Obama on bipartisanship: ‘Doing nothing, that’s not an option’
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. You have often said that bipartisanship is extraordinarily important, overall and in this stimulus package, but now, when we ask your advisers about the lack of bipartisanship so far – zero votes in the House, three in the Senate — they say, "Well, it’s not the number of votes that matters; it’s the number of jobs that will be created." Is that a sign that you are moving away – your White House is moving away from this emphasis on bipartisanship? And what went wrong? Did you underestimate how hard it would be to change the way Washington works?
Obama: Well, I don’t think – I don’t think I underestimated it. I don’t think the – the American people underestimated it. They understand that there have been a lot of bad habits built up here in Washington, and it’s going to take time to break down some of those bad habits. You know, when I made a series of overtures to the Republicans, going over to meet with both Republican caucuses, you know, putting three Republicans in my cabinet – something that is unprecedented – making sure that they were invited here to the White House to talk about the economic recovery plan, all those were not designed simply to get some short-term votes. They were designed to try to build up some trust over time. And I think that, as I continue to make these overtures, over time, hopefully that will be reciprocated…
But understand the bottom line that I’ve got right now, which is what’s happening to the people of Elkhart and what’s happening across the country. I can’t afford to see Congress play the usual political games. What we have to do right now is deliver for the American people. So my bottom line when it comes to the recovery package is: Send me a bill that creates or saves 4 million jobs. Because everybody has to be possessed with a sense of urgency about putting people back to work, making sure that folks are staying in their homes, that they can send their kids to college.
That doesn’t negate the continuing efforts that I’m going to make to listen and engage with my Republican colleagues. And hopefully the tone that I’ve taken, which has been consistently civil and respectful, will pay some dividends over the long term. There are going to be areas where we disagree, and there are going to be areas where we agree. As I said, the one concern I’ve got on the stimulus package, in terms of the debate and listening to some of what’s been said in Congress, is that there seems to be a set of folks who – I don’t doubt their sincerity – who just believe that we should do nothing.
Now, if that’s their opening position or their closing position in negotiations, then we’re probably not going to make much progress, because I don’t think that’s economically sound and I don’t think what – that’s what the American people expect, is for us to stand by and do nothing…
So, you know, we – we can differ on some of the particulars, but, again, the question I think the American people are asking is, do you just want government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something? If you want it to do something, then we can have a conversation. But doing nothing, that’s not an option from my perspective.
But a lot of the titles say things like "libs fawn over Obama" or sarcastic jokes about Obama being the "Messiah." The whole gist of things is that Obama is something like a Rock Star and people who like him are "groupies" enraptured by his winning ways. But the Limbaugh punch line is that Obama’s really a socialist out to help welfare mothers at the expense of Ayn Rand’s chosen people.
I don’t know if Obama’s team is still consulting Drew Westen on how to reframe and focus the discussion in a way that engages people at a feeling level — or whether they learned the lesson so well — or whether Obama just naturally does it. But this answer is a beautiful example of what Drew would advise.