E.J. Dionne Jr.: Obama’s not-so-hidden second-term agenda

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-the-not-so-hidden-obama-agenda/2012/10/21/a4280792-1ba4-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html?hpid=z11

Obama’s not-so-hidden second-term agenda
By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: October 21



snip//

Some dismiss what an Obama second term might achieve by claiming that it will be mainly concerned with consolidating his first-term accomplishments. If these had been trivial, that might be a legitimate criticism. But does anyone seriously believe that implementing a massive new health insurance program that will cover an additional 30 million Americans is unimportant? Can anyone argue that translating the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms into workable regulations is a minor undertaking?

The president has also been clear that he wants to take on immigration reform. The question always asked is: Why should we think he’ll do it in a second term when he didn’t do it in the first? The answer is that if Obama is reelected, it will be in no small part because he overwhelms Romney among Latino voters who have stoutly rejected the Republican’s “self-deportation” ideas. It’s possible that Republicans will cooperate on immigration reform simply because they don’t want to keep losing elections by getting clobbered in Latino precincts. And Obama will know that he has an electoral debt to pay.

Republicans have been relentless in attacking the clean-energy projects Obama has financed. If Obama wins, the president will have reason to say that clean energy won, too, and push ahead. And in one of the best articles on what Obama might do in a second term, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza observed in June that Obama’s campaign statements — to that point, at least — suggested he would like to take another shot at legislation to address climate change.

Obama speaks incessantly about upgrading the country’s infrastructure. He also stresses the urgency of retooling both our education system and the way we train people for well-paying jobs. One can imagine a comprehensive education, jobs and investment program being a high priority in a second Obama term. And you can bet he will join efforts to create a new campaign financing system to check the power billionaires and corporations exercise in the world after Citizens United.

There is every reason to wish that Obama would pull all this together in a more inspiring way. Some of us would like him to be much bolder in addressing income inequality, the huge roadblocks to upward mobility, and the persistence of poverty. But is there is an Obama second-term agenda? Yes, there is.

[CBHagman]

1. I haven't been following the Sunday talk shows...

...but yesterday a friend who happened to catch some of the recent ones was worrying aloud about how Obama didn't have a plan. It's nothing new to hear people repeating chapter and verse what they heard from the pundits, but this was A) an Obama-supporting friend and B) of course the president has a plan.

So I was grateful to E.J. Dionne for taking this on.