Tough lessons President Obama needs to learn from Jimmy

[Guest guest]

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/17/obama-needs-to-be-a-better-party-leader.html?\

GT1=43002

Treat Your Democrats Well

Tough lessons President Obama needs to learn from Jimmy and the midterms

of 1978.

President Obama has looked to lin Roosevelt and Lyndon because of

their ability to move big legislation through Congress. He has looked to

Reagan because he was a transformative leader. He's looked to Bill Clinton for

help, because nobody plays the game of politics better. Unfortunately, however,

as Obama leads his party into the 2010 midterms he seems to be following the

model of Jimmy in 1978.

Obama can boast that he's enjoyed several legislative victories in his first 20

months: an economic-stimulus bill, health-care reform, and financial regulation.

But like , he hasn't been comfortable acting as a party leader. On top of

the recession, the policies that Obama decided to pursue have left Democrats in

a weaker position than they were in 2008, when many commentators predicted a

liberal renaissance. At least some members of his party don't feel he has their

backs.

It's easy to forget that also scored big victories during his first two

years in the White House. After his first 100 days he enjoyed 68 percent

approval ratings, and Washington Post columnist ph Kraft noted that

" Republicans and Independents like him as well as Democrats do. " In 1978, the

president used that political capital to push the Senate to ratify the Panama

Canal treaties. The treaties were crucial, in 's mind, if the U.S. wanted

to rebuild trust among Latin Americans. The Senate ratified the treaties by one

vote, and claimed a major victory. On domestic policy won passage

of energy-reform legislation, though it was watered down and divided his party.

Congress also enacted the Ethics in Government Act, which created the Office of

the Independent Counsel, and it deregulated the airlines. Yet none of these

initiatives excited middle- or working-class Americans suffering through

stagnation.

The Obama White House has likewise pressured Democrats to take up controversial

measures. With the economy faltering, Obama persuaded Democrats to push through

a health-care bill that will require many citizens to purchase coverage or pay a

fine. Yet most of the biggest benefits don't kick in until 2014. Polls show that

more than 50 percent of the country does not support the bill. While financial

regulation will help reduce speculative behavior on Wall Street, it is not the

kind of program that most Americans feel puts money in their pockets. Moreover,

after the huge TARP bailout—and given the enormous power of Washington

lobbyists—many ordinary citizens are justifiably leery about how strong the new

financial regulations will be.

Obama has also managed to aggravate liberal Democrats. His troubles with what

Press Secretary Gibbs has derisively called the " professional left " are

reminiscent of the tensions that developed between and Sen. Ted Kennedy,

the leading voice for liberal Democrats in the 1970s. Obama has left many of

W. Bush's key policies in place while accelerating or expanding others,

like the war in Afghanistan. He has also compromised on key liberal priorities,

as when he agreed to drop the public option from health care.

Fortunately for Obama, he's still in a better position than was ahead of

the '78 midterms. His domestic legislation is much bolder than anything

accomplished. Obama's personal relationships with congressional Democrats are

stronger than 's were, and Republicans don't yet have another

Reagan to unite them. He can take heart from the fact that both Reagan and

Clinton also had low approval ratings near their first midterms and were able to

bounce back. Still, the president needs to take better care of his party, and

shouldn't believe—as some have argued—that a loss in Congress in 2010 will help

him in 2012.

Although Democrats retained control of Congress in '78, losing only three seats

in the Senate and 15 in the House, a new cohort of conservative Republicans won

office. moved to the right. He announced that inflation and deficit

reduction, rather than unemployment, would be his top domestic concerns.

Democratic allies only felt more alienated. When conceded the 1980

election to Reagan unusually early in the evening, before the voting had ended

in California, Speaker Tip O'Neill exploded at White House official .

" You guys came in like a bunch of jerks, " he bellowed, " and I see you're going

out the same way. "

Zelizer is a history professor at Princeton University. He is the author of

Jimmy (The American Presidents Series).