"The White House: Let Conservatives Win... (For Now)"

[Clio the Leo]

"The White House: Let Conservatives Win... (For Now)"

Nov 2 2009, 10:13 am by Marc Ambinder

The White House: Let Conservatives Win... (For Now)

The White House is playing it cool. Faced with the prospect of losing governor's mansions in Virginia and New Jersey, a would-be pick-up seat in New York, maybe a few liberal policy referendums and the mayoralty of Atlanta, Obama administration political and policy planners will put on their Snuggies Tuesday night and watch FlashFoward. It's the future they're concerned about, not the present.


The White House expects the GOP to do well in 2010 as conservatives interpret the elections of 2009 as a verdict on ideology -- the capiatulating, week-kneed ideology of party functionaries. Further, the White House expects Republicans to pick up House seats. This is overdetermined. The White House wants conservatives to think that whatever happens in 2009 and in 2010 has worked for them, because the White House believes that the GOP short-term success will be a mirage -- a fiction built on the blown stacks of angry white men in the exurbs and in the South.


The more Republicans find their voice on the right, on what White House officials call the "Palin-Beck" axis, the better Democrats will fare after 2010, when they still should have their majorities, when they should have a sleeve of accomplishments, when it becomes clear that Republicans are unwilling or unable to build a genuine coalition.

<snip>

In a sense, the White House's agenda for 2010 was set long before anyone had ever heard of Doug Hoffman. Faced with the prospect of a obliquely angeled "V" shaped recession, the president's policy planners have been trying to figure out how to create jobs in an economy that is newly conditioned to be lean. Trouble is, of course, that the range of policy options favored by Democrats -- more spending, more government transfers -- are at odds with the second fundamental reality of the economy: the deficit and mounting debt.


Politically, the White House blames Republicans for the renaissance of partisanship since Obama's election. The 2008 election was so lopsided that it knocked the moderate instincts out of many Republicans, and, indeed, knocked many of them out of office. Others were appointed to the administration by a president who genuinely wants bipartisan reforms and who also wants credit for it. What's left is a rump party -- a very loud one, unfiltered by the need to build a majority coalition because they're so far in the minority.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/the_white_house_let_conservatives_win_for_now.php

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. "What's left is a rump party - a loud one". Begs creative images, that one!

So the GOP are just a bunch of loudly farting a%@holes.

We all know that!

[Clio the Leo]

2. That was a new one for me too....

... comes from the notion of butchering a hog and, after you cut off the head and limbs, all you're left with is the rump?

Rump party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A Rump Party is a political party that is formed by the remaining body of supporters and leaders who do not support a breakaway group who merge with or form another new party. The rump party can have the name of the original party , or a new name.

Examples:

The pro-protectionism Conservative Party in the UK after the breakaway of the free trade Peelite faction in 1846 over the repeal of the corn laws.
Liberal Party (UK, 1989)
National Party (South Africa) under leadership of DF Malan after formation of United Party (South Africa).
New National Party (South Africa) the new name of what remained of National Party (South Africa) under the leadership of FW de Klerk and Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Progressive Canadian Party, under Ernie Schreiber and now Sinclair Stevens, the remnants of the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada that opposed the merger with the Canadian Alliance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_party

[timeforpeace]

13. A strategy sometimes referred to as the soft bigotry of lowered expectations.

[PretzelWarrior]

3. I have some issues with the opinion of events...but good analysis

it is true the Dems have a slight comfort zone in the House of Representatives. It is also true they don't have as much of a majority in the Senate (though much larger than anything the GOP had under Bush).

The main catalyst for so much steamrolling of Dem minority was 9/11. PUre and simple. That was what the Atlantic piece hinted at but didn't point to specifically in reference to the 2002 increase of Republican seats.

[bluestateguy]

4. The 2001 Democratic governor pickups in VA and NJ were a harbinger for President Kerry

Oh oops.

[FormerDittoHead]

5. Our ideology isn't weak-kneed (sic), our POLITICIANS are! n/t

[bbgrunt]

6. is politics trumping good policy? All these ninja chess moves are making my head spin.

[verges]

7. Seems like a dangerous game to me. nt

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. I'm sorry, but it's Obama's fault. He hasn't really led. I don't blame him exclusively, but

I think he could be much stronger leader. Most of the blame lies at the feet of the congressional leadership, cowtowing to the Blue Dogs and the Republicans. When are they ever going to learn?

[Clio the Leo]

11. What's Obama's fault? The fact that the GOP is imploding?

I agree. ;-)

[joeycola]

14. Imploding leads to wining today.

[ProSense]

9. This sounds like pure speculation from Ambinder: "Let Conservatives Win"? First,

it's still highly likely that Corzine will win. Second, no one in the WH would be conceding defeat before the polls even open.

[backscatter712]

10. Interesting.

If Obama's right, then we may be looking at a 70-vote majority of Dems in the Senate, a Republican Party (and a Conservative Party) so divided that they'll do nothing but scream and throw rocks at each other, and won't even be able to agree on whether to oppose Obama...

[Hutzpa]

12. I like this article

nothing more to add.

:evilgrin:

[Onlooker]

15. What silly spin

"The White House wants conservatives to think that whatever happens in 2009 and in 2010 has worked for them, because the White House believes that the GOP short-term success will be a mirage -- a fiction built on the blown stacks of angry white men in the exurbs and in the South."

It's not a fiction if those people win. Those people have control over Fox, over the radio, are likely to win elections today, and in a country that sees itself as 40% conservative and 20% liberal, have a good shot at winning much more. Obama was supposed to be the brave liberal who would help awaken people to a different and better way of thinking. Instead, he's muddled in mediocrity and cowardice. Let's not forget, we're still in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo; Don't Ask/Don't Tell is still the law; and the economic strategy of the Obama administration has done wonders for Wall Street, but not Main Street.