"Obama is swinging for the fences because that is what home-run hitters do"

[impik]

In the real world - the one outside DU and the rest of Left blogosphere - they know that this is an incredibly gutsy president who's bringing huge change. But to appreciate it one has to actually have some knowledge in both history and the Washington ways. Again, not something that can not be found anywhere here.

Hardball host Chris Matthews has a theory about Barack Obama: he is running his presidency as though there is no tomorrow—that is, no second term. Matthews, my friend and MSNBC colleague, points to something Obama said during his interview with Diane Sawyer back in January: "The one thing I’m clear about is that I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president."

So far in his presidency Obama has been tackling, even seeking out, sweeping, controversial challenges: the stimulus, the auto bailout, health-care reform, a new arms-control treaty with Russia. He still wants to deal with comprehensive energy and immigration legislation this year. So, is he in hurry because he figures there may be no second term?

Well, my answer is this: Obama is playing a deep, longer-range game, one that involves burnishing his identity as a "historical," history-making figure. The president is swinging for the fences because that is what home-run hitters do. He hopes (expects) voters will reward him for the effort. Hence, his focus on the toughest topics in the broadest way. To switch sports analogies, if he were an Olympic diver, he’d always be attempting the dives with the highest degree of difficulty. If the execution isn’t perfect, he gets a higher score anyway.

In 2008 Obama ran on "history" and will run again in 2012 on the same theme: that he (and we) were the change we’d been waiting for. He and David Axelrod, his chief political adviser and spin doctor, believe—not incorrectly—that Obama’s chief appeal lies in the sense that he is someone who embodies and makes breakthroughs of pivotal proportions.

By the summer of 2012, Obama and Axelrod hope, they will be able to insist that this is a history-making presidency, reshaping and reinvigorating the role of government in health care, on Wall Street, and in other aspects of American life. Obama will argue that he was, and is, on the right side of history, just as Lincoln and FDR (and yes, in a different way, Ronald Reagan) were. He’s hoping that the economy will improve enough, and the war against Al Qaeda will go well enough, that voters will be able to see how much history he is trying to make.

At least that’s my sense of the grand arc of the Obama reelection strategy. In its focus on the patterns of history, it has a University of Chicago professor’s shape and tinge to it. And the appeal to history and the making of it worked in 2008 deeply, emotionally for many voters in the fantasy world of presidential campaigning and media.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/07/07/why-obama-is-in-a-hurry-to-make-history.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. somebody's living in an alternate reality.

Who knows, could be me.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. have you tried being president?

[jonnyblitz]

10. do you ask the same of people who criticize Bush?nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Bush had all the big guys on his side this president doesn't

[Donnachaidh]

14. what a neener neener question.

:eyes:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. do you think Carter and JFK had it any better?

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Forkboy]

30. Good lord.

[Phx_Dem]

35. Clearly. You.

[Skink]

2. Unfortunaely Goose Gosage is pitching.

[11 Bravo]

16. Gossage gave up 119 dingers in his carreer. He could be reached.

Hell, the notoriously light-hitting Oriole shortstop, Mark Belanger, hit over .400 against the Goose.

[Skink]

23. I'd advise Obama not to try calling a shot.

[frylock]

3. unrecced for the "real world" call out

in the real world, people are woefully uninformed.

home run hitters tend to strike out a lot as well.

[Cant trust em]

4. What about being a mediocre one-term president>

Is that anywhere in the calculation here?

If the jobs situation hasn't drastically turned around in 2 years, we are going to be majorly screwed.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. I don't think anyone can wave a magic wand

the economy is global. I do think the government needs to take the big banks and corps by the throat. Stop sending jobs overseas. Stop registering companies in tax havens. Start cooperative incentives for small business. Communities can have their own business they just need assisstance from the government. I would say stop spending trillions on warmongering and shove it onto the states to use to regenerate. We need to start exporting.

[Cant trust em]

25. No one can make everything better...

but if you're holding the bag when the hits the fan, then you get blamed.

[Jakes Progress]

5. More like out-running a bad bunt. nt

[depakid]

7. ...

:rofl:

Pathological conflict aversion = "gutsy"

and Chris Matthews "has a theory"

A twofer!

[bluestateguy]

9. Howard Fineman = Georgetown Cocktail Party jibberish

nt

[vi5]

11. We can agree to disagree on what "gutsy" means....

Personally, still enacting policy as though trickle down/supply side economics is proven fact and that all policy must be designed around that axis of truth is to me personally, not very gutsy. And I'm sorry, all the major "reforms" that have been pushed and enacted and whatever under this current administrations governance/guidance/whatever you want to call it, have been designed and enacted around the idea that if something about them is too tough on business or finance or Wall Street, that it can't be done. And yes, Congress are the ones drafting legislation but Obama is leading and setting the climate and the tone, and I don't see anything in his tone and/or tenor that indicates that he drastically disagrees with the notion that all good in the country stems from the corporate business world.

