What a contrast with the first term!
President Obama started out in 2009 all hope and reasonableness and promises of sincere discussions with all views taken into account. When the Republicans went after him with single-minded determination to denounce and obstruct everything he proposed, Obama's response was to compromise away many Democratic principles and priorities, and in the 2010 election he largely left fellow democrats to fend for themselves.
There were no clear themes for the party in the 2010 elections. Defensiveness on Obamacare is what I mostly remember. Statements that governing is hard and compromise is unpleasant but necessary to get anything done.
And after that election? Sequesters, cuts, debt ceilings, and endless talk about Republican priorities and principles.
Today, in the first major speech of his first year of his second term, Obama threw down the gauntlet for the 2014 elections to Republicans. His priorities this term? They are clear Democratic priorities--and he demanded votes on them. Not compromise, not promises to reason together, but demands to let members vote, and demands to perform.
So what votes does Obama want Republicans on record for in the 2014 election? Over the orange waves for the answer.
Number one, vote on guns. The President asks not for passage of watered down legislation on gun reforms. He demands a vote on real reform! Let it fail if need be, but vote on it.
He obviously wants Republicans on record so Democrats can take on the biggest gun in the Republican lobby: the NRA. Maybe that's not throwing the gauntlet down. Looks to me like he just slapped them sharply in the face with it.
Second, vote on the minimum wage. Obama laid the foundation of Democrat's economic argument in 2014. He argued that neither regulation nor taxes stand in the way of businesses spending the record profits they are making. They lack customers with money to spend.
Force Chief Executive Officers and the fabulously rich to share the wealth with people who work hard but still fail to make a living wage. Vote on it!
If Republicans believe in work and opportunity and argue that they are pro-business, well, vote on it. If a raise in the minimum wage fails, Democrats can make a convincing case Republicans care only about the richest, not about fair pay, jobs, and customers for small and medium enterprises on Main Street.
He argued fixing bridges and roads is not a partisan cause. So let's see how well Republicans handle accusations they made it partisan by failing to act. If a bridge collapses between now and Nov 2014, it will be Republican's fault. Democrats can blame every pothole on Republicans.
Next, Obama demanded education reform, based on what works.
Head Start for all. Let the Teaparty idiots argue that it doesn't work, but like climate change, the facts will make them look as stupid and venal as they are.
High school based on the proven German model. He didn't mention that in Germany strong industry depends on strong unions working hand in glove with business and government to deliver strong, effective education. But anyone who cares to study the German model will come to that conclusion.
And Federal funds for college education tied to delivering educational value to students and the families who sacrifice so much to send them to school. Republicans who want state education at all levels gutted so that private school predators can deliver poor results at high prices (and high profits for them) just got a challenge to vote on tying funding to proven value in education.
Now that's applied science. Let the facts bear out the results, and let the funding be based on proven results, not ideology.
And Obama slapped that gauntlet of facts and results across Republican faces on climate change and energy. America is more energy independent now than in any time in 20 years. Republicans talked (and talked) about energy independence. Obama delivered it. And he did it by demanding performance from oil companies holding leases to public lands. He did it with Democrat's votes on doubling auto efficiency.
Now, science, facts, and the reality of more frequent, more damaging storms support him taking urgent, executive action if need be, on doing more. Vote on it or not, Democratic President Obama will act on climate change. He dares Republicans to make it an issue in 2014.
Immigration? Vote on it, he demanded.
Violence against women? The Democratic Senate passed it. Now let the Republican led House vote on it.
And his record on defending America? Just let them dare attack him and the Democrats for ending two of their unnecessary wars (the final one in 2014, please note!), and destroying nearly every vestige of al Queda.
And when it comes to taking care of the wounded and retired vets? Vote on it, he demands. Follow Michelle's and Jill's example. In other words, show us some substance, some facts, some accomplishments, some real concern for veterans. Vote on it.
The real substance of this speech wasn't just the real substance of it. It was the unmistakable challenge to Republicans to go on record. In 2014, if Democratic candidates for House and Senate will stand up for what Democrats (should) believe, and point out in unmistakable terms what Republicans really believe, what they really voted for, then, Obama will lead the party to a majority in the House and expand our majority in the Senate.
This was a very different President from the first term. This is a very different attitude toward the coming off-year election. This is a demand for votes, on the record. This is a President focused on real, substantive deliverable change based on real, fact-based, substantiated realities. And if the Republicans oppose what needs to be done, then let them vote on it, and live with the consequences.
The campaign for the 2014 election just started.
As a member of the Reality based community, I welcome this new, reality based campaigner in chief. It's way past time for Democrats to show Republicans how to campaign on facts, performance and the record. Let the Republican's continue to focus on fixing their rhetoric and changing their tune, as long as they vote on the record.
Then, let's beat them to death with it.