Ex-Adviser: Obama Not Bold Enough

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

Almost looks like he's running for something...

(NEWSER) - Howard Dean’s return to the national stage with stinging criticism of the compromises Democratic leaders accepted on health care reform has thrilled disaffected progressives—and even sparked talk of another run for president. One liberal blogger says his dusted-off bona fides make Dean “perfectly positioned” to challenge Obama in 2012. While many think that strains credulity, Politico reports, he appears to be preparing for something. More»

Opponents' ability to criticize with impunity hinders the president's effectiveness

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has been praised for bringing a more conciliatory tone to the presidency after the with-us-or-against-us swagger of George W. Bush. But Obama’s preference for gentle negotiation and compromise leaves him less able to use an effective presidential tool: fear, writes Ben Smith for Politico. Obama has failed to make the impression, among conservative Democrats and Republicans alike, that openly criticizing him will have any long-term consequences. More»

But president, Congress need help cementing it

(NEWSER) - Political winds have shifted in America, says Bill Clinton: The country has “entered a new era of progressive politics which, if we do it right, could last 30 or 40 years,” the former president told liberal Internet activists at a convention in Pittsburgh. But first, he told Netroots Nation, “the president needs your help, and the cause needs your help” with health care reform and climate change legislation, Politico reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Both chambers of Congress will likely miss President Obama’s August deadline for a health care reform bill, slowing “the momentum behind the president's top priority,” Jay Newton-Small writes in Time. “Why can't a popular president with poll numbers in the 60s and super majorities in both chambers of Congress get this done?”

• The Costs Question: "So much of the potential cost savings of overhauling the entire health care system is unknown and impossible to predict with any accuracy," and all the conflicting numbers give ammunition to opponents.