Obama, Dems will conclude that they can win when they unabashedly wield a big populist sledgehammer

[jefferson_dem]

The Morning Plum
By Greg Sargent

* What Dems will learn from big payroll tax cut victory: Now that the smoke has cleared from the wreckage, the magnitude of the GOP’s defeat in the payroll tax cut fight is now clear. What will Dems learn from their victory?

I think Eugene Robinson is right to predict that Obama and Dems will conclude that it shows they can win when they unabashedly wield a big populist sledgehammer:

The week’s events offer a lesson for Obama, too. One reason for all the Republican angst was that public opinion has become more sensitive to issues of economic justice. This may be partly due to the Occupy protests. But I’m convinced that Obama’s fiery barnstorming in favor of his American Jobs Act has played a big role. People are hearing his message. The president has been on the offensive. It’s no coincidence that, for the first time in quite a while, Republicans are backing up.

Dems are hoping the story they told during this battle — they are the fighters for the middle class, while Republicans revealed that their true priorities are protecting the wealthy even if it means more hardship for working families — will establish the narrative for the 2012 campaign. Crucially, they think they have put the battles over the deficit behind them — battles that unfolded on GOP turf — and can now make the fight all about the ideological differences between the two parties over how and whether government should act to create jobs and improve economic conditions for the middle class.

Polls suggest that public opinion may have shifted favorably for Obama and Dems in some respsects, despite continuing high disapproval over the economy. A recent Post poll found that Obama now holds a 15-point advantage over Congressional Republicans on who is more trusted to protect the middle class; he holds a 17 point advantage among independents on taxes. Meanwhile, a recent CNN poll found that Obama’s approval rebound is being fueled by big gains among middle class voters, a crucial swing constituency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum/2011/12/23/gIQAFJCODP_blog.html

[Romulox]

1. One small problem: Obama doesn't have a populist bone in his body.

And WaPo is a Center/Right paper.

[jefferson_dem]

4. Well played...

Two hilariously baseless - - assertions all rolled into one tiny post.

[Romulox]

5. My mistake: we all anxiously await hearing DAVID BRODER's take on "populism".

[SidDithers]

6. +1...

Well said.

Sid

[socialist_n_TN]

11. Oh but Obama IS a populist in this relativistic day and age.

Or at least to people who think that Reagan's policies were "centrist".

Of course, you're right, but until we can acknowledge that what the MSM call "left" today is, at BEST, center right in a meta, historical and world context, then yes Obama will be considered a "populist".

But I'm convinced a REAL left is coming into being and growing stronger every day in the popular opinion and that REAL populist leaders will emerge soon. And hopefully, these REAL leftists will push Obama away from the neoliberal agenda that has destroyed the world economy and into a true leftism and not this relativistic bullshit that passes for "left" in the MSM.

[Romulox]

14. Well said. nt

[Vincardog]

19. Testify socialist

[MjolnirTime]

12. Wow. Hold on to that bitterness. May it keep you warm at night.

[Romulox]

13. I've said it elsewhere: It's *easy* for centrists to be pleased with this President. nt

[MjolnirTime]

16. You stick with your candidate. I'll stick with Obama.

We'll see who accomplishes more for the People of this Nation.

[Romulox]

17. I'm not sure what that even means, in the context of this thread. nt

[MjolnirTime]

18. I was hoping you'd name your Knight in Shining Armor.

[tabatha]

2. Obviously Obama used the tool to win, therefore he had already learned.

[Enrique]

3. but this is dangerous for the dems

and for Greg Sargent, and Kevin Drum and Steve Benen.

If they have proven they "can win", then that takes an excuse away if they don't. One of the biggest excuses has been "they can't".

[tyne]

7. A slight correction...

"Dems are hoping the story they told during this battle — they are the fighters for the middle class, while Republicans revealed that their true priorities are protecting the wealthy even if it means more hardship for working families — will establish the narrative for the 2012 campaign."

The narrative shouldn't be that the dems ARE fighting for the middle class...it should be that the dems have ALWAYS fought for the middle-class(the 99%)...and remind the populace of this at every turn. We act as if we've somehow changed and are now FOR middle-class tax cuts and we sit idly by and even parrot the narrative ie "the right is losing its tax-cut narrative" Bullyit.

Think back to 01 and 03...the only reason those tax cuts passed was because the dems insisted that the middle-class received tax cuts...not just the top. We were negotiating FOR the middle-class and they were negotiating FOR the top.

For cripes sake, the right was holding the country's credit rating hostage unless we passed an extension of Bush's top tax cuts. Can't we continue to pound away at this? IOW, look how hard they fought for the 1%?

[SaintPete]

8. Who changd the narrative - Occupy or Obama?

You wrote:

"This may be partly due to the Occupy protests. But I’m convinced that Obama’s fiery barnstorming in favor of his American Jobs Act has played a big role."

So lay it out for the rest of us....Why do you feel Obama played a big role? Any evidence that the President's rhetoric played a direct role?

[jefferson_dem]

10. I didn't write it. I pasted it.

Those are Greg Sargent's words, which I basically agree with. However, I would not argue that OWS or the President's recent, effective use of the bully pulpit deserves more or less credit. In fact, each has perfectly complimented the other. I don't think anyone can deny that the OWS movement served as the critical spark ... but the President gave "institutional legitimacy" and political leverage to voices of the protestors.

[Zalatix]

9. America likes a fighter who can kick $$$ and take names.

Whether it's Teddy or Franklin Roosevelt or the Tea Party, if you come out swinging and never let up and stay on-message, you're going to win at the ballot box. Usually.

Wimps stay home. In America you gotta muscle-up.

Kinda sad, but true.

[cowcommander]

15. I still daydream sometimes about what America would look like today if the Bull Moose party won

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1912)

This was the closest a third party has ever gotten to breaking this shitty two-party system...

[Zalatix]

20. Pity he was a Republican

Teddy Roosevelt was a force unnamed when it comes to Progressive change.