To me, I don't know what is worse: If he actually believes the "government doesn't create jobs" line that he's been peddling, or if he doesn't believe it but he knows it is what sells.

[jenmito]

13. K&R for Obama's ALREADY-successful presidency and for what else he'll accomplish. n/t

[bertman]

17. Perhaps you could post some PREVIOUS home runs the Slugger-in-Chief

has knocked out of the park, so we can get a feel for his chance of joining the ranks of Aaron, Mantle, Ruth, et al.

So far in this game, I've seen a couple of singles, a double or two due to fielding errors, a bunch of walks, and more strike outs than I care to think about.

Thanks.

[Beacool]

18. Dick Morris and Chris Matthews, two guys who should not "theorize".

They are usually wrong.

:eyes:

[rateyes]

19. Standing FOR a public option instead of giving it away without a fight

would have been swinging for the fences. He has done nothing of the sort.

[ProSense]

21. "He has done nothing of the sort."

He stood up for and got health care reform passed despite the crazies.

The President has crazy hitting him from all directions.

He stood up for and will get his financial reform bill despite the crazies.

[sce56]

28. Yes that was some real reform the Insurance Industry got the refoms they wanted!

What happened to the Public Option?

What happened to returning to Rule of Law? Oh yeah now he is targeting American citizens for assassination that is not the change we were sold on two years ago more like sold out on!
Un Rec'ed

[dflprincess]

24. It was more like he was the pitcher

and gave the insurance companies an intentional walk.

[boston bean]

22. Why do you have such a low opinion of DU?

[spoony]

29. Depending on how one reads the garbled: "not something that can not be found anywhere here"

He might actually be praising DU. Or he's a dolt. Since the OP is a lecture citing Tweety, I'd have to say the latter.

[firedupdem]

26. K&R

This President is doing a great job. Wouldn't blame him if he didn't run again. I'm more than satisfied, especially with the bought and paid for congress and senate he's forced to work with. Thanks for posting.

[niyad]

27. our lives, our world, are not some damned game--this is real, this is serious, and I am sick to

death of game metaphors for our very existence.

[DCBob]

31. "I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president."

I think Obama has always been pragmatic and realistic about his Presidency from day one. I think he realizes his win was a bit a miracle and the stars had to be aligned just right.. and it may not happen again in 2012.

[Exilednight]

39. Starting look like a mediocre one term president. n/t

[tanyev]

32. K and R.

[cornermouse]

33. People who swing for the fences strike out far more than they

hit anything. That's why, realistically speaking, the base hitter is the more valuable player.

[mikekohr]

36. President Obama's Accomplishments in 18 Months Has Resulted In Men On Base & RBI's

His record will be judged by history by it's accomplishments. And in just 18 months, this is an accomplished administration by any definition, timetable or standard.

mike kohr

[cornermouse]

44. For our sakes I wish you were right

Unfortunately I haven't seen anything impressive at all. More like robbing Peter to pay Paul or shifting the deck chairs.

[IndianaGreen]

34. All I see are fly balls!

and a full count.

[jefferson_dem]

37. Yes, we know.

[IndianaGreen]

40. I am sure you all are happy as larks with Rahm at the Beltway's cocktail party circuit

In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued that rather than recoiling against Obama, business leaders should be grateful for his support on at least a half-dozen counts: his advocacy of greater international trade and education reform open markets despite union skepticism; his rejection of calls from some quarters to nationalize banks during the financial meltdown; the rescue of the automobile industry; the fact that the overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system; the fact that billions in the stimulus package benefited business with lucrative new contracts, and that financial regulation reform will take away the uncertainty that existed with a broken, pre-crash regulatory apparatus.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B2F85DDF-18FE-70B2-A835FE1E7FA8D74C

[jefferson_dem]

45. Well...

I don't buy into Politico's spin but don't disagree with most of this, in principle.

[Enrique]

38. a Fineman column that begins with a quote from Tweety

you know it's going to be fabulous. :rofl:

[GeorgeGist]

41. In the real world ...

baseball is a game.

[lunatica]

42. I fervently hope this is what's really happening

We'll know in time. I personally think it's too early to give him grades yet.

[Peacetrain]

43. K&R .. He is pulling rabbits out of hats ... because the republicans

are abusing the filibuster rule..

Nothing we can do about that, but fight around it.. I am amazed at the things he has gotten through with the forces he has had to contend with.

[yurbud]

46. it would be more accurate to say that they were swinging for a bunt that wouldn't accidentally

knock out the Republican pitcher, who's thrown a slow, underhand softball pitch.