A month and a half into his term... and no significant Democratic splintering.

I think this is one of the most underhalded aspects of President Obama's first month in office.

Bill Clinton ran into problems with his own party. 6 Senate Dems and 41 Democratic Congress voted against his 1993 Omnibus Budget legislation. By comparision, 0 Senate Dems and 7 Democratic Congressman voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.


This bodes well for upcoming legislation that President Obama will attempt to pass, such as an overhaul of the health care system in this country. He will need the support of each and every Republican to pass such sweeping legislation. In that respect, he has already succeeded where Bill Clinton had failed.

He was inaugurated 1/20 and today is 2/16.
I think it's way too early to make any judgment calls. Obama is doing an end run around regular party politics and media by going directly to the population via town hall meetings, press conferences, and radio addresses.

Edited typo on date.

What calendar are you using?

Fixed.

However, you didn't need to a snide jackass about it.

In a sarcastic mood this PM
:hi:

OP needs thicker hide AND to edit (if time still allows) subject line, which is still incorrect.

?

You're not a post count bigot, are you?

Edited to add: OK I sounded snide there and didn't mean it that way. Just because someone is newer, they still should be an adult and not so easily ruffled on a public board. I guess I expect too much of some of the posters around here, but that one needs to get some hide. ;)

Low post counts less than 1000 and thin skinned users can be a hint to a freeper.

I usually don't even pay much attention to user names on threads. Just the context of the post. Avoids being partial to anyone user over another.

My original reply was an apology to the OP but as I noticed with your help that the OP title was not updated. After 5 years of posting trends are easy to spot.

I try to respect all users for who they are.

The Dem Party really did itself in for a long time by not passing much of Clinton's agenda in the first 90 days. The deficit spending plan was good but they failed on health care and a host of other things the public voted for.

Ira Magaziner and HRC created a plan and at one point refused to say even who they were consulting with - unlike Cheney and his secret energy team, they did give in. In addition, they did not work with the people in Congress who had spent a career getting healthcare through Congress. They ended up with a plan that every single Democrat on the Finance committee was against - and this included Bill Bradley, who was far to the left of Clinton. Bradley in fact, suggested a plan for which there was bipartisan support.

In 1997, Kennedy was able to get SCHIP which was the biggest expansion to government health insurance through a Senate that had 55 Republicans - In 1993, the Senate had a Democratic majority. What is clear is that what worked in Arkansas didn't work in the US Senate. Obama actually worked with both the House and Senate - stating principles and letting them decide the details and write the bill. That may have made the difference.

Of the right-wing dixiecrats.

Unlike the Rethugs who can hear only their own voices, the Dems realize that the bottom line is that THE VOTERS aren't splintering. They're not going to come out against Obama in a big way when he's so popular--at least not this soon in the game.

:headbang:
rocktivity