The many millions of liberals who gambled that a young, charismatic politician could become a great president are now feeling that they're in political nirvana. First, President Obama rolled out a bold agenda on energy, education and health care before Congress on Tuesday evening. Then he produced a budget backing up those commitments. It was as if he were saying, "Words are cheap in Washington; watch what I do."
It's becoming more clear by the day that Obama is a president of stunning ambition. Some members of Congress reacted skeptically when Obama said he would halve the deficit by the end of his first term. Yet compared with the other challenges he set out, like saving capitalism and finding a cure for cancer, cutting the deficit is small potatoes. Opponents say he's unrealistic or even dangerous. What everyone can agree on is that he's cast aside the Reagan-era wisdom that the best and most successful chief executives focus on just a few big things. As befits a modern multi-tasker, Obama wants to do everything. For now, at least, he's got the country behind him, even if voters are uneasy about bailouts and red ink.
It's so quiet on the left flank of the Democratic Party that the Congressional Black Caucus may not draft an alternative budget this year. To put this in perspective: The CBC has done an alternative budget every year since the mid-1980's—during the Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 presidencies. But after eight years of being iced out by the latest Bush administration, the CBC now has a friend in the White House. "It's as though the dreams of a generation not just symbolically but substantively have been honored," says Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank. "I have to believe that unless and until he retreats or compromises in a way that is unnecessary or unconscionable, [the CBC] will be his most loyal supporters."
Maybe so, but the CBC won't remain quiet spectators for long. "Their agendas are on the same page, but Obama should not assume he's got them," cautions David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which focuses on issues of particular concern to African Americans. In politics, impatient friends sometimes cause more problems than enemies. When Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976, he had strong backing from black voters. But six months later Vernon Jordan, then head of the Urban League, criticized Carter for betraying those voters because he hadn't delivered on a jobs bill. "If there's any group in the Congress that is cognizant that you have to manipulate, that you don't always get what you want right away, that you have to keep maneuvering, it's the Black Caucus," says Bositis.
On foreign policy, there's not a lot of slippage between the 16 months Obama promised as the timeframe to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and the 19 months announced this week. After everything the country has been through for the past six years, it's hard to imagine a big fight over June versus September. The argument, if there is one, will be over Afghanistan, and Obama will hold his ground. He campaigned on the basis that Iraq is the wrong war and combating extremists in Afghanistan is a right, necessary and just war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi frets that there's no clear plan, but unless conditions in Afghanistan deteriorate even more rapidly than they have, a revolt from the left is unlikely. Obama is asking the same question: where's the plan?
Once he settles on a course of action, he'll have to justify the escalation. The CBC, like the rest of the Democratic left, is strongly anti-war. CBC members voted uniformly against the October '02 resolution to go to war in Iraq; California Rep. Barbara Lee, the current chairman, was the only lawmaker in either chamber of Congress to vote 'no' on a resolution three days after the 9/11 attacks giving President Bush authority to use "all appropriate and necessary force" against "nations, organizations or persons" deemed culpable or that "harbored such organizations or persons." She quickly became a favorite target of right-wing radio. Now, almost eight years later, events have borne out the danger of placing too much faith in a president—any president—when it comes to war powers.
Lee did very few interviews at the time and backed out of a scheduled appearance on "Larry King Live." An angry producer said, "No one cancels on King." Prodded by veteran reporter Helen Thomas to tell her story before someone else did, Lee finally broke her silence and the result is a memoir, "Renegade for Peace & Justice," that describes her singular vote and the passions and policies that drive her in the Congress. A person who cherishes her privacy to the extent that she omits personal data from her official biography, the exercise forced her to open up. She reveals for the first time that she was once on public assistance, and details a journey to the Congress as extraordinary in its own right as that of the president she aims to serve. "His agenda is our agenda," she said as the CBC prepared to meet with Obama Thursday at the White House.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
