Weakness From A Position Of Strength

Steve M. has one of those there valid points on Obama on his begging to Congress on HCR.

... I had essentially the same reaction as this Hot Air blogger:

With all due respect, when the liberal president of the United States has to essentially beg his fellow liberals to vote for his proposal, it's safe to say we have a weak executive.

Really -- you hold a meeting with people who are on your side and you do it in such a way that the messaging is, inevitably, "Obama begs"? That's how you fight? You let that get out to the public? Do these guys know anything about optics?

The Hot Air blogger is right -- we do have a weak executive. Now I wish he/she would kindly convey that information to all the crazies on his/her side who think Obama is a jackbooted fascist.

And Steve is right.   How many times did Bush assume he had a position of strength even when he did not?  Remember his "mandate" in 2004?  By 2006 the Democrats has won back Congress, and by 2008 they had won nearly 60% margins in Congress in both chambers.

I think the problem is Obama was a Senator and not a Governor.

Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, all were Senators.  They were negotiators.  (Nixon played hardball nonetheless but he knew how to play the game.)  But they negotiated because they had experienced Washington politics as negotiation among people who were at the time equals:  other Senators.  Presidents who were Governors:  Reagan, Carter, Clinton, Dubya.  (FDR, too.)  These guys pushed things as leaders, as executives.  They got things done not with other people, but in spite of them.

As far as Democratic party history goes, FDR, Kennedy, LBJ all proved that either pool can produce great Presidents.  But today requires a Governor style President, not a Senator.

At times, I wish Obama really would have pulled a Dubya.  My way or the highway.  Instead, we've had a year long plus battle on HCR that still is far from a sure thing.  Chris Bowers notes that there at 50 Senators now who have gone on record to support reconciliation.  That means the battle now turns to the House where prospects are much less clear.

Now we're finally seeing the fruits of HCR through Obama's style, but there are times when I wish Obama would have done a better job of Dubya-style "negotiating".

How much better would the bill be if he had?