By Chris Cillizza
This was supposed to be the pivot year for President Obama. After two years in office defined by a protracted and politically disastrous fight over health care, a liberal base dissatisfied with the pace of change and major losses at the ballot box, 2011 was when Obama and his team were going to get back on track with a message laser-focused on jobs and the economy.
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It was anything but.
The economic turnaround that the White House expected simply didn't materialize, leaving Republicans to giddily bash the president as a know-nothing and Democrats to scrounge around for any bit of good news. (The unemployment rate is below 9 percent!). And, a series of crises and tragedies — the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the massive Japanese earthquake, the prolonged and bitterly partisan fight over raising the debt ceiling — made it next to impossible for the president to put his preferred economic message front and center.
And that's not even taking into account the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction day in April when the president himself entered the White House briefing room to prove, once and for all, that he was born in the United States. Thanks — for nothing — to Donald Trump on that one.
That's not to say that Obama didn't have good moments this year. The killing of Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, provided glowing headlines and talk among some politicos that bin Laden's death had effectively secured a second term for the incumbent. A month later — if it even took that long — the political bump was gone, and Obama's job-approval ratings were back in the low to mid-40s.
Counting Obama out in 2012 — from either a policy or a political perspective — would be a mistake. But it's beyond dispute that he and his senior aides are in a far weaker position than they had hoped for as he prepares to enter an election year.
Chris Cillizza writes the political blog The Fix and is managing editor of PostPolitics.com.
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The tsunami and the debt ceiling debate made it next to impossible for Obama to put his economic policies front and center???? Chris is too kind. What economic policy? What job plan? I recall he waited until September, after his vacation at Martha's Vineyard, to announce his job plan. Why didn't he have a jobs plan on January 1, 2011? Hmmmm.
You must feel proud of yourself for making up clever word slurs about the best President the United States has had in ten years. The Republicans have been a disgrace for 40 years now, with the bunch in Congress easily the worst group in a century from either party. I am not fond of the proposed pay roll tax reduction, but it will place money into the hands of those who pay into Social Security. It will be more than President Bush's $600 per family, which in my case went to pay artificially h...See More
Re: Keystone Pipeline -
TransCanada’s 2008 Permit Application states “Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally PADD II [U.S. Midwest], are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil. Access to the USGC [U.S. Gulf Coast] via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in [the Midwest] by removing this oversupply.
"This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to ...See More
TransCanada’s 2008 Permit Application states “Existing markets for Canadian heavy crude, principally PADD II [U.S. Midwest], are currently oversupplied, resulting in price discounting for Canadian heavy crude oil. Access to the USGC [U.S. Gulf Coast] via the Keystone XL Pipeline is expected to strengthen Canadian crude oil pricing in [the Midwest] by removing this oversupply.
"This is expected to increase the price of heavy crude to ...See More
battle-run-to-groundteabagger nutjob doesn't like the fact that his head was pulled out of the toilet a Republican administration put us in, in 2008.
THEM:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389006n&am...
US:
...See More
THEM:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7389006n&am...
US:
...See More
We don't need attack ads when the truth is on our side, teabagger.
Example of some of the job-related bills that the lunatics in the Republican CONGRESS HAVE NOT LET GET PAST THE STARTING GATE:
H.R. 72: New Jobs for America Act of 2011 (Sponsor: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee [TX-18], Democrat):
Introduced January 5, 2011 -
H.R. 117: HELP VETERANS ACT of 2011 (Sponsor: Rep. Bob Filner [CA-51}, Democrat):
Introduced Januar...See More
Example of some of the job-related bills that the lunatics in the Republican CONGRESS HAVE NOT LET GET PAST THE STARTING GATE:
H.R. 72: New Jobs for America Act of 2011 (Sponsor: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee [TX-18], Democrat):
Introduced January 5, 2011 -
H.R. 117: HELP VETERANS ACT of 2011 (Sponsor: Rep. Bob Filner [CA-51}, Democrat):
Introduced Januar...See More
Your nomination campaign only proves to anyone with at least half a brain and a modicum of decency that they do.
But there's so much proof out there as to what they've been up to, none of us need to go on "attack" mode, all we need is to be able to expose you with the truth.
But there's so much proof out there as to what they've been up to, none of us need to go on "attack" mode, all we need is to be able to expose you with the truth.
Can you be any more obvious what your thugs have been up to? Not allowing even one recess so that crucial appointments can be made?
You're nothing but thugs. When you made this president your enemy, you made every single person who voted for him your enemy. And you feel our rath in 2012 when we run your thugs out on a rail.
We know who is impeding economic recovery, and we are on to you. You are obvious hypocrites and your games are something that we e...See More
You're nothing but thugs. When you made this president your enemy, you made every single person who voted for him your enemy. And you feel our rath in 2012 when we run your thugs out on a rail.
We know who is impeding economic recovery, and we are on to you. You are obvious hypocrites and your games are something that we e...See More
Egypt today sees 3 out of 4 voting for Muslim Brotherhood with fanatical Salafist running second.
We are seeing a fanatical Jihadist Islamists on the way to Sharia rule in short time not in small part due to the president's engagement policy and subesquent vote-in for the fanatics
A repeat of engaging Hamas back then where vote-in led to Iran proxy state of Jihad Hamstan.
Not only does Iran get a top secret drone fully intact no questions asked, ...See More
We are seeing a fanatical Jihadist Islamists on the way to Sharia rule in short time not in small part due to the president's engagement policy and subesquent vote-in for the fanatics
A repeat of engaging Hamas back then where vote-in led to Iran proxy state of Jihad Hamstan.
Not only does Iran get a top secret drone fully intact no questions asked, ...See More
