In the last one hundred years, only four Democrats have
twice been elected President: Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill
Clinton, and Barack Obama. Obama's reelection was doubly remarkable
considering the sluggish economy, the $2 billion plus spent to defeat
him, and the fact that at the beginning of his campaign many Democrats
were unenthusiastic. Obviously voters reappraised the President.
At the beginning of 2012, many Democratic stalwarts were
less than thrilled by the prospect of a second Obama term. While their
reasons varied, there was a common theme, "Obama hasn't kept his
promises to my constituency." There were lingering complaints that
2009's stimulus package should have been bigger and a communal whine,
"Obama should have listened to us." Nonetheless, by the end of the
Democratic convention on September 6th most Dems had come around. They
gave money, made phone calls, and traveled to swing states. As a result
Obama got a higher percentage of Democratic votes than he did in 2008.
In part, this transformation occurred because from January
to September Dems scrutinized Mitt Romney and were horrified by what
they saw. In January some muttered, "There's no difference between
Obama and Romney," but nine months later none believed that. While many
Democrats were not thrilled by Obama's first-term performance, they saw
him as preferable to Romney on a wide range of issues.
Six factors affected voters' reappraisal of the President:
1. He's a politician. Before the 2008 election,
many Dems saw Obama as a Washington outsider, someone who could rise
above politics and "bring us all together." Four years later, Democrats
acknowledged he is a politician. Barack's not pure; he's not the
second coming. But he is a bright guy, a terrific organizer, a powerful
speaker, and most important, he's on our side.
2. He accomplished a lot in his first term. Because
Romney promised, "If elected, I will repeal Obamacare on day one,"
Democrats wondered what other Obama accomplishments Romney would repeal
and uncovered a long list: Wall Street reform, Don't Ask Don't Tell,
winding down the war in Afghanistan, support for reproductive health,
protecting the environment, and on and on. Dems realized the President
had accomplished more than they thought.
3. He became a populist. In his
"State-of-the-Union" address Obama said, "The defining issue of our time
is how to keep that [economic] promise alive" We can either settle for a
country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a
growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy
where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and
everyone plays by the same set of rules." Obama kept hammering at this
theme and it resonated with voters. Exit polls indicated that on the
attribute, "a candidate who cares about people like me," the President
overwhelmed Romney.
4. He's a pragmatist. In 2009, Obama got a bad
rap from some Dems because they believed he did not fight hard enough
for the fiscal stimulus and affordable healthcare. In March of 2011,
veteran Washington columnist, Elizabeth Drew, described Obama as "a somewhat left-of-center pragmatist,
and a man who has avoided fixed positions for most of his life. Even
his health care proposal--denounced by the right as a "government
takeover' and "socialism'--was essentially moderate or centrist. When he
cut a deal on the tax bill, announced on December 7, he pragmatically
concluded that he did not have the votes to end the Bush tax cuts for
the wealthiest, and in exchange for giving in on that he got significant
concessions from the Republicans, such as a fairly lengthy extension of
unemployment insurance and the cut in payroll taxes. Making this deal
also left him time to achieve other things--ratification of the START
treaty, the repeal of don't ask, don't tell."[Emphasis added.]
5. He's an inconsistent communicator. Obama's poor
performance in the first Presidential debate made public what many Dems
had been whispering for four years, "the Great Communicator doesn't
always communicate effectively." The President has a history of making a
terrific speech, kicking off an initiative, and then disappearing.
Fortunately, that didn't happen after the October 3rd debate;
Obama realized that he had to get it together or Romney was going to
kick his ass and the President rose to the challenge.
6. He's biracial. Much has been made of Obama
being America's first black President, but he's our first biracial
president -- his mother was European-American and his father African.
To be precise, Obama is our first President who is not a member of the
"non-Hispanic white" category. That's particularly significant because
non-Hispanic whites are now a minority of US births and, in thirty years
they will be a minority of the electorate. Republicans see this coming
and it's driving them crazy.
President Barack Obama isn't perfect but his election
moves America forward. He's a harbinger of a time when white men will
no longer dominate American politics.
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