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If Obama Is a One-Term President
NY Times ^ | September 10, 2011 | JULIAN E. ZELIZER

Posted on 09/11/2011 8:11:38 PM PDT by neverdem

“I’D rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” President Obama confessed to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer last year. Other than the “really good” part, Republicans would be happy to see this wish fulfilled...

--snip--

But passing a lot of bills and achieving military victories is not enough. Making them stick is the trick. As the political scientist Eric M. Patashnik of the University of Virginia has shown in his revealing book, “Reforms at Risk,” the fate of policy reforms is heavily dependent on what happens after laws pass. This is especially true for one-term presidents, who usually fail to build political coalitions that can survive longer than they can. President Obama must amass some political capital to protect these programs, or he risks losing everything for himself and for his party. He can’t govern based on the assumption that he will have more time to repair things.

Since the 2010 midterm elections, Mr. Obama has governed from such a defensive position that he risks undercutting those gains. The president has to make sure that his embrace of deficit reduction through spending cuts does not jeopardize his health care reform. He must also make politically difficult choices, like following through on his promise to push for an end to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, even if his close advisers fear that such a stand will blow up in their faces...

--snip--

In the coming debates over spending cuts, President Obama has to find the fortitude to outline the terms of the debate. He needs to keep his eye on what he did in 2009 and 2010, and not just what will happen in 2012. Otherwise, he risks ending up with the worst of both worlds: a weak one-term record and a loss in 2012.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama; obama2012; obamalegacy; obamaoneterm; oneterm; partybeforecountry; reformsatrisk
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To: neverdem

Where is O gonna get some political capital?


21 posted on 09/11/2011 9:01:47 PM PDT by woofie
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To: RedElement

If he were a good president he would not be one term.


22 posted on 09/11/2011 9:17:31 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (O assumes the trappings of the presidency, not its mantle. He is not presidential.)
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To: neverdem
It's amazing that this was from the NY Times, Doc. But with a few phone chats around today, relatives fear that losing political capital isn't his biggest worry......he has none.

Whatever control he (or whoever) wields over the Justice Dept. and the Treasury along with his de facto control over the Armed Forces as CIC are his political bludgeons, those he's counting on. At this stage of the game, it's too late to remove him from office for malfeasance, corruption or just plain ineptitude so we sit on our hands and wait for the political process's slow turn to come full circle.

Hans Brinker had an easier moral duty.
23 posted on 09/11/2011 9:20:48 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul Congress!)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

He’s going to need a gargantuan quantum improvement to reach mediocre. Far as I can tell he hit rock bottom in the first 60 days and kept digging ever since.


24 posted on 09/11/2011 9:32:46 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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To: neverdem

One can hope, but the thing that should never be forgotten is the power of the (D)amned to create votes out of thin air and the impotent (R)etards to whine but to actually DO nothing to prevent or fight it.

Don’t forget the voter intimidation by the “barack” panthers that ended with the two thugs spending years in prison for their crime. Yeah, don’t forget that.....


25 posted on 09/11/2011 9:39:11 PM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg (Warning: Sarcasm/humor is always engaged. Failure to recognize this may lead to misunderstandings.)
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To: neverdem

And here I thought that being a great President had to do with doing the right thing (according to the majority of the people - not the majority of the media) and was the right approach... or convincing them that it was for their good.

But then again, maybe the elites think that it is about making progress (their view - although to them moving left is the ideal) and persuading the unwashed to follow their lead...

Dang, and here I am, thinking that a great leader does what is right for the country, not for what is going to get them re-elected. I guess I’m living in the past...

Maybe that idealism will work for the future though...


26 posted on 09/11/2011 9:42:35 PM PDT by Deagle
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To: neverdem
The author names many names in this piece, many presidents, some great, others not so great. Then at the end, we get to Obama, who somehow doesn't seem to fit. I can't help but think of Bill Clinton's image of Obama, running around serving coffee to the rest of them.

Apart from Bin Laden, which no one gives Obama credit for because he lucked into it and doesn't get to partake of the credit along with the heroes, his accomplishments are all disasters.

If Obama is somehow reelected it will mark a sharp dividing line that historians will look at as the point of no return for America.

