Progressive Uprising?
There was a lot of speculation that the tax deal would provoke a backlash among President Obama’s base. Well, not so much:
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday, 78 percent of Democrats questioned in the poll say they want to see Obama at the top of their party’s ticket in 2012, with only 19 percent saying they would prefer someone else as the Democratic presidential nominee. The 19 percent figure is the lowest figure since March, when the question was first asked.
Many liberal Democrats opposed the tax rate compromise because it included provisions that helped the wealthy. Although previously released numbers indicate the president’s approval rating among self-described liberals dropped from 79 percent in November to 72 percent in December, the survey suggests that when it comes to the next presidential election, the tax deal may not be hurting him with the progressive wing of the party.
“Among liberal Democrats, 85 percent say they want to see the party re-nominate Obama in 2012,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Among moderate Democrats, his support is almost that high.”
The tax deal and subsequent string of victories in the mighty duck Congress have helped Obama. Let’s try to keep this in mind when we talk about Obama’s base.
Tags: President Obama
Don’t you mean President Obama’s supposed base? That is if you’re talking about the Fringe Left.
they aren’t Obama’s base. They never claimed to be. They are the left wing base. no allegiance to anyone, only ideals.
Yeah, I did want to point out there is a disconnect between blog opinion and rank-and-file Democrat opinion. I think we sometimes forget this. But it does go back to what we’ve been saying – you have to work hard to move opinion in your direction.
Also, a primary challenge is a waste of time and money right now.
@ ben, I respectively disagree. Many commenters here have claimed to Obama’s base and hence their calls to primary him. But I do agree with yo that they have no allegiance to anyone, only ideals.
well, whatever they have called themselves, they are not the “base”
(they ARE the people who voted for Nader and helped select W)
LOL, spot on, ben, spot on.
I don’t understand why his “base” would be happy. He is not really leading with his issues very well, and his compromises are a disservice to his supporters.
I didn’t vote for him, but for once I thought it was the perfect storm for the left and maybe it was time to see what they could do.
And it was squandered. He had a voter mandate and political clout when he entered office. He had congress. And he squandered it.
Name an issue, and he made major missteps.
This tax deal stinks. The Bush tax cuts should be reversed, period. I can make a real case on why it will hurt any chance of real recovery for the next 2 years by keeping them. We should take the revenue from the taxes and bail out the states. Who will have to raise taxes and cut jobs, which impacts every state’s economy.
Naderites should be ridiculed. And so should your new idols, your Third Way/New Democrat/DLC centrists. When you find yourself consistently aligned with Carper and Lieberman, it is time to re-examine your values.
But even though they are both wrong at the core, both the Naderites and the Third Way-ers offer grains of truth that Democrats can benefit from, as long as they don’t swallow the whole thing.
I’m with Carper and Lieberman on issues like DADT repeal. I think we should work with anyone who advances the issues we want to see addressed. That doesn’t make you DLC.
p-18,
saying he “squandered it all” isn’t totally accurate. The GoP having NO interest in anything getting done helped. Unlike you, they weren’t “willing to see what we could do”
Over and over again, they named… as their highest priority, NOT lowering unemployment or ending wars or helping people, but destroying Obama.
They have done a pretty good job…. despite losing many many battles. Lets not forget the republican party fought hard to pay women less, cut off help to the unemployed, give the health cartels MORE power to kill people….. they lost on all of that.
I’m with Carper and Lieberman on issues like DADT repeal.
This is the same trap the Reagan Democrats fell into: selling out their own economic interests to focus on social issues.
What would you trade for same-sex marriage – Elimination of corporate taxation? Zeroing out capital gains tax? Full privatization of Social Security? Voucherization of public education? Elimination of estate tax?
We should not consent to be divided by Republican tactics.
If I recall correctly you and several other DL’ers also ended up on the same side as Carper and Lieberman on taxes, HCR, and spending cuts. That is pretty much the whole platform.
Just as we demand of Republicans, Democrats who consented to extension of tax cuts for the rich now have the obligation to identify which spending cuts they support.
Where do you want to cut spending?
Ben,
Sorry I used a blanket assessment, but really health care reform is where he blew it.
He had the public support and he didn’t need the GOP at all. But instead of pushing congress and getting it passed he sat there and said I am waiting for congress to put something on my desk.
Reid and Pelosi are not charge up the hill and take an objective kind of people. They wanted Obama to take charge and say “I want universal care”. And it would have been done in a few months.
Instead they all sat there for a year waiting for each other to type a memo.
There are few moments when a President has the political mandate from the people and congress lined up at same time, and they need to strike when they can. Reagan and Clinton both knew when and how to use the precious political capital.
The GOP got a footing because the left allowed them to. The left blinked and the GOP took advantage of it.
I backed Coons for his view on several issues.. DADT is one of them, but Health Care is another. He is not going to fold. One of his best moments in the debates was when Coons agreed that the Health Care reform needed to be brought up again in congress, because he didn’t think it went far enough.
I admit I was plenty mad about the Tax Cut debacle but in retrospect Obama will not face a primary challenge. And if recent numbers are any indication will win handily. Ah yes! I can hear the gnashing of Tea Party dentures already.