10 Feb 2009
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama retreated to the familiar tactics of his presidential campaign after a choppy start in trying to persuade Congress to embrace an economic stimulus plan of more than $800 billion.He mobilized an army of people in the American heartland who cheered at scripted applause lines with the ways of Washington as an all-purpose villain.
Then he used his first primetime news conference last night not so much to present new arguments or numbers as to invoke the plight of Elkhart, Indiana, a recession-ravaged town of 52,000 people with an unemployment rate that has more than tripled in a year to 15.3 percent. He visited there yesterday morning and adopted it as a symbol for his appeal.
"What I'm trying to underscore is what the people in Elkhart already understand, that this is not your ordinary, run- of-the-mill recession," Obama said in his hour-long news conference, one of eight times he mentioned the town.
His shift from the negotiations to campaign-style stumping was designed to build public support and keep pressure on lawmakers to finish work on the president's plan. The House passed an $819 billion package of tax cuts and spending without a single Republican vote. The Senate last night cleared the way for a passage today of its $838 billion version of the plan with support from only three Republicans.
‘Full-Blown Crisis'
In Elkhart and in Washington, the president painted a dire picture of the economy. He called the recession a "full-blown crisis" and warned "the problems are accelerating instead of getting better."
"It is only government that can break the vicious cycle, where lost jobs lead to people spending less money, which leads to even more layoffs," Obama said. "And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that's moving through Congress is designed to do."
Republicans were quick to criticize his efforts. "The legislation moving its way through Congress bears little resemblance to what President Obama described at tonight's press conference," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. "The spending bill written by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid is filled with unnecessary and wasteful programs that will saddle future generations with massive debt."
Taking on Critics
While pledging anew his determination to continue working Republicans, the president also signaled his impatience with their criticism.
"When it comes to how we approach the issue of fiscal responsibility, again, it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt," Obama said last night. "I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility."
He is also trying a conciliatory approach. Today, he is scheduled to make his pitch in Fort Myers, Florida, where he will be introduced by the state's Republican governor, Charlie Crist.
The southwest Florida city, like Elkhart, is emblematic of the economic crisis. The unemployment rate has risen to 10 percent from 6 percent last year, according to the Labor Department. On Feb. 12, Obama will make a similar public appearance in Peoria, Illinois, home base for Caterpillar Inc., which announced last month it is cutting more than 22,000 jobs.
‘Successful' Pitch
Obama's news conference, broadcast live on major broadcast and cable news channels, was "highly forceful and successful and should help the president with the American people and the Congress," said Allan Lichtman, a political history professor at American University in Washington. "He did not shrink from the magnitude of the crisis, but like FDR expressed confidence that the problem could be solved with decisive action."
Part of that solution is in stimulus plan, according to Obama. A Senate vote set for today sets the stage for negotiations with the House on final legislation. Obama and congressional leaders have set a deadline for the end of the week.
After weeks of employing various, mostly unsuccessful, strategies to win bipartisan congressional support, Obama and his aides are now going over the heads of lawmakers, using the language and style he used to win the White House.
That's what he should have done in the first place, rather than getting bogged down in negotiations with Congress, Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston, said.
‘Leader of a Movement'
"Obama needs to show that he's a leader of a movement, that a change isn't just having a black man in the White House, that we really are in an era of clean government and progressive reform," Brinkley said.
Obama's aides cite a Feb. 6-7 Gallup poll released yesterday that shows 67 percent of the public approves of the way the president is handling the stimulus debate and only 31 percent approve of Republican efforts on the legislation. Forty- eight percent approve of how Democrats are handling it.
In Elkhart, Obama outlined the tangible benefits for residents of the town who are out of work.
"Now, I know that some of you might be thinking, "Well, all that sounds good, but when are we going to see any of this here in Elkhart? What does all this mean to my family, to my community?" Obama said, going on to list extended unemployment and health care benefits, tax cuts and more jobs.