27 posted on 09/11/2011 9:45:55 PM PDT by Batrachian (Barack Obama is the Lily Tomlin of presidents.)
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To: neverdem
As the political scientist Eric M. Patashnik of the University of Virginia has shown in his revealing book, “Reforms at Risk,” the fate of policy reforms is heavily dependent on what happens after laws pass. This is especially true for one-term presidents, who usually fail to build political coalitions that can survive longer than they can.

There's a Department of Energy and a Department of Education that give testimony to the falsity of Mr. Patashnik's thesis.

28 posted on 09/11/2011 10:01:38 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (GunWalker: Arming "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as well funded")
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To: neverdem
... making them stick ...

unfortunately, there are a lot of Republicans who will help him make ObamaCare and his other Intolerable Acts stick.

I'm sure that some Republican will figure out that a private industry solution to ObamaCare is to keep the mandate, and just make sure the private insurance companies make a profit.

29 posted on 09/11/2011 10:05:58 PM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: Obadiah
I’D rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president

How about an unprecedentedly sh*tty one-term president.

30 posted on 09/11/2011 10:43:14 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast
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To: BIGLOOK; wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; ...
It's amazing that this was from the NY Times...

On the OpEd pages, not so much, but in the linked, next 2 regular news articles, I was like WOW!

Some of Sarah Palin's Ideas Cross the Political Divide

Democrats Fret Aloud Over Obama’s Chances

Obama's Crony Capitalism - What the Solyndra debacle reveals about Obama's economic strategy

Abortion increases risk of mental health problems, new research finds

Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

31 posted on 09/11/2011 10:43:30 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

He will be a lousy one-term president that will be ridiculed for the rest of his life.


32 posted on 09/11/2011 11:20:13 PM PDT by Mogollon (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: neverdem


What's happened to my NY Times?

The abortion and mental health article was indeed a shocker to see in print but it's been nearly 40 years since Roe vs Wade and documented procedures in medical histories (not to mention the insurance business' involvement) to think that something would show up.

Somehow data like that becomes reportable and undi$putable.
33 posted on 09/11/2011 11:20:31 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul Congress!)
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To: neverdem
It retrospect, I think it is now official that Obama jumped the shark with the debt ceiling increase. Its been a downward spiral for him ever since.

My only disappointment is that many Republicans and almost all RINOs still fail to smell the "blood in the water." I was heartened to hear that many in Congress laughed at him when he gave his "Jobs speech" last week. But, there are still RINOs who are willing to rally around and support Obama (McCain, Graham, Collins, Snowe), no matter what he proposes.

It's been 10 months since the last election, when Republicans were swept into office. Yet since taking control of the House, they have been timid.

Maybe now they are beginning to wake up. We can only hope...

34 posted on 09/11/2011 11:52:37 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Greed + Envy = Liberalism)
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To: neverdem
If Obama is a One Term President:

1. We'll have to hope the race riots subside by Inauguration Day.

2. The (Tea Party) Terrorists won.

3. The Republic will be saved.

4. The Barbarians (Republicans) will have stormed the gates.

5. The Constitution will be restored to its former greatness.

6. Ted Kennedy will be spinning in his grave.

35 posted on 09/12/2011 12:14:28 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Liberals, Useful Idiots Voting for Useless Idiots...)
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To: Riptides

I don’t think the Kenyans would want him. He’s neither there nor here. he’s nothing.


36 posted on 09/12/2011 12:51:18 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: umgud

Obambi is not “black” — he’s half-hippie and half-Kenyan. he has no experience of the “African American” etc. life — Herman Cain IS “black”, but because he’s a Republican, 1. the GOP is color-blind so just sees him as a good man and 2. the Dims see him as a “race-traitor” as the Dims are the only racists around


37 posted on 09/12/2011 12:52:48 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: BIGLOOK
wait for the political process's slow turn to come full circle.

What we can do is get out and ensure that this bozo is not only booted out, but he loses so badly his policies are completely discredited. I want him to not get a single electoral vote. It's possible -- if we try.

38 posted on 09/12/2011 12:54:47 AM PDT by Cronos (www.forfiter.com)
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To: o-n-money
"He is gonna have to step it up if he wants to be mediocre."

He's got a long uphill climb to just disastrous.

39 posted on 09/12/2011 3:11:54 AM PDT by libs_kma (When I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool)
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To: Riptides

Well said Riptide, well said.


40 posted on 09/12/2011 3:21:59 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Obammy is little more than a quota boy with a teleprompter)
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