and attempts to get him to say something that he didn't want or intend to say. And all with that adorable grin on his face.

[Odin2005]

26. Yep, "That's not Logical" = PWNED!!!

[uponit7771]

19. Yeap, starting to look like a pattern for Obama...very passive aggressive

[ConservativeDemocrat]

20. Quite the opposite...

"Passive aggressive" is another way of saying "a--holes who are too cowardly to confront you directly, so they stab you in the back".

Obama is more the "diplomatic moralist", saying "I acknowledge many of your grievances are legitimate, but how do you justify your own bad behavior?"

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[TomCADem]

21. It A Put Up Or Shut Up Approach

The Obama administration has repeatedly challenged critics to provide their own solution or engage him with respect to his proposed solution. In other words, he does not allow the opposition to sit on the sidelines and bitch. Instead, if you do bitch, he dares the opposition to come up with a comprehensive alternative. Of course, this just serves to expose right wing talking points for what they are, empty rhetoric.

Thus, President Obama identifies an issue such as healthcare, offers some general guidelines regarding what he wants, then opens the floor for people to try to fill in the blanks. If a right wing critic refuses to participate, then they look like an obstructionist, and he exposes them by daring them to offer a comprehensive alternative. Look at the GOP "alternative" budget.

Finally, I think President Obama is not an idealogue. If the opposition comes up with a good idea or criticism, he will include it. He is not an idealogical purist even though he clearly has his own vision of the types of reforms he wants to implement.

[Kaleko]

24. In other words, he's a lot smarter than many of his critics on DU.

Welcome to the monkey house, Tom!

[grantcart]

22. great article and another 'money' passage;

Democratic partisans think the enemy is vicious and must be met with uncompromising force. That's exactly how conservative foreign policy hawks feel about the world. Unsurprisingly, the right-wing foreign policy critique of Obama today sounds eerily like the partisan Democratic critique of Obama during the primary.

[Odin2005]

25. That is exactly why I voted for him.