David Plouffe made the round of early morning talk shows today and his reaction to negative impressions of last night's negotiated debt ceiling deal (the one that was negotiated between the White House and Republican Congressional leaders, overlooking any Democratic input):
We're not concerned about any of that," Plouffe said.
He was asked if the deal was a surrender, as Paul Krugman suggested.
He was asked about the headlines in the morning papers that described the President as 'diminshed', a surrender, capitulation. and his latest approval rating at 40%.
His answer is not to be concerned about any of that. His rationale, if I can call it that, is that the process was 'messy' and the President succeeded by bringing leadership to the process and toning down the shouting and enacting a compromise. Of course, if by compromise you mean giving Republicans everything and Democrats nothing. Like, tax revenues.
One month ago, the President proposed entitlement cuts in exchange for 'fresh tax revenue'.
President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.
Well, the Republicans got their entitlement cuts, and there is no 'fresh' tax revenue. Just, the promise of a committee stacked with super-conservative Republicans who will reject such a thought out of hand.
It's pretty sad when the mainstream press is holding the Administration's feet to the fire over not getting any tax revenue
Plouffe defended the plan: "Now, listen, you're obviously seeing some criticism from my party, you're seeing some criticism from the Republican Party. But what this does is first of all we get significant deficit reduction..." Lauer continued to hit from the Left: "The President clearly wanted more revenues, he wanted to raise taxes on wealthiest Americans, he wanted to get rid of some tax cuts for corporations. Those are not in there. Is the fight over taxes over and did the President lose it?"
We know a quick 'compromise', avoiding any conflict, is exactly what the President wants. But I get really tired of hearing political advisers telling me what I want, and pointing to the result they achieved as what I actually want.
"As the president said last night, it's been messy," Plouffe told CBS. "I think the American people obviously would like a little bit more compromise and a little less shouting. That's the leadership the president tried to bring."
"Well, as the president said last night, it was far too messy," Plouffe said. "As the president has said, we chose divided government. That doesn't mean we chose dysfunctional government."
This Administration and David Plouffe in particular are deeply and dangerously out of touch with America outside of the Beltway. He needs to stop saying what he thinks Americans think and rationalizing the results as being what Americans want. Yes Americans are tired of partisan bickering but that doesn't mean they are willing to give up their retirements and nest eggs and retirement medical exchange in order to get the argument to stop. Plouffe kept repeating on yesterday's talk shows how 'enraged' Americans had become with this process. I think he has totally misjudged what it is that has Americans enraged.
He also thinks Americans don't care about unemployment and is basing Obama's reelection strategyon that assumption as was revealed about a month ago.
This is incredibly disingenuous and extremely disconcerting, as it speaks to the priorities of this Adminstration as they go into a reelection year. I think Plouffe is really walking a dangerous line here, so cavalierly dismissing Americans' concerns with a casual wave of his hand. I couldn't imagine what could cause this incumbent President to lose to a Republican so quickly after a Republican President so convincingly wreacked such havoc upon the American people. Until now